How to Piece a Quilt Backing

Wide quilt backing fabric is available in a few basic colors and designs, making it difficult to find a match for many quilts. Flat bedsheets are also an option, but they also have limited choices. Many quilters use a backing fabric that is a match to a fabric in the quilt top's design. Most of these fabrics come in 44-inch-wide lengths, and piecing the quilt backing is necessary. This technique will create enough extra fabric around the edges of the quilt top to allow for slight shifting in the quilting process.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape
• Quilt top
• 44-inch-wide fabric, twice the length of the quilt top plus 12 inches
• Scissors
• Iron
• Straight pins

Instructions

1. Measure the length of the quilt top. Use this measurement plus 6 inches to cut two lengths of 44-inch-wide fabric. Iron the fabric to remove wrinkles and any fold creases.

2. Lay one length of fabric right side up on a large work surface. Place the other fabric length on top, with the right side down. Match the edges.

3. Pin the long selvage edges together. Sew the pinned edges using a 1/2-inch seam allowance. This will create a large tube. Open the seams, and iron them flat.

4. Open the tube. Bring the sewn seams together, and pin. Lay the tube flat. This will create a fold on each side of the fabric tube.

5. Iron one folded side of the flattened fabric tube. Cut the tube open along the ironed fold. Open the pieced quilt backing and iron one last time. Lay the backing wrong side up. The quilt batting and quilt top will be centered on the pieced backing and quilted as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• If your finished quilt top is more than 90 inches wide you will need to purchase fabric three times the length plus 12 inches. Sew each length together, but do not create a tube.