Working with Help

I've been thinking hard about options for backing the panda quilt. I want to do something really fun, but I also want to use up some of my stashed fabrics. I have so many things sitting on my shelves that deserve to be used, I can't justify another purchase for something that'll be staying with me.

With the top being such a high concentration of blue, black, and white, I thought it would be best if I avoided the blue section of my stash. Black and white (or white and black) was another obvious option, but none of my stash options seemed quite right. I have bolts of fabrics I'd like to use, but they are heavily brown -- which didn't seem right either.

Almost by process of elimination, I wound up with one option -- which now seems so obvious I should have started with it!

I can't decide if Momo agrees with my choice, or if he was trying to stop me from going with it... but it's too late now!

Since my top is a little larger than the width of the sushi fabric, I used scrap blocks left from the disappearing nine patch border on the topside to add a little more width to the backing.

I'll have to be careful how I line things up when I get around to basting, because I want to maintain as much of the added border as I can. I've got to finish up the ocean quilt to send away before I baste this one, but I think it will go fairly quickly -- as long as I keep up enough energy to push myself through the important but no fun job of basting!