Monday, October 28, 2013

A back-up plan

"This would be great for a back."  How many times have you said that? 
            *The quilt shop is having a great sale.
            *It's an estate sale and the stuff is 36" wide -- genuine vintage!
            *All-cotton print sheets at Salvation Army, only $3 each.**
            *The Red Tag miscellany at Joann's includes some really good quality fabric, and it's 50% off, and you have a 10% off-entire-purchase coupon.
            *The garage sale is being held by a quilter who is de-stashing.

Maybe the "you" isn't you. But it certainly is me. 

These tubs hold pieces that are 3 yards and longer.  I discovered pieced backs years ago.  I may use 3 yards of one print and 4 yards of another and a strip of leftover blocks. A back doesn't have to match the front, but I prefer to have some element or theme in common. (One time I had to quilt a batik flimsy in a hurry. I chose a back that was totally unlike the front. It wasn't whimsical, it was just not-right. I am more careful now.)

If you click on the "flimsy completion" tab you'll see that there are only 10 flimsies in the box.  Backs for those won't empty even one of these tubs.  I guess I'd better get busy and make some more flimsies! 

**Who are these profligate people who discard perfectly serviceable, all-cotton, unstained/unripped sheets?  At our house we use sheets until they are so worn that the hems are frayed or they tear. Though I note that most thrift-shop sheets are twin-sized -- a sign of redecorated kids' or guest rooms?

4 comments:

  1. and then there's the backs that were great ideas at the time, but never match any top you make....I have a few of those.

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  2. Boy! You know me well! this post describes me to a "T"!! LOL!

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  3. And talking of sheets... In my childhood when sheets got worn, my mother cut them in halves, turned them so that the edges became the centres and sewed them back to together, re hemming the new sdes. They had plenty of wesr in them still then.

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  4. I don't know who those people who throw out perfectly good sheets are, but there are enough of them to keep me in quilt backs!

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