Thursday, July 01, 2010

Stay at Home Robin

Ok ladies (and gents!) - the moment you have all been waiting for (ok, SOME of you have been waiting for it, I know). The start of the Stay at home Robin. This year's Robin (and yes, that implies if this works for me there will be another year...) will be a wall-hanging 16x18" (approx 40x55cm) in size, and will run for 12 months. The first 7 months will involve piecing - sometimes one piece, sometimes two and once, three - but nothing bigger than 5x15" and of course, there's no need for the pieces to actually be pieced themselves - they can be partly or completely single pieces of fabric. As you will have seen from the robins I've been posting on my blog recently, the finished quilts work best when there is a combination of pieced sections and unpieced sections - but obviously, this is your quilt, so it's up to you. The last 5 months will involve doing something else to your pieced top - up to, in the final month, binding it and putting a hanging sleeve (if desired) and label on it.

I will be making my own little quilt each month as we go along (not working ahead) so I might not have my example ready with the first of the month's instructions, but I will also be making a virtual quilt, which I WILL have ready for the post with the instructions. When you have done your month's work, either send me a photo, email me with a link to your blog or comment on my blog to say that you've done it, and I will add you to the page (tab at the top of my blog) for the robin.

And then, we can watch each other's progress and see how we are getting along - hopefully, we will have a lovely group of little quilts to show at the end.

Right then, so the first month's instructions are: start with a block which is 6" square (finished - so your block should measure 6.5" square before you sew it to anything else) (this can be pieced or plain - personally, for the first month, I recommend pieced!).



Here's my "virtual" quilt block for the starter - and just to give you an idea of the shape of the overall piece, here's what my "quilt" looks like so far




We are not putting a border on our quilts, but I have showed the border with the EQ layout, because it was hard to see what I was doing without it - and it gives an idea of how your block will fit in to the overall scheme of the quilt, which might help you with things like choice of scale, etc.

Later in July, I'll be showing my actual quilt block - once I figure out what I want to do, that is - it won't be a fabric representation of the virtual quilt, though...

10 comments:

Gene Black said...

Great! I could suggest for the border you just color it BLACK in EQ. That way it just delineates the space for us - the readers that is. I will have to get my six by six done!

Janet said...

I'm so excited to get started.

black bear cabin said...

im excited to do this one as well...especially after seeing all the gems that were in the previous swap! now, to decide a theme...Halloween or Winter...hmmmmmmm a tough decision indeed!
i think i understand the directions so far, but i may have to ask an occasional question. Im off to dig thru my patterns for a 6" square...or i may try to do some free piecing this time :) cheers~

Kate North said...

I've taken Gene's idea to do a black border - though I might actually pull out one of the other accent colours like the blue or purple in future months. We'll see. I actually have the complete virtual quilt designed - can't say that about the ACTUAL quilt, mind you!

Janet said...

OK, I'm new, so just to clarify....the 6X6 inch block is "finished" size...so I'm doing 6 1/2, right?

black bear cabin said...

i finished it...
http://blackbearcabin.blogspot.com/2010/07/misc-fun-in-july.html
you can steal the image for your blog too...though its not my best work :)

Plum Cox said...

Hi Kate, I've set up a blog, made a block (and not re-made it yet!) and taken a photo of it....

http://plumquilts.blogspot.com/2010/07/block-made.html

so here it is!

Thanks for starting this - sounds like a fun project to do!

Plum

Rhonda said...

This looks like a load of fun. I'm in but am off to a very slow start. I will get something started this weekend and post about it by next Tuesday.....I'm leaning towards and embroidered center but that thought might change!

Amanda said...

Hi Kate, First block done and blogged http://viewfromourhill.blogspot.com/ . I hope you can comment this time (I think all the right boxes are ticked :) )!!

Betsy said...

so Kate, let me get this right. Right now all I need is a 6.5 inch block and everymonth we add something to it? Will you be telling us what to add?