Monday, January 13, 2014

Marci's round robin quilt

It's hard to believe it, but my guild round robin group has only one round left.  I'm a little sad because I have really enjoyed these challenges - but on the other hand I couldn't be more excited about the quilt top they have been creating for me.  I believe that I will have that back sometime around April, and I can't wait to show it off here. 

Marci's round robin quilt is one of my favorite in our little group - with some stringy lines running around, bursting stars and an asymmetrical layout.  I was really digging the 50's style diner kind of groove that it has going on.  So, I was pretty eager to get my hands on it!  It came to me like this:



I love how all of the initial rounds blend together so that it's difficult to determine where they start and stop.  In case you are wondering about it, I believe this is how the previous rounds were added:
I definitely wanted to extend the seamless look into my round, so I drew out what was already present and then planned my round to continue the lines and themes that were already there.  I also wanted to refer back to the center block, so I incorporated more larger blocks along with more strings and tiny blocks.  I had initially planned on adding equally to all sides, but Marci saw it partway through and was excited about it becoming rectangular, so I added a little extra on the top and bottom.
In the end, it really got huge.  There is another round to go on this quilt, plus Marci wants to add some borders, so the amount of fabric that this took turned out to be quite an issue.  I didn't recognize the problem until I was deep into construction.  I actually eliminated some of the design that I had been planning to do, and it still took nearly all of the fabric that was provided.  Thankfully, Marci was able to find most of the fabrics on a local shop-hop, so it turned out ok in the end.  Still, a lesson learned for sure - make sure you have enough fabric before you jump in! 

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Color group quilt

Happy new year!  Since I just did a UFO update, I'll refrain from a looking-back-over-2013 post but I do feel like I got a lot done in the end.  I think I might have "finishing moods" where I start finishing up projects like wild.  It catches hold of me and then I come out the other side exhausted and holding a stack of finished quilts.

I think the stress of closing on our house brought on one of those "finishing moods," and the result is that I have a backlog of quilts to show off.  Like this one that I whipped up from teeny tiny blocks that my BAMQG small group made (we interpreted the term small group very literally...): 



I sashed all the blocks unevenly in teal and grey, then sewed it into a top and free motion quilted it.  The last (and only!) time I free motion quilted a project was back in 2010... and at one point I literally threw that quilt across the room.  So, I am happy to say that it went much better this time.  This little guy (36" square) has already been passed off to the guild to be donated to the NICU.