NOTE 2021: The PDF patterns for this quilt are no longer available so the links to them have been deleted. I’ve left the other instructions in case you still have the original patterns.

The top of the African Village Quilt is done! Great job. Now it's time to make the back.

I had left over triangles from the setting blocks and corner blocks from the diamond strips on the front of the quilt. I also had some triangles which I cut for the quilt and then decided that I liked other fabric better. So I decided to make a strip back for my quilt.

You will need a backing that measures at least 48 x 65 inches. This will give you a 3 1/2-4 inch overhang. If you plan to send it out to a long-arm quilter you may need it a bit larger.

I used fabrics for the strips that are in the quilt top and I varied the width of the solid color strips to make the back more interesting. I also made a few more half square triangles for the strips. You'll note in the photo above that the half square triangle strips were extended with a piece of background fabric. If you wanted to, you could just use a couple left over half square triangles and make the strip long enough with other fabrics.

However you do it, it's all good!

I really like this back. It could stand on it's own as a quilt in its own right!

Once you finish the backing, layer sandwich your quilt with top, quilt batting and the bottom. I used a cotton baby quilt batting which measured 46 x 60 inches.

Quilt as desired or send it out to your favorite quilter! Add a binding once it is all quilted.

And finally make a label. Here is my label before I wrote on it. I used some selvages from the fabric in the quilt along with a strip from my focus fabric. It adds a bit more information about the quilt and it's fun!

Next post…my finished quilt!

Please leave me a comment to let me know how you are doing!