Scrap quilting

Sixteen blocks are done on the scrappy bow tie quilt. I just finished cutting a bunch of purple scraps for more bow ties. 

Purple is the scrappy color for February. I don't have much purple left after making a whole quilt top with my purple scraps last year. I've cut up what was left.

The UFO of the month is #1 (below). It's Elizabeth Hartman's Dogs in Sweaters quilt.

I'm making progress on it. The dog quilt is pinned and I've started quilting it. Today, after I scrub a couple of bathrooms, I'll be sitting down to finish this up. I'm setting a deadline for myself...by the end of the week I want this quilt completely finished. 

My daughter picked out the backing for it...a very neutral and masculine tan flannel. 

Do you prewash your flannel backing? At one time I prewashed EVERYTHING. Then I would read that it was no longer necessary so I stopped. But flannel is different. One backing piece I bought shrunk 3" per yard. On a normal 4 or 5 yard length that's a 12-15" loss! Well on this piece I planned accordingly and bought an extra 1/2 yard. What I didn't plan on was it shrinking in width. It went from 44/45" wide to 39/40"wide... That's 5" less width and with a seam stitched down the middle, I lost 10"! On this quilt that wasn't a problem but on some I do, that wouldn't have worked. I thought I was being very careful in purchasing the fabric...buying extra...watching out for flannels that would bleed...buying a better quality one (not that cheap one that goes on sale for $3 a yd at big fabric place). Just thought I'd give all of you a heads up... Buy EXTRA flannel for backings.

So then the binding...it might be a plaid...maybe one of the red ones. As usual, I think I'll wait until the top is quilted to make that decision.

Linking up with patchworktimes, ohscrap and Angelas rsc18.