Fabric Friday: Liberty and Quilt Backings

I hope my stateside readers had a great 4th of July.  I have a mean sunburn after yesterday's festivities.  I made sure to douse my kids in sunscreen but forgot to do my own! 

 

In the spirit of "liberty" - how about a little Bloomsbury Gardens eye candy for today's post?  My sister is visiting from Colorado and brought back these goodies for me.  They were only $7 per yard from one of my most favorite (albeit distant!) fabric stores: Fancy Tiger in Denver.  Access to such awesome, affordable fabric is good enough reason to move across the country, no?

 

I also have quilt backings on my mind.  I finally had an excuse to buy a bunch of one of my most favorite Amy Butler fabrics: Mosaic in River from the Daisy Chain collection.  I got 4.5 yards on etsy for $5 per yard from an etsy seller.  I always find myself buying large scale designer prints for quilt backings instead of using solids or piecing chunks of fabric together that are leftovers from piecing the quilt top.  Why I do this:

• I prefer the look of a print on the back to a solid and usually find that I can purchase a print on clearance for far cheaper than buying yardage of a solid.  I keep my eye out for fabric.com steals as well as other sales and generally aim to spend no more than $5.50 per yard.  Kona is 5.49 per yard at the most affordable site that I know of- so if I can do better than that, I do!
• I think pieced quilt backs look awesome - but usually by the time that I get to the part of making the back - I just want to be done.  Additionally, I usually like the fabrics I have used for the front and I don't want to use them all up by putting them on the back.

I would love to hear the strategies my readers have for quilt backings.  Thanks for reading.