Round Robin Row Quilts

If you quilt, you may know how frustrating it can be to do a group quilt project.  I endeavor to not get involved in group quilt projects, just so my hair does not get grayer sooner than necessary.  In January, I failed at my endeavor to avoid this circumstance.  I am trying to be a team player and mentor, so I gave myself a talk and got on board.  We were supposed to be in teams of five or six, but we had nine people sign up, so we have one nice group of nine.  Our fearless leader made a fine chart of how these boxes of fabric, pieced rows, and instructions get passed to one another.  So far so good.  I was excited about this.  Then I got A's box and was confused about what her instructions were saying about the rows "had to be in rainbow order."  I visited A and got the straight poop on what that meant.  Each quilter only uses two of the solid colors provided and they have to be in rainbow order.  I went back to my house drew a chart showing the order of the rows and wrote each person's name next to the row they were to be doing, since we were on a determined schedule.  I also pinned each person's name on the two fabrics they "get" to use.

It was magical.  I later told A that once her quilt was finished by everyone, they were going to think she was one anal bitch.  So now things are going alright, and I am bearing up fairly well with what is coming around.  At our meeting at the end of March, it was announced that one participant has become incapacitated, so we would be changing how the boxes get passed.  Okay.  Two weeks later, one of the group is at my house and we are working on best practices for squaring up other peoples' rows, since they "may be" left ragged and in someone else's hands. Suddenly, it occurs to me that now the names of people I have placed on fabrics and a chart in A's box, are no longer in the right order!  What is a trying-to-avoid caos quilter to do?  So, I rounded up J's phone number and give her a call.  I know she has A's box.  She answers and says, "I was wondering when you were going to call me, since I already have my row sewed."  Was I too late????  NO.  J has it all going on!  I need to let her husband know that.  She recognized the situation and moved M2's tag on the fabric bundles to the last one, and then moved everybody else's up.  All was right with the world.  I am so excited, because I really want to post photos of these things.  However, we are not to let the owner of the original row know what they look like until the big reveal at the end.  I have been photographing them as I get them, so I will be able to post how they started out, then how they look after all the rows are added.  It just so happens, in case you have not figured it out, I am the anal bitch.  I did it for A, so her quilt comes out right.

Since no one reads my blog anyway, what am I worried about?  In case you were wondering, about "rainbow order," this is it.  A made the first row (top), as it is her quilt. M made the second, and I made the third row down.  So far it looks fabulous.  I surprised myself and was happy with how my using only two fabrics came out.  I think A is going to love it!