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You may remember a bit ago that I bought some 6 yards long pieces of fabric for backings from Whittles Fabrics. Â I wrote about it in this blog post.
I had said that I typically get six yards of fabric for a quilt back and just add a little more fabric if I need to have the backing be wider than 88″. Â Well…I got a note from Ila in my email. Â She said that it’s easy to make a 96″ x 96″ backing with 6 yards of fabric. Â Well that had me excited because rarely do I make a quilt bigger than that.
She sent me an instruction sheet that shows how and she gave me permission to share it with all of you.  Here’s the link to Ila’s-6 yard quilt back instructions.  It is in a pdf file so you will need an adobe reader to view it.  You can find a that free downloadable program here.
I was so excited and was going to use the instruction to piece a backing for my Smith Mountain Morning quilt that I put the final stitches in on Monday night but alas…my quilt is too long. Â If I ever finish up my Celtic Solstice quilt I’ll use Ila’s directions for that.
Just so that you’ll be able to find these directions again, I am adding it to the tutorial list found on the right hand column of the blog. Â I know I’ll be using this for sure. Â THANKS Ila!!
You can find MANY other free patterns on our site by looking under the free patterns tab at the top of the page under our banner. Â Stop by again…
Thank you!
Thanks for posting the info! I printed it off so I can use on my next big quilt.
This is clever, but where are you supposed to get that 14″ piece of fabric in the middle?. 54 x 4 = 216, 216 ÷ 36 = 6. So, that uses up the 6 yards of backing fabric in its entirety.
Thank you for these clever instructions! And I agree with Sherri that you would need 6.5 yards to make this all of one fabric. Maybe it would be fun to use a contrasting colored piece for the “donut hole.”
I see that center square as the perfect place for a label.
Very slick!!
This is great! I’d like to share at quilt camp in March, but wonder if I should credit Ila too? Does she have a website I should mention? What I saw on the back was a great place to use four 1-1/2 yard pieces with a contrast in the center — a flower for the back of the quilt. Love the idea of the quilt label being in that center block. Thanks for another great post!
Ingenious! Thanks to both of you for sharing.
Thank you all for asking the “dumb” question I had……so is it a label space using any “other” fabric you have?
Looks great but as a longarm quilter I would hate to load that baby on my longarm – no way to avoid the build up on the roller of the seam, making a tight line with hammocks on the sides. That leads to tucks in the backing. If you do this, make sure you watch for that when you are quilting the quilt.
Jo–will you let us know how it worked on your quilting system???? I love this idea…and I like putting a label or accent in the center square…..
Check out the website http://www.5bucksayard.com. Most of their fabrics are $5/yard but goes all the way down to $2.99/yard and a few are up to $7/yard. They also carry 108″ quilt backing for $7.99/yard.
All fabrics are brand name from the usual groups i.e. RJR, Hoffman, Moda. Also they have great service.
I tried the link today but nothing comes up — is the file still in the same location?
I’m guessing you don’t have an Adobe Reader. I just tried it and it worked.
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