American Dream - the SAHRR Quilt

Here she is, my Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) quilt, American Dream.

 

Created completely by me while participating in Quilting Gail's Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2021 quilt-along with 6 other quilters who chose blocks for each round. 

A traditional Round Robin sets up the order of quilters and their block choices, passing the quilts around in the group for each quilter's round completion. This is my second time with SAHRR, making Fiesta Garden and The Moon and the Stars last year. It's also my fourth round robin quilt, since I enjoy the process so much!

Some of my fellow quilters designed their quilts in EQ. Me? I worked with what I had, no pre-planning, which made a few rounds look a bit odd to me. If you're interested in reading about each round, and all the joys and struggles, check out these posts:

SAHRR rules

Round 1 piano keys

Round 2 cross

Round 3 flying gees

Round 4 checkerboard

Round 5 wonky stars

Round 6 log cabin

Round 7 pinwheels

What do you think of the name? I usually have a difficult time naming quilts, but this one popped into my head within seconds. With the Americana theme, the house, a couple rounds that could be interpreted as grasses of the prairie, owning a home is certainly an American Dream. This quilt represents that perfectly!

So, how about a few more pictures? The center,

one of the corners,

and a closeup of the quilting, with the Happy Times pantograph.

Did I mention the size of this quilt? It's a big one, at 88" x 88". It's currently draped over the back of my living room loveseat, folded in half and still spilling off the sides! But the good news? It used up a lot of fabric, calculated at around 12.5 yards - woohoo! Just the back alone used up a ton of yardage.

At this size, American Dream it would make a great picnic quilt. It's already looking great on the grass. Wouldn't a basket full of wine, cheese, and other goodies be perfect here? And with plenty of room leftover to sit too!

I'm linking up my finish over at Quilting Gail's linky party, and if you also made a SAHRR quilt, I look forward to seeing it there. Can't wait to visit and read all about your creation!

Be sure to visit each of my fellow 6 quilters, or should I say, partners in crime!

• Gail @ Quilting Gail
• Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• Anja @ Anja Quilts
• Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Until our next SAHRR,

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Stay at Home Round Robin - Pinwheels

It's the last round of the Quilting Gail's Stay at Home Round Robin, and this time it's pinwheels.

And boy, did this round ever increase the size of this quilt top, making it one of the largest quilts I've ever made at 88" x 88". It's too big to fit on my design wall, and I barely have enough floor space for a decent picture. I had to stand on my bed to take this one!

But I really like this pinwheel round, and there are elements of it I'd like to use in another quilt. I won't tell you which - you'll just have to wait till I get another quilt designed.

A little about my design process for this round. I knew I wanted it to be blue again, with small bits of red to tie back to the center block's patriotic quilt. So, I made a few pinwheels, using the same light blue fabric from the flying geese round. It's always a good design element to repeat fabrics or colors throughout a quilt to provide unity.

Now what to do? In the picture above, I have somewhat of a layout idea, and decide to make a few cream pinwheels. After pondering their placement, I added the extra blue background in different widths to make those pinwheels dance along the border.

Oh I really like that! But once again, my idea was thwarted by not having enough light blue background fabric to cover more pinwheels and sashing. Dang it!! So now what?

While pondering that question, I decided I didn't like this pinwheel border right next to the green one. The color and block transition just looked odd. Alright then, how about finishing up the blue dot fabric from those flying geese to add a transition border? And more unity of course!

Much better. The red, green, blue and cream dots in that fabric does a great job between the two borders, joining them together.

Moving on to solving the gaps between the pinwheels. With no other light blue in the stash that was a close match, I decided to sew the pinwheels together, removing the spaces between them. That left large spaces on each end of the pinwheel sets. After testing out a few more blues, I dove into my patriotic bin, and settled on a dark blue print with red, white and light blue crosses on it.

That works okay, and having spent a few hours agonizing over this pinwheel round (see all those scraps I was playing with?), I was satisfied well enough to finish it up.

Though this pinwheel round is not quite what I wanted, it still looks fine, and I'm declaring this quilt top DONE! Now to find backing that's large enough (ya, right!), and get 'er quilted. Plan on seeing the final finish March 29, when there's a SAHRR Finish linky party over at Quilting Gail's - I hope to see your project there!

Do check out all the pinwheel rounds from my fellow round robin quilting friends this week. If you're sewing along with us, share your round robin at Quilting Gail's SAHRR linky party.

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

See you again March 29. Until then,

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Stay at Home Round Robin - Log Cabin

Welcome back for round 6 of Quilting Gail's Stay at Home Round Robin. This week is my block choice, log cabin.

I bet your looking at this round and wondering, huh? I'll admit, even though this round features my block choice, this is probably my least favorite round, for several reasons.

While I like the green, turns out I ran out of not only the green plaid but my favorite cream dot print used in the piano key round. That left me with a dozen log cabin blocks to play with. Sure, I could have made more with different fabrics, but that leads to the next problem.

What I discovered, at least for my quilt, log cabin blocks do not make the best choice for a border. I hope that my round robin quilt friends have found a way around this, though I know one asked about skipping a row. And I don't blame her if she chose this row to skip!

So, with a lack of fabric and a poor block choice, this is what happens. An odd border. The best I could come up with was using 8 log cabin blocks in the top and bottom borders, in sets of two. A group of two in each corner,

and two in the border centers.

Okay, that solves for the log cabin problem. Fortunately, I had just enough of the large green plaid to put pieces in the center on the sides.

To solve the remaining green fabric problem, I found a close-in-value green in the stash, just enough to fill in the blanks.

Overall, it looks ok, almost like lightening bolts coming from those stars. But I think I'll put this border in the 'fail' category.

Hopefully, my other round robin quilt friends were more successful with this round - be sure to check out what they did. And link up your round robin creation below!

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

Happy Quilting!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Stay at Home Round Robin - Wonky Stars

The Stay at Home Round Robin, hosted by Quilting Gail, features wonky stars for round 5.

Well, this round worked out well for my design. Sorry to say, but I'm not that fond of anything wonky - I more of a clean lines, everything balanced type of designer. That's why there's only four stars - I had no interest in making more. 

And even though I didn't like the yellow plus signs from before, thankfully, they're now blending in with the addition of the yellow stars in the corners on this round.

Just so I didn't regret my yellow choice as before, I used a softer yellow, one not so bright and with a touch of gold in it.

I even placed them in a sparkly dark blue night sky. If there weren't two more rounds to help increase the quilt size, I think I would stop here. But I shall continue cause the next round is mine, and it would be awkward if I didn't do it.

Check out how my other round robin quilt friends are creating their rounds, and be sure to link up your round this week with Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts on My Quilting Life.

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

Now onto round six, which is my block choice. Not sure what I'm going to do yet but I'd better get it figured out. Until then, 

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Stay at Home Round Robin - Checkerboard

It's round 4 of Quilting Gail's Stay at Home Round Robin quiltalong, and this week's choice is 'checkerboard'.

I'll admit, I wasn't overly wild about the prospect of making 1" squares for a checkerboard, but realized it's what the quilt needed. The other three rounds are busy - it was time to give this quilt a round of rest!

For the checkerboard, I pulled out red again from the center and piano key round. But what to pair it with? There was already enough blue and green, and I certainly didn't want to go down the bright yellow path again. 

Instead, I went with an orange that leans toward red for a perfect pairing.

The combo of the two colors, easily made into a checkerboard using strip piecing, certainly calms everything down and lets the eye rest. Because I ran out of the orange, the corners are just the red fabric, which also blends in nicely but also allows for border size fudging.

Check out how my other round robin quilt friends are creating their rounds, and be sure to link up your round this week with Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn by Us.

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

Now onto the next round, which will probably be blue. I don't really want green because that starts leaning toward a Christmas color scheme being right next to red, which is not where I want this to go. Remember there's a patriotic quilt in the center!

Until next week with another round, 

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns

Stay at Home Round Robin - 3

I'm sharing another round of the Stay at Home Round Robin today. Round 3 is Flying Geese, chosen by Anja of Anja Quilts, who is also hosting the SAHRR linky party this week.

This time, I've switched back to blue, using an almost solid light value blue, plus this dotted blue print.

All those dots of color help to tie the color scheme together, just like the first dot print in cream.

I'll admit, in doing this project, I tend to try to keep the number of blocks I have to sew at a minimum. Not too wild about sewing an infinite number of blocks to load up the round! Plus, a round full of the same block can get a bit boring.

Granted, that idea has it's place, but this is not one of them.

And that's where the center bar comes in. It's a way to cut down on the number of flying geese blocks to make, adds interest to the round, and allows for a previously used fabric or color addition tie everything together.

I'm liking this round, though those yellow plus signs in the corners from round 2 still bother me. I'm hoping the next round will be one to calm everything down, providing rest for the eye. We shall see what I come up with next week!

Be sure to visit my fellow participants to see how they have interpreted their flying geese round, and be sure to link up your work!

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

Happy Quilting!

 

My Favorite Patterns

Stay at Home Round Robin - 2

Are you playing along with the Stay at Home Round Robin? Ready for the next round, Plus Signs?

Making this round mostly green, I've pulled away from the red, white, and blue theme to bring out the green of the grass. Plus, I thought it would be nice to pull out yellow from the windows, adding spark again in the corners.

Unfortunately, I think the yellow is a bit bright, and wished I had chosen a different value. Am I going to remake those plus signs with a different yellow? No, because this is a work-in-progress, no-plan type of quilt. It is what it is, and all I can do is work to lessen my perceived flaw, both within this round and subsequent ones.

So, how about the addition of some blue plus signs to tone down those yellow ones and not make them so bright against the green?

Yes, that seems to work. And the blue ties the plus sign round with the piano keys and the center, while also minimizing the strength of the green. It's not exactly my favorite round so far, but we'll see what happens when the others are added.

There are seven of us leading this Stay at Home Round Robin, and I encourage you to visit each one to see how they are approaching each round.

• January 11:  centre blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round ME!!! @ Quilting Gail 

We are definitely all doing our own individual interpretation of each round, which shows you just what is possible.

If your are joining us in sewing, link up this week with Emily at The Darling Dogwood.

Happy Quilting!

My Favorite Patterns