Carpenter Star – Backing

While I continue to wait for my background fabric to arrive, I’ve been giving thought to my batting and backing strategy for this quilt. I have three 6-yard Anthology Chromatic batiks I ordered several months ago that I will use for the backing–three different colors that blend together nicely. I think I’ll do each section with a different color on the back. The first section is 42 inches wide and 120 inches long. I need to add 5 inches to the left, 3 inches to the right, and 5 inches to the top and bottom. So I need to piece together backing to achieve 50 inches wide by 130 inches long. I plan to cut one piece 130 inches long and then add a 10 inch strip to the width. The reason I don’t need as much to the right of Section 1 is that I won’t actually start quilting the last column on the right of section 1 until after I have attached section 2. This reduces the shrinkage factor that occurs when quilting and should make matching seams between the two sections easier.

The second section is 36 inches wide by 120 inches long. I need to add 3 inches to the right and 5 inches to top and bottom. Because of the way I attach the sections together, there will be no extra batting needed on the left. Again, I won’t be quilting the far right column of section 2 until after section 3 is attached so I only need 3 inches extra on the right. So I need this backing cut 39 inches wide by 130 inches long. Since my fabric is 40 inches wide, no extra piecing will be required for this section.

The third section is 42 inches wide by 120 inches long. I need to add 5 inches to the right, top, and bottom. So I’ll need a piece 48 inches wide by 130 inches long.

After all is said and done, at this point my rough estimate for the backing requirement is 13 1/4 yards. I’ll be illustrating all of this once I get to this point in the process and we’ll see how close I come to my rough estimate.