How does your garden grow?

Having now finished all my committments on other people's round robin quilts, I have had a good long look at mine, and it's great. I am very happy with everyone's choices for this quilt and I think it accomplishes the main aim of a round robin well - to have something which I like (because I got to choose the style of the starter) without being like what I'd make if I were doing it all myself - for instance, I probably wouldn't have chosen to add a cat because I tend not to think of cats (but it suits it beautifully); I'm not great at hand applique, so I wouldn't have put a gorgeous flower like that on; I certainly wouldn't have hand quilted it because again, not my strength! though it's a lovely choice for this quilt.

My starting block was the paper pieced flower in the top left, and looking back, I think it was a really good choice of fabrics, as the addition of black and white fabrics has carried on through the quilt and kept it from being too bright for my taste. Overall, it's a nice mix of colours and fabrics and I'm very pleased.

For those of you interested in my Stay-at-home Robin, I'll be posting the first month's instruction next week - we are starting in July! It won't be a big piece (something like 4x4", though I can't remember off the top of my head what I decided to start with) but of course, you can still make it quite complicated, if you like - the joy of this is, it's all up to you...

Winter Round Robin

Here's another of the little round robins - I think this is my favourite so far - of course, it's all in my kind of winter colours...

This came to me as a completed top, onto which I was to embroider words and/or add another applique. I did both -I appliqued the little silver snowflakes on dark blue backgrounds and embroidered a quote, which reads:



"his soul swooned slowly...



...as he heard the snow...



...falling faintly through the universe...



...and faintly falling..."

This is from James Joyce's Dubliners - it's the last line of the last story (The Dead) and is one of my favourite closing/opening lines in literature. The line finishes (which seemed less appropriate for this quilt) "...like the descent of their last end, upon the living and the dead." In fact, the whole last paragraph is lovely. [Here's a place online with the last few paragraphs of the story...] Indeed, the whole story - if you never read any other James Joyce (which I can understand happening), this one is still well worth it. Or watch the John Huston film.

Storm at Sea Round Robin

Here's another finished Round Robin - this is Swooze's, and she'd had a bit of a stormy year, so she chose to have her quilt portray that - with the piecing representing the storminess and the embellishing, applique, etc representing coming out the other side and things improving. I think it's a lovely quilt, one of my favourites so far (though there's at least one more I've seen I like even better - a winter one). I had this one quite near the end - all of the piecing was done and the large butterfly was appliqued on. My task was to embroider something, so I added a quote and some snowflakes and flowers.



The quote is from Albert Camus and reads "In the midst of winter, I found within me an invincible summer."

Another Round Robin

This one is Margaret's piece - she chose - obviously - a patriotic theme, and made the pieced flag as her starting block. I don't have a lot of patriotic fabrics (or any), so I made the red, white and blue flying geese.

More bloggy robins

Here's a few more of the blogger round robins - this is the applique I did on Julie's oriental quilt - and here's the finished quilt...







This paper pieced boat and lighthouse is what I did for Toni's quilt - this is a 4x5" rectangle, and it was only the second thing on the quilt - the first being the flip flops - so this was one of the ones I was most interested to see the progress on. And didn't it turn out nicely?



And this one is Amy's piece - I don't seem to have a photo of my contribution, which is the paper-pieced duck at the top and the squares next to it. The cute baby is hers, of course, and was the starting piece.



I've had lots of potential interest in the stay at home robin idea - which is great. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I'm glad there will be other people working on projects which I can watch the progress on! I've worked out instructions for two different sizes - 15x15" and 16x18" - haven't decided which one I'm going to do yet, but either way around, it shouldn't be too much work over the course of a year!

Bloggy Round Robins

During the past year and a half, I've been taking part in a round robin of quilting bloggers - just a small wallhanging size project, and each month, it arrives and you have to add a specific size piece or complete a step like "applique something". I've not been able to show them, though, as they've been being kept secret. Well, now they are beginning to filter their way home, so as the finished photos come through, I can share them (and of course, what work I did on them).

This piece above was the starting block for Debbie's quilt - the piece she made.



This is how the piece looked when it left me - I added the bottom row - a pieced pineapple type block and an unpieced piece of gridded batik fabric (not all additions needed to be pieced, as there would be applique and other embellishments added later).



And here is the finished piece. See how it got turned upside down at some point? Doesn't matter, though, it still works!




This piece, which is Jan's, I only have the photo of the finished item - can't find a photo of my step of it (computer died between then and now, so it might be lost because of that - or I might simply have forgotten to take one!). However, what I did was add what is now the top row - not sure if it was at the time or not - the three nine-patch blocks and the unpieced piece of floral fabric at top left.



And this piece, which is Nancy's (which she is going to bind herself, but hasn't yet done), came to me quite each on in the process - what I added was only the third step - and is the three shoo-fly blocks which are sort of in the middle row. When I got the piece it was only the monkey wrench block and the cool retro fabric square with the brown background. It's so interesting to see how these have changed along the way. I'll be sharing more as they come home to their owners.

The ladies involved have decided not to do another round of this round robin, which is fair enough, but I think I might carry on with it as an independent project myself once these are all finished - the steps are very small, even at the end, when you get somewhat larger ones like "quilt the top" - as the whole piece is only 13x18. I might not start until September, as I will be away for all of August - then again, I might start in July, as the August step would only be a 4x5 block. If I do, perhaps some of you would like to follow along at home as well - I think it would be a fairly painless way to make a nice wallhanging...

Canal House again

The main thing I did today, I can't show on the blog (quilted a round robin), so I thought it was time to drag out the canal house again - I have now stitched down almost all of the windows - soon it will be on to the door, then sidewalk, canal wall and water. And then, on to the next house. Not sure what I will do yet for that one, but I have a few ideas - vague ones, at least. I'm sure they will all end up very different as I am just playing each one by ear and letting them speak to me as I work. I'm also trying not to dye any new fabric for this project (I might do a little painting or printing) so what I have in my stash will limit my choices - but not a lot, as I do have quite a stash! It's possible I may run low at some point, in which case I will dye, but frankly, I think it's unlikely, even with the blue issues for sky and water - the houses, of course, can be anything I like!

Weekend Work

So, amidst all the various things on the family schedule this weekend, I did find some sewing time - on Saturday, I put together the homespun squares the rest of the way - I had to trim them first as some of them were kind of wonky - I confess it! I think it's the nature of the fabric. Anyway, I'm not that worried about it as it will be a tree skirt and spend a lot of time not being seen much...

I also worked on something today for the Bloggers Round Robin, but of course I can't show that as it has to be a secret - can't wait until those projects are done and we can see them all!

Cold, Snowy (slightly) Saturday

Well, it's been ages since I had a block to work on for the Bloggers Round Robin - this was due to a hold up along the way with one of the participants. Yesterday, I finally got another set of blocks to work on (these are lovely, by the way - I wish these were coming to me!) and so today, I have taken the chance to make a nice block in batiks to go with them. I'm not sure how many more are due to come to me (I think we have 24 people, total, but I wouldn't swear to it!) but we are getting closer to finishing... It's been great fun - I'd love to do it again if there is another round.



I was going to do some more sewing after that, but I had to contend with a very impatient small boy (nearly 7, as he constantly reminds me - his birthday is in a month's time) who wanted Something To Do. He decided on sewing (having rejected playing with lego, reading, stickers, colouring, a puzzle, etc - all things that would have involved minimal Mummy participation) and so a house was made. He's big on embellishments, bless him. This house features very little actual sewing (only the edging), but at least it kept him occupied for a while.



And finally, here's the finished tablecloth quilt - I stitched down the last of the binding tonight and am really pleased with the effect. I love the stars, and the row setting really suits them, I think. Olivia thought the curved corners were particularly fun and was happy to hear this one was a keeper.

Another block swap top

Amazingly enough, I am nearly out of sets of blocks to put together into tops. I think I have 3 or 4 left, and then that's it (I know - time to quilt some of them!) These blocks are from a swap with my dyeing group in 2005 - I know the year as some of the blocks are signed & dated. All the fabrics are - of course! - hand dyes.

I also worked on another round of the Bloggers Round Robin today, but as that's a secret project, I can't show what I did - too bad - these are fun to watch grow...

Actual sewing

Remember actual sewing? I think I did some a few weeks ago... Actual sewing does not, of course, count things like hemming or sewing buttons on, or breaking one's sewing machine by trying to take in the waistband of a pair of school trousers for a 6YO boy so they don't fall down around his ankles...

Anyway, today I did some actual sewing. First, I did some stupid stuff, like fixing a few holes and re-attaching loose velcro and letting out a hem, but then - hurrah! - I did a few bits of (ready for it?) actual sewing.

Of course, one of the things I worked on, I can't show you. And that was my addition to The Calico Cat's Bloggy Round Robin piece. It was fun. Her starting square was a photo of her (fairly) new (at the time) baby - he's very cute. Anyway. Having duly added to that piece, I then did a block for Debby's Around the World Quilting Bee quilt - she wanted liberated houses a la Gwen Marston, etc in bright, modern colours. I have done mine with a night sky and some fun people inside. She also asked that we include a selvedge (or more) somewhere in the house - I think she is going to have a really funky quilt. I am very tempted to do a small quilt with liberated houses from my scrap basket. We'll see...

A few good blocks...

Today I took some time to work on a few things besides the log cabin blocks - I needed to do a block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - here it is. This is for Cathy's quilt and although there were many colours represented in the blocks which have been made to date for her quilt, I tried to keep mine close to the ones in the block which she made to start things out. I was tempted to do a star, but decided for something a little different to help balance the quilt. This was a 12" block - nice to make a standard size block this time around - some of the recent ones have been a bit harder to come up with a good design for (this design is not an original, mind you - it's a Judy Martin block).

The other thing I worked on, I can't actually show you, but I can show you the starter block on the piece - it has been added to several times already and of course I added my pieces to it, so it doesn't really look much like this anymore (this is a 4" square), but at least there's something to show!

Somewhat funky house

I had plans today to do a bunch of sewing - catch up with a lot of deadlines, and so on. That was before my laptop decided that it simply was not going to go to some websites. Some, yes, others - nope. Much discussion with tech support, etc, suggested the problem was with the security being somehow set wrongly, so that websites with encryption were unreachable, but none of the proposed solutions worked to fix the problem. So, an impromptu trip to the computer shop, which was actually very annoying because while I was hoping to be able to leave the laptop there for them to fix, they didn't want me to - the guy suggested that the best thing to do was back everything up and do a system recovery (i.e. reset to factory settings so it would be like I just brought the machine home). As it happens, in the end that did do the trick, but of course, it takes all day because not only do you have to backup all the photos, music, files on the computer, then do the actual restore, but after that, you have to set the computer up as if it were new and of course move the backed up files back onto the machine, and reinstall all the stuff you have been putting on it over the last two years (well, perhaps not ALL of it). So, there's most of the sewing time. I shouldn't complain too much, I guess, because at least in the end the only money I spent was a call to the helpdesk - would have been a lot more had I left the computer for them to sort out...

But anyway. I did manage to make a block for the Around the World Quilt Bee - this one for Dionne, who has a kind of house theme going. And I added the next section to the Bloggers Round Robin, but that's a project I'm not allowed to show, so I won't. I had hoped to make some logcabin blocks for the August Block Lotto, but although I started them, I didn't get very far once I had to start playing tech guru. We did, just, manage to have a little time to go over to the park and visit the paddling pool - it was a hot, muggy day and that was a welcome change (for the kids anyway - personally, a 6 inch deep pool of water filled with a hundred screaming kids is not my idea of a fun time - especially as they are all either splashing, shooting each other with water pistols or throwing water balloons. Or all of the above!) Anyway, perhaps I will have better luck with the log cabin blocks tomorrow.

Summery things

A couple of things today - first, a block to accompany the ATWQB block from yesterday - I decided the best way to tackle the odd size (12" unfinished) was to make a 9" block and put a border on which could be cut to any size. The other thing I worked on today isn't actually the flipflops, which is the block I receved from Toni for the Blogger's Round Robin, but I am not allowed to show the 5x4" piece (the flipflops are 4" square) which I added. We are all showing our centres, though, so I can show that.

Tomorrow it is supposed to rain (at least, that was the forecast before the start of the weekend); if that turns out to be true, I hope to have quite a lot of sewing to show!

A bunch of black and white

Here's a couple of things I actually did today - woo hoo. First, a small block (4") which is the starting point for the Blogger Round Robin I am taking part in - I won't be able to show the subsequent work I do, though as we are all showing "centres" to start with, I can show that part each month just to have something to post. It took me quite a while to decide what I wanted to do as the block I choose will be how everyone else decides what style and colour to use when adding to my piece. Personally, I'm not TOO worried, as long as it goes well with the starting point. So, I decided to use black and white with some nice, strong colours and pick a flower as the starting place... Anyway, in the end, I decided not to overthink it and just pick something I like and go with it.


When I'd finished with the block, I wanted to work on something else, but wasn't quite ready to work on the Exquisite Corpse, which is the next thing I have to do, time wise - I am nearly ready, probably will work on it on Thursday - but it's still speaking to me a bit, so I need to be sure to listen before starting, lol. Anyway, I wanted something small, simple and quick so I grabbed some four patches I'd been making as enders and leaders and put frames on them in black and white (I was in b/w mode, what can I say). Here are 8; I will do enough more to make a baby quilt, which will then probably go to charity.

A new round robin

I'm very lucky in that I have been able to join in a new round robin, mostly composed of people in the US - this is a project organised by Sharon, and it's for a small quilt - finished size somewhere around 13x18" - where each person adds a piece of a particular size & shape or to some other instruction. But as it's a very small project, the amount of work you do each month, even if your addition is quite complex, which it often may not be, is minimal. Here are the quilts from the previous round - aren't they great? - as well as a description of how it works. I saw them a while back when Toni posted hers on her blog and admired them (and the idea, which is based on a May Britt idea) then. When a new round opened up and new players were being taken, I jumped at the chance. Luckily, several of the previous players, such as Toni and Julie, could vouch for me and I was allowed in - hurrah!

I will have to make a 4" starting block for mid-May, when the whole thing kicks off - lots of time to think about what direction I want to go in with this piece. Probably too much time to think about it, really - but that's ok, I have a number of things to sort out first. It's a long term committment - 15 months - but I love that each installment is such a small section or item - it will mean one can do something fairly elaborate if it suits the quilt without it taking too much time to be practical. Sometimes, of course, a very simple piece may well suit instead, which is also useful in terms of time management. One can only hope that the pieces demanding simple rounds will coincide with the busiest months!

Although it's yet another project I can't show in total, I will be able to show you my own starting square and then give teases as I go along. As we are all showing our starting squares to one another beforehand, I can also show the starting square of each piece I receive. I won't be able to show much else each month, though. Sorry about that...