Friday Night Sew In

I have forgot how tiring and hectic the first weeks of school are for teachers. We do a lot of pre-testing our students so we can individualize their learning, especially in reading, spelling, and writing. It is great for the students but a lot of work for teachers. So I have spent late evenings at school (until 6 pm each night) and will probably continue to do so for a couple of weeks. And then . . . I'll have my act together and be home by 4 or 5 each evening.

I love my job, but it does cut into my sewing time. lol

If you follow my blog at all, you know I am trying to get my "Be Attitudes" quilt completed to use in my classroom. So during the Friday Night Sew In last night, I was able to get this quilt sandwiched

and the stitching in the ditch around the blocks completed.

So far this morning, I have completed free motion quilting around the applique and letters of one block. Then I sat and wasted about an hour or so of time by contemplating how to fill in. After looking at the design in the fabric, etc., I have decided just to do a lot of not very dense swirls and loops. And each block using a lot of the same type of quilting. After completing the first block, I do believe it will look okay and not take away from the applique and fabrics used.

Does anyone have any suggestions for stops and starts so they don't show very much on the back of the quilt?. This quilt will always be on the wall, but I can see all of the starts and stops and want to know what to do on future quilts.

Stop by Handmade by Heide to see what other quilters were doing for the Friday Night Sew-in.

Happy snipping, stitching, and quilting.