I Have Your Back!

Do you think much about what background fabric your going to use? I really think quite a bit about background fabric. Do you just want it to blend in? Do you want it to make the other pieces pop? Do you want it to add texture?

Since I recently had a blog about my Hippy Dippy Flower Quilt let's talk about the background fabric. I originally was going to use a solid black to make the colorful flowers pop. Put the more I thought about it I want to add some subtle variation in color to help add texture. I decided to use a Grunge fabric. It had slight variations of black and dark gray. In this picture you can see the variation of shades.

I made the quilt pattern Sunflower Illusion by Judy Niemeyer. The pattern picture is in dark colors as the background and orange color as the Sunflower part. I made mine in shades of aqua and blues. I thought about the background fabric. I didn't want it to take away from the flower parts but I wanted it to add interest and texture. I choose to use whites, light grays, and very light off white. They were various fabrics from Batiks to Grunge. It did what 8 wanted it to do. It added texture and interest without being obvious and "loud". In this photo you can see how the color variation made a big difference.

My Caesar's Star quilt is what I'm working on now. The pattern shows the background a solid cream. I had a long time to think about the background fabric because I've been working on the pattern since 2019. At first I was going to pick a cream print fabric. Then 5he more I looked at the fabrics I decided that to add more interest I was going to use a different light tan to cream color print for each one.

On your next quilt think about how you can change your background. Try a few different prints and colors. If you have to make a sample block. Sometimes I'm surprised which one I choose to use because it's not what I was thinking would work.

I think background fabric can make or break a quilt. If you choose the right color and print it can help make your quilt a show stopper.