MY Round Robin Row Quilt

Earlier this month, I wrote about the process of the "round robin row quilt."  Just scroll down a little; it is the next post below this one.  I got my quilt top back from the other quilters, and then I had to square it up, add a little more sashing, and borders.  Then I located a quilt backing, in my stash, that was good to go.  Thank-you, Teresa.  It's been five years.  

Here is my completed quilt, hanging on another old barn in my neighborhood.  I do love it, when I ask permission to photograph a quilt on someone's barn, and they say, "Go right ahead."

These folks have taken a lot of care in keeping this barn in good shape.  It is well painted.  I, too, took a lot of care in getting this quilt top into shape, prior to being able to quilt it.  I quilted it myself.  I do like how it came out. Smile!

Round Robin Row Quilt

The project of my quilt group, for 2023, is a "Round Robin Row Quilt."  We each make one row and put it in a box with instructions, and maybe some fabrics to go with.  Then it gets passed to several other quilters, in this case, eight others.  Our rows are 36" long.  Each month it went to someone else, then we had a big reveal at our August meeting.  I photographed each quilt that I received, with whatever number of rows it had at the time.  I am going to share them. 

This is the row I put in my box.  It is just springy fabrics.  My blocks are 6" X 6" square.  It has a 50's feel.

This is the first one I got to work on.  The big flowers are Monicas.  I added the bird house row.

The second one, I got to work on, was Annita's.  Her's is the one I posted about last spring.  It is in "rainbow order", so I made the third row down, with alternating shoo fly and churn dash blocks in green and yellow.

#3 was Jan's.  I added the nine-patch row at the bottom.  I got it done the second night I had it.  So, I was feeling fairly accomplished.  I also brought home Marsha's.  She had fallen and REALLY hurt herself, so she could not do any sewing.  She dropped out of the project, but we wanted to finish her quilt top for her, so I took it and added my row in April prior to our monthly meeting.

#4 Marsha's was about neighborhoods.  I added the top row, in this photo.  I put a yellow sun and a yellow tree to help balance the yellow that was in the lower row.

#5 was Tessa's.  I did the liberated churn-dash blocks at the top.  I was bad and used that lovely floral for the background.  Her instructions said to use the white, but no one was using that lovely floral, so . . . I did.

#6 was Lizzy's.  Her's was a farm theme, so I added the chicks on the bottom row.  I embroidered their little legs on.

#7 was Donna's, called "Who Let the Dogs Out?"  I liked what everyone had done before me, and I wanted to be different, so I made little dog houses with dogs in them.  This doggy neighborhood has lots of trees.

#8 was Judy's and it had trees.  I used the same fabrics as that second row from the bottom, so I balanced it off by making the row pictured at the top.  The trees are pale and have sunflowers on them, and the background is the blue and green tree fabric.

This is what my quilt top looked like, when I got it back in August.  I realized the Donna did not get to do a row on my quilt, so I called her up.  Because the top was long and narrow, she agreed to make me four corner blocks for the borders.  We are supposed to have our quilts done, for sharing/showing off at our meeting later this month.  I only started working on mine on September 28, but I have got it finished.  I need to photograph it, then I will post it on this blog of mine.  Thanks for reading my blog.

Design Wall Madness!

In my May post, I had quite a mess on my design wall.  That is all off of there and I have moved on and on, and on again.  I even had a friend's quilt up there for a little bit, as she did some layout work.

This is the May photo, with updates.  The one on the lower right you can see the finished project on Gluten Free Doll Quilts blog .   I love my doll quilt blog.  Kirsten has a whole story about this latest doll quilt.  

This is the row I completed on Tessa's quilt, which was at the top of my design wall in May.  I have since turned it in, and then did a row for Lizzy's quilt, which I turned in last week.  Now, I have Donna's, but have not looked at it yet, as I am in the middle of another entire quilt layout on my design wall, and I am trying to focus on it for the moment.

Meanwhile, after Tessa's and Lizzy's rows, I started working on some Hashi quilts, which are Japanese.  

I bought this book at the used bookstore on State Street.  It used to be Rainbow Books.  I really like the method of creating these Hachi quilts.  It appeals to my need to do improvisational designs in my quilts.  I am teaching two of my friends how to make them.  Then, I made my first one.  I got the top done in two days and the backing finished on the third day.  

This is what it looked like on my design wall.  It is currently at my long-arm quilter's house.  These quilts are made with 8-inch finished blocks, each of which is in a relationship with a large print and a solid.  I don't care much for solids, so I use 'acts like a solid' instead, such as Grunge Basics and Canvas collections.

Then I dug through my stash and found some more large prints and had to purchase a couple more 'acts as solids' to go with them.  This is the next one, as it was on my design wall.  I actually decided against the 'unexpected visitor' in this one, and the final version is different.  I will post it when I get it completed in about a month.  I am excited about it.

This is the backing of the one just above.  It is going to look amazing.

Currently, my design wall is holding my recent creation using button down shirts.  I am using five shirts and an old sheet to make the quilt.  I cut off all the shirt-tails and am placing them along the outside edges of the quilt top.  I am using a modified Hachi block construction and layout.  I have limited fabric pair-ups, so it has to be modified.  I am trying to determine how to work a couple of those shirt sleeves in.  I will post a more complete picture, in a couple weeks.  I have been a maniac on the design wall these last couple of weeks, even though I have spent a couple full days doing genealogy and read a biography about Emily Dickinson.  If you have a sewing machine, I encourage you to cut up some old piece of clothing and sew it back together with some other pieces of clothing, to see what you come up with. 

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!