Round Robin sneak peeks

Though I didn't sew much the last few months, the quilt guild round robin  kept me from totally deserting my sewing room.  I had committed to this back in January, so I had to come down and sew a little, and I think that was a good thing.  My group gave me permission to share progress here, so here's a peek at the two quilt I have added rounds to so far.

Pam's Mariner's Compass medallion

Pam made a gorgeous Mariner's Compass block for her medallion.  That's fussy cut Tula Pink fabric in the blades, meeting and matching to make a lovely little floral center.  Coming up with a order to do it justice was an intimidating task, but playing around with stock borders in EQ8 helped.

The borders are from EQ but the corners are my esigns.  I had to tweak the colors a couple of times to get the right effect, but I'm pleased with how it worked out. 

I think if the next round had been mine to add I would have turned this on point.  I have no idea what wonderful idea the next person in the round robin came up with, as I missed the last meeting so didn't get a peek at the next round.

Next up is Traci's medallion with Jenn's round added.  This one is more modern than most of what I make so it stayed on the design wall most of the month while I figured out what to add that would play well with the rest.

I decided to try to pull out some of the brighter blues from the center, and have some sort of slash and insert component to the piecing, because the plus signs looked like they might have been constructed that way.

I slashed these squares at random angles and inserted the yellow and orange strips.  I followed that up by using the block as one of the fabrics in a paper pieced wonky triangle block.  Wonky-on-purpose is so much harder for me to acheive than wonky-by-accident!

I think using one background fabric for two adjacent sides and a different background for the remaining two added an interesting element, but it was not a thought out design decision.  I just didn't have enough of either fabric, or any other suitable background print.  Happy accident?

I wish I had a picture of what Pam added to my cat medallion.  I saw it when it was passed along for the next round but did not think to take a picture.  Her border of little tiny flying geese is fabulous!  I'll get the whole thing back in a few months and will share then.

I think there will be a short hiatus in the round robin as one person had life interfere with her plans, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait!  One more round to go...

Wisdom from my daughter

I've been in a little bit of a creative and blogging slump the last few months.  I couldn't muster much energy for sewing and no enthusiasm at all for sitting down at the computer or surfing blogs.  Maybe the grey, cold, wet spring was to blame.  Maybe I just needed a break.  Maybe I was exhausted from watching my daughter be exhausted from slogging through the last projects and exams and activities and emotional upheavals of her high school career.

She graduated with honors this past Sunday, and gave one of the commencement addresses. She spoke beautifully about the need to face any challenge with the belief that one is good enough to succeed.  She challenged all her classmates, and the rest of us too, to always answer "Yes, I am good enough"  when confronted with whatever life throws at us. 

I am so, so proud of this strong, confident, accomplished and compassionate young woman!

She is now at a new-to-her summer camp as a camp counselor until she starts university in the fall, putting her own advice into practice as she embraces new adventures and makes new friendships.

As for my slump?  I am telling myself I am good enough to finally start things I have been avoiding, and I suspect getting past those will re-energize me to get more productive in the sewing room and socializing in blogland again.  See you again soon!