Another finish!

I have been steadily working on getting my UFO's finished while still moving forward with new projects and ideas! 

I'm happy to tell that I have another quilt finished!

Do you remember the red letter quilt that I started in the spring? 

It came up as my next quilt to sandwich and quilt. 

(I try to do them in order of being finished but sometimes I have a few waiting.)

Last week I was able to take time to sandwich it and then start on the quilting.

I quilted around each letter in the ditch and did some FMQ in the negative space between the rows of the lowercase letters. I also did some straight line quilting in the borders. 

All the letters are made from different red fabrics from my stash 

(mostly from my scrap bin.) 

The backing is a red apple print from my stash. I still need to label it.

This quilt finishes at 32.5" x 47.5"

So what is next you ask? 

I have 2 more quilts waiting their turn. The left overs from the Regatta quilt

and this one.

I finally cut into one of the first fabric lines that I bought after starting to quilt (so many years ago!) This line is called Blush by Basic Grey. The backing is pieced with most of the remaining pieces from my collection with a few coordinating pieces from my stash. 

You will just have to wait and see which one speaks to me next. 

I also have a few more piecing projects in the works. I'm thankful to have the summer days to spend working on the many ideas in my head. 

I'm linking to Let's be Social @ /Sew Fresh Quilts

and Midweek Makers @ Quilt Fabrication and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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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