Flipside

I've never been formally trained as a quilter or an embroiderer, which is probably why I never learned that embroidery and quilting are supposed to be two different things. Officially embroidery is meant as a fabric surface embellishment, while quilting's purpose is to hold the three layers of a quilt together.

That said, if you combine the two as I sometimes do, you can end up with this neat effect:

This is the back of my recycled linen quilt. I quilted this piece with the embroidery I did on the front side, which created a negative/mirror effect on the backing.

I never thought much about how the stitching would look on the back of the quilt, either. I just chose an indigo linen remnant to serve as the backing, and hoped the stitches would look cool.

The back of the quilt became just as interesting as the front. I particularly liked it when the embroidery stitches created a different pattern on the flipside:

When you create, don't be afraid to break the rules, ignore them, or just do what pleases you. Sometimes the results can be wonderful.