Diamond Jubilee Backing

I bought eight yards of this gigantic print for the backing of the Diamond Jubilee quilt. I cut it in half and seamed it together to make a giant square, then realized two things.

1. I did not need eight yards, I only needed six, so my backing was 36" too long. Oh well, better to have too much than not enough.

2. I forgot to add my niece's name to the back of the quilt.

Fortunately, having too much meant I could chop off a yard and make the name. Which I did, no problem. I had originally chosen yellows and yellow oranges, but when I set those fabrics on the backing fabric I came to my senses and changed my mind. Pink it would be.

So I made her name, and then added fabric around it, and sewed it to the rest of the backing fabric. The ruler in the photo above shows just how big this name is. It's a 24" ruler (61cm).

Now, adding a name to the back of a quilt is harder than it looks. Per Chris's request, all my backings are 6" bigger all the way around. So I have to place the name inside that area, and then I want to place it as close the the center as possible, so if the quilt does not get precisely centered (which it never will) the letters won't get chopped off when I trimmed the edges of the quilt after quilting. (That would be BAD!) And sticking something in the middle of something else is a royal PITA, especially when you are working with six plus yards of fabric.

So I decided to sew the name under a 12" tall strip of the backing fabric at the TOP of the backing. I know from long experience working with Chris that she usually starts quilting about four inches from the top, not six, so my name panel would be far enough down not to be a problem, and although I didn't center it horizontally (because, hey, I like asymmetrical) there is plenty of space on either side of the name panel

You will notice the letters aren't aligned on the same baseline. No, that's not a mistake, I did that on purpose.

Now every quilt I have made since August has a backing ready for it. That's five, for those of you keeping count. (The Petals quilt and the Comfort quilt are flying away today. The Blue Boy was born two weeks early and his quilt has yet to be gifted.)

I am going to take a break. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I host that dinner each year. (Let's hope I cook it at my house this year. Snow and a power outage moved the feast to my sister's last year.) I have to deal with the avalanche of paperwork on my desk, and I still have to put the front garden to bed for the winter (I filled eleven large lawn and leaf bags with leaves on Saturday from the back and side yards.)

I'll get back to sewing, of course. I still have the twirling triangles and the tumblers to do, and I've got a special project related to last year's secret project percolating in my head. I couldn't tell you about it then, and I can't tell you about it now, either. When it's time to let the cat out of the bag, I'll tell you.

I've added another page on my blog, it's called Word Quilts 2010. It shows my arty word quilts I made from 2009 to 2010. Eventually I'll have them all up there for easy reference. I'll be working on that too.

I'm not going anywhere. If you know me, you know I have always got stuff going on, but I won't be posting regularly for a while, so don't worry.