Friday, April 05, 2013

Quilter's Block

Last year I finally decided to give the Row Robin thing a try. Our guild has successfully done this every year, and the quilts are amazing. People are so creative and I want to be one of them!

Here is how it works... 5 of you get into a group. You each make a row. You put that row in a bag, and you switch the bags. The bag you get - you are supposed to create a row, based on what you see in the bag.  And you continue to trade bags , we did our every 2 months.

It is now 10 months later, and I have all 5 of my rows, and they are up on my design wall, because of course our finished quilt tops are due April 16th.... and I have NO CLUE what to do!!

This picture is of all 5 rows. I think I have them in the order that I like, but now.... how do I make it spectacular ( with only one week left to go?)    

Do I put it together as is?
Do I make a pieced border?
Do I ??????   

I was really hoping that the process would *BAM* make me creative.... I am still waiting.....

And yes - I am calling this part Finished Friday - because this is as much as I have finished, and.... It's Friday!

For other finished Fridays head over to : Confessions  and Crazy Mom's

17 comments:

Sara said...

Maybe take that bottom triangle pieced row and mimic that 3 more times to have a total of 4 sides. Then make some corner square blocks of some sort. That's all I got!

The horses are so neat--eek!

Nina said...

Well, you certainly ended up with a lot of "sky"! Have you tried flipping the bottom row around so that the row of half squares sort of support the horses? I would add a border to sort of draw it all together and frame the picture. Maybe one fabric, maybe half squares? Can't wait to see your finish!

Nancy said...

I like it like it is; however, if you want it bigger, add a border or two.

Denise said...

I like Nina's idea of turning the last row around so the horses are standing on "dirt."

Gypsy Quilter said...

To me, the top row looks a bit heavy. Have you considered taking that row apart and using 4 of the blocks for corners on the border?

LizA. said...

Hmmm, that bottom row is bothering me. How about a skinny border of maybe red and then some blue and white pinwheels using various blues and stagger them so one is set half a block width to the right or left of the previous one. (Hope that makes sense to you--I think I need more caffeine this a.m.)

Barb in Mi said...

Ok, I would add 2 trees to have the quilt line hanging from something (but thin air). Add a house block and you have your farm!
Sending design karma your way ;-)
I know it will be stunning - no matter what you do!

Unknown said...

Ha, I'm working on mine now, too. I like the suggestion to flip the last row. Then I'd either bind with black as is, to tie in the top row better, or do a border about 2-3" with black and then maybe some black/yellow/gold stripe binding. Can't wait to see it!

Vicki W said...

Well that dark blue (black?) in the top row needs to be repeated for sure. Maybe add a row of flying geese or checkerboards between your wide rows and use that to spread the values around. I also like the idea of the dark row being on the bottom.
Good luck, glad it's not me!

Terri said...

Love the rows! When I'm on deadline I do the least. Sometimes that looks the best. Good luck on your project.
(How do you fit in guild as well as all the other things you do. Do you ever sleep?)
Hugs

Anita said...

That bottom row seems off, I would put it on the left side and maybe continue the pattern on the bottom, maybe even reversing the color combo.

Sarah Craig said...

I keep getting this image of narrow pieced rows between your existing rows - maybe checkerboard strips about 3" wide? It would help unify the whole quilt, particularly if you also did it around the entire unit once pieced. Then a solid border to finish it off...

But I'm sure whatever you do will end up great! Whoop whoop!!

Kevin the Quilter said...

Interesting......hmmmmm.......not sure I have a suggestion on this one, but, I am sure you will have a solution, and I can't wait to see it!

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of adding a farmhouse to the fourth row. The last row does bother me a lot. The color is fine, but there's nothing that really goes with the design in the rest of the quilt. Turning it upside down may help some, but there's still nothing else that matches it. Maybe a skinny row of HST in between each of the rows would help? Some animals appliqued in the blank blocks of that row, too. Somehow, I don't think you can do all that to finish by the 16th, though! You might have to just finish it as is and call it good!


kelly o! said...

Very pretty rows!

One thing I'd consider is taking the Stars row, turning it vertically, and attach it to the side of the other rows. You may need to add a bit or trim a bit...

Missy Shay said...

I have a dumb question, do you keep the row that is in the bag and then pass the row you make along? That way you have several rows made by other people?

Denise said...

Missy - I think the entire bag gets passed along -- so in the end there are 5 row quilts. So each person makes 5 single rows and you need to try to make the row you create fit in with the "theme" the original quilter started with. Never been in one, but I think that's how it works!