MQG Quilt Back Challenge
I love that the Modern Quilt Guild is encouraging quilters to use what they have: the Scrap Challenge category for Quilt Con 2024, the International Scrap sorting day (see Journal post on this), and now the Use It Quilt Back Challenge! I’ve made a few quilts with a #partyinthequiltback so of course I wanted to participate.
The challenge: to gather up scraps, orphan blocks, unfinished quilt tops, and the little bits of fun that are hiding all over your sewing space to piece into a quilt back. Combine sustainability and play to create something, try something new without the pressure of any expectations.
I recently finished a Twin size Garden Snails Quilt with the Escargot for it Fabric line from Robert Kaufman - a quilt I’ve been wanting to make for over a year. I had a bit of leftover fabric, so I wanted to use this on the back first. I pulled orphan blocks that matched the color scheme and sewed together some smaller bits leftover from piecing the front. I started laying my largest pieces of leftovers to create a central strip. Some improv log cabins I've had for years fit nicely inside these rectangles. Leftover 1.5" strips of selvedge became sashing, and I cut more strips to outline my areas of interest.
A collection of orphan blocks and leftover fabrics from piecing the quilt top.
Keeping with the bi-lateral symmetry, I separated an orphan block of Isosceles triangles (from insta quilty friend Beth Gain - @making_beth_gain) to make two similar strips to border the central motif. I auditioned more designs to echo off of the strips I had pieced, but ultimately decided they were too distracting - less was more in this case.
I needed some yardage to finish up so I searched my stash and found a thrifted $3 curtain that matched the color scheme. It was too short, so I added a line of hourglass blocks and a border with leftover Speckled fabric that ran perpendicular to the central design.
The Finished Quilt Back!
The red in the log cabin blocks is really striking - it’s the first thing I see. The triangles that border each side of this central strip also direct the eye toward this area, and even the perpendicular strips are pointing toward the center. I’m glad my favorite fabrics from this line are featured on the back and the front. AND the “orphan” blocks are orphans no more - I knew I was saving them for something special.
My cross stitch teacher in middle-school said “make the back just as neat and beautiful as the front”. This definitely applies to quilts. We have so many beautiful fabrics, scraps, and practice blocks that are meant to be used and loved.