Round Robin Rally

My friend Denice posted a lovely tribute recently about 8 quilting friends that completed a Round Robin with a similar group of ladies in Germany.  Denice organized our US contingent, and I was asked to participate in this last fall.  Even though I had a few reluctant and overwhelmed moments during the process, I am so very glad I did. 

In short, a round robin quilt is made by a group of quilters where one person makes a center block, and the other quilters add borders one by one.  The original quilter doesn’t see the quilt until the last border is added.  They may finish as is, or decided to add to it, depending on the rules or finished size desired.  We chose to keep the finished quilt to 4 borders keeping it on the smaller size.  Even then, if 4 people add 8” borders, you still end up with a pretty big quilt to finish. Each of us had 6 weeks to complete our border before passing it on to the next……sort of like musical chairs for quilters.

Denice hosted the unveiling at her home so we could meet the quilters we hadn’t met in our group yet, and see all the finish tops together one last time before she shipped them off to Germany.  We saw photos of all the center blocks at the beginning, but since each only added 4 rounds, some of us hadn’t seen the progress and final result.  What a wonderful range of ideas! Interestingly one of our gals noticed we sent them almost all hand applique blocks whereas they sent us mostly pieced.

I can’t show the quilts yet since they haven’t received ours yet, but I’d like you to meet our US group of quilters.  I’ll show the quilts later, once I know they have them late August.

Sally – we knew each other back in high school, then lost track of each other, and I’m so bless to have reconnected at Janet’s house by chance about ten years ago.  Sally’s quilting skills are highly skilled and impeccable, and she LOVES tiny piecing.  We’ve made many quilt shop stops and retreats along the way.  Sally stepped in for Karen after we lost her to liver cancer in February.  I’m so happy Sally will receive the quilt made for Karen, since Sally was close friends with Karen, and responsible for bringing her into our bee.

Janet – no photo, she could not attend last week because she’s riding motorcycles somewhere in the Ozarks.  We became friends after she long armed one of my quilts, and have been good friends since.  Janet likes to switch things up, and vacillates between her engineering and artsy side.  We’ve made many quilt shops stops and retreats too….Janet always wins the ‘most purchased fabric award’.  J

Denice – I met thru Denice at a retreat in Harbor Springs.  She played ‘border collie’ to this group, patiently keeping us on track.  Like herding mice I suppose!  Denice loves loves loves hand stitching…..and has joined our retreats also.

Marilyn – I met thru Denice via Janet. Marilyn is part of our retreat also. Marilyn and Denice became quilting buddies thru the marriage of their children.  Our traditional styles and colors are probably the closest within our group, unless I’m working on art quilts.  Like Sally, her quilting is beautiful.

Ines – originally from Peru with a very (humorous) entertaining story how and why she left MANY years ago. We met thru our bee, joining us on retreats as her busy life allows. I love the Peruvian design and color influence she brings to her unique designs.

Dodie – my first time meeting Dodie who is a beach/quilting/neighbor friend to Denice.  She luckily missed all our snow last year since she winters in Florida. She loves the modern quilt movement and is not afraid of intricate and complicated piecing.  It was lovely to meet her finally.  I passed one block off to her, which nearly had to be replaced after I got my wires crossed and sent the block to the wrong address.  Lets just say the quilt is 'well traveled'.  Whew!  Crisis averted…..

Jan – my first time meeting Jan too.  She is a quilting friend/relative of Denice, who loves all handwork, and does beautiful detailed applique and embroidery.  Jan belongs to several local guilds and bees, so I hope I will run into her in the future.

Barb - yes, this is me. Denice post says I'm "incredibly talented and very funny" on her blog. LOL......I have her fooled!

These women do AMAZING work! We were asked to write something about ourselves or what inspired us about the round we did in the quilter’s journal.  This will give them a little insight into our lives, and build friendships between us.  Yes, I worked on four quilts, and yes, I will get a quilt at the end, but to me the most important thing is the 16 people (some old friends, many new) I have a bond with, and some great memories of the process……and the quilt too.

Stay tuned for all the quilts once we get theirs.