It’s playtime. Hurrah! I can’t begin to describe what fun I have creating the backsides of my quilts. This is a relatively new phenomenon for me. For the first 30 years my backs were, for the most part, whole cloth. Any piecing was out of necessity because I needed a back the size of the top and much of my work is wider than the standard 44″ wide bolts of fabric available in the US. Since my work hangs on the wall, like a painting, why should I care what that back looks like? Can you imagine someone asking to see the back of a painting?
Perhaps it was our second move in less than a decade that jolted me into a paradigm shift from whole cloth backs to pieced backs. When you have a studio, with all the equipment, fabric, tools and embellishments gathered over three decades, that is quite a bit to pack and unpack. It got me thinking, along with the recycle and repurpose movement, how I could put a dent in studio contents. There is going to come a time when my studio contents won’t be moved, but will be dismantled and dispersed. Anything I can do now to diminish that task for my future self or loved ones is plus.
How does my piecing of backs make a difference? Simple. It is a fabulous way to use the left over fabric scraps and strips from making the front of the quilt. It has the added bonus of being more playful, less fussy and serious, than the work required to make the front. What I love about using scraps from the front on the back, is the back’s palette automatically mirrors the front.
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
