Guest blogging at Fort Worth Fabric Studio today

It's always a cool thing when someone sees your work and expresses an interest in what you're doing or what you have to say. A few weeks ago, Lindsey, the Blog Manager and Pattern Designer at Fort Worth Fabric Studio found my content online and invited me to be a guest blogger. Today is my day... I'll be a guest at the Fort Worth Fabric Studio blog, talking about a quilting topic that I am very passionate about: 108" wide quilt backings. Hop over and share the spotlight with me. I'll be discussing why quilters should Go Wide!

108" wide quilt backings: Have you done the math?

On my recent fabric rep travels, the topic of 108" wide quilt backings came up several times in conversation. For the most part, shop owners indicate their customer base falls into three camps:

• "I love using a wide back for my quilts because…" 
• "Oooh! It's how much a yard??"
• "Wide whats?"

Westrade Textiles offer 110" wide backings.

Since discovering wide backings a few years ago myself, and doing a presentation for a local machine quilters group, I have become enlightened on the ease, beauty, and efficiency—as well as the cost effectiveness—of using a wide fabric for the backing on my quilts. Because of my affinity for these 108" or 110" fabrics, I've been asked to write a guest blog post on the Fort Worth Fabric Studio blog—click here to read it. Another guest blog post is here but the photo links are broken.

One of my reasons du jour for liking wide backs is that there is no distracting seam line to interfere with the flow, harmony and continuity of the quilting design on the back. If you peruse my blog archives, you'll notice I use a lot of wide backings in the photos of my free-motion quilting. Here is one example.

Free-motion quilting on Sparkle 108" (color: java).

See what I mean? No distracting seam line.

For those that are already "sold" on wide backings (Camp #1), thanks for tooting the wide back horn! You and quilters like you have contributed ideas to my "Using 108" Wide Quilt Backs" page.

For those who are muttering "Wide whats?" to themselves (Camp #3), I invite you to read this same page to learn more about the whys and wherefores of using wide backings. Also talk to the good folks at YLQS [your local quilt shop] or your longarm quilting service provider. Or bring up the topic up with your quilting buddies or at the next guild meeting. All these quilters will happily offer their insights.

And to those in the "Oooh. They cost how much?" camp (Camp #2), let's review a little wide back math…

Wide Back Math

For a yard of 108" wide backing fabric there are: 108" x 36" = 3888 sq. in.

For a yard 44/45" fabric there are: 44" x 36" = 1584 sq. in.

A 108" wide backing at $17.99/yard ÷ 3888 sq. in. = $.0046 per sq. in.

A 44/45" fabric at $11.50/yard ÷ 1584 sq. in. = $.0072 per sq. in.

Another way to look at this…
Imagine a full size quilt top that's 70" x 90". You'll need a backing that is 80" x 100" (adding 5" extra all around).

108" wide back: 2.25 yards x $17.99/yard = $40.47

44/45" fabric: 5.75 yards x $11.50/yard = $66.13

$66.13 - $40.47 = $27.21    Savings = $25.66

or almost 2.25 extra yards of 44/45" fabric!

Fabric costs in your area may vary, but all things being equal, you will find a savings using a wide backing on your quilt. In this example, you'd have to find a 44/45" fabric ON SALE at 40% off, or $7/yard to break even… but you'd still have to piece the back. How much is your time worth?

If you'd like to see layout diagrams for various quilt sizes on a wide backing, visit Brenda's 2013 blogpost, "All About 108" Wide Backing Fabric for Quilts" at Just a Bit Frayed blog.

So, Attention Quilters! Unless you are piecing your quilt back for a reason, investigate those 108" wide backing fabrics at YLQS. You could save yourself a nice chunk of cash! Leave a Comment and let me know what kinds of patterns/prints/colors you like to use for quilt backings and I'll pass along your requests to my companies.

In the case of quilting, going wide can be a thing of beauty… and good economics.

My Fabric Rep Trek: Persephone's Creations

Persephone's Creations, Soddy Daisy, TN

Through the woods and over the bridge at Soddy Creek [a tributary of the Chicamauga Lake and the Tennessee River], quietly tucked within a small town north of Chattanooga is Persephone's Creations, an on-line quilting supply shop. This in-home quilt shop, owned by Betty and Jon Wojtowicz, might be small on space, but it's big on selection--quilting fabrics, precuts, wide backings, threads, patterns, notions and more.

I know many of my fellow Chattanooga area quilters follow my blog (thank you!) and have had the opportunity to personally visit the local shops I have blogged about on my Blank Quilting Fabric Rep Trek. For those who follow my blog from afar, Persephone's Creations maintains an excellent (and quite organized!) web site from which you can "peruse and procure" fabrics by type (various pre-cuts), collection name, manufacturer, color and holiday as well as items in other categories such as notions, needles, patterns, thread, and of course, Specials. And here is a peek at what's behind the scenes.

Pre-cuts—such as Blank Quilting's Fabrications 2.5" pre-cut strips and Fat Quarters—are quite popular at Persephone's Creations.

Pre-cut strips and fat quarter fabric collections.

Betty sells pre-cuts on site, through her on-line shopping cart, and on Ebay. With so many patterns, books and ideas available for these ready-to-sew collections, it's no wonder quilters can't get enough of them.

Fat Quarter bundles are available on-line at Persephone's Creations.

From the bolt, the selection of fabrics include beautiful prints in both vibrant and soft tones, florals, blenders (such as Splash) and inspiring modern prints like RaNae Merrill's Radiant collection. [See my blog post about what you can do with Radiant, here.]

Florals, blenders, and prints.

There is a good selection of batiks, including Sumatra ...

Batik prints.

 ... and blender batiks ...

Blender batiks.

... a variety of the cutest children's prints, funky stripes, dots, bubbles, bugs, dinosaurs, and coordinating prints ...

Cute juvenile prints with bugs, dinosaurs, dots, bubbles and stripes.

 ... and quilters' cottons for the dog and cat lovers ...

Dogs, cats, collars, bones and paw prints!

... metallic and Asian prints, such as the Mariko collection ...

Honeystone Hill metallic bledner prints.

... reproductions and coordinating solids.

A selection of reproduction prints and coordinates.

Persephone's Creations is ready and stocked for the seasons and upcoming holidays. 

Fall prints, coordinates, holiday collections and holiday blenders.

I've used her Christmas Joy panel (with 8 different motifs) to make holiday placemats.

Make placemats with the Christmas Joy panel.
Service for 8!

And, to jump start your creativity, there are patterns for quilts, bags, totes and more. Two of my favorites are "Easy as Pi" by the Franklin Quilt Company and "Oasis," designed by my friend, Chris Hoover, of Whirligig Designs.

Patterns for quilts, totes, table runners and more...

Oh, and if you are a thread connoisseur (or thread junky) like me, you'll love the selection of threads by Superior, Auriful and others. I like both Superior's Masterpiece 50 wt. and Aurifil's 50 wt. cotton for piecing and free-motion quilting.

Masterpiece and King Tut by Superior Threads

For you machine quilters—and all of my free-motion quilting students!—Persephone's stocks King Tut on cones (more thread for your buck!). And, one of my latest, can't-do-without quilting staples is 108" wide cotton backings.  There are several colors available in Splash, and Sparkle. (Yes, I even use wide backings for wall hangings, long table runners and bed runners. Oh, I'm so spoiled!)

Left: King Tut threads on cones.
Right: packaged battings and wide backing cottons.

Speaking of wide backings... just in time for those holiday quilts and festivities, Persphone's has the new Sparkle Christmas red (cherry) color and a black metallic wide back (black with gold swirls). Are you thinking holiday table cloths? See this blog post for my write-up on "Wide Backings and their Many Uses." 

Sparkle cherry and black metallic wide quilt backings.

I hope you visit Persephone's Creations—either virtually through their web site, or in person. The shop is open Monday, Friday and Saturday (see their web site for hours) or contact them for a drop-in. They also offer embroidery services. The shop's tag line is, "Making quilting affordable." So, check it out and tell them Veronica sent you.

The beauty of Wide Backings

Thank you to the Chattanooga Creative Arms machine quilters group and Bernina Sew-N-Quilt Studio for allowing me to co-host a fabric party featuring 108" wide backing fabrics.

Machine quilters examine Blank Quilting 108" wide backing fabrics.

The Creative Arms group is comprised of machine quilters in the Chattanooga area. They are quite diverse in their quilting methods as a show of hands indicated those attending the fabric party quilted using long-arms, mid-arms, sit-down quilting machines, as well as domestic sewing machines—for both free-motion work and with a walking foot.

Fabric samples of wide backings and quilted samples were available
for attendees to see, touch and feel.

Before we got to the "fabric caressing" part of the program, I opened the floor to a discussion about the beauty and advantages of using wide backings for quilts. In addition to:

• don't have to piece, 
• easy to baste and load, and 
• more economical than 44/45 fabrics, 

here's what this group of seasoned quilters had to say:

• grain direction is more stable (than pieced backs),
• don't need to worry about keeping horizontal seams on the back straight/parallel while quilting and advancing the quilt,
• vertical seams create an increasingly bigger "mountain" in the quilt as it is rolled, making quilting difficult,
• wide backings are square, so are easier to load and quilt,
• makes the machine quilter's job easier and more productive,
• a good solution for the [admitted] "lazy" quilter who doesn't like to piece or wrestle with the backing.

Don't you just love having these kinds of discussions with experienced quilters? As someone who machine quilts by "pushing" the quilt sandwich beneath the needle (yep, I'm a pusher), it was interesting to hear how the other half (the "drivers" that drive the needle over the quilt sandwich) works. It was a great exchange of ideas! And, I'll share other ideas for using wide backings in a future post.

TQS BOM appliquéd and machine quilted by Margo Clabo.

The backdrop for the meeting was just as appealing as the lively discussion. Check out these exquisite quilts that currently hang in Bernina Sew-N-Quilt. These pieced and appliqué beauties were made and machine quilted by Margo Clabo. Look familiar? If you are a member of The Quilt Show (TQS), you may remember these as previous BOM programs. Margo's work is absolutely fabulous!

TQS Block of the Month quilt by Margo Clabo.

Star quilt done in neutrals by Margo Clabo.

Margo's redwork star quilt.

And, of course the Show and Tell by the Creative Arms members is always enjoyable and inspiring.

An appliqué quilt in progress.
Attendees offered suggestions for machine quilting background patterns.

A star quilt made with Jinny Beyer fabrics.

Are you convinced on the benefits of using wide backings? If not, here is the math for an average queen size quilt:

44"/45" fabric: 8 yards x $11.50 = $92

108" fabric: 3.25 yards x $18 = $58.90

Savings of $33.50

(or an extra 2.91 yards of 45" fabric!)

A savings of $33.50 or nearly 3 yards of extra 45" fabric!

The numbers do tell!