I needed to find a backing, so I thought I'd just buy some extra-wide fabric. That is until I measured it! Extra-wide fabric is usually 108" wide. The quilt top is 110". You have to have four inches extending beyond your top in order for the quilter to get it on the long arm machine.
So either I have to reduce the size of the top or I have to piece a back. Or both.
If you remember, I had a big brown border on this quilt. I guess I must have thought I needed an extra four inches on the FRONT... duh. So I can trim it down by about eight inches. Now it's going to be 102" wide. OK, that will JUST about fit.
Then I got to thinking, I have a couple of big pieces of the strippy blocks left over, why not put them in the backing? It's not like I'm going to use them in another quilt. So I tried to go to Joann's on Saturday to pick up the main backing fabric (which I never buy with the quilt fabric since most of the time I'm working from stash). (Anyway, who has five yards of double-wide fabric in their stash without a reason -- no, no, don't tell me, I'm sure someone does!!)
Saturday was either a good day or not so good a day to go to Joann's. They had a 25% off coupon that ended Saturday. The cutting line was about 25 people deep, and the girls were waiting in the car. I couldn't subject them to that long a wait. So I went back Sunday. No coupon, but what the hey, I'm only buying one piece, right?
Right.
The line was only about 10 deep on Sunday. The bolt was pretty heavy. I was number 16. They were serving number 8. I had to wait in the calico section. Right next to the Christmas fabric.
Sew on!
