notes from Terry Ann

My Round Robin quilt

I save everything! I rip pages out of catalogs, magazines, and newspapers. I take photos of stepping stones, windows, buildings, and plants - anything with an interesting shape. I always keep a pad of graph paper nearby because I like to sketch and color. I keep a fat messy file of quilt ideas - drawings, potential color schemes, even blocks that I've made that need a little "tweaking". Note: That's completely different than twerking :-)

When it was time to make the center for my Round Robin quilt, I dug into my files to see what ideas might pop out. I came across a photo of an antique orange peel quilt, and wondered what it would look like if I changed the shape of the orange peel. I had recently seen an ad for moustache pacifiers and somehow those two ideas came together in my brain. I wanted to do a bold, two color center as a focal point for my quilt and chose assorted red fabrics. Once the blocks were made they ended up looking like lipstick!

Gudrun, Kari, and Terri each added a border to my center - and along the way, one of them added turquoise squares between the center "lipstick" blocks. To find out how each one came up with their part of the quilt, visit their blogs:

Center: Me - you're already here :-) (Atkinson Designs)  

Border #1: Gudrun (G.E. Designs)

Border #2: Kari (New Leaf Stitches)

Border #3: Terri (Whimsicals)

 

After the big reveal, we experimented with adding a little more to the quilt, but in the end I decided that I liked it best without any changes. I sent it off to Angela Walters and she did an amazing job machine quilting it. Here's the final quilt - I love it!

If you'd like to read more about our "No Rules" Round Robin, check out this issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine - it should arrive in your mailbox any day!

 Photos used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

Related articles

Round Robin Rebels

Round Robin Rebels II: Kari's quilt

Round Robin Rebels III: Terri's quilt

Round Robin Rebels III: Terri's quilt

Terri's Round Robin was the first one to arrive and I had no idea what to expect! I knew she would have red and gray fabrics, and I hoped they wouldn't be too much like the red/gray/turquoise prints that I used for my quilt. There was no need to worry because her fabrics were completely different than mine. Here's what Terri made for her center:

I thought Terri used a panel from one of her new fabric lines - but I found out later that she hand painted the words "Color Outside the Lines". LOVE the shading! She hand appliqued the flower and bird. Here's how I went about adding my border:

• The first thing I did was put Terri's block up on my design wall and pin the fat quarters nearby so I could think about it. And think about it. And think about it some more.
• I wanted to add more color in my border but everything I tried overpowered the appliqués. Arghhh!
• I wanted to introduce another shape – not triangles. How to experiment without cutting up and wasting Terri’s fat quarters? I arranged overlapping folded shapes to test several different ideas without actually cutting anything out. I pieced a few different borders out of scraps from my stash - none of my fabrics were anything close to Terri's colors so it was hard to tell whether or not the borders would work.
• Out of everything I tried, I kept going back to the red print because it brought out the bird and flower - but there wasn't enough to really do anything. Went shopping to find a similar red and came up with NOTHING. With all of the shops in the Twin Cities area, how hard could it be to find that red???
• Since there wasn't enough fabric to frame the block, I straightened the edges of the red piece and then cut it into four equal strips - I could make four borders and put something at each corner.

Finally got the border done at the last minute – Because the red strips were an odd measurement, I made random log cabin blocks for the corners and trimmed them to fit. 

Now I am worried that it is too simple and I should have done something more creative. Wish I had more time and more fabric!! I think it would be a cute little wall quilt right now – hope I didn’t make it too hard for the next person to add something. Out of all of our Round Robin quilts, this was definitely the hardest one for me!

Visit each of our blogs to see what we each added to Terri's quilt. You can also follow us on our Facebook fan page, Round Robin Rebels.

Center:  Terri (Whimsicals)

Border #1: Me - you're already here :-) (Atkinson Designs)

Border #2: Gudrun (G.E. Designs)

Border #3:Kari (New Leaf Stitches) 

If you'd like to read more about our "No Rules" Round Robin, check out this issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine - it should arrive in your mailbox any day!

 Photos used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

 

Related articles

Round Robin Rebels II: Kari's quilt

Round Robin Rebels