Since I finished the green batik quilt top for the August FNSI...
... so I spent a little time yesterday piecing the back.
The backing came into being because I have discovered a couple of things about jelly roll quilts using batiks.
1) Batik jelly roll strips are at least 2" longer than regular quilting cotton jelly roll strips. {2" x 40 strips = 80" more in length of initial strip... 1600" + 80" = 1680" to sew}
2) This added length of the JR strips leads to a wider quilt top... not a longer quilt top.
3) If you add 2" inserts between the JR strips, the quilt top ends up even wider.
In this example, my quilt top was 61" x 64"... almost square.
So, after a little math.... I cut an 11" strip off one side of the quilt top, making the quilt top 50" x 64"... and more rectangular. I added a strip of the backing fabric to the top and the bottom of the 11" strip...
...and then sewed the 10" strip to a 68" length of the backing fabric.... thus making it wide enough for to be the backing! {42" + 11" = 53" wide}
I need to get back to the never-ending hourglass project so this top and back will be tucked away to age a bit and will be quilted when the completed, super huge hourglass quilt goes off the the LAQ.
