Mini Round Robin--Finished

This entire project has been a crazy train ride full of emotions and I would certainly buy a ticket to ride again anytime.  The journey for this little quilt started back in May when I constructed the center block, called The Attraction block (the free pattern can be found here).

My poor round robin mates, I think I'm the one that made it hardest on everyone.  If I had it to do over, I would have chosen a block that wasn't so simplistic.  I really kind of backed them into a corner color wise and well, it's not the most interesting block to build off of.  But I have to say the round robin team completely blew this out of the water and returned to me in September the most beautiful and creatively designed mini I could have ever imagined.  

You can read more about my mini's journey, if you would like me to pause my story for a minute or two...

The beginning...my post

Round one it traveled to Julie at Pink Doxies

Round two it traveled to Cindy at Stitchin At Home

Round three it traveled to Sandra at MmmQuilts

We had hoped to have our minis quilted by the beginning of October, but true to form, I am fashionably late to the party.  That's okay though, I was a bit intimidated by their creative work and had to wait for this little guy to speak to me.

This mini is about balance, change and movement.  Life is constantly changing.  In any given situation there is usually two sides pressing against each other and it just depends on how hard they are pressing as to whether balance is achieved.  My center square started out black and white, yin and yang.  I like to think of that red square in the middle as the pop of energy that forces things to change, for the better or the worse.  We need that pop; without it there is no chance to grow.

So until this epiphany hit me, this poor mini laid around my house, basted and ready to go.  My pop of red that made me realize, it was time to quilt or get off the machine, happened one evening while I was quilting at the Sweet Sixteen.  All of my fur kids were quietly playing in the living/dining room.  I had my glasses on top of my head so looking at a distance things were blurring.  When I glanced in their direction, I could see white stuff all over the floor and all three dogs were chewing at something...wtf?

  

For the first time ever, they had grabbed something off the quilting table.  Those three heathens, managed to paw the batting out from between the quilt layers.  Thankfully, the top was not ripped.  This picture is blurry because I may have been screaming like a raging sailor.

I have no idea what possessed them to do this, but lesson learned.  When I went to the store to pick up more batting, I ran into this fabric.

 For reasons not clearly revealed to me, I decided I wanted this for my backing fabric instead of the red print.  If I had to re-layer everything, I may as well re-layer everything.

Now on to the good part...the quilting.  

This mini called for three different colors of thread, Aurifil #2250 Red, #2692 Black and #2021 Natural White.  Three very classic colors.  Doesn't it make you want to dress up and go out on the town?

For my section, the center square, I decided on simple continuous curves for the red and feathers in the black and white.  Though the black and white fabrics are opposite each other, the feathers allow them to flow together.  

For Julie's round, I chose to do angled lines going opposite each other in the red and black sections.  Instead of adding the ribbon candy in the border, I left the small borders un-quilted.

For Cindy's round, those awesome chevron/arrows, I decided to echo the chevrons going in the opposite direction.  I LOVE when I can add ghost quilting to a project; those little designs you didn't know where lurking in a space.  In life, even when things are going smoothly in the direction you want them to go, there can be small little obstacle trying to take you a different direction.  Those little hiccups can lead to beauty, so we shouldn't fear them.  

This photograph shows how I marked the lines to quilt them to make sure I had the spacing correct.

In Sandra's last round of log cabin blocks, I knew I wanted to add some dot to dot quilting of angles and something similar in the corners.

Since this was a smaller project, I used a 1/4" tape to mark off the edge of my quilt, to help me easily see where I needed my lines to end and account for where the binding would hit the quilt.

Though, it's a bit  hard to see, those angles point down in the red and up in the black, with ribbon candy in the base of the red.  In the corners, I chose to add lines radiating from the corner out.

And of course for my binding, I went with a flange...gasp!  I seriously contemplated doing my binding in half red and black to blend into their sections.  I decided on the silver/gray and white flange to brighten things up a bit and show a distinct stopping point.  I think this quilt has achieved it's nirvana.  And so, I shall call my mini, "Nirvana."

And a quick peak at the back...

This quilt will always have a special place in my heart.  Being able to create with Julie, Cindy and Sandra was an honor.  All three of these ladies were able to translate exactly what this quilt was saying, even if at the time we couldn't completely understand what was being said.  I hope we all can fear change less and embrace the future with open arms.  Positive energy, thoughts and prays will bring about positive change.  I'm pretty sure nothing too great has come out of worry and fear except more fear.  With that I will leave you with Nirvana in the garden where her first pictures were taken.

Did I happen to mention this is the fourth finish from my 4th Quarter list?

Today I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social, Linky Tuesday, and  Main Crush Monday.

Mini Round Robin--Last Round

It's hard to believe but, Cindy, Julie, Sandra and I have entered the last rounds of our Mini Round Robin.  I have mixed feelings about this day.  On one hand I'm super sad.  It has been exciting to see what each of these other artists have created, poof! out of thin air. (I have to say I'm a humbled to be included in this group of amazing quilters).  On the other hand, I'm kind of glad it's over, because, each round the bar was set higher and higher and with it the anxiety level of creating also rose.  At least for me.

Not to sound cocky, but as I was finishing up Cindy's block, I kind of had what I was going to do for Julie's block in the back of my mind and didn't feel panicked at all.  Then on the first day of August we did our big reveals for the July round.

Photo courtesy of mmm!quilts

I had to laugh like a mad woman (on the verge of tears) when I saw a wonky width piano key border...almost the same thing I was thinking.  (Sandra and I laugh and say we share a brain cell, I'm beginning to think it's true)  I loved everything she did in her round.  She started off by making the block "spin" by adding a border of white Moda Grunge then cutting it to off set the block.  Then she framed the block with the multi colored and width piano key border.  Looks like it's perfect and finished to me!  Oh, wait, I still have to add to it...this is where the panic started.

So it was back to the drawing board.  Julie mentioned a wonderful book by Joen Wolfrom called The Visual Dance in her last round robin post.  I decided to take her advice and purchased a copy of the book.  I've only read the small section on round robins as of right now but it has been incredibly helpful even with this last round.  According to Joen, the duty of the last round is to try to tie everything together.  So before I started designing or picking out fabric, I spent some time truly thinking about what has made the block up to this point.

I loved how both Cindy and Sandra added the "spinning" effect with the whitish fabric in their rounds.  It has given the block nice movement.  And the over all theme of the block was a scrapiness of bright colors with a feeling of improve piecing.  Julie started us off with an improv log cabin and Sandra continued the improv with her wonky width piano keys.  Now to decide how to tie these elements together.

So what where my thoughts?  First, to spin the block again using white grunge and again creating some sort of border.  But let's remember technically we had to stay within the rule of only adding 3" to each side.  Three inches sounds like a lot, until you are actually working with it.  When I was working on Cindy's block in EQ7, I ran across a section of Crazy paper pieced blocks.

I thought these blocks had great potential for a border for this mini.  They still had an improv log cabin feel, but with angles instead of vertical and horizontal lines.  So feeling pretty confident about my choices I moved forward and started off by adding a 3.5" border of the white to the block and played with spinning the block.

So to spin or not spin was the question?  I'll be honest, trying to figure out the measurements was starting to hurt my head.  So I regrouped.  What if I just did a small plain border of the white?  This sounded promicing as well, but I felt I needed to justify it and prove to myself I wan't just taking the easy way out.  Since it was the last round, just doing a simple border of the white would help to let the eye know things where starting to level out.  I could still have movement with my improv block border.  This was sounding better.

And so this, is where Tish decides to go rogue and break the 3" to each side rule.  We all knew I was going to do this at some point and quite frankly I'm impressed I waited until the last round.

I trimmed the border to 1.75" which would bring the block to 21.5" and allow me to paper piece my blocks at 3.5" for a nice even number.  I would need a total of 32 blocks.  This sounded easy...until I actually started on it.

I think I used a total of 7-8 different Crazy blocks found in EQ7 to create my border.  I sorted through my stash (and ended up purchasing a few more) for fabrics that would work with the block. One thing I noticed is there was not much blue fabric (actually none) in the block so far.  When I did my fabric pull I made sure I steered clear of this color.  I think introducing a new color at this point would have stuck out a bit.

With 32 blocks each made up of 7 to 11 pieces of fabric, I needed variety to pull off the look I was going for.   So I sorted my fabric into piles and tried to grab randomly as I pieced the blocks.

So a day of on and off sewing found me with only half of the blocks I needed.  I completely underestimated how long piecing these tiny blocks would take.  The next evening I spent cutting out fabrics for the other 18 blocks.  Then the next evening, I sewed the rest together.

Knowing that the clock was ticking down on time, I started chain piecing and not paying attention to what I was doing.

It only took two sessions of picking out these tiny 1.0 stitches to slow my butt down and make sure fabrics where not folded over.  That's a mistake you do not want to repeat.  Yikes!

Several hours later, I've never been so happy to see a pile of blocks in my life!!

The next step was to sew the blocks into rows.  They contained so many bias edges, for stability, I decided to leave the paper on the blocks until the rows were attached to the block itself.

As soon as a row was sewed together it was time to say a prayer and see if indeed it was the correct length.

And it was!!!  After a crazy happy dance with a dog it was time to attach the rows to the block and pick all of the paper off.  

And I could not be happier with the the result of my round.  It turned out just as I imagined.

I can't wait to hear what Julie thinks of my round.  I have much respect for her as a designer and  I've always enjoyed reading about her design process.  I tried very hard to channel my "inner Julie" when working with this block.  Improv is not something that comes easily to me (heck I still used a paper pieced block), but I wanted to do her block justice and try to make everything come together in this round.  I don't feel bad in saying, I think I got it right.  The lesson:  don't be afraid to challenge yourself, you just might be surprised at what you can do.  If you get a chance to participate in a project of this type, go for it!  Don't be afraid to trust your instincts and try new things.  And don't be afraid to allow yourself to feel good about the work you've done.

Please take a moment to check out my fellow bloggers and see how they have wrapped up the minis for their rounds.

Julie @Pink Doxies--Cindy's block

Cindy @Stitchin at Home--Sandra's block

Sandra @mmmquilts---My block

Today I'm linking up with Finish It Up Friday, Midweek Makers, TGIFF,  Let's Bee Social, Can I Get A Whoop! Whoop!

Round Robin--Round 3

It's time for another reveal on the 2016 Mini Round Robin going on between myself, Julie at Pink Doxies, Cindy at Stitchin At Home and Sandra at mmm!quilts.  I have to admit I was a little completely intimidated by this block.  I fell in love with the geometric look of Cindy's Oops block the moment she posted about it and secretly hoped it would be the center of her round robin piece.  And much to my delight, she did chose it for her center.  However, this also meant, I had to work on the block eventually.  I did not want to mess this block up...you don't want to be the baby bird that poops in the nest.  That just can't be good.

So at the beginning of the month I received Cindy's block with the addition of Sandra's round.  I loved it!  But I found myself scratching my head, you could very well call this block finished.  I had no idea what to add to it or what colors to use.  I needed inspiration to strike.

With Sandra's block, I already had a design in mind and just had to do a color pull.  With this block, I flipped my process and decided to start with a fabric pull, then decide on a design.  I really didn't have anything in my stash I was happy with, so on an outing to drop David's quilt off to be quilted, I made myself at home in the quilt store and played around in the fat quarters.  The owner's husband even carried over a few boxes for me so I didn't have to get off the floor.

This was what I left the store with.  I loved the greens, yellows and oranges originally in the block, but Sandra opened the door for me by adding just a hint of light lavender in her round.  I really wanted my round to add an even more pop of the contrasting purple.  Now I needed a design.

Since I wanted to play around with the geometric center I started playing around in EQ7 and fell in love with this geometric paper pieced block.

It was fun, it had lots of angles but I feared doing and entire round might be too busy. 

Next I came up with this (obviously not these colors though).  I think this would have worked as well, but just wasn't what I was looking for.  I kept thinking about the first design and it hit me.  BAM!  Black rectangles.  

I would simply do black rectangles in the center and my paper pieced blocks in the corner.  So now my big question was, could I paper piece this block and make it look right.  So I pulled some fabrics from my stash and experimented.

Success! Now I felt more comfortable piecing the 12 blocks and knew what sizes to cut my pieces.

Now to commit to colors.  My first pull looked something like this.

After consulting with David and Sandra, they both felt my purples were a bit too red and I needed to go with a more blue purple.  After 5 minutes of whining to poor Dave, he dissappeared to the back room and returned with two purples from my stash.

Not exactly sold on this, I decided to pull from the yellows I had purchased for the project.

Feeling that the yellow was a more "safe" choice, I decided to poll a few quilting friends to see what they thought.  I just knew they would say the yellow was the better choice.  But at the end of the voting the score was 2 for yellow (me and Beth at Cooking Up Quilts) and 3 for David's purples (David, Sandra and Lara at Buzzin Bumble).  So after admitting David was right.  (That was me whispering so he wouldn't hear),  I went to work constructing my 12 blocks with a bit of seam ripping along the way.  I realized as I was picking all those tiny pieces from the back of the blocks, removing the paper on a small project is much like de-shelling a hard boiled egg that has been cracked.  Both are kind of stinky and tedious but well worth the end result.

I hope Cindy loves the addition as much as I do.  I really love how the black fabrics play along with each other in the three rounds.  This block will be headed in the mail tomorrow to Julie so she can work her magic and add the last round to the block.  Now I'm off to check out what everyone else has added to their blocks.  If you have a chance please hop over and check out what Julie added to Sandra's, Cindy added to mine, and Sandra added to Julie's.

Today I'm linking up with Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Linky Tuesday, Main Crush Monday and Sew Cute Tuesday.

Quilt Along Stash

It's no mystery, I love quilt-a-longs.  I love sewing with my quilty friends and seeing all the different interpretations of the same project.  So, I was super excited to learn that both Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl and Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs were both hosting quilt-a-longs around the same time.  Plus two new quilt-a-longs gave me an excuse to travel to some LQS to play around in fabrics.

So last weekend I traveled to Classic Quilt Shop in Clarksburg, WV with Dave the Quilt Engineer to explore possible quilt-a-long fabrics.

We had so much fun looking at all the fabrics and chatting with the owner, Janet.  

She even posed in a picture with me for fun.  If you ever find yourself in the area, please stop in and visit with her and check out her shop.  We had so much fun, after lunch we popped back over to purchase a second pair of scissors so we each have our own pair.  She also reminded me of the Mountain Quilt Quest Shop Hop coming up July 20th through 23rd.  You can travel to the eight shops in West Virginia participating and collect the blocks and kits to create the shop hop quilt.  The blocks, by the way, just happen to be designed by one of my fellow quilt guild members, Patti Anderson.  Each shop participating will have their own unique setting for the blocks.  You can find more information about the hop on the Mountain Quilt Quest web page.

Now on to my goodies...

While at the Classic Quilt Shop, I picked up yardage for the Meadow Mystery Quilt hosted by Meadow Mist Designs.  I had the honor of testing the pattern earlier in the year and I wanted to go with a color scheme different from what I chose when I tested it.  I decided to step out of my comfort zone and choose bright happy colors, based on a picture a found on Pinterest.

Photo from Whimsical Raindrop Cottage

When I tested the pattern, I also chose a color palette based on a different meadow picture I had pinned on Pinterest.

Photo from It's Only Natural by Kathy

Now to wait for the next set of instructions.  I 100% guarantee my lips are sealed.

My next fabric additions were picked up at the local Jo-Ann Fabrics for Yvonne's Snowflake Shimmer Quilt-A-Long.

As soon as I saw the metallic shimmer in these fabrics, I HAD to have them.  I'm a sucker for shinny things.  The gray will be the background fabric and the teal will be the binding.  I'm super excited to see this one come together.

Which brings me to my last fabric purchase.  Saturday, we traveled to Morgantown, WV to the Country Roads Quilt Shop.  David finished piecing his version of Looking Glass by Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs and he decided to have it long arm quilted since it is a bigger sized quilt.  To the quilt shop we go!  I played around in the FQ's and decided to add to my stash since they were having a sale on them.  

A total of eleven new babies.  I'm thinking any of these will work for my round on the round robin mini this month.  But we will talk more about that later in the month.

Actually, I should probably stop rambling and go quilt something.  There is much to do and the days are ticking.  But how about one more picture before I go?  Just for fun.

I think he's about ready to vote me out of the sewing pace.  He's constantly paranoid that I'm taking a picture of him when I pick up my phone...I have no idea why?  He's crazy.  Bawhahaha!

Today I'm linking up with Snowflake Shimmer QAL, Main Crush Monday, and Sunday Stash.