Last month, I wrote a post about a Round Robin quilting exchange that I am doing with 3 of my coworkers. We decided it would be fun to do one that celebrates the dual citizenship of Ruth, one of our quilters, so we are all using variations of stars and maple leaves to represent the US and Canada. Other than that, we can each do what we like!
First, we all did our own block that we felt worked with the theme. The rules are pretty relaxed so it could really be anything we felt represented the theme. Most of us used red, white and blue, but it wasn't a requirement. Then, we met with each other and passed our blocks on to another member of the group. We recently met again to do another switcheroo, and it was fun to see what was added to the original blocks!
Here's what we have so far!
Ruth did the center of this block, and she really took her time to make a nice Canadian maple leaf, with stripes in shades of blue and white stars. I got Ruth's block in Round 2 and I will admit, it took me a long time to figure out what to do with it. She did such a nice job, and there is a lot of different motifs in it so I didn't want to do something too busy. Every idea I had seemed like it would be too much, so I finally came up with this fairly simple idea. It's actually a variation on the traditional Churn Dash block, but I didn't realize that until after I made it. The Churn Dash block is very easy to do, since it's just half-square triangles and strips, and you can do anything you like in the center. It can be really cute in all kinds of fabrics, so give it a try !
Next we have Margy's fun block! Margy loves bright colors, little prints, and Japanese fabric, and her original block had all of that and more. Ruth was the next person to add to Margy's block so she turned it on point, which made it a lot bigger. (It was already the largest block to begin with!) Ruth added maple leaves to each corner and used a variety of red prints to keep with the block's scrappiness. She also used a cute rose print which is very Margy! I like that there are two different corner designs - one with two leaves and one with three. It adds interest, and the navy border is also nice.
Here's Paula's groovy batik block! She went with a vibrant, all-blue color scheme. Margy took Paula's block and decided to add zig-zag borders to the top and bottom, and then add a narrow dark border along the sides, making the block a rectangle. I like that it's not a square anymore - you see a lot of squares in quilting, but not as many rectangles!
Finally, here's my block which Paula worked her magic on. I love what she did with it! I really like the little side triangles that break up the white and prints around the edge. Paula said one part of what she did was a "happy accident", but I think it turned out great and I'm not going to say what it was. Paula said she did some sketching and came up with this cool border.
I mentioned it last time, but I will say again - I love that each block is so different and very true to each quilter's personality. I think we all did a good job making our rounds match the original block but also made it our own. I'm looking forward to our next swap in September! I'll of course be posting our round 3 designs when we have them.
I encourage you to start your own round robin project with friends - it's a lot of fun and it's nice to challenge yourself with working on other peoples' designs. Also, having a deadline every month really helps you get something finished.
Becca
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