Your next quilt top already has its backing.
Not the one on the machine now. The one after that, and the one after that.
A top gets finished on a Sunday night. The backing does not exist yet, so the top gets folded and put somewhere safe while you work out which color, how much, and whether it arrives before the week swallows you. Somewhere in there the momentum goes. The top waits. Some of them wait years.
This is five 108" wide backings, one in each of the five colors that cover most quilts: Black, Gray, Red, Tan and Cream. They sit in the cupboard until they are needed. The next time a top comes off the machine, you are choosing between five, not ordering one.
What each color is for
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Gray. The scrappy quilt made of forty fabrics that agree on nothing, and the two color top where anything with a color of its own would turn two colors into three. Gray takes them all without picking a side.
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Black. The top that is already loud: bright batiks, saturated solids, jewel tones that would look thin against something pale. Also the t-shirt quilt and the graduation quilt, where the front is a collection of logos and colors that have nothing to do with each other, and the quilt that will be used hard on a couch by people with feet and coffee.
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Tan. Reproduction quilts, civil war prints and 1930s repros, where a modern white looks wrong the moment the quilt is folded. Also the autumn top, the rusts and golds and browns, which a cool gray would chill and this one warms.
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Cream. Soft low contrast tops, pastels and dusty pinks, baby quilts, and hand quilted work where the stitches are meant to be seen but softly.
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Red. Christmas, without a novelty print that ties the quilt to one year. The traditional red and white top, where the red carries through to the other side and the quilt is finished on both faces. Anything patriotic. And any top with red in the piecing that deserves to be pulled out rather than politely ignored.
No seam down the middle
Standard quilting cotton comes off the bolt at 44 or 45 inches wide. To back anything bigger than a lap quilt with it, you buy two lengths, join them, match the pattern, press the seam open, and then hope it lands somewhere your longarm will forgive.
Each of these pieces is 108 inches in both directions, in one uncut piece. That backs a quilt top up to roughly 92 by 92 inches with generous allowance all round for a longarm, which covers most throw, twin and queen tops seamlessly. For a king, use two pieces: one seam instead of three or four.
Let's break down the price
- 5 pieces, one of each color: Black, Gray, Red, Tan, Cream: $314.85, retail price
- The bundle price: $199.97.
- You save: $114.88
That is $114.88 back in your hands, and five backings for less than the price of four.
Perfect for
- Quilt backs, from throw size up to queen
- Whole cloth quilts
- Longarm and domestic machine quilting
- Any project where a seam would show
- Keeping a finished top moving instead of waiting on the shelf
Specifications
5 pieces, one of each color: Black, Gray, Red, Tan, Cream
100% Cotton
108" Wide
3 Yard Cut (each piece)
Collection: Northcott Impressions 108"
One honest note about the colors
No screen tells the truth about cloth, and five colors is five chances for a monitor to be wrong. Reds pull toward orange on one screen and toward pink on the next. Grays read cool and blue in one place, warm and putty in another. Black is the hardest of all to judge.
So open the parcel. Feel the cotton, unfold each piece, and lay them next to the tops you have waiting, in daylight, which is the only place cloth answers honestly.
60 days money-back guarantee
Check the cotton in your hands and analyze the colors against your tops. If it is not what you expected on either count, send it back: the one piece that is wrong, or all five. Return shipping is on us, and there is no restocking fee.
Less piecing. Less waste. More quilting.
