Round Robin.......of sorts

How long has it been since we have been able to get together as a guild?  It seems like forever.  

Almost a year ago while attending my guild meeting we decided to do a round robin, and I say "of sorts" because we would be the only ones working on our own quilt.  Little did we know that this was the perfect solution since we haven't been together since last March!  

In my stash was this fabric yardage of slightly off white with tiny medium blue blocks.  I fell in love with this fabric and knew I would find a reason to use it someday.  The round robin seemed like the perfect solution.  

This is a close up of the background fabric showing a little better than the rest of my pictures.  

Our centers could be anything we wanted.    I had this free pattern in my stash of patterns  that I had been wanting  to do and this seemed like the perfect time to try it out.  

Works out great since I don't think I want to make a whole quilt out of this block.  There are a lot of pieces to it and it was pretty time consuming.  

Our next round was to be 9-patches

Then we were onto triangles.  So I decided to do half square triangles and laid them out in a chevron border. I had to add an extra background sashing to get to the  size that would allow me to get those boxy corners on this border.  It just so happened that I had a magazine lying on my sewing table that had this border dog eared

After that, we were told snowball blocks.  Well, I was thinking I didn't want this quilt to get too big (I tend to make most of my quilts BIG), so I made my snowballs and then cut them in half.  I figured I could get away with this since we were told for the 9-patches, we could do a disappearing 9-patch if we so desired.  .  

Works for me!

Next the the last border was curves.  Oh...what to do?  I didn't want to make Drunkards Path blocks and I thought of Gwen Marston's modern curvy insets in a plain border, but I was thinking it was too modern for this quilt, so I did some applique circle blocks.  As it was, my friends have been working on some circle blocks to make a full quilt out of them and I was getting sucked into that rabbit hole, but didn't know if I wanted to get involved in a long term project (I have too many of those), so I got my satisfaction of making just enough to make my next border.  

Then what do  you know!  The last border is applique.  At this time, I am way over the due date on finishing this quilt.  Doesn't matter though since we haven't met for almost a year now, but I was so ready to get this one finished and still wanted to like this quilt.  So, I decided to make some more circle blocks, only a different size (wasn't interested in doing vines the lots of applique flowers and leaves).  I am finding I really like doing reverse applique (which is what these two rows are.  So my final row is done and the top is complete.

Now I am awaiting the fabric I have chosen for the backing on this quilt.   I bought it on sale from Hancock's of Paducah. Sure hope there isn't a problem as I haven't heard if it has been cut or mailed yet, but it is a variety of blues in a hand painted stripe.  I think it should go well.  

This gives me time to think of how I would like to quilt it, too.  Do I just want to do a panto or will I do some custom work on this one?  Time will tell.  Also, depends on how busy I am  at the time.  

For now, I am on to the next project (s).  There's a sweater that needs sleeves, a charity quilt that needs putting together and a commissioned quilt that needs quilting.  The list of things to do is always never ending.  

Guild's charity challenge.

At our January 2019 meeting, we were given a packet of six fat quarters (all donations from a member that had passed away and her stash was given to the guild to use as they saw fit).

With these six fat quarters, we were to make a quilt for ourselves or for charity. 

I didn't use the focus fabrics as I could not see a good correlation with these bright fabrics, but that wasn't required. (one of them was a dull blue and the other one had too wide of stripes to work well with the size blocks I was cutting).

The quilt top/or finished quilt was to be completed by the June meeting were we would receive points pertaining to certain achievements.  The list below shows the point system that was going to be followed when we turned our quilts in at the June meeting.  The one with the most points will win a prize.      

 At that meeting, the quilts/quilt tops will be brought to the guild for judging by the members and  voted on.   

I immediately took my six fats and ran to the quilt shop and bought six fats of white/black prints to coordinate with the brights. Added a couple fabrics from my stash to replace the two that I didn't use, too.   I looked on YouTube for a good pattern idea on what to do with fat quarters and this is the pattern that I found.  

Here is the center of my quilt so far.

It is February now and I did another run to the quilt shop to buy a solid for an inner border and another piece of white/black fabric for an outer border.

Here's my finished top.

Here's a couple close ups of the two borders just added.

There is a solid white backing that I pieced this afternoon along with a black binding already for the day when I get to stitch it on.

Now to see when I get around to getting this thing quilted.  My hope is that  I will have it done early so that I am not pushing at the last minute to get it done (I know me though).

It's early April and I finally got this on the long arm.  I was having some tension issues with my machine and didn't want to do a customer quilt until I had this fixed. So.....I monkeyed around with the tension until I finally had it just right.  

It's coming out great.  

I am using the panto called "Azalea".  It is a bit labor  intensive, but with all the curves, it gives good stitch coverage for the quilt top.  Also, the back is coming out so well that it looks good enough to be considered a whole cloth.

This is the picture I shared on Instagram only because I loved the texture it produced AND it didn't disclose the quilt ahead of time.

Next comes the binding.

Here we are in mid April and the binding is done along with a guild label as I will be donating this one as a charity quilt.  

Now I can relax until June....at least for this project.  So glad I am ahead of the game for a change.  

June 4....tap, tap, tap.

Getting anxious to show my quilt at next weeks guild meeting.

June 13...….

Show and vote day!

The winner for our challenge was my friend Nancy with her "Girlfriends" quilt.....well deserved.

It was so adorable.

If you are up to seeing all the rest of the challenge quilts, they are as follows.....

This posies quilt is Sharon's (my friend).  Love it.  

I hope I didn't miss any, but I was impressed with the number of people that participated and did a beautiful job in make some fantastic quilts.  

Now back to posting at regular intervals. It was hard hanging on to the post for six months!  I usually can't keep a secret that long!

Where is the time going?

Summer is coming to an end soon.  Kids are getting ready for school.  I feel like time is flying by me and I am getting nothing done.

 

I did finish the QOV quilt top and of course it is a challenge quilt again, but I just can't wait 10 months to share it with you so here is a bigger peek at it. 

 

 

I literally  used up all my Americana scraps and even had to buy a few more pieces to get it done. 

 

I will be attending the Grand Rapids AQS show later this week and will be looking for something to back this quilt and just maybe I can have this one 100% done WAY BEFORE it is due. I even cut out the binding tonight. 

 

I, also, got some mail this week. 

 

I used a gift certificate that I got from Nancy at Christmas time  for the Fat Quarter Shop and ordered this.

 

 

There's nothing like getting a Christmas present in August!!!

 

Aren't these yummy?

 

 

I don't think I will be running out of piecing thread for awhile. 

 

Well, I need to start thinking of what I am going to pack for Grand Rapids. 

 

I should have some pictures to show you when I get back. 

 

Have a great week!

 

 

 

 

 

Dual challenge quilt reveal......

 

This week is the retreat that I go to every year and at the last minute I had to cancel.  So, I am stuck at home doing doctor's visits instead, but still wanted to not reveal the quilt until the day that everyone there in St. Louis at the Mercy Center does their reveal. 

 

 

This is my dual challenge (doing a Trips around the World quilt AND using a Hawaiian theme for the other challenge).  I had the top done in April and my mini group and I hung our tops out on the line on a windy day to get some pictures. 

 

I have since quilted it.

 

 

I did it on Millie using a panto called Banana Leaf (appropriate, huh?). 

 

 

 

 

This is the backing to show off the stitching.

 

....and here it is just coming off the long arm. 

 

 

It's a big one. 

 

I still haven't gotten to the binding.  I will use some of the pink batik to do that, but now that I am stuck at home, I have plenty of time to do that.  I had other projects that had a time limit on them, one of which was Rita's quilt which I was going to deliver to her at retreat, but it had to be sent via mail.  We are hoping it gets to her (she lives near St. Louis) so that she can bring it to show-n-tell, too. 

 

My friend Sandy is going to show the pictures to the group for my show and tell, so it will kind of be like I am there. 

 

Oh well, sad, but necessary.