Round Robin

I started this quilt in 2008 with a group of women on-line. The idea is that you start a center block that you make yourself, which I did.



Once complete, you send your block to another person in the group and they add a border, then they send it to another person, who adds another border, etc. until it comes back to you a finished top. This top went around for months and finally came back to me in 2009. It's pretty much just sat in my sewing room for a year.



I was feeling pretty glum about it and in general bemoaning the large stack of UFO's that needed to be completed when I was approached by another on-line friend to start a UFO Club that would run for three months at a shot. The idea was that if you finished a UFO people would send you fat quarters. I'm a sucker for fabric, squee mail and the occasional kudos, so of course I was in. Heh. Well, this is the end of the that first session and lo and behold, it worked! I actually finished a top! Woo! Apparently I work better if I have deadlines and something at stake.

Of course nothing comes easy. I had more trouble with this quilt and my machine not getting along. First off I deviated from Warm and Natural Cotton Batting. I used a high loft poly instead because I thought it would be nice and light for my kiddo (for whom the quilt was being made). Uh yeah, FAIL. I had been using one brand of needle and when I ran out and I switched it to another brand and it started skipping stitches every time I went over a seam. There are a lot of seams in the quilt. Consequently there was a lot of cursing going on as well. Yes, I was making sailors blush. I finally googled to see if there was anything I could do to fix the problem (besides drive the two hours to the store where I'd originally bought the other brand of "working" needle) and a top stitching needle was recommended. I gave it a try and it did improve the situation but most certainly didn't make it go away. It was enough however to get the job done.

Also? Because I love to torture myself, in the areas with the sunburst blocks (not sure what their official name is, though I'm pretty sure that's not it) I'd quilted a pattern on all four blocks and decided once I was nearly done with all the other quilting that I hated it so much and it would drive me nuts every time I looked at it unless I fixed it, I ripped it all out. (How's that for a run-on sentence?! lol) Yeah, I re-quilted that whole part of the quilt putting in pebbles in the back ground. I'm so happy with it now! It's much better. Live and learn.

The other thing I'm kinda of surprised at is how busy it turned out once the quilting was complete. I still like it though and the most important thing? My kiddo is all snuggled up with it tonight and was completely *delighted* with it. So, win-win. =)





This is Snookie rolling around on it after I told her it was *finally* all done.

It's not that I haven't been quilting...

...it's just I've been having a lot of company! Which means not much time right now for sewing, even though I've been dreaming of fabric. I got a wee bit done on a round robin...


..but then the machine tanked. I'm pretty sure birds have moved in with all the nests I've been getting on the back. I haven't even had a chance to look at it closely though I will have to tinker with it to get it to better behave. This will happen starting in September when things settle down and go back to a bit more of a "normal" schedule. Looking forward to school starting and getting some "me" time back even though I've loved getting to spend so much time with the kiddlet this summer.

One of the awesome things we did was hit up Pomeroy Living History Farms on the weekend they displayed over 100 vintage quilts. I loved this one, even though there were many more that were equally as awesome. I've still got to put together a slide show - I think I took a picture of nearly all of them. They were wonderful to behold.



An idea of how many there were and how they were displayed...

Round Robin

Well you'd think I'd slipped right off the face of the planet with how infrequently I've been posting here. I'm not dead, I swear! (Go check out my gardening blog and you'll see what's been keeping me so busy).

I finally made some time to work on one of the tops sent to me for a round robin swap. This was the top as I received it.


This is after I'd added my borders. It's got one more round to go before it makes it back to its owner. It was a fun one to work on. I just feel bad I'd had the thing for so long. I feel like I should've done more with it.


I have one more top to work on and then I'll be complete with this swap. It's good because I think I'm really ready to start working on my own projects again. I miss Dear Jane.

Round Robin - Border 2

I received Jenny's center block with Cindy's first border on it:


I understood that it would be okay to embellish the center block with embroidery. I don't really know how to embroider and thought better of practicing on someone's quilt! But my applique is getting better so I picked up a little bit of the applique work I did on the outer blocks with the addition of some applique on the center square to help tie it together. If Jenny doesn't want it on her center she can rip the stitches. I didn't cut out the backs like I did on my border so she can easily remove them if she likes, leaving her center intact. If she does like them she can cut out the backs and remove the freezer paper before she quilts it.

I also just went with the pallet that Cindy had chosen for consistency sake. I think overall it came out quite nice. I should be able to get this in the mail tomorrow.

Round Robin - Border 1

I finished this round up a little early. I figure I have the time now and it's just going to get more crazy with the end of the year holidays coming up plus I have some other obligations to work on . Technically I didn't have to get this out till Nov. 1st. but I'm glad it's done so I can work on those other projects.

This is the center block that "Cinlynn" sent me.


These are the borders I added. It was difficult as her sewing wasn't very precise. I had to skew my allowances and even then it all came out warped. I added the big border around the outside just so that I could cut it down to a perfect 21 1/2" square. At least it should be easier sailing for the next person in my group.

Center Block for the Round Robin Quilt

YES! My kid slept long enough this afternoon to get the whole block done in one sitting! It was so freeing! I mean I really like the Dear Jane blocks but I didn't realize how much I needed to look at some bright colors and make some sloppy seams! lol... I've ALWAYS wanted to do a string quilt. Ever since I laid eyes on one for the first time. That was years ago - this is my first attempt at it and OMG - I LOVED IT like I always knew I would. I think I smiled the whole time I was making this.



Notes to the next round of folks to work on this:
*14 1/2" unfinished (so 14" finished when the next border is sewn on)
*Scrappy! Summery! Fun! Please try to stick with the color pallet - hot pink, white on white, aqua, green, (a pinch of red), let the fabrics in the block be your guide.
*I like diamond shapes and circles and stripes... (just thought I'd throw that out there).
*I designed this block to work either on point OR not... so surprise me!
*Key fabric... since I was hoping for something kinda scrappy I'm not sure I'm going to send out a key fabric unless someone in our group really feels like they need it. Please let me know and I'll send it along then. Cheers~