Tag Archives: round robin

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On March 1, we each passed our starting unit to the next quilter in the group. There are ten of us participating so we will add on to each of 9 other projects, while others add on to our projects, and our completed quilt tops will return to us December 1.

First, an update on my project. In round one Christine and I swapped projects. I provided a lot of fabric with my project in the same colors and Kona White that you saw in my starting unit. I asked that the design be kept to a medallion, but the starting unit could be off center, and folks could add to as many sides as they'd like. Also, to stick closely to my color palette.

I enjoy the radiating lines and the symmetry. Thank you, Christine!

And I had Christine's project to work on. There was a lot of detail in her starting piece. I keyed into there being a lot of small pieces, fussy cuts, and fabric with metallic print.

Christine included her scraps and said we could add fabrics that fit in her palette. This is the assortment of her scraps.

These are the fabrics I pulled to potentially add in. The only fabric in my stash with metallic print was the car print, and I thought it would work beautifully with her fabric. That was the first piece I cut.

I worked improvisationally from there, thinking roughly about a landscape for this first portion I created.

One of the things she asked of us was to put a solid 1/2" finished strip between the existing section and our addition. I chose mustard yellow solid for my divider, with my added portion on the right side. My section is about 8 inches wide.

This close up shows some of my tiny piecing details with my fussy cut ladybugs and bees.

In April, I received Amy G's project.

Amy's starting unit is the left portion up to and including the vertical, wide, navy strip.

I took inspiration from the shapes in the piecing I received to start building components without a firm plan. I really loved the improv curves that had been added in the previous round so I did more of those.

I enjoyed playing in this palette and mixing in some of my fabrics with Amy's.

While I had Amy G's project, Adrienne had mine. I love that she chose to echo my improv curves. The happy color palette is bringing me joy. I hope folks are enjoying working with the palette. Thank you, Adrienne!

In May, I received Amy W's project. She provided all the fabric for us to use, much of it sparkly, which was a fun change from my usual quilting cotton.

The project came to me in a non-rectangular shape, so I set out to add to the top edge and bring it back to rectangular.

Roughly speaking I knew I needed taller components on the left side and shorter components on the right side. I started with flying geese since it used triangles that were throughout the piece, but did something a little different. I used some scraps to make strip sets to be part of the background of a couple geese blocks and added curves since there was some curved piecing in the most recent addition.

I made myself a template that would match the curved/bended edge along the top and bring the piece into a rectangle. I built my components slightly oversized so that I could trim them down to this shape.

Before attaching to the starting piece, I trimmed only the bottom edge of my section. As I tell my students, when improv piecing I leave the edges messy instead of trimming along the way. The only edges I worry about trimming are the ones I'm sewing next. Leaving the rest to trim after gives me the most versatility.

If I remember correctly, my tall side on the left is about 6 inches tall and the shorter end on the right is about 4 inches tall. Once I pieced my section up I trimmed the rest of my part to make an overall rectangle.

In these closeups you can see the sparkle in the fabric. Amy told us that we could add black and white prints since she had used black and white strips in her starting unit. I chose a black and white print that reads as a stripe.

While I was working on Amy's quilt, Susie had my project. She said that she loves orange. She added the portion on the left edge in her photo. Thank you, Susie!

I'm so glad that I opted in to participate in this round robin. I am enjoying the challenge each month. This month I'll be working in oranges and greys.

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I have fond memories of participating in a guild round robin with SCVQA back in 2019, so it was an easy decision to opt in for this year's round robin with Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild. There are 10 of us participating, rotating the project each month. I created my starting unit in February and passed it off to the next quilter this past weekend.

Since I'd used my favorite palette of lime, teal, and navy in my previous round robin I wanted something different, and I landed on vibrant, joyful colors. Due in part to a print that I'll use on the back (and I am not showing while the quilt is in process) I selected a variety of pinks, oranges, and yellows. The majority of my print fabric stash are blenders, fabrics that read as a single color, like you see here. I tried to have a ranch of values and hues within each set of fabric.

My initial plan was to piece strips of my fabrics. I drew this small sketch. Here I have four half square triangle units in the center, bordered by a small strip of white, then surrounded by my colorful strip sets. I liked the idea of smooth organic curves and thought I might trim the outer edges and add another round of solid white.

I didn't have a specific size in mind as I started piecing. True to form I chain pieced so I could be building multiple units at once. I found this process very meditative.

In the interest of time I reworked my plan a bit, deciding to sub in a single square of fabric in the center. I thought maybe I'd stop here. I really liked the piecing to this point.

But I couldn't stop thinking about my original intention for some improv curves. Though after spending the time to do all the piecing, I didn't really want to chop some of it off. These strip sets were only 3 inches wide, so it didn't leave much room for cutting improv curves on the outer edge. I reimagined my plan for curves and created them by adding strips of oranges and yellows to frame the center section and improv cut curved edges (using this method) to add my Kona White. My finished starting unit finished at 13" x 13".

I wish I'd taken a photo of my kit. I packed my fabrics up in an orange plastic box, with an orange notebook for notes during its journey. Stay tuned for pics of the project I'm working on for the round robin this month.

Notes to other participants in the round robin (summary of what's in the notebook):

I indicated that I'd like my quilt to have the vibe of a medallion quilt, with my starting unit as the center. That said, I don't need there to be symmetry throughout the quilt and folks can choose if they add to one or more sides (no need to each make a full trip around the medallion). I wouldn't mind if my starting unit ended up off-center. I'd like a lap size quilt that could be square or rectangular in its final shape. Regarding fabric, I supplied a bunch, including Kona White, and gave instructions to let me know if they needed more fabric and to feel free to add fabrics of their own in the same palette I've chosen, including solids if they wish. I also gave them permission to share photos of the progress, so we'll be able to follow along with how my quilt is going over the year.

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Last month I returned the final quilt in my round robin with SCVQA guildmates back to its owner, but I forgot to share it on the blog. This is Suzanne’s garden quilt starting block. She included tons of fabric for us to use and the final round of the project was to add snowballs or log cabins. All I can tell you is that I chose snowballs. ;-)

The quilts are all back with their owners, but I haven't seen the finished tops/quilts yet. I look forward to sharing them with you when I do. You can see the starting blocks from each quilt in these four posts:

I'm participating in the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge with Cheryl of muppin.com.