Round Robin

Have you ever participated in a Round Robin? If you don't know what I'm talking about, a Round Robin is where a group of quilters decide to pass their quilt tops around to each other, and each quilter adds another "round." Eventually the quilt makes its way back to the originator.

About a year and a half ago, a small group of us--I think there were six--decided to start a Round Robin. Each of us created a center and passed on any fabrics we wanted to be used in the quilt as well as thoughts we had as to color, etc. Our instructions were few in order to allow the others to be as creative as they wished. Here's what the center of mine looked like (ignore portions of the first "round" that you see--the center that I began with was simply the star background with appliqued vase and roses):

We were supposed to each have each person's quilt for about a month before passing it along. In some instances, personal issues arose in a quilter's life that kept us from staying completely on schedule, but we didn't do too bad. I think all the quilts found their way home in about eight or nine months. In addition to our six quilt tops, we also passed around one that was a surprise for a friend, so in effect, we were working on seven tops.

I decided to get mine out today and add the final border. My plan is to give the quilt a scalloped edge once I'm done. Here's what it looks like now:

I didn't quite get it squared up with every line straight on the wall, but I'll take more care once I pin it for quilting. It's not perfect--I'm not sure that you can expect perfection when so many people work on one quilt. The same thing goes for swapped blocks. All of us have different sewing machines and the measure of a 1/4" is a little bit different for each of us. All of the gals in my Round Robin group are experienced quilters and did a nice job in deciding what to add. A couple of us applique, a couple of us prefer piecing, and one of our group loves paper piecing, so each and every quilt is the result of using different techniques. We also passed along journals with the quilt top so that each quilter could write about what she added, why she chose the design she did, and the date she completed her round. I love this quilt top because I can look at each round and think about the friends who created it.

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