Round Robin Quilt

Here is a photo of the Round Robin Quilt worked on by my friends at my LQG, Prickly Piecers. It stared with the middle four blocks in blue that I provided which utilized my AccuQuilt and some of Ricky Tims' diecuts. They featured Ricky's Razzle Dazzle thread by Superior. Next, Ken Casey took the four pieces that I submitted.  His notes say "I had this center square that Rita started for months now...I vaguely (?) remember thinking: 'Well, no one else is taking this, I will." Ooh boy.  I'd put it on my design wall and leave it up until I needed it again, then take it down & put it away."  He continues, Then I put it back up and then took it back down. I called Mary Patrick about something & you, Rita, were with her! I decided I've GOT to do something! I'd just sorted my patterns & remembered seeing hibiscus that Patrick Lose had designed. Perfect! Dug it out and it was WAY too big. I guess I remembered the block being bigger. As I was putting it away I saw a little applique pattern with these Jacobean style flowers that reminded me of the shapes in the corner. BINGO Decided to jazz things up with some warm colors. Traced, fused, cut out and ***the flowers were just too big. Threw it all in the trash and then had an idea to create my own flower using the water drop shapes... I hope you like bow it turns out. If you don't like the oranges, yellows, greens, they are MY fault. I put in some extra pieces of the colors I added to the stash.  P.S. Decided to add the small orange flange with the fern fabric coordinate when I found a nice long piece of the arrow print."

Terese Poniaz had this to add. "At the January meeting, Diane Hansen mentioned something bout Seminole piecing at her trunk show...It stuck in my head. At the Round Robin, I saw the blue and I liked it so I picked up your RR from Ken to try out Seminole pieceing, I'd researched online and stumbled across "Totally Tubular Magic" videos and VOILA" Hope you like the two strips of diamonds in dark blue and orange."

In May, Lynnita Knoch writes in the journal "Well, I've had the quilt for a few months now. Nothing was jumping out at me and no ideas were coming. So I left it sit where I'd see it. And time passed... I had another RR with a similar dilemma and more time passed...Another pieced border just wasn't working for me. I put it away, so I couldn't see it. Worked on my Zentangles for the Doodle book and worked on my charm square challenge. When I first picked up the pattern "Shine Through" by en Chick I thought it was pieced. Realized the charm squares were appliques in a grid.  And it hit me-- applique a border!!! After Terese's Seminole border, the applique pattern needed to be pulled out to the edges. The other RR needed the same thing. I copied your designs & Ken's applique water drops & circles and started creating applique pieces. Thank goodness you had enough light blue for the border and dark blue for the applique! (That was one reason I was stuck for so long -- the dark blue squares with the fusible on them were between parchment and I didn't see them! I couldn't see a design that would look right without the dark blue. (lol) Got applique pieces cut (enough for 2 sides.) Now how to lay them out? Initially I was thinking of a vine between the corners, with the water drops and circles extending from it. Didn't like it. So I tried a larger piece in corner with the same layout as the center blocks and put the smaller dark blue in the center with the water drops and circles. I liked the corners but not the center. After studying the center more, I realized the smaller designs were back-to-back. Two of them! Put 2 of the back-to-back and add circles and water drops so they are reversed! I narrowed it down to the one small waterdrop and circles!n VOILA!! Design complete!!

Leslie Schnieder finished off the journal wit these notes. "Well, after Lynnita gave me your RR, I decided I'd take the liberty and add the "frame" that I saw was needed to showcase all of the beautiful work Cathy, Ken, Terese and Lynnita had done. I didn't see where there was any need for more creativity--it was all there. It just needed to be framed, so here you go. I hope you like the project we all spent o much time and love on. Personally I think they did a wonderful job and I'd be proud to put my name next to this."

Speaking for myself, I think that each and every contributor who worked their magic added immeasurable to the finished quilt. I'm so proud and humbled to be among such friends. YOu all enrich my life in so many ways. Thank you and a group thank you to Prickly Piecers.

Splash

There are 16 blocks in this set. It will be a 16x16 grid of black and white prints which feature perle cotton with both machine- and hand-stitched embroidery work in a variety of colors. It gets its name "Splash" from the splash of colors on the surface. Shown above is a 2x2 grid. The strips have been fused down onto the black squares and them embellished.