It has been a while since I prepped all the fabric for the very special Synesthetic Alphabet quilt I am making. The pre-cut kit was fantastic; in about a day I was able to complete the top and mostly complete the backing.
Synesthetic Alphabet – Pieced Top (Upper) and Backing Blocks (Lower)
I am taking a quick pause in making progress on this quilt to ask for some help.
I plan to try to enter this quilt into a quilt show or two. Being a modern quilt, the backing has some interesting piecing and is potentially a part of the conversation that the quilt offers. I realize that at quilt shows, quilt backs are not typically very easy to see (unless it is Elizabeth Hartman‘s Touch This Quilt quilt). 🙂 However, as I am thinking of entering modern quilt shows… I was thinking that it might be wise to think a bit about the orientation of the backing of the quilt.
So my question is: given that this quilt is an unusual orientation, would it make more sense to reverse the right sides up for the quilt top and back, or should they both be in the same direction? I was leaning toward reversing, so that if the lower right corner of the quilt is lifted you would see the upper left corner of the back. Or is it of no consequence because no one is going to really see the back anyway?
I hope my question makes sense. Like I said, it might not even be worth thinking about, but it just struck me as I was piecing the backing and I was curious what input I could get.
Synesthetic Alphabet Pieced Top Timelapse
I think what you do should depend more on what you plan to do with the quilt outside of the shows–will it hang on the wall? Do you want to be able to hang it so both sides may be displayed (I have a tutorial on how to make a hanging sleeve for a double sided quilt)? Is it for a bed or lap? In my experience not very many people at quilt shows see the backs of the quilts. The judges look at the back to see if it coordinates with the front, the stitches and the binding. I’ve only been to one show where volunteers were wondering around with gloves on offering to show people a peek of the backs.
My experience has been that the bigger the show, the more likely there are docents with gloves on who will turn the quilt and show the back. The reason for that practice used to be to display the quilting details, but with modern quilts I think it would be to show off the pieced backs. I once went to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah and viewed a quilt hung in the middle of the gallery just to showcase the front AND back.
I would place each color on specific color but you don’t have that pieced back set up that way. Like mirror image. So if you turn top yellow corner there would be yellow. Well, that is not helpful suggestion at all. Sorry. Looking good even though I don’t get the specific orientation of your quilt. I guess I should check the previous post.