How to Back a Quilt in One Seamless Piece: Using a Large Floral Wideback
Most quilters piece the top with care, then face a familiar chore: sewing lengths of standard-width fabric together just to make a backing wide enough. A wideback removes that step. The Wide Back Ink & Ivory Large Floral Ivory fabric, from the Ink & Ivory collection by The RBD Designers for Riley Blake Designs, is 107/108 inches wide — wide enough to back most quilts in one seamless piece, with a large floral print that makes the back worth looking at, too.
What This Fabric Is
This is a 100 percent cotton wideback fabric, sold by the yard, in the Ink & Ivory collection by The RBD Designers for Riley Blake Designs. The print features clusters of flowers and leaves on an ivory ground, in the collection's ink-and-ivory palette of black, beige, and cream tones. At 107/108 inches wide, it is more than double the width of standard quilting cotton, and the product description notes that width is intended to accommodate most quilt backs. Riley Blake Designs describes the collection as suitable for quilting, apparel, and home decor, though a fabric this wide earns its keep first and foremost on the back of a quilt.
Care is simple and matches the listing: machine wash cold and tumble dry low.
Why Choose a Wideback?
A standard 44/45-inch fabric needs piecing for any quilt wider than about 40 inches once seam allowances and overhang are counted. Those backing seams take time, use extra fabric in the joins, and can create a ridge that shows through quilting or feels uneven under a longarm. A 107/108-inch wideback avoids all of that for most throw, twin, full, and many queen quilts: one length of fabric, no center seam, and a smooth surface for quilting.
There is also a design reason to choose this wideback. A large floral turns the back into a second finished side. Clusters of flowers and leaves in black, beige, and cream on ivory give a quilt a reversible feel — drape it over a sofa or fold it at the foot of a bed, and the back holds its own. The neutral palette pairs easily with most tops, especially those using black, cream, or beige.
How Much to Order and How to Use It
Measure your finished quilt top, then add the overhang your quilting method requires — longarm quilters typically ask for several extra inches on all sides; check with yours before ordering. Because the fabric is 107/108 inches wide, the length you order is usually the quilt's length plus that overhang, in one continuous cut when you buy by the yard. If your quilt is wider than the fabric, this print can still work pieced, but plan the seam where the floral repeat will be least noticeable, or run the seam horizontally where a fold line naturally falls.
Before layering, press the wideback well and square the edges. Wide fabric can come off the bolt with slight skew, so check that the cut ends are at right angles to the selvedges before you baste or load it on a frame. Keep the floral clusters running in one direction — a large-scale print like this has a clear up and down, and a backing rotated halfway through layering is a mistake you only notice at the end. For direction, orient the flowers the same way as the quilt top's main motif.
Beyond Quilt Backs
The extra width is useful beyond quilting. A single length can make a wide tablecloth without a center seam, a simple duvet cover back, or curtains where a standard width would need joining. The large floral scale suits those larger surfaces: small cuts break the clusters up, while generous cuts let the flowers and leaves show at full size.
If you have never tried a wideback, this is an easy place to start. Pick a top in black, cream, or beige tones, order one length, and skip the backing seams altogether.
Shop the Wide Back Ink & Ivory Large Floral Ivory Cotton Wideback Fabric per yard at Linda's Electric Quilters.
