Okay, I'm duly inspired by y'all who piece your backs. Question: Most of my tops have a fair amount of light fabric, in solid or tone-on-tone. I use thin batting--usually Warm & Natural. If I piece a back with medium and/or dark scraps, or even light scraps with blotches of medium/dark colors, won't the colors show through?
Dogmom
Through batting and quilt top - PROBABLY not . . . . . unless you hang your quilts up to a window and let the light shine through! (Don't laugh, I have quilted curtains and that is exactly what I do.)
Maybe you could avoid very dark under very light, or at least have your backs an even intensity of tone/shade (no splotches of L on D or D on L). I am usually more concerned about colour run myself. Being a bit paranoid, I might wash the pieced back (depending on how it is pieced of course, and for "wash" read soak and check for colour run).
If you are happy with really scrappy backs you can string piece strips (either WOF or half WOF) into big squares whenever you feel like some mindless sewing. Let the squares just pile up and when you need a back just grab as many as you need to put together. I keep darks with darks, and lights with lights when doing this and thus avoid the issue of it showing through. The strips are usually cut as I come across a piece of leftover I don't want to keep, just cut into random width strips and thrown into either light or dark boxes.
Another good stash reducer is to overlock strips together the same way, and make doona covers (overlock = serge, doona = feather/down quilt?). You can cut really big shapes from the squares too (eg. use a star block pattern for the whole quilt and overlock the seams). They look surprisingly good made up. They have a quilty look that will stand regular washing for kids or teens. I've made several for university students who throw everything into the laundromat machine/dryer together, and none have fallen apart yet.
TIP - if you use the string pieced squares to cut shapes for a pieced design, allow a 0.5" seam allowance and sew them together with matched points, then serge the seam allowance. Double strength seam and matched points - much easier. For a simple star design using 22" squares (half WOF string piecing) you can make a cover for a QS quilt based on a 4X4 grid in just a couple of hours.
Now I fully realize what an amateur quilter I really am, Cheryl--half of what you wrote was Greek to me! I hope someday I can find a complete textbook on quilting..............LOL
Never thought of myself as bi-lingual lol! What was Greek? Happy to translate for you.
L = lights D = Darks WOF = Width of fabric, so half WOF is about 22"
BTW - "complete" text book will NEVER happen. We (quilters) invent new gadgets and methods and designs and shortcuts every day, they would never keep up with us rofl
Okay, Cheryl, here's where I lost you:
: > TIP - if you use the string pieced squares to cut shapes for : > a pieced design, allow a 0.5" seam allowance and sew them : > together with matched points, then serge the seam allowance. : > Double strength seam and matched points - much easier. For : > a simple star design using 22" squares (half WOF string : > piecing) you can make a cover for a QS quilt based on a
4X4 : > grid in just a couple of hours.After reading that again, I think I'll have another glass of beer. LOL!
I happened to just read an article today that clarified that a doona is what we'd call a duvet cover, if that helps! I was wondering about WOF too, so I'm glad you clarified.
Lynn
Carolyn McCarty wrote:
make doona covers (overlock = serge, doona: > = feather/down quilt?).
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