Do you use thread the same color as your backing?
#1
Do you use thread the same color as your backing?
I have always been told that you are supposed to use the same color thread as your backing is to quilt with. However, I have gone outside the realm here and used white on a colored background and colored thread on a white background. I think it looks pretty neat. What do you think?
#5
I try to use backing with a busy pattern that will hide my thread when I do my own quilting on my domestic machine. When I send my quilts out, I am charged for changing the color of thread multiple times. So I don't think there is a rule.
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: The Deep South near Cajun Country, USA
Posts: 5,435
I love using a thread color that shows up & pops on the quilt backing. It creates a reversible quilt. I quilt on a longarm with pantographs. It's a good thing others don't know what the design is supposed to look like. lol Ironically, everyone I show my quilts to, like the fronts but love the backs. I know before I give them the quilt that they are going to use it "upside down" because they like the simplicity & the starkness of the contrasts between the quilt back color & the thread.
There are NO quilt police. Do it like you want. Another irony, I match the quilting thread to the front so that it doesn't take away from the piecing & the quilt pattern. My material in my backs are always found on the front of the quilt too. This way there is no shock from a front that's pink & brown to a back that's yellow. Using a brown back with pink thread is stunning!
There are NO quilt police. Do it like you want. Another irony, I match the quilting thread to the front so that it doesn't take away from the piecing & the quilt pattern. My material in my backs are always found on the front of the quilt too. This way there is no shock from a front that's pink & brown to a back that's yellow. Using a brown back with pink thread is stunning!
#7
Power Poster
Join Date: May 2009
Location: NY
Posts: 10,590
The only reason you would want to use the same color thread as your backing is to camoflauge your quilting, to hide mistakes, etc. Prints will also do this no matter what color is in your bobbin and solids tend to show the quilting even if you match the color. If you are confident in your quilting I say ignore your backing color and go with whatever you have in the top.
I have had client quilts where the client specifically asked me to match the back and then later regretted their choice because you really couldn't see the quilting. Given a preference I like to match my bobbin thread to my top thread and ignore the backing color. Some of the results have been spectacular, like red and white bobbin thread on a black backing, made the back almost like a whole cloth.
I have had client quilts where the client specifically asked me to match the back and then later regretted their choice because you really couldn't see the quilting. Given a preference I like to match my bobbin thread to my top thread and ignore the backing color. Some of the results have been spectacular, like red and white bobbin thread on a black backing, made the back almost like a whole cloth.
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