SAHRR--The Reboot

Last year, Gail and friends joined together for the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) and had such a good time that they are doing it again and inviting all of us to join the fun. There is more information on the SAHRR 2022 available at Gail's webpage HERE. 

The first step of the SAHRR is for everyone to share their choice of a center block. Each week, one of the cohosts will let us know what kind of border to add. There will be six rounds of borders, and we can add all of them or as many as we choose. At the end, each participant should have an original medallion style quilt!

I took part in last year's event, but got bogged down halfway through and didn't finish. I lasted through four rounds of borders, but I wasn't happy with the way my last border was looking, so I quit there. This is how far I got last year.

At this point, my quilt center measures 38" square. For the 2022 SAHRR, I'm going to try again with the same center. I am definitely going to remove the three plain outer borders, but might leave the flying geese and piano keys borders. I'm also thinking about changing those green plus sign corners of the piano keys border. Here's the plan for my revised center (although I might remove all the borders and get it back down to the feathered star block.)

You can see the center blocks that others have chosen for their round robin quilts at Quilting Gail. I'm looking forward to finding out what our next step will be!

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stay at Home Round Robin--Border #4

This one came close to the wire for me. I finished adding the next border to my Feathered Star Round Robin quilt this afternoon (Sunday) and even took photos of it right away. Then I completely spaced out about writing my blog post for it until it was time to get ready for bed. Better late than never I guess!

Our assignment for Border #4 came from Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn by Us, and their choice of border was checkerboard. I tried out several different ideas, both with my EQ program and also in fabric. They all seemed too busy until I ended up with plain borders and checkerboard (aka 9-patch) corners. My quilt currently finishes at 34" square.

If you are interested in joining in on the Stay at Home Round Robin, take a look at Gail's intro post HERE. She was the one who got this whole thing started! Check out everyone's progress for last week at Home Sewn by Us.

I'm also linking up to:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Round Robin Border #3

Our assignment this week for the  Stay at Home Round Robin comes from Anja at Anja Quilts. Her choice for the next border is Flying Geese. After playing with many variations in EQ, I decided it was time to get some more pink and burgundy into my design. I added a filler border of the background fabric to get the center up to the right size for my geese.

The top and bottom borders are stitched to the center, but the sides are not until I figure out what to put in the corners. That may depend on the next border choice. Once this Flying Geese border is all attached, my quilt will measure 28" square.

If you are interested in joining in on the Stay at Home Round Robin, take a look at Gail's intro post HERE. She was the one who got this whole thing started! Check out everyone's progress for this week at Anja Quilts.

I'm also linking up to Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 2/2/21

Happy Groundhog Day and Happy To-Do Tuesday too!  It's time once again to look back at my to-do list from last week, see how I did on accomplishing my goals, then post a new list for the week ahead. I'm linking up with the  To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. 

Last week's list was another long one, and having the list helped keep me focused on meeting those goals. I generally find that I might work on whichever project I'm most interested in early in the week, then concentrate on finishing off the rest of the list over the weekend. That has been working well for me lately.

To-Do List for 1/26 - 2/1:

1. Bowties 365--make one bowtie block every day  ✔done 

I ended up with 36 pink blocks for the month of January and have switched to yellow for February.

2. Stay-at-Home Round Robin (SAHRR)--add plus signs border  ✔done  

My plus signs are not a full border, but the corner blocks on the piano keys border.   

           

3. Glorified 9-Patch--make 2 blocks in pink     ✔done

I finished the last two blocks in pink plus two in black/grey.

4. Grassy Creek mystery--put together six blocks      ✔done

I finished making all the blocks needed for this quilt and have started joining them together. Here is what is done so far.

5. Sewcialites QAL--make block #17      ✔done        

This is one of my favorite 30's reproduction prints, and I have it in several colors.

                     

6. Sew Colorful Stars--make one pink block  ✔done

Lots of half-square triangles in this block! 16" finished size block.

Last week certainly was productive! The cold weather makes time in the quilting room my top choice of activity. Of course, it's also my top choice in any other weather too!

To-Do List for 2/2 - 2/8:

1. Bowties 365--make one yellow bowtie block every day  

2. Stay-at-Home Round Robin (SAHRR)--add Flying Geese border                

3. Grassy Creek mystery--finish assembly, decide on borders

4. Sewcialites QAL--make block #18   

5. One Monthly Goal--choose a project & write blog post

6. 30's Kaleidoscope--cut yellows and start piecing blocks

That should all be plenty to keep me busy for the next week!  I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us. 

Julie in GA

Stay at Home Round Robin Progress

The Stay at Home Round Robin has a different hostess every week, and that person lets us know what the next border design should be. This week it is Emily at The Darling Dogwood. The assignment she has given us for our next border is to add plus signs.

Lucky for me, the plus signs worked perfectly to fill the corners that I had left empty when my piano key border went on. The plus sign blocks finish at 3", and the current finished size including borders is 22.25". I expect to be adding a small filler border to bring it up to 24" before the next pieced round, but that won't happen until I find out what the next border should be.

If you are interested in joining in on the Stay at Home Round Robin, take a look at Gail's intro post HERE. She was the one who got this whole thing started! Check out everyone's progress for this week at The Darling Dogwood.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 4, 2021

My primary quilting project for the past week was making the rest of the blocks for my Blooming Onion quilt. I ended up with 48 blocks, which used 6 yards of fabric. Here is one group of blocks before they got joined together. I'm very eager to get this quilt top assembled!

My other usage for the week was 1/4 yard for the piano keys border on my Feathered Star block. I'm making this as part of the Stay at Home Round Robin. We're just getting started--check out Gail's post HERE for more info if you are interested in joining us.

My feathered star block originally measured about 17.5", but because there was extra background fabric around the outside, I was able to trim it down to 16.75". My piano key pieces finish at 1.25" across and are currently 3" wide, but they could get trimmed down a bit if needed to fit better with the next border.. The two side borders have been stitched to the block, but the top and bottom borders are waiting until I figure out what to put in the corners.

2021 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             6.25 yards

Used year to date:                         7.50 yards

Added last week:                             0.0 yards

Added year to date:                      11.50 yards

Net added year to date                 4.0 yards

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. The Blooming Onion quilt took up most of my time, but I also worked on several other projects, spending at least an hour quilting every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2021: 

1/17 - 1/23               7 of 7 days

2021 Total             23 of 23 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. I'm also linking up my Round Robin progress at Chris Knits.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stay-at-Home Round Robin

There seem to be so many new quilt-alongs beginning as the new year gets started, and they all look like fun.  I'm trying to rein in the number of new quilts that I start, but some are hard to resist. One that has me especially intrigued is the Stay-At-Home Round Robin (SAHRR) hosted by Gail at Quilting Gail with help from several of her quilt blogging friends.

I've never participated in a regular round robin, but I have always wanted to give it a try. Here is Gail's explanation of a traditional round robin:

"This is a common activity in many quilt guilds. A round robin (in quilting terms) is where each person makes a centre block. This block is put in a bag or container, maybe with extra fabric, perhaps with a notebook, and the bag is passed onto another quilter in the group. They are given instructions as to what kind of border they are to add on to the quilt. Sometimes the next person will make a border for each side, or one side or two sides of the block. It’s then passed on to another quilter and it continues on … when the quilt centre and all the borders are completed, it is returned to the original maker of the centre block."

For the Stay-at-Home Round Robin, each quilter will make all the different parts for their own quilt. The "Round Robin" part of the process will be that each week one of the co-leaders will give instructions for the next border to be added. The quilter has to figure out how to make that border plan work with their quilt, or they can decide to leave it off. 

The first step is to come up with a block for the quilt center. I had recently run across an old UFO started in 2001. Earlier that year I had made this little wallhanging (36" square) for a quilt shop challenge. The design is a variation of the Judy Martin pattern "Desert Twilight" from her book The Block Book. It now hangs in our den above the mantel.

Desert Twilight wallhanging, 36" square

At that time, I had been thinking about making a bed-sized version of the Desert Twilight design. The star blocks in the original wallhanging measure 6". My plan was to make larger feathered star blocks to put in those places. I made one feathered star block as a sample, using some of the same fabrics as the original quilt.

This single block is as far as I ever got on that quilt plan. I still have many of the original fabrics, and I think this block will look great as the center of a medallion style quilt. The star measures 14.75" to the points, but there is extra background around the outside which could take the block up to a max of 17". 

I will be waiting eagerly until next Monday to find out the plan for our first border. There are seven rounds of borders planned, with a new one being added each week until the end of February. If you are interested in joining in, check out Gail's info post HERE. You can see the center blocks that people are planning to use HERE. Come join the fun!

Linking up with:

Stay at Home Round Robin at Quilting Gail

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA