Round Robin #6: Letters & Numbers

Welcome to the last prompt of this year's Stay at Home Round Robin!  This time it is Kathleen of Kathleen McMusing who tells us what to add, and she picked letters and numbers.  Before I go into my thought process and what I did, let's take a look at where I left off after last week's round.

When we first chose our rounds and prompts, this one stumped me.  I think I mentioned previously that my original plan for this year was to make a sampler quilt.  I knew I could incorporate every other prompt into a sampler block, but the letters and numbers threw me.  After a day or two of ruminating, I thought of X & O block.  Those are letters of the alphabet!  I got out my graph paper notebook and sketched an X block that I liked. (I never did design or sew an O block.)

Then when I switched to this half-medallion with a large sampler border, I kept the X blocks.  And by putting them in the corners, I got this cool chain effect going through the whole quilt on the diagonal!  I also really like this block, and may use it again in something.

I thought I got a picture of the whole top before I layered it for quilting, but I did not.  The weather was acting up at one point and I must have forgotten I never actually took the photos.  So here is the completed top layered on the batting and backing, but before quilting. It looks like I added an outer border, but I did not. That's the extra batting from the layering.

Are you sewing along?  Link up this week with Kathleen.  And you now have 3 weeks to complete your round robin quilts, then come back on March 18th and link up with Gail one final time.  Quilt tops and finished quilts are both accepted for that final round, so don't worry if you can't get it quilted and bound by then.  After everyone shows off their beauties, we'll do the prize drawings.  Remember, you get an entry for every week you've linked up.  If you want some inspiration for how to use letters and numbers, be sure to visit all the hosts!

• January 15th: SAHRR starts!  Link your Center Block with Gail of @ Quilting Gail
• January 22nd: 1^st Round: Signature Blocks * Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts
• January 29th: 2^nd Round: Two Colors * Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 5th: 3^rd Round: Triangles * Emily @ The Darling Dogwood (That's me!)
  
• February 12th: 4^th Round: Square in a Square or Set On Point * Brenda @ Songbird Designs
• February 19th: : 5^th Round: Four * Gail @ Quilting Gail 
• February 26th: 6^th Round: Letters and Numbers * Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
• March 18th: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!