Improv back of the quilt tutorial and self machine binding – Textured 4-patch quilt

Quilt back

Quilt front

Some points before I start.

For the back I decided to do some improv patchwork again after my Père-Noël zigzag quilt improv patchwork back of quilt because it is a good way to free yourself after finishing a structured quilt. It’s the back after all, you don’t have to see it if it doesn’t turn out well. But if it does it is an added bonus.

For the back of the quilt’s I made a strip of “pretty much anything goes”. I added fabric scraps with some failed textures and blocks as well as other fabric scraps I used on the front.

You will need about 3 yards of white fabric and fabric scraps for the improv patchwork.

Quilting through the bulk added by the extra textures in the back may be a challenge for some machines.

Improv patchwork visual process

As I said before, this is a very much anything goes process. The only rule that applies is that your seam allowance must be 1/4 in or less.

Start by stitching two pieces together. As you can see, they’re not the same length but it does not matter.

Just trim the excess after the pieces are stitched together. Do not throw the trimmings away as they may be useful later on.

Pick up another piece of fabric, the same length or longer and stitch to the previous piece.

Now get a different piece. It does not matter if it is a triangle or a rectangle. Even a curved piece though curved pieces need a different stitching method and I did not use any this time.

Stitch and trim off the excess fabric.

As you can see the point is to square every piece as much as possible after adding a new piece. Squaring out the piece will make it easier to keep adding pieces.

Same as before.

Just keep adding and trimming.

I even added pieces of blocks that didn’t work.

And textures I decided not to use.

Keep stitching away until you reach the length of the quilt and a bit over to allow for self binding.

The next step is to place your strip where you want it to go on the back of the quilt, either on a side or in the middle, and then cut two pieces of white fabric for each side. I can’t give you the exact size of the side rectangles because your finished improv piece will be different to mine but I used about 3 yards of white fabric.

If you intend to use self binding, make your quilt back square at least 2 inches longer than the top all around.

As you can see in the picture below I added a bit of black to the improv patchwork because I thought it added some extra interest.

Self machine binding

This one minute video shows how to self bind a quilt.

Once you have quilted the quilt sandwich, trim the quilt back fabric leaving a 1 1/4 in allowance.

Now fold the fabric as per picture.

And fold again. Pin.

Continue to do as described above until you reach a corner.

To do a mitered corner, fold the corner at 45 degrees as per picture.

And then fold the fabric again like before.

Pin and continue.

Then just top stitched as close to the edge as possible.

Self binding may not be as durable as regular binding but it’s quick and suitable for some projects that won’t have as much wear and tear.

Textured 4-patch quilt tutorial

This quilt has 16 x 10 1/2 in blocks.

Each block is a 4-patch block in greens and reds. The fabric manipulation is made in a cream fabric.

See all Textured 4-patch quilt tutorials.

See also my first Textured quilt sampler tutorial.

Share your pictures

Are you making this quilt? Share your pictures on Flickr’s TeresaDownUnder group.