Extra Wide Quilt Backing Fabrics & Extra Wide Batik Fabrics

We now have one of the largest selections of extra wide quilt backs in the UK.  It happened by accident really, it was never planned.  When we got our longarm and started offering a quilting service, customers often turned up with all kinds of things to use as backing - most of which were less than suitable.

We set about researching extra wide backing fabrics to find out why there appeared to be a problem with supply.

We learnt that not many manufacturers make extra wide and those that do only make a very limited range.  The extra wide backing fabrics are often made for the orders placed and are never repeated again.

So to get a  great range of extra wide backing fabrics you have to deal with & order with many different companies, sometime placing orders six or nine months in advance.

Extra Wide Batik backing fabrics are more complex still.  Batik is generally a tighter weave than normal patchwork fabric. If we standard batik fabric for backing our quilts there is a possibility that instead of our quilting needles passing next to the fibres, instead we may damage the fibres with the millions of stitches we put into our quilts when quilting. The result of this could be bearding. This is when the wadding pokes out of the holes we have made in the backing fabric. Generally standard width batik is made from what is called a 50's fabric and the extra wide batiks are made from 40's fabric which is slightly less dense a weave.

Making Batik fabric is a long and time consuming process and it is usually made in Asia especially Indonesia.

Here is a link to a really interesting video of the process.

Making Batik Fabric

We currently stock around 30 different extra wide Batik fabrics from Timeless Treasure Xtonga range  and also some of the Moda Extra wide Batik fabrics too.

Why do we want extra Wide fabrics when we could just join some patchwork fabrics.  Yes you can do that, but you need to use a wider seam and take off the selvedges.  This still causes a join down the back of the quilt and firstly does not look as good, secondly when on the longarm quilting frame, the seam is often tight yet the fabric to either side can be slack, so a less than perfect result is obtained. Thirdly you need twice as much fabric then you have to join it and this generally works out most costly than buying an extra wide backing fabric.  When you have your quilt longarm quilted here at Quilt Sandwich, if you ask for it cutting down, all the spare pieces of wadding and backing will be returned to you  so you can use for another project or even the binding.

So lets have a look at what extra wide backing fabrics we currently have in stock.

The first range of extra wide backing fabrics I want to talk about is Vineyard.  This is a great all purpose range and it comes in lots of different colours.

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 These are extra wide backing fabrics from the Moda range. 

Here are some of my other Extra Wide Backing Fabrics and these include Blank, Riley Blake Windham, Richard Kaufman & Marcus Fabrics

and these are just a few of our range.  To visit our shop click the link - http://www.quiltsandwich.co.uk

Getting ready for The Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate

Preparations for the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate have stepped up.

Again this year I fell into the trap of entering a quilt into the Great Northern Quilt Show which I had not already made. I have been working solidly now on this said quilt for the last week - lol! I really must be more organised next year!

This year I am for the first time becoming an exhibitor at the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate. Quilt Sandwich will be at stall 100. I shall be taking along my extra wide backing fabric, moda scrap bags and a few other treats.

Deliveries of more fabrics have been arriving almost daily and today we had two deliveries just in time for the Great Northern Quilt Show. I now have 122 extra wide backing fabrics - the best selection in the UK.

These extra wide backing fabrics include Moda, Robert Kaufman, Whistler Studios, Sew Simple, Blank, Studio E, Riley Blake, John Louden & a beautiful batik range by Timeless Treasures XTonga.  These will all be travelling with me to the Great Northern Quilt Show in Harrogate.

I have made up a limited number of these fantastic batiks in to sample packs.  Just £20 for 6 roughly fat quarter sized pieces.

I also have a Colour Your Own fabric which I have made up into special quilt kits. These have fabric for the quilt top, wadding, backing & binding plus the fabric pens too.

We hope to see you at our stall at The Great Northern Quilt Show in Harrogate.  Stall no 100!

Look out for our Logo - flying high and proud at the Great Northern Quilt Show in Harogate -

New Extra Wide Quilt Back Fabric has Arrived!

When I bought my ABM Innova Longarm and stared to quilt for customers, I found many of my customers struggled to find extra wide backing fabrics and instead turned up with all sorts of backing - from old sheets, to joined fabric etc  for me to put on their beautiful quilt tops.

As a consequence of this I started to look into extra wide fabric and I discovered that it is very hard to find a good selection in one place in the UK.

The reason for this is firstly all the fabrics need to come from the USA and few manufacturers provide the extra wide 106 /108 inch fabric and if they do they only offer a very small range. This has to be ordered and can take several months to arrive. As the fabric is two and a half times the width of standard patchwork fabric and still comes on a bolt, the cost of stocking a large range is also high. Nevertheless, I decided that we needed to get a good range available in the UK.

By dealing with many different manufactures I have now collected a superb range of extra wide quilt backing fabric - one of the very best selections in the UK.

Today's delivery from Timeless Treasures, as usual turned up with no warning. It was ordered well over three months ago!

I have now listed all 32 bolts of X-Tonga and some tone on tone fabrics from this delivery on to the shop on my website here -

Quilt Sandwich Shop

The now brings my total bolts to just under 100!  (don't tell Tim !)

Fabric & waddings can be purchased from my website and I ship by carrier. If you are local or coming to Bridlington and want to have a look, just give me a call in advance on 01262 672433 so I can make sure I am here to assist.