Pretty Blocks in a Row...

Here's another effort for our guild's Row Robin swap. There are 8 of us participating. Ordinarily the rows would not be shown until the completion date. However, it's safe to show this one now because the recipient is not online and won't see it. She chose a pretty, dusty lavender batik as her focus fabric, along with a tone-on-tone print for the background. And she's open to whatever block designs each quilter wants to dream up.

Well, that's all the permission I needed to sort through my batik scraps and come up with pretty bits for these four string-pieced Square-in-a-Square blocks. Such a delightful mess I made out of those scraps! Then I puzzled over the corner triangles, trying to remember the formula for cutting quarter-square triangles. What size, what to add... but at last it came to me... these are just half-square triangles, and the math for cutting them was easy. Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill. Problem solved.

I wanted to add some fusible applique to the row as well. Two Star Flower blocks from Cynthia Tomaszewski's "Aunties Garden" pattern seemed just the ticket. And I arranged the string-pieced blocks in both horizontal and vertical orientations when assembling the row.

These kinds projects are such fun to work on, and allow plenty of room to experiment with something small. No pressure. I'm not making a whole quilt... just a row. The rows measure 54" finished width. And we can create our choice of block sizes and combos within that requirement. Three rows down, and five to go. I look forward to our "big reveal", and seeing the quilts completed.

An Angel at Work...

This cute garden angel is a part of the row robin project I'm participating in with several members of my quilt guild. Participants exchanged bags recently, and each bag contained instructions for the quiltmaker's theme along with several yards of background and accent fabrics. The bag also held the quiltmaker's first row. Once we get a bag, we're on our own to come up with a row that measures 54" for that quilter's project. We can use our imaginations and our fabric scraps to stitch the row. The first row for my own quilt is shown here.

I got Normajean's project in the first exchange, and her theme is angels. I'm pretty partial to angels, too, so had fun coming up with the elements for my contribution. I can show you this piece because she's not online, so there's no chance she'll see this angel before all the rows are completed and returned to her. And it's just one part of the row I've made... there's more. The pattern is a block from a sampler published in a long-ago issue of Sampler Quilts magazine. The published quilt was titled "My Favorite Things" and made by Dottie Williams of California. This angel was so appealing, going about her gardening duties. It's done in fusible applique with machine blanket stitched edges.

Don't you just love to sew? Me, too.

A Pretty Row to Sew...

This is a row of 9" Ohio Star Variation blocks (also called Henry of the West, among other names). I pieced and joined the row because I'll be going on a quilting retreat next week, and the occasion will mark the beginning of a Row Robin exchange. There are 8 of us, all members of the Country Road Quilters, participating in this activity.

We begin with 2 yards of a design fabric and 3 yards of a background. I thought that bright pink and green floral print might turn into quite a happy quilt. We stitch the first row of our own projects. It can be any size, any style, and any combination of blocks that will measure 54" wide when finished. I made the six 9" pieced blocks for mine. This row goes into a bag with the rest of the fabric to be passed along to the next quiltmaker on the exchange list.

We'll each make a row inspired by the fabrics and rows we find in each quiltmaker's bag, and then pass the bag along to the next participant in a couple of months. Eventually, after it's visited each participant's sewing room, the bag containing 8 rows will be returned to its owner. I like scrappy quilts, so it will be fun to see what fabrics get added in and how the whole design comes together.

Participants will reveal our first rows at the retreat, and then we won't see our project again until the end. That's when the rest of the work begins... designing, arranging, and sewing the rows into a quilt top for completion. Meantime, we'll flex our sewing muscles throughout the year, making blocks and rows for 8 different quilts. Should be fun!