ORR Continued

I told you last post about the Ostrich round robin challenge I am participating in. Now I will confess that I have been absolutely obsessing over it all week.I have been fooling around with design ideas on EQ6 and have drawn out dozens of options. I admit that I have gotten totally carried away with it. I think it has to do with the fact that I have to add applique to this round that had me worried. I have decided to take the less is more approach. And although I have yet to take a stitch in this round, here is a drawing of what I think I am going to add to my block. I think it make next round open for lots of different options.

Ostrich Round Robin

I am participating in an "ostrich" round robin in one of my on-line groups. The idea is a round robin quilt that never leaves your possession, so you don't have to worry about not getting your top back. Kim at peachquilting.com has set this up, and is dictating the themes for each round.









I started with an orphan block for my center. I absolutely love that block and the colors in it. It was only six inches in size to start out with. It was a copy in miniature of a swap block that I made for somebody in 2005. I foundation pieced the triangle arcs on this block, since each quarter of the block is only three inches finished size.

The challenge began when I received guidelines for the first round. The theme is "boxed in". I think the hardest part was deciding how to interpret this. My idea was to make it look like my center block was in the bottom of a box, if you were looking into an open box from above. I'm not sure I like the proportions of the "box flaps", but I thinkI can live with it.



Round two is called "Binary". The rule is only use two fabrics. I know nothing about binary code except that it uses ones and zeros. So, that is what I decided I needed for this border.

I wish I understood the language of the code, so that I could have had the border actually say something with purpose. I do like my choice for the idea, but I am having doubts about the final result of this round. My issue is the scale. I am wondering if I would like it better if I made the entire border in half the size. I am a bit hung up on the fact that my border is half as wide as my original center block. And Iam wondering if that takes too much focus away from the center, which I want to shine. But, the third round has been given, so if I am going to redo this round, I need to get right on it. I don't want to get behind.

I am now in the process of designing my next round. It is supposed to use either piecing or applique, whichever I did not use in the center of the top. So for me that means applique. I am pretty sure I want to put my quilt on point for this round, surrounded by the white-on-white fabric I used in round two. But, I have no idea what my applique design will be. I will need to do a little thinking on that for a while. I have made a paint drawing of my top as it would look before the applique (more or less). I think putting it on point actually helps the box round look better. But I am still uncertain about the scale of the binary round.

Round Robin Fun

I am in my first quilting round robin. We are a group of five and have reached our last round. I have finished the final round on the last quilt top I am to work on, and will be mailing it off today.

This has been a real learning experiece for me. While I know that not everyone on our quilting forum is at equal experience levels, it still surprised me to see these tops when they reached me. Sometimes I would look at the top when it arrived and think "what on earth was she thinking?" when a particular round just didn't seem to be a good choice. And how can I add something to make that look like a good idea?

I will even admit that I think I was the one who added a "what was she thinking?" round on one of the tops. Of course, I didn't think it at the time I added it, but after I sent it off, I decided that what I should have done was....not what I did! ;p Hopefully the person after me was able to tame this wild beast. See what I mean? I added the kites because I thought it would tie into the center better than the braid did. That braid just didn't seem to belong there. I just wasn't feeling it. But, I can see now that I really needed to add something with much less going on, to better compliment the braid and allow it to shine. I hope the person after me figured that out before she added her round!

The biggest challenge of the round robin had to be dealing with the inconsistancies in sizes. It was quite difficult in some cases trying to add pieced borders that would lie flat and not ruffle, as each side measurement was different. I think I managed to pull it off, but some were much more successful efforts.

I am anxiously waiting for the return of my top. The round officially ends mid February, so I may still have a month to wait. I hope it comes home sooner. The verdict is still out on whether I would do this again sometime. I had alot of fun, and I definitely learned from it. We will just have to see what this turned into (my center block for the round robin) before I make that decision.

So many projects, such poorly managed time!

I will admit that I have a tendancy to waste time. It is not intentional, it just happens.I start out on a task, and then I get distracted, and before you know it, the original task has been abandoned. Because of this trait, I have quite a few unfinished quilts. They are in many stages of completion. I am trying to finish off some of these projects this year. I will benefit in two ways from this- it will give me more space in my sewing room, and I will have some beautiful completed quilts. Plus, there are so many other things I would like to do, but cannot in good conscience start before I finish a few of these other. So, here is my list of shame for 2007.Hopefully I can get this dwindled down to a very short list by the years end.

1. hole in the barn door quilt(2005)-top-on the quilt frame
2.palm leaf(2005)-top
3.four-patches and friends(2004)-layered and ready for quilting
4.friendship star quilt(2005)-quilt top
5. cancer block quilt#1(2005)-top
6.lonestar(2000)-top
7.squishy 2005-blocks
8.Kimono quilt(2006)-blocks
9.black/white quilt-blocks(2006)
10.black/white/red quilt(2006)
11.nine-patch-blocks and setting blocks(2006)
12.cancer block quilt#2-blocks(2005)
13.hole in barn door #2-blocks(2005)
14.star block swap-blocks(2005)
15.autograph wallhanging-blocks(2005)
16.sunbonnet sue-blocks(2005)
17.pinwheel blooms quilt-about half the blocks finished(2006)
18. Jane's mystery quilt-top(2006)
19.letha's lectric fan-fabrics partially cut, no blocks completed yet(2006)
20.grandmother's garden-quilt top(2003)
21.double dutch quilt-fabric washed and pattern gathered(2006)
22.mini-hole in the barn door wallhanging- blocks completed(2005)
23.friendship swap quilt- blocks(2006)
24.block round robin-blocks(2005)
25. mariners compass quilt-(2006)-fabric washed and pressed, ready to cut out
26. ostrich round robin 2006- first two rounds complete
27.QYW round robin quilt 2006- waiting for it to come home to me, hopefully within the next month