Making Scrappy Quilt Backings

In an effort to not contribute to landfills, nor to spend excessively, scrappy quilt backings can be a lot of fun to make!

I use flannel, almost exclusively, when making backings for quilts. Sometimes solids. Sometimes patterned. 108” wide flannel whenever I can get my hands on it.

It’s warm and cozy, which is really what I am looking for when it comes to quilt backing.

Fabric Scraps

I keep nearly all of my fabric scraps, both the quilting cotton used for the top and binding, and the flannel used for the backing.

This most recent scrappy quilt backings project even led me to clean out the bottom drawers of my fabric storage to keep the flannel scraps better organized!

The drawer on the left has batting, and the flannel scraps that are less than 40” wide. The drawer on the right has the flannel yardage and the scraps that are at least 40” wide.

Why 40”?

That’s approximately the Width of Fabric after washing flannel.

Setting a Palette for Scrappy Quilt Backings

The quilt that I made this scrappy backing for is navy, aqua, red and green.

I knew I wanted to use the red stripe for the binding.

When it came to pulling flannel scraps for the backing, I started with lots of reds and maroons, thinking that would look best with the quilt.

But as I started working with ironing and trimming the fabric strips, I realized I didn’t really like the combo that I had pulled together.

I think it was the maroon and green pairing that was throwing me off. They didn’t quite clash, but they didn’t work well together.

So then, I pulled out lots of different blue flannel scraps.

I liked the looks of the blues with the checkerboard quilt, I added some greens, and then a little bit of cream because I needed more fabric.

How to Make Scrappy Quilt Backings

The simplest quilt backing is a single piece of fabric, a few inches wider and longer than the quilt.

Almost as simple is several strips of fabric, a few inches wider than the quilt, and as many as needed to reach a few inches longer than the quilt.

Sew them all together and voila! Easy, peasy, scrappy quilt backing.

That was essentially my goal with this quilt.

But of course, life ended up a little more complicated.

See that green strip of fabric there?

It wasn’t long enough to be simple or easy!

I had several squares of white polka dots on green flannel.

I cut them in half and then sewed them back together on the short end.

Doing the same with three total squares gave me the long skinny strip of polka dot green flannel that I needed for this size of quilt.

And really, it wasn’t all that much less simple or easy than just sewing some strips together.

Check out this other Scrappy Quilt Back tutorial for more variety in ways to put quilt backs together!

A Fun Baby Gift!

The quilt that I used this scrappy quilt backing for was a checkerboard baby quilt. I’ve written up a tutorial for the quilt as well, you should definitely check it out!

And, if you are in need of tutorials for basting, marking quilting lines, or quilting straight lines on a domestic machine, I’ve got all of those as well!