Welcome to Little Penguin Quilts, and thanks for visiting for the launch of Kelly Young's new book, Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs! Kelly blogs at My Quilt Infatuation. I was so honored when Kelly asked if I'd like to participate in the book launch by sharing a quilt of my own with a pieced backing from the book. It has been a blast to use techniques from Kelly's book to create a unique backing for my quilt top!
Some important things to know about what this book contains:
- There are 30 different quilt backs included. 15 are pieced with scraps and leftovers, and 15 are made with stash and yardage.
- Each quilt back pattern is written in three different sizes. (Plus, as you'll see with my project, easily adaptable to the size of your quilt!)
- There are 18 free downloadable bonus patterns for the lap quilt sized fronts that are shown in the book.
- The book contains full quilt finishing instructions.
- Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs is available at online retailers - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Connecting Threads, and Missouri Star. You can also get a signed copy at Kelly's Etsy shop, here.
So, let's get to the fun part - sharing the quilt back I made! When I received my copy of the book, I immediately noticed the quilt back in Part 2 (Scrap and Leftover Backs) called "Tallies" (page 27). Kelly's description of this back is that it's made with all your leftover bits and pieces. That caught my attention right away - there's nothing I enjoy more than sewing together lots of little scrappy bits into improv crumb blocks. Here's a peek at the quilt back Kelly created with her bits and pieces.
Lots of fun color!
The back I was planning to piece to go with the quilt top I chose to finish needed a more controlled color scheme. Specifically, pinks, aqua, and neutrals. So I started by making several 8 inch crumb slabs in those colors.
Following Kelly's guidance for creating columns of these crumb blocks, I cut and resewed them until I had long, narrow strips with alternating squares of pink, neutrals, and aqua. I decided to set them in a piece of Kona Lagoon that I had in my stash. The Kona was long enough for a backing, but not wide enough, so this was a great technique for making the whole thing wider.
Here's a close-up of the crumb strips and Kona Lagoon solid:
I had enough crumb blocks for two long strips and my finished backing looks like this:
I bet you're wondering what quilt front I was making this backing for! It is a small quilt top I think I was working on way back in 2019/20 from some blocks called Bright Hopes. At the link there, you'll find the tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts for making the blocks, and her quilt that I was inspired by. Here's my quilt top, resting on top of the backing I pieced.
The top measures about 43 x 43. I made the backing about 3 - 4 inches bigger.
Once the back was pieced and the top was prepped for quilting, I put all the layers together, quilted it up, and here's the finish, Back first!
And the front!
It feels wonderful to be inspired by Kelly's book to finish up this little UFO!
Also linking up to Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts to celebrate this finish!
There are so many fun ideas for quilt backs in this book - I definitely want to try more of them. Kelly includes clear cutting and piecing instructions, excellent diagrams, and lots of inspiration for using up different size scraps and fabric from your stash. I highly recommend this book if piecing the backing of your quilt is something you enjoy doing!
Be sure to check out all the other quilters who are participating in this blog hop, listed below!
Sandra @ mmm...quilts
Rose @ Something Rosemade
Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts
Laura @ Slice of Pi Quilts
Jayne @ Twiggy and Opal
Anja @ Anja Quilts
Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting
Vasudha @ Storied Quilts
Kris @ Sew Sunshine
Leanne @ Devoted Quilter
Rebecca @ Rebecca Grace Quilting
Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts
Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
Kate @ Katie Mae Quilts
Sarah @ Sarah Goer Quilts
Linda @ Flourishing Palms
Anne-Marie @ Stories From the Sewing Room
Michelle @ From Bolt to Beauty
Gail @ Quilting Gail
Kat @ Scrapbox Quilts
Julie @ Julie's Quilts and Costumes
Jan @ The Colorful Fabriholic
Thanks for visiting today!
27 comments:
Love both the front and the back. Such cooling colors since Summer is officially here and I will do anything to lower the temperatures, which your quilt does beautifully!
I’d forgotten about your Bright Hopes blocks. Sew soft and lovely. And using Lagoon to highlight your pink, neutral and aqua drums is awesome. And I Spy a penguin in your columns! Cool!
Lovely finish and what a fun back!!! How fun to use crumbs in that way. It is a two sided quilt!
I've done a few crumb pieces on a back - how was it for quilting? I found crumby backs were hard to stitch through.
Love you yours looks!
How fun! That looks like a great book with lots of ideas.
interesting addition to a quilt!!
I've been looking forward to your quilt and also your review of the book, and you did a wonderful job! Love that Kona Lagoon with the crum-bies :) Your quilt front is beautiful, but the back is so pretty you could use it either way. You remind me of Crazy Mom Quilts with your spectacular use of scraps!
I love your Tallies back, and your quilt, Diann! Thank you so much for helping me with the book launch!
:) Kelly
Love all the scrappy beautiness in your front and back!
This book sounds like a 'must have' for any quilter's library. Your quilt finished nicely and you did a great review as well.
Both sides of your quilt look great! I have seen lots of good ideas for pieced backings from this hop:)
The crumb columns are great for the backing of your UFO! Congratulations on the finish! :-)
arent you glad you had just the right leftovers from your top to make your backing complete! Love it.
Such a great concept. I do love a pieced back!! I've done several, including one for a quilts of valor. I like the "column" concept with the leftovers!
Mary / https://stitchinggrandma.wordpress.com//
Looks great! And another way to use the crumbs! Awesome-sauce!
It has been so much fun to see all the quilt backs using Kelly's book! Yours is a beauty and a UFO finish, right? All good!
Your quilt and backing is darling, Diann. I spotted the sweet penguin print right off. Adorable.
It is always fun to use up the leftover scraps in the backing when you can.
I love pieced backs, especially when they use up my leftovers from a project. Lovely finish for your quilt.
Beautiful quilt, and back!
Congrats on a lovely front and back Bright Hopes!
My fav part of quilting is piecing scraps. My least fav is piecing backs for some reason. Looks like the book has some great ideas to make piecing backs fun.
I love it!! its like a two sided quilt!!!!
Super sweet quilt finish, Diann!!
Sweet blocks, you found a beautiful way to feature them! Pretty backing!
A great way to use up those smaller pieces! Love the quilt top and the backing.
Your quilt is adorable, front AND back, Diann!
I could swear I read this - maybe I saw your back on Instagram?! Anyhow I had to pop over after the Rainbow Neighbourhood post to see this, and what a great quilt back AND front! A win-win because you got a WIP quilted up too. I like the Tallies back idea, and plan to use it in the near future. Heck, I like pretty much all 30 back ideas in her book! I know your mom will love this. :-)
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