Thursday, June 11, 2015

Round Up of the Round Robin VMQG

For the past four months, I have been participating in a Round Robin with my Modern Quilt Guild.  We had our final reveal on Monday.  Here is what I did for the four rounds:
Round 1:  Scott's block.

Scott made this beautifully pieced and dynamic block and included only solids in his preferences.  My idea was to keep the movement of the center block moving.


I made some border blocks I remembered from one of Judy Laquidara's books, Nine Patch Extravaganza.  I liked the easy construction using HSTs and all the angles.  First attempt was a bit blah.



Hmm, maybe an HST in the corner with the border blocks?  No, a little too cluttered, I thought.


OK, now we're talking!  I was very intimidated at first but it sure turned out to be fun to work this way, with no commitment to finish a quilt top entirely :)

For Round 2, I was passed on a block center that Scott had added his own fabrics to.  The quilt block owner, Ellen, had included wonderful Indian and Indonesian prints, with a batik center piece that was directional. I was at a loss at first as to how to incorporate the modern aesthetic but sketched and sketched until I hit on this design.



I wanted to make additional rounds easier to add by "neutralizing" the colorful center a bit. 



My finish didn't quite match my sketch (MATH) but I again liked the movement created by the offset wedges.  I hoped it was modern enough!

Round 3 I think was my favorite to work on.  Adele, the owner, had some wonderful prints and lots of colors to play with, including a good length of her text and illustration focus print. 
I wanted to add a lot more of the focus print and lighten up the overall feel with lots of color, since Scott had chosen the black solid for his sharp flying geese round. 

 I made a bunch of hourglass blocks and fussy cut from the focus print.


I kept the black and white theme going with the two color hourglass blocks in the corners.I don't know how modern my round was but I liked it a lot!

The Round 4 quilt was a bigger challenge for me, as Sarah's center block was improvisational piecing, which is hard for me to do. 
 Sarah found it hard too, which is why her block had been on her design wall for several years!  She included a lot of really yummy solids in her box of fabrics.  I picked out some neutrals and a lot of pretty jewel tones.

Scott had added these wonderful cross blocks and I didn't want to interrupt their effect, so I only added to two sides.  I repeated the soft dove gray solid used in an earlier round, with improv piecing.  But I added what I call a "free radical" with the deep gray background and orange cross, just to kick things up a bit :)

There were 14 participants and we all had such a great time with this challenge.  So glad I joined.  And here is my block's Round Robin reveal:

Isn't it pretty?  Center is my star block; Round 1 is the plain border by Barbara; Round 2 is the flying geese by Georganna, Round 3 is the beautiful feathers by Kim, and Round 4 is the improv piecing by Judy.  I love it and have it hanging in my dining room to enjoy until I decide how to finish it.

6 comments:

Mary said...

Wow! What stunning results. Your group did great work.

Shay said...

i love the idea of a round robin for quilting. Everyone adds their own interpretation of the brief, and you get to be amazed at the results. Round three is my favourite too!So striking.

Quilter Kathy said...

These are so wonderful! It was great fun to see the addition each round!

Kate said...

What a fun challenge! Everyone ended up with some very unique pieces.

Janet O. said...

My goodness, these are creative. I especially like what you did with the first one!

Tanya said...

What fun! I've never really participated in a Round Robin and I certainly wouldn't know what to do with the contemporary piecing! But you all had some wonderful ideas and your post was a great lesson on how to collaborate with others! Thank you!

Design Wall Monday--Catching Up

 Design Wall Monday --See more design walls on Judy's Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  I disappeared for awhile, due to computer issu...