how to hide my shame from the quilt police

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I made a quilt for my DGD. It was to be for her graduation from HS. It was a Tesellation quilt which I had never done. Advanced the mag. pattern said. Took me 3 weeks of putting it together, ripping out.........anyway I got it on the LA, quilted it about 2/3rd's of the way, looked pretty on the front. I decided to look at the back. I screamed! I was sick to my stomach.......looked just like yours. I was already 6 months late getting it to her. My DH spent his entire Christmas vacation ripping it out for me and I took it to another quilter to quilt. It has sat for the last 3 years waiting for me to bind it. Finally finished it, and gave it to her last week. She is entering her last year in college.........I hated that quilt from Hell. But I love her and so does my DH. Otherwise I would have thrown in into the garbage!!
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Quote: THANK YOU FOR REPLY...
Its about 36" by 38"..Do you know if anyone on this board has ever framed a quilt..I did a search on hiding the back and found nothing...I am new to this board it is great..Im from Michigan..Dottiej
I was the frameshop mgr @ a MICHAEL'S for 8yrs. I framed lots of things including sm quilts & quilt blocks.It can be very expensive(labor intense). here's a few pointers: Do you want glass? just like cross stitch, it needs to breathe. If you want glass, be sure it doesn't lay on your quilt. This can be accomplished by any/or combination of the following shadowboxing, spacers, at least a double acid free mat. . make sure your frame is deep enough. If I was doing it, I would take 1 stitch, about every hand width, tie it off. some perfer to do a continuous stitch. you would be stitching this to acid free matboard. then finish by attaching that to acid free foamboard(double sided tape). any frame shop should be able to sell you acid free products- you'll be in oversize 40x60(reg matboard is 32x40) so be prepared for sticker shock! Many stores sell sectionals, that might work for you, as your size is NOT standard. REMEMBER to use ACID-FREE products, it's very important!
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Quote: THANK YOU FOR REPLY...
Its about 36" by 38"..Do you know if anyone on this board has ever framed a quilt..I did a search on hiding the back and found nothing...I am new to this board it is great..Im from Michigan..Dottiej
Your local frame shop could make a custom frame for it, or you can go to Home Depot and buy the materials to make your own custom frame. Just remember to put something between the wood and the fabric to avoid deterioration from the acids in the wood.
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Yep..I sure can relate..Ill bet your dtr loved it..
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Quote:
Quote: THANK YOU FOR REPLY...
Its about 36" by 38"..Do you know if anyone on this board has ever framed a quilt..I did a search on hiding the back and found nothing...I am new to this board it is great..Im from Michigan..Dottiej
I personally have not framed a quilt but my MIL did a wall hanging that I made for her, about the same dimensions as yours. Of course, she didn't do it herself. She took it to Michaels to have it done.
THAT FRAMED QUILT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!
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Quote: Do any of those things you suggest and no one will be the wiser.Before you go to the trouble, however, it would be good if you could look at the back of some of the world renown tapestries. It is a real eye-opener to see what a knotty mess they are at the back.
I have got to look up tapestries..sounds like my kinda people not the world renown part, but the knotty mess sounds really nice...dottiej,
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Quote:
Quote: Some people that do alot of thread painting on quilts, put the top on the batt and stitch all the details. They put the back on later and just outline stitch the main designs. You don't even have to be careful of how far the quilting on the back is because the batting is anchored well with the thread painting. I think you could put a false back on your quilt, outline quilt the main parts to the front and put the binding on.
This is exactly what I was going to suggest. I have every intention of doing an art quilt soon but have not yet done one. I've read several books though and their method of dealing with the messy back is to layer the top and batting, do all the necessary quilting and fabric anchoring there and then add the backing fabric. Do some basic outline quilting (often with monofilament in the top thread) and then bind.

As far as shows requiring the quilting to be the same on the top as the back, that makes no sense and seems downright anal to me. For an art quilt with loads of thread painting, it makes perfect sense to wait on the backing fabric until the end. Even if you're a perfect FMQ'ing artist, the back will look messy.
WOW..I like this and agree completely..Dottiej
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Sorry about the back of your quilt. Have you posted a photo yet? The front of course! :)
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Quote: Hang it up. Love it. Enjoy it. If anybody pulls it out to look at the back you can tell them to mind their own damn business and if they do it again, you'll break their fingers! (grin) It's your quilt, be free to love it as it is. Our friends love us as we are. . . warts and all. . . and if they don't they aren't true friends.
I really like your thinking.....dottiej
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Quote: Sorry about the back of your quilt. Have you posted a photo yet? The front of course! :)
not yet but i will post one of the front in the next couple days..will even post picture of the back if i can get the true magnificance of it..dottiej
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