I'm still debating how to put together the purple collage. I continue to be somewhat mystified at quilt shows by the multitudes of viewers who have to see the backs of many of the quilts. Yes, I get it that even stitches and so forth are an important part of good craftsmanship. However, for an art quilt that is hung on a wall, should the back matter so much? No one, no one, at an art gallery or museum asks to see the back of a watercolor or oil painting. If anyone did, they'd be escorted out of the place.
It is important for my hand stitching not to come undone - I always end up with lots of knots on the backs of my quilts.
I don't want the embellishing to fall off! There is only so much I can add before I have to quilt, and some of my embellishing cannot not sewn over. I have to add things after quilting.
This (above) is the back of a small quilt collage that was completely embellished before I pillowcase bound it and quilted it with just four lines of decorative machine stitching (horizontal and vertical axis), and added a scant few decorative stitch flowers here and there. The thread ends are hidden, it is still technically a quilt, but not likely to be acceptable in quilt show judging. The machine didn't like having to deco stitch over some of my embellishing, more points off for uneven stitches!
On this one, I did all my stitching through all three layers. Since there is so much happening, the awkward knots and undersides of the hand stitching do not seem all that bad... the batik print helps to distract from the ends as well. However, would this pass muster in a quilt show? I wonder how much the back matters to the average non-quilter (potential) buyer of my work.
I am leaning towards options of finishing my collages that would disqualify them as quilts, but would result in a better looking back. I'm not much for entering quilt shows anyway.
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