The backing fabric that I am waiting for is just a plain double bed sheet from Marks and Spencer. It quickly became apparent to me that buy the backing fabric off the bolt was a complete rip off. Unless you want a specific pattern to it, then it made perfect sense to me to buy a nice Egyptian cotton, flat bed sheet and just use that. It saves so much money as you can get a good quality, high thread count sheet for around £16. So, once it arrives, I can finally finish the Bloom quilt!
That isn't the thriftiest way to back a quilt though. My favourite way to save money on this particular part of the quilt is to scour charity shops. One of my past quilts was backed using a flat cotton sheet that I had bought in my local Cancer research shop and cost £4 - burgundy flowers on white and it made a really pretty backing. Today I did even better than that - two single sheets, one pale peach and one white of exceptional quality, 100% cotton, high thread count sheets. The price? £2.99 each! I was beyond excited at my little find - because a lot of the time the sheets you find in such places are polycotton and just no good for quilt backing. Saying that, I have used polycotton in the past, but it is more prone to dimpling and gathering up at the back as you quilt it. The best way, in my opinion is to stick with 100%, down to the thread that you use - and the wadding.
So - if you are prepared to skip from charity shop to charity shop for a little rummage in the linen sections, you can save yourself a huge amount of money. I have spent up to £40 backing a quilt before - but why do that when you can pick up a cotton bed sheet from £16 or get lucky in a local charity shop - while donating to a very worthy cause at the same time.
Thrifty, nifty charity shop finds!
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