My guild -- The High Point Quilt Guild -- has a program called Round Robin. It's a neat, little organization that we do several times a year. Each person that wants to makes a center block between 12-inches and 24-inches square or rectangle. The square is handed off to each person in the group, who puts a border around it. The borders graduate in size. The first border has to be between two and four inches, the next border is between three and six inches...so you get the picture. By the time you get the block back, you have a quilt top. It's really fun because you don't have a pattern or anything to follow. You look at the block, think about it, and come up with your own design. I use the Electric Quilt 7 program a lot with this, but it stretches my creativity and design ability. This is the block I received first on this trade-off of the Round Robin:
It's beautiful, isn't it? Wonderful machine applique...my challenge with this square was to come up with a pretty border that enhances the applique and also lightens it up. These are dark batiks. And I didn't want to have anything that overwhelmed the beautiful applique work. So it stretched my creativity. This is what I came up with:
I hope Joy likes it.
I would like to encourage you to find a group that does something like this, either with borders or rows. If you don't belong to any kind of quilt group where you live, there are lots and lots of groups on the internet that do Round Robins. It will challenge your skills as a quilter for sure, but it will make you better. And if you use any version of the Electric Quilt, you will also get better programming that software. It's a win-win for you.
Just a couple of things to remember if you decide this is something you want to do:
1. Honor deadlines.
2. Stay in communication with your fellow members in the Round Robin. Life happens and if you can't meet a deadline for whatever reason, let them know.
3. Abide by the rules.
It's so much fun! Try it!
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