Quilts with Creative Backs

Sometimes I have extra blocks from making the quilt top and rather than make a potholder or trivet (or put them into a box to languish for years), I incorporate them into the quilt backing.

Here is a recent quilt finish from my Magic Triangles class. I first did the pattern for Creative Grids and then that morphed into a popular workshop.

Magic Triangles using the Holiday Splendor fabric collection. 46" x 48"

I had a LOT of this fabric and made several quilts from it. The first is my One Day Lone Star. This was a free pattern for Blank Quilting about 10 years ago.

Here is one of the units from the quilt at the top of the page. I had a few of these left over and figured they could be much happier joining their fabric buddies than spending their later years in some box in my closet!

Magic Triangles unit

I had some smaller units:

Magic Triangles leftover units

Put two together into a vertical row (twice):

I made two of these vertical units

Added 30 degree setting triangles on the sides and then the last of that yellow fabric and - voila! An interesting quilt back. Yes, I pieced that brown swirly fabric at the top. It sure makes for an interesting (ie, not boring) other side, right?!

Back of my Magical Triangles quilt

I'll share some more in the coming days. In the meantime, I hope you were inspired to reconsider orphan blocks in a creative way!