Stay at Home Robin - quilted

Yes, it's been a while since I showed this - I promised it a while back as the prize in a draw for anyone who sponsored me in the Walk for Life back in June. I haven't drawn a winner yet, but I did get around to adding some applique and quilting it. Didn't get any binding on yet, and as I am going away for a week, starting tomorrow, I won't get that done until after I get back. But it's not forgotten, don't worry! I'm still not entirely convinced that I like it, though I like aspects of it very much! Anyway, watch this space (as they say) for an announcement of who it will be going to live with - but not for a week or two...

Stay at home robin

A tiny bit of progress on this - the past two steps were supposed to be applique or embroidery - I had a look at it and decided not to embroider, but I have added some more circles to fill a couple of black spaces and when it's quilted (the current step due) I will add a bit of texture and design to a lot of the shapes. As for the other stay at home robin, well, we won't discuss that one...

More stay at home robin progress

This is my second piece for the Stay at Home Robin - I've added the two sections down the left hand side. I don't really like the dark/light balance on this piece, but it will get better in January!

And I'm still working on my scrap blocks - 5 more completed blocks today, along with a large pile of partials and almost nothing left in the basket at all...

Robins, red & white blocks

Here's my fifth round for the Stay at Home Robin - I added a 4x6" and 4x7" block to the bottom of this piece - I am thinking I might take the left-hand one back off and add more black, then turn it at an angle. Either that, or straighten out the right hand one - I really don't like the balance much. I'm also not that crazy about the colour of the left-hand rectangle - too close to the colour of the bottom of the flying goose above it.



And here's the addition for the Japanese taupe one - hard to see in this photo as both are very pale in colour, but they are quite different.



And these are some 8" (8.5" unfinished) red and white blocks which I made for my friend Clare, for Quilts for Leukemia. Now to get them off in the post to her for her challenge...

Lots of sewing

That's my kind of day :) I worked on another canal house today - here are all the ones I've done to date together - there are 3 more to go (and the latest three do still need to be sewn down) and then I'm finished. I've enjoyed this project, and look forward to seeing what I will get in return in the fullness of time.



Here's a closer view of the house I worked on today - it's quite a wide one and completes the bridge in the centre of the piece. By the time I finish this set of houses, I won't have any blue hand-dyes left in my stash.

Also today, I worked on my Stay-at-home Robin - first added Round 4 to the black and batik piece - though I'm not convinced that it wouldn't look better on the right hand side of the other blocks - I am going to try unsewing it and stitching it back on the right and see if I like it better.



I also decided, finally, to go ahead and make a second piece for the Stay-at-home Robin - I had been toying with it since the beginning, but hadn't quite got around to it yet. Finally today I decided to go ahead. This one is something quite different, using Japanese taupes - we'll see how it goes.

Stay at Home Robin Update

Just in case you have forgotten or missed the notice when I posted it, the Stay-at-Home Robin now has a new home of its own, over here... Round 4 instructions are posted there!

Stay at Home Robin Moves House

I've decided that the Stay at Home Robin really needed its own blog, as it was getting hard to follow over here on mine. So from now on, updates to the project will appear over here, rather than on my own blog - though of course I will show my own blocks on mine - and no doubt remind people from time to time that everything has moved....

Stay at Home Robin update

Gene was a little late in doing his round two (though not as late as you might think, given how long it's taken me to post it)






but he's made up for it by doing his round three straight away...






I have lots of other round 3 blocks to show, but no time at the moment, so I will share them as soon as I get a chance...

Stay at Home Robin, Step 3

Here's what you all may have been waiting for (or not!) - step 3. This month's instruction is to add a strip, 10x3" (finished size) to the top of the two previous blocks. Alternatively, you could add it to the bottom. I can't show a photo of my virtual quilt because my big laptop is off being repaired (again, grrr.) and although I have the actual EQ file on a flash drive, my little laptop doesn't have EQ installed on it, so I can't get at it to take the snapshots (no CD drive on the little laptop - it's a netbook). So instead, I've just done my actual quilt a little earlier. I'm going to change the squished, wonky green circle - partly, it needs another colour in that spot, and partly, it's squished and wonky, but essentially, here's what I'm doing. Ta da!

SAHR update

A few more updates for the SAHR - just as well as tomorrow, I will publish step 3 (whee!). This lovely piece above was made by Kathy, who blogged about it here.



Benta has decided to join us, and submits this very nice black, white and red combo for her first two blocks.




Vero has also decided to play along, and has produced a nice pair of blocks, with a special piece of fabric.




And Julie has also decided to join us - and has blogged about her blocks, amidst some other fun stuff...

If you are interested in joining, it's not too late - the first two blocks are quite small, and even tomorrow's (Sept's) block won't take a huge amount of time. Just send me a photo or photos when you've done your blocks - or a link to where you've blogged them.

SAHR Update...

So, round two's assignment was to add a piece, 4x6" (finished) to the side of the starting block. Here's my piece - two batik & black free pieced flying geese.



And here it is attached to the starting block (And yes, I admit to cheating a little by making mine in July, as I knew I'd be away from home in August - I'm sure you'll all forgive me...)

Some other people have also added their next sections while I've been busy on holiday:



This is Betsy's starter block with second section.



Here are Janet's first two blocks - if you read her blog post about this, you'll see how her first block actually became her second block - which is fine - after all, this will be your quilt, so you should do what works for you!



Plum says about her block for this month that she has taken me at my word and left some blank space, for later embellishments - there will definitely be some applique, embroidery and embellishment tasks later, so this is a good idea!



Kathy has decided to join us, with this starting block - she's working on her number two block and I'm looking forward to seeing it as the first one is great!



And Toni has also jumped in, doing both the July and August blocks for her piece. Welcome to Toni!

SAH Step 2

So, the eagerly awaited step two of the instructions:

2. (August 2010): Add a piece 4x6" (finished size) to the left hand side of your starter square (if you prefer, you could add it to the right side - as long as your unit after step two is 10x6", it doesn't matter). This piece can either be pieced, a single piece of fabric, or really, what you like - just remember, some later steps will call for applique or embellishment, so you may want to leave some larger areas of unpieced fabric.

Here's what my block looks like now with step 1 and step 2:



And here's my virtual quilt's progress:

SAH Robin reminder

Hi everyone! If you are following along with the Stay at Home Robin or would like to, I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow is August (yikes!) so there will be a new instruction to follow. If you want to follow along and haven't managed to make your starter block yet, don't worry, the monthly instructions at this point are fairly small and easy, so you can still join in with no stress at all... Later down the line, they may be a litle more time consuming (like the month you'll have to quilt your piece!) but for the next few months, they are pretty small. I have added one more block to the page today, but don't forget to let me know via email or comment if you make a block - I wouldn't want to leave you out...

More Stay at Home Robin Players!

I have a few more additions to make to the list of people following along with the Stay at Home Robin (hurrah!) - and don't forget, it's not too late to start - even if you don't make it in July, you can easily start later and catch up.

Here's the list of who's playing along (new folks first), with links to where they've blogged about their starting blocks...

• Narelle
  
• Barbara (hasn't blogged specifically about her starter blocks, but find her here or here)
• Gene has replaced his starter block with something different
• Rhonda has joined us

and then, there's still:

• me, of course
• Janet
• Gene
• Lisa Jo
• Plum
• Amo House
  

SAH Robin update

I kept meaning to post during the week, but it's been so busy towards the end of school, that I just don't seem to be able to work up the energy... Anyway, thought I'd share an update on the stay-at-home Robin - click at the top of the page to see all the photos so far, but just in case you are curious, here's who's playing so far:

• me, of course
• Janet
• Gene
• Lisa Jo
• Plum
• Amo House
  

If you decide to make a block and play along - even if you don't start in July! - please let me know so I can add you to the virtual round robin...

Linus & Robin

Not some odd new crime-fighting duo, but the first block for my own Stay at Home Robin - this block is free-pieced using a technique similar to the one used for the Block Lotto in May (reed blocks - lime green on black), except that I didn't use bias strips, just cut the fabric as it came, and as I felt like it... I figured a batik & black quilt would work well, as all batiks go together anyway, and they all go with black! I am debating doing a second one at the same time as the girls have been asking me for a quilt for their wall (a small one - there are lots of quilts they could have, but none really fit the space) - that would be chocolate brown, turquoise blue & silver (or grey), which might be fun to do as well. Will have to see what I have in the way of fabric...




And here's a little quilt top for Project Linus at some point - the border fabric is actually apple green with baskets of apples on it, so you can tell it has really washed out in the photo. I think three of the four fabrics in this quilt are ones my mother has given me - possibly all four. The apple fabric I know came from when her local JoAnn's (she lives in the US) closed down and liquidated its stock. The two cat themed FQs (red and blue) just seem like something she might have passed along...

Stay at Home Robin

Ok ladies (and gents!) - the moment you have all been waiting for (ok, SOME of you have been waiting for it, I know). The start of the Stay at home Robin. This year's Robin (and yes, that implies if this works for me there will be another year...) will be a wall-hanging 16x18" (approx 40x55cm) in size, and will run for 12 months. The first 7 months will involve piecing - sometimes one piece, sometimes two and once, three - but nothing bigger than 5x15" and of course, there's no need for the pieces to actually be pieced themselves - they can be partly or completely single pieces of fabric. As you will have seen from the robins I've been posting on my blog recently, the finished quilts work best when there is a combination of pieced sections and unpieced sections - but obviously, this is your quilt, so it's up to you. The last 5 months will involve doing something else to your pieced top - up to, in the final month, binding it and putting a hanging sleeve (if desired) and label on it.

I will be making my own little quilt each month as we go along (not working ahead) so I might not have my example ready with the first of the month's instructions, but I will also be making a virtual quilt, which I WILL have ready for the post with the instructions. When you have done your month's work, either send me a photo, email me with a link to your blog or comment on my blog to say that you've done it, and I will add you to the page (tab at the top of my blog) for the robin.

And then, we can watch each other's progress and see how we are getting along - hopefully, we will have a lovely group of little quilts to show at the end.

Right then, so the first month's instructions are: start with a block which is 6" square (finished - so your block should measure 6.5" square before you sew it to anything else) (this can be pieced or plain - personally, for the first month, I recommend pieced!).



Here's my "virtual" quilt block for the starter - and just to give you an idea of the shape of the overall piece, here's what my "quilt" looks like so far




We are not putting a border on our quilts, but I have showed the border with the EQ layout, because it was hard to see what I was doing without it - and it gives an idea of how your block will fit in to the overall scheme of the quilt, which might help you with things like choice of scale, etc.

Later in July, I'll be showing my actual quilt block - once I figure out what I want to do, that is - it won't be a fabric representation of the virtual quilt, though...

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...

Stay-at-home Robin

I've had a couple of comments about my idea for doing a stay-at-home round robin, so I thought I'd post with my idea in a little more detail.

Here's what I plan to do: I am going to use the idea of the small-size wallhanging round robin that I've participated in over the last 15 months to do a add-a-bit project which will be like a round robin in some ways (you add a specified size piece in each round once a month or so) and not like a round robin in others (you keep your piece at home and only you work on it).

However, I'm not going to use the precise size from this round robin which I've done because a)it's not my original idea, b)I want to make a slightly different sized piece anyway and c) I'd like to fit it into a 12 month timeframe, rather than 15.

So, what I'm going to do is draw up the stages to fit my new size and timelength, and then start with July as the first month. I will publish the "instructions" for each month when I get to the month in question, and anyone who wants to follow along at home on their own is more than welcome to - I'll link back to anyone I know is following - but it's not official - it's totally up to you if you want to play or not. I'll probably devote a tab at the top of my blog page to the project.

If you want to play along, great. Barbara asked about collecting fabrics - the size I am envisaging is somewhere under 20 inches square, so I'm not sure how much collecting will be necessary, but I'm certainly not the type of girl to discourage anyone from buying fabric!

Anyway. Those are my ideas and I think it will be fun - even if no one else wants to join in I still plan to carry through and have a nice quilt at the end, with hopefuly, not much stress.