Tag Archives: round robin quilt

Round Robin Finish

Today’s finish leaves me slightly astounded. If you have been reading my posts for any length of time, you know I am not one for finishing a QAL in a timely fashion. This is clearly evidenced by the quilt top I made for the Mosaic Mystery QAL back in 2019 which still awaits completion. The quilt top is so pretty too! The poor thing deserves to be finished. Well, this year I have been trying to change all of this. I decided to start finishing up the projects that have languished. Additionally, I have been working really diligently to use up the fabric on hand (of which there is a large supply).

My fabric stack for the Morewood Mystery Quilt

Further illustrating my point is the stack of fabric I had selected for the next QAL I was going to join. This photo was taken in August 2020. I went so far as to cut most of the pieces and stitch up a large number of half square triangles before I realized I just wasn’t into it. Not sure what happened but I didn’t like where it was headed. Then the pieces sat in a project bag until SAHRR 2023 began. Not knowing exactly how this round robin would work out, I promised myself to use as many of these cut up pieces as possible. It worked out well and I was able to utilize every HST I had made! Of the pieces I had cut for the Morewood Mystery, remaining are a large stack of six inch squares cut in the orange and green batik and an even larger stack of 2″ x 6″ rectangles of the polka dot fabric. These three together should work in some design for another quilt so they are bundled together for future use. Overall, I am super pleased with how many bits were used for the round robin.

Here is a shot of the entire quilt. It is quite joyful to me. This quilt is so colorful and a maybe a bit on the crazy side with the variety of pieces and types of blocks included in it.

There are loads of different quilting motifs used on the quilt. My only plan was to treat each border or section uniquely. I haven’t done lots of free motion quilting lately. In an effort to finish some projects, I have relied on quicker straight line quilting.

To ensure a reasonable level of success, I have been practicing a bit. Also, I have been doodling on a large whiteboard I keep in the sewing room for this. (Do you have one? It is a great way to practice the designs before actually sewing. Doodle, erase and doodle some more!) Above you can see some daisies, stippling and my interpretation of ribbon or ribbon candy on the right.

My favorite motif I used is a flower which I quilted on the center of each square in a square block. Those were super fun and once I got going they were not difficult at all. I did a fair amount of stitching in the ditch as well. Not every bit of the quilt has been quilted down which leaves it nice and soft.

For the backing I used a width of this red print leftover from my shop. I have quite a bit of this – maybe another five yards. It is likely you’ll see this on the back of a few more quilts. Because the quilt ended up being 48″ wide, I had to add a narrow stripe of white to each side. I also have about three more yards of the polka dot fabric (leftover from the shop) and used some of it to bind the quilt.

I did not have a quilt holder available because Ray has been down with a virus all week. Instead, I used the front porch here.

This shot is in a wooded area in our front yard. I like taking outdoor shots when it is a bit overcast. The colors are so accurate here.

This round robin was so much fun and way out of my norm. The fact that I didn’t know what was coming next and no sizes were dictated to me was a stretch. Working this way taught me a lot. While I don’t want to pick apart my finished quilt and decide what I don’t like about it, there are a few takeaways that I hope to remember next time. Learning from each project is a good thing though. Isn’t that how we continue to make progress?

Thank you Gail for dreaming up this event back during the days of lockdown and loneliness. I am super happy I joined in this year and am already crossing my fingers you will host it again next year! (Please???)

Linking up with the final link party (tomorrow) over at Quilting Gail’s as well as Oh Scrap!. I hope you will check out the other SAHRR finishes. It is incredible to see the variety of interpretations of this event. Really amazing.

There is still plenty of time to purchase your ticket to the Color Mixer event coming up on March 30th! If you want to read more about this virtual class, the details are here.

SAHRR Round 6

Woohoo – The final round of the Stay at Home Round Robin is finished and I have a quilt top! This was a super fun event for me and I am so happy Gail thought of this during early Covid days and continued it with a growing popularity.

Gail chose the block for the last round and it is pinwheels. Without any sort of plan, I separated any remaining HST’s from that stack of old prepared bits I have been trying to use up. Then I made pinwheels with them.

After this set of pinwheels I also made some with red/polka dot HST’s. Each set of pinwheel blocks finished at different sizes. I decided the green and blue pinwheels were too small, the blue and polka dot were too big but, of course, the red and polka dot were……………… Just Right! Next I set aside the tiny green/blue version – they will be used elsewhere because they are super cute. The blue pinwheels were trimmed down to 4 1/2″ to match the red version. While I do have quite a bit of the batiks remaining from that previous project, I used each and every HST I had already made. That is a big win for me!

To add length, but not width, I made a top and bottom border with the pinwheels.

The finished top! Next up for this project is to give it a solid pressing and baste it. I prepared the backing already. The width is 46″ so I had to add two narrow strips to my backing to have a wide enough piece.

This was a very fun project – one I learned a lot from. I will be back before the March 13th deadline with a finished quilt!!

For now, linking up with Oh Scrap and Quilting Gail.

Just in case you didn’t know, March 1st was National Pig Day (don’t worry, I didn’t know either). But you can bet Julia knew. 🙂

SAHRR Round 3

I was happy to see that Wendy (Pieceful Thoughts) chose stars (of any sort) for round three. Her example was the friendship star and I decided to go with that block. Friendship stars are sweet and very simple to make.

Isn’t this adorable?

Remember I am using blocks from a tossed aside project. Have to say, I am enjoying having these forgotten HST’s to work with. It is so much easier to cut tiny HST’s from oversized blocks. The bits for this block were cut at 1 1/4″ so they finish at 3/4″. For me, that is very tiny! The finished friendship star measures 2 1/4″.

Before adding the round of stars, I first stitched a border of turquoise to the quilt. I am trying to grow this quilt and will (probably?) keep putting borders on between the pieced borders. With this round of stars the quilt measures 30″ square. There are four more rounds to go.

I wanted the stars to be set into a darker blue. I also decided not to put very many on with this round. The quilt needed to be calmed down a bit. The navy blue border with just a few stars was the ticket. So this round is actually done with a couple of days to spare! Now to wait until Monday to see what comes next.

This popped up on Instagram a few days ago and it sure made me laugh. Likely more than a few of you can relate, right?

Linking up with Pieceful Thoughts today. Hop over there and see lots of interpretations of the SAHRR quilts. Enjoy your weekend everyone.