An order arrived. Â We got our order from Whittles Fabrics. Â The main thing we had ordered was backings for quilts. Â Kelli needed some…I needed some and we have a project that needed one. Here it is….
You might remember I started Bonnie Hunter’s Jingle Bell Square quilt. Â Well one of these Christmas fabrics is for that and the other Christmas fabric is for a quilt we’re going to have published with “Quilts and More” for next year’s Christmas time issue.
One of these is the backing for this year’s Mystery quilt, Alleitare.
Two of these are for Kelli’s UFO quilts.
..and the black. Â That’s honestly the one I am most excited about. Â It’s for Bonnie Hunter’s Rectangle Wrangle. Â I’ve had the strips for that cut for a LONG time. Â I just never had the black fabric that I needed…now I do but now I have too many other things on the burner to do anything about the black but that’s okay. Â It’s here for the day I need it.
The batik on top is for an upcoming project.
For backings I’m a six yard girl. Â I buy six yards and piece it all together to get the back big enough. Â Only on rare occasions do I buy more that six yards. Â I can use Ila’s method (find that here) for piece together left over blocks from the front to quickly get backing to 96″ x 96″…or I can randomly piece something from my stash that matches the backing fabric to get it to size. Â I hate spending lot of money on backing fabric. Â Thankfully Whittles sells most of their fabric for $5 a yard. Â That makes getting backing fabric much more economical.
I honestly think I could stay at the quilt machine for two solid weeks doing a couple quilts daily and still not have all the quilts done that need to be quilted. Â Between my quilts, Kelli’s quilts, charity quilts and quilts for publications there are lots and lots here…so what am I’m I doing a the computer…I am off to put on an audio book and get another one done.
Today we are hooking up with Patchwork Times.
I love those fabrics and can’t wait to see the completed quilts.
You’re a whirlwind, Jo! With a pile of backings at your fingertips, you’ll be whipping out finished quilts lickity split. Backings are always the hardest part for me too. Thank you for sharing about Whittles…they’re my go-to shop too. I had a place in Texas that I loved with hard to beat prices, but she’s stopped carrying fabrics. :( I was spoiled!
I made Rectangle Wrangle last year after seeing it in a shop while on a trip. My hubby loved it, bought me the book and than kept bugging me to get started on it. I didn’t do the pieced border, instead I subbed a print border with a black background that blended with my Civil War perfectly. It’s on my bed right now and I love it–although I should have made it a bit bigger like you do.
Have you checked out Connecting Threads? They always have lots on clearance at $3 a yard. And I really like their thread. I’ve been ordering from them for 18 years.
I’m tempted by the 108″ wide backs. Even at $12.95, depending on the size quilt, it is cheaper than the $5 per yard. It is more like $3 a yard.