Being accountable

Last week was Spring Break. I usually head down to Austin but this year the timing wasn't so good for my kids. Instead, my hubby and I headed down to Champaign, IL to visit friends. We had a great time!

That also means that I was away from my sewing room for several days and we came back just in time to have Easter dinner with our oldest daughter and boyfriend. 

Before I left, I did finalize the layout of the red letters that I paper pieced. I decided to make a border of the uppercase letters and then I used then lowercase letters in the inside.

I used the same backing fabric for the sashing and borders around the letters to make up the size. 

I also added an appliquéd apple and a mushroom. There was still quite a bit of negative space so I thought I would appliquéd a few more 'things that are red' in some of the spaces.

I appliquéd a strawberry, lips, cardinal, stop sign, watermelon, heart, ladybug, tomato and a red crayon. The border is a red and white ticking fabric from my stash. This flimsy is ready to be sandwiched and quilted. 

(I do have Grandma's Kitchen flimsy waiting to be quilted too.)

I also added borders to the t-shirt quilt. I decided on a narrow inner border of color (pink) and a 2" outer border in gray. 

I will back it with a flannel which I ordered online (and is on its way!). T-shirt quilts are pretty heavy. I'm thinking of using lightweight flannel in white instead of batting. What do you think? Suggestions/ideas/advice are welcome. 

My temperature quilt is growing and now has 5 complete rows! 

It is still pretty chilly out...I was hoping to see more yellows and some oranges. March didn't 'go out like a lamb.' Hopeful for warmer weather in April!

I'm linking up to To Do Tuesday at Stitch All Things, Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River, and Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel.  

It is time to post my FNSI results and more...

Last night was the first FNSI that I participated in for a very long time! 

The timing was perfect as it was the start of Spring Break for me! 

I had the whole day free and I spent most of it in my sewing room! It has been a while since that happened!

I pieced some uppercase letters earlier this month and I still needed to piece the lowercase letters. I found Tonya Ricucci's Word Play Quilts book in the library to use as inspiration for making my lowercase letters. I picked it up Thursday after work and browsed through it. I wanted to make them 2.5" finished....half the size of the uppercase letters that I pieced. Tonya suggests 3" or larger letters so I drew out my own using graph paper. 

I did all of them yesterday! Throughout the day and night! For the v and the x, I  ended up paper piecing as the angles were 'getting to me'. 

Maybe I just needed a rest from piecing these small letters all day... 

Anyways, I was pleased with all of them except the k. Somehow, it ended up more narrow that the other letters. I'm sure it was my error in calculating the angles. I couldn't let it go and I thought about it when I should have been sleeping! ARGH! 

So this morning, I decided to draw up a paper pieced k pattern. My first attempt was great...but backwards! 

It must be from the lack of a full night of sleep 😉 

So I drew up another, this time remembering to reverse the pattern. 

It is so much better! Can you tell the difference? 

Hop over to FNSI at Sugarlane Designs and check out what others worked on last night.

I must be in a paper piecing mood as I also worked on my Little Houses this week. The last time I posted about my neighborhood the population was 56. It has now grown to 66 with these additions! 

I love this ongoing project! Not sure when it will end...maybe when I run out of blue scraps! That hasn't happened yet!

I'm linking to Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts, Finished or Not Friday @ Busy Hands Quilts, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew Can She and Friday Foto Fun @pwoeredbyquilting.

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A Finish, Progress, and Something New

Of coarse I must start with my finish as it is so exciting! I will warn you that this is a little picture heavy because I am in LOVE with it! 

I finished my Regatta Quilt!

 Yesterday my hubby and I headed over to our local Lake Park and did a photo shoot. 

What could be a better background for a Regatta quilt?

At first I thought I would piece my backing using all the cut offs from making this quilt until I found this fabric! It is the perfect colors!

Here you can see a bit of the front with the back! Thanks to the breeze!

Here is a detail shot of the straight line quilting. I did 3 straight lines across the quilt in each strip. I did not quilt in the ditch which gives it a nice simple pattern on the back. 

The binding is made using mostly the navy color with a little of 2 others darker colors in the quilt.

My sweet Nellie is enjoying the sunshine and the quilt!

Here it is in all its glory! 

The pattern is Regatta by Daniela at Block M Quilts and I followed the QAL at Home Sewn By Us. It finished at 57" x 74". This is my 3rd finish for 2018! 

My Temperature quilt now has 4 rows completed (with a few in the 5th row done). 

As your can see we had slightly warmer temperatures indicated by the greens and yellows! The Hope of Spring🌷🌷🌷!

What's new on my design wall? I've been playing with the alphabet! 

These letters are paper pieced and are 5" square done in reds from my stash. 

I've been playing with the layout. Not sure what it will look like but I will be doing lowercase letters next!

What's new on your design wall?

I'm linking up to Show off Saturday over at Sew Can She.