Make Your Quilt Backs Interesting

I recently finished this quilt. It's called Airdrie/ Iron Horse Park. You may recognize the design from my 25 February 2011 post.

The big question when you finish piecing is always, "How should I quilt this?"

I decided that anything too elaborate would detract from this design. To keep things simple I settled on inlining the black bands and the cream bands, and stippling the red background.

This was only my second attempt at free motion stippling; I felt it would be prudent to stipple red on red and to use red bobbin thread. That way no one would notice my mistakes.

Since the bobbin thread was red, that meant the lettering on the back (my initials and the date) would have to be red and that the back would be a light color.

The red thread disappears on the red lettering and doesn't impair its readability. It also has the added advantage of creating an interesting pattern against the light background.

The next time you quilt you may want to try a contrasting thread on the back to see what shows up.