Nesting Robin 2014/15 Center Block

Here is the block I plan to use as the center for the upcoming Nesting Robin Challenge on the About.com Quilting Forum.  It's an orphan block that I had planned to use on my previous Nesting Robin but it didn't work out.  I found the pattern for it in one of my quilting magazines but can't recall who the designer is (may be Blackbird Designs).  When I figure it out I'll give whomever the credit they deserve for designing such a lovely block.  I made a miniature version (8 1/2" x 8 1/2") of the pattern and did needle-turn applique on it. 

I'm thinking a few plain borders, some more applique, and maybe even some pieced blocks could make this into a nice medallion type quilt.  Or I could go a little bit out of my comfort zone, and try something entirely different than I've done before, by placing it and other various sized blocks in a random setting - with a layout kind of like this sampler that I found on pinterest (a Sue Spargo pattern):

I'm finally back on my Blog and pictures of Nesting Robin

It's been almost a year since I last posted to my blog.  No real excuse, just living life, and spending less time on the computer.

Over the next several weeks, I'll try to catch my blog up with the things I've been working on over the last year.
 
This week I decided to join a Nesting Robin Group on the About dot com Quilting Forum.  I did a Nesting Robin a few years ago and had such fun, plus all of the quilts turned out to be soooo nice, that I decided to do it again.  Plus in this one we need to post pictures of our progress on our blogs (or similar), so thought it would be an incentive to get back to blogging.  In this Nesting Robin we're also being challenged to use our stash.  I love that!  Mine needs a good thinning.

In the previous Nesting Robin we put theme's in a hat, and pulled one each month, and made a row or round of our choice using that theme.  I think there were about 8 themes in the hat to pull from and we pulled about 5.  I remember we pulled:  classic block, stars, buildings, flora or fauna, & things.

I guess I should explain what a Nesting Robin is for those who haven't heard of it before.  A Nesting Robin is like a Round Robin with the exception that it never leaves the nest (your sewing space). You work on a piece and continue to add rounds on it each month yourself. 

Here are the pictures of the nice quilts that the ladies made during my previous Nesting Robin:

This is the one I made

 

 

Nesting Robin

What a fun year I've had working on my Nesting Robin.  Do you wonder what a nesting robin is?  It's like a round robin or a row robin but it nests at our own home.  In other words, it's not passed around to other friends to work on; we work on it ourselves.  We're doing the nesting robin as a group in our guild chapter -18 of us are participating.  As usual we each pick out our own color palate, a theme, decide if we want to do a row or a round robin, and what size the blocks will be.  What makes it unique is that each month we randomly draw out of a hat to see which block we’ll all use for the month.  There are 8 categories in the hat and we decided we'd do 5 rows or rounds - what blocks we make is the luck of the draw. 

The first month the drawing was for "Classic or Traditional" blocks.  I decided on a theme of "Quilt My Own Story".  Along with my blocks I'm writing the story of the various places I've lived and some memories associated with those places.  This first row represents where I was born and raised  - in cold country - Wisconsin & Minnesota.  The main block is an 8 1/2" needleturn applique block called "Winter Still Life" - a pattern by Blackbird Designs that I found in one of my quilting magazines.  The blocks on either side of it are 4 1/2" paper-pieced blocks and are called SeeSaw - which was my favorite past-time when I was small.  Here is the first row I made:

The second month we drew "Stars".  I decided to do a swag with a couple of stars and a double star on it that I could use along the top of my quilt.  The stars represent the many friends I made along the way.  Since we moved every couple of years while I was growing up, it was always a case of making new friends and leaving old friends.  The story I'm writing to go along with this row is about some of the friends who enriched my life along the way - the "stars" in my life.  Here is my second row:

The third month we drew "buildings".  My row is a paper-pieced cabin block with some log cabin blocks around it.  Since my theme is about the places I've lived I may want to emphasize this block a little more and this row may undergo some changes when I work on putting the rows together.  Here it is so far:

The fourth month we drew "things".  I decided to make quilting related tools and quilting things since I spend so much of my time quilting.  There's a rotary cutter, a thimble, a button jar, a spool of thread, and a tape measure/ruler - just in case you can't tell from the picture.  My story for this row is about the time I've lived in Arizona and fell in love with quilting.

It's the fifth month and we drew our last category - it was "flora or fauna/plants or animals".  I decided to applique flowers that are either the state flower or flowers that represent/remind me of the various states where I've lived.  Since I've lived in more than 5 states, some states needed to be grouped together.  Somehow it all worked out and I was able to finish it last night.  Yea!  Here is my last row:

Now we'll take about 2 months to put our quilts together, maybe add filler rows, sashing, or whatever.  Then we'll quilt them and have a reveal tea to show them to each other.  We've shown our rows at our guild meetings as we went along, but combining them and putting them into a quilt will be a secret until the reveal tea.  After the reveal we'll take them to our guild meeting and show them to the whole group.

I can't wait to see everyone's quilts.  Here are a few pictures of some of the rows that others have done:

2010 AQG Quilt Show

I went to the AZ Quilter's Guild Show on Friday.  What wonderful quilts this year!  I was especially impressed with the wonderful quilting on them.  Here is a picture of the Best in Show winner - made by Terri Doyle.

Here are a few more of my favorites:

On the above embroidered Sun Bonnet Sue quilt, the quilting was what made it so interesting.  There were things like windows and trees and such quilted into the background.  Here are a couple of samples of that (click to enlarge).

The following quilt was spectacular and the detailed quilting was breathtaking. 

Here's an especially pretty grandmother's flower garden quilt.

The colors on the one below were so calm and peaceful.  I just loved the border applique too.

I loved this cute house quilt.

Here are pictures of the round robin quilts my applique group and I had in the show.  They looked so nice all hanging in a row.  The individual pictures in order are of Joy's, Elaine's Patty's, Joni's, Linda's (me), & Pam's quilts (I didn't get a picture of Joni with her quilt).

Here is a direct link to more of the pictures if you'd like to see some more "eye candy":

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/577004606TitDfT?vhost=good-times

Round Robin Quilt - "Happy Hearts"

I'm so excited with my round robin quilt and also excited that I finished quilting it last week.  It will be on display at the upcoming Arizona Quilters Guild Quilt Show. Here is a picture of my quilt; I call it "Happy Hearts":

I made the center block and then my friends in the applique group I belong to made the other rounds (rounds in order made by JoyZ, PattyW, ElaineC, JoniL, & PamF).  I quilted it with feathers in various places, McTavishing, plus meander and pebble fill.  Though I haven't quite mastered quilting on my longarm yet, the overall effect is okay, and I'm pleased with it.  The pictures I took of the quilting don't show it very well but here are a couple of the shots anyway.

When I get the quilt back home I need to figure out how to take clearer pictures so that the quilting will show up better.

I can't wait to see all of the round robins finished (5 others besides mine).  We'll have them all hanging together at the quilt show.  We didn't enter them to be judged; they'll just be for display only.

I feel badly that I was supposed to quilt all of these quilts as my part of the round robin and then got intimidated by the beauty of these quilts and was afraid I'd ruin them after just quilting my first one for Patty.  I ended up asking the other ladies if I could quilt a different quilt for them and let someone with more quilting experience and expertise quilt these lovely quilts.  Thankfully they were agreeable.  One even got an award winning quilter to quilt hers.  I can't wait to see how it and the others turned out after the quilting was completed.