Use extra HRTs for a scrappy quilt back!

When making a scrappy Half Dozen quilt with fat quarters, you will end up with extra rectangles of fabric. Some might use these pieces of fabric to practice making HRTs, others might just put the fabric in their scrap pile. I like to think that these extra pieces of fabric are perfect for making additional HRTs for the back of the quilt!

I made a small throw (60" x 60") and only wanted to use fabric in my stash for the quilt back. I don't typically keep a lot of yardage on hand of one fabric that would make up an entire backing. Instead, I like to use one fabric for the length of the quilt back and then add in strips of other fabric to the width. For this quilt back, I used a blue and white striped Michael Miller fabric that was just shy of 2 yards, at 68" x WOF. I needed an additional 68" x 26" to make a full square that would fit my quilt top and also allow overage for quilting.

Since a small throw includes 9 quilt blocks, and I can make two HRTS from two rectangles of fabric, that means I would have enough extra fabric for 18 half rectangle triangles. (Two of my blocks were made from scraps and *not* fat quarters so I actually only had 14 half rectangle triangles from the front fabric). I arranged them into two columns of 7 HRTs and sewed them together. I then cut a piece of fabric to be 12.5" x 68".  I used two extra HRTs from another stash to include in this 12.5" x 68" strip.

I really enjoy this extra scrappy look on the quilt backing and know that the recipients do, too! :)

If you give this a try, please share! :)

Jamie, @getzmadeco