2012 round robin quilts

Monday at guild the tops were revealed.

Mine started as a convergence.  I included all the fabrics I used, and people didn’t add much else.   It looks very good, but I think unfinished.  There’s too much “action” at the edge… needs another border that quiets it down.  Haven’t decided yet exactly what to do.  Notice the applied butterflies at the top of the inner border?  Surprising how subtle they are; it really is lively fabric.  I especially like the way the flowers on the upper left L are fussy cut to curve around the corner, and the way that bright pink square picks up the butterfly in the upper right.  Laid this way the pink fish swim “up” on most of the big cuts; I may turn it counterclockwise to make them horizontal.  It will put the peace signs right as well.  I think the butterflies will be just fine that way.

During the 3rd round, I got Carolyn Nelson’s elegant log cabin + broiderie perse.  Everything starting with the all-round burgundy 1-inch border is mine.  I had to really finagle to get enough space to do the appliques on the tan/brown bands.   There wasn’t much yardage left, and no one had added any fabrics to her inclusions so I had to be careful adding something.  I debated, and ended up adding that last little border with every scrap of what I had left of that interesting multi-color ‘woven’ look.  The colors tied back to the center so perfectly you don’t notice that all my strips are brown.  She may not like it, but it can be easily stripped off since none of the appliques impinge on it.

Second round, I got Pat Wade’s square-in-a-square-4-square.  I extended the idea by turning it on point and adding more square-in-a-square  in each side.  This one looks more “like” Pat than the last round robin — a riot of bright colors with lots of batiks.

I got  a wonderful pine tree diamond from Victoria for the first round.  I put it on point and drafted in some triangles to echo the center and added some other colors.  Drafting this was crazy hard.  I didn’t want to make it any bigger than necessary, so I wanted the original center to extend to the edge of the new side.  SO HARD to get those triangles right as the same size as hers, and to get the inside green band right.  The cardinal is fusible & machine applique.  The pine cones are 3-D & ruched.  I just pinned the cones on so she could finish the quilt as she wished without worrying about them during quilting.

All the quilts looked really fabulous.   (link to the gallery of all 8 quilts is TBD)

Personal

This year, I was on the nominating committee for the guild.  The slate we put together was presented in March, and this month we voted them in.  I’m going to be both webmaster & treasurer.  Our terms start in May.  It’s strange how this went.  The most stubbornly open position was Hospitality.  Since your obligations are limited to coordinating 2 parties a year (as opposed to year round monthly duties), I was surprised.  Treasurer was hard, too.  People were really frightened of the idea of keeping books on a computer, which both the outgoing and incoming president felt strongly about.  In the end, it seemed simplest for me to volunteer.  *I* think it’s a piece of cake.

We have a mix of old & new blood.  Programs, Quilt Show, Comfort Quilts and others are repeats.  We have quite recent members for VP & Secretary.  Some old faces have switched hats (membership, treasurer).  Now I just hope everyone steps up and follows through.  I’ll feel really responsible if they don’t.