Round Robin

I belong to a wonderful guild -- The High Point Quilt Guild.  It's a fairly new guild and is so full of energy and creativity.  Linda Hudgins is Chairwoman of the Round Robin in our guild.  The members that want to make a square between 16 and 24 inches and then it's passed around the group and each member puts a border on it.  If there are a lot of people who want to do the Round Robin, Linda breaks us into groups of four or five.  The first borders are narrower -- between two and three inches and then it goes to five and six inches.  When you get your square back, you have an over-sized lap quilt or larger.

I love doing Round Robins.  There are no "patterns" for it.  You have to look at the square; look at what's been done by previous members of your group and interpret what you need to do next.  Sometimes it's an easy choice, other times it really, really stretches your creativity.

That's what happened to me this month.  Normally within a day or two after getting the block, I have decided what to do next.  But this time...this time the pressure was on.  This is what I received at our January meeting....

A couple of intimidating factors here.  First, the lady who belongs to this quilt is the First Vice President of our Guild.  The pressure for me is that I'm the President.  She's going to be the next President.  I want her to be somewhat impressed with my quilting!  Plus, she's just a dear lady and I want to do her quilt justice.

Second, is that it's all pieced.  No applique at all.  So my piecing is going to have to shine, shine, shine because there's no pretty applique to hide behind.

But the biggest intimidating factor for me was the fabric.  It's Civil War reproduction fabric.  And while I like that fabric, it's not the part of the fabric store I gravitate to.  I like the pretty bright colors and batiks.  To me the Revolutionary War and Civil War reproduction fabrics are just a little too much on the dark side (no Star Wars pun intended).

And while Angie had included a lot of fabric in her box for us to work with, I was the last one to get the box.  This meant the fabric had been used -- a lot.  I didn't have any fabric, except some light blue, to make a complete solid border around the quilt.  I've always thought of borders like frames and the last one needs to be darker than the rest.

What to do, what to do?

I decided to keep with the cornerstone idea.  And the cornerstones I decided to use was Jacob's Trouble (also known as Jacob's Ladder).  The quilt already had lots of half-square triangles and four-patch squares and that square would tie both of them together.  There was enough of a burgundy and blue print to do part of the borders, but they could only be five-inches wide.  So I added a strip of burgundy to the outer edge of the border and threw in another half-square four-patch to keep tying everything together.

This. Took Me. Forever.

But I'm pleased with the results:

I hope Angie is too.

If you have the opportunity, try a Round Robin at least once.  It will really stretch your creativity and they're so much fun!

Love and Stitches....

Sherri