German Round Robin Project

Last year I had the pleasure of participating in what's called a ROUND ROBIN quilt project with a group of 8 ladies in the US, and 8 ladies in Germany. One person organized the project in each country. 

Each quilter created a center quilt block of our choice. We sent the block, a journal with our photo and biography, and a small handmade gift in a bulk package to a lady organizing in Germany. They in turn did the same process.  Then four names were drawn randomly and assigned to complete a "round". We kept it to four 8" borders each so the quilt would be a manageable size and we didn't end up with king size bed quilts.  Each quilter had six weeks to complete her border then she'd send it off to the next person.  We unveiled the quilt tops at our organizers beach house on a lovely summer evening with Paella and homemade fresh blueberry ice cream for dinner. The finished tops were then boxed up and sent on their way to Germany.

Then we waited for our quilts to arrive. You may recall me posting about a year ago.......part of our package arrived with 3 quilt tops and the other 5 were missing. Our organizer did everything beyond humanly possible working with Germany, the postal service, their lost and found, posting on lost/found online quilt sites, everything short of the FBI/CIA...but nothing turned up.  Everyone was devastated.  All their work, the investment, the creativity....gone. And to think five quilts landed somewhere.....we only hope they were put to good use.

I was one of the fortunate ones to receive a top back. I wanted to be excited yet sensitive to those that lost theirs.  I felt survivor’s guilt. I set my quilt aside for quite some time.

As the year anniversary approached I knew I needed to finish it. I wasn't respecting all the work they did, or the work we did on theirs. These beautiful quilts take a lot of time and energy, and my incomplete top was likely making our German friends feel worse than they already did.

I decide to machine quilt the top myself so I dug it out and got busy.   I shared it at show and tell at our Gate Crashers Retreat, along with the emotional journey that went with it. I'm so glad I finished it.  And I love it, and will cherish it.