Here's the centre block I send off back in June 2014:
And here's what I received back this week:
Isn't that fantastic? Seven lovely ladies, who I didn't even know a year ago, have each added a border that perfectly captures my tastes and colours. I'm so pleased with how it turned out - the colours, the patterns, the individual fabrics - it's all wonderful.
Lime green is particularly hard to photograph, so here's a close up of some of the vibrancy in this quilt (and the highly accurate precise piecing fellow Possums have done):
I really do hope that the other members of the group are equally pleased with their quilts when they get them back. I think it became easier to think up borders as we got to know the group members better, but some people think it got harder once they knew more about the person and their likes and dislikes.
My quilt is 84" square, so it fits perfectly on a queen sized bed.
I've started thinking about the quilting and backing already. The predictable choice would be to use Kaffe Fassett Paperweight in purple, but I've already used that another quilt, so may just be radical and use a green version of Paperweight instead. I have a tiny piece of it in Algae and it looks good against the quilt top. I intend to hand quilt this quilt with a variety of my usual Perle 8s, but I may also use some of my Dazzle threads from Wonderfil which have a sparkle in them. I want to bring out the stars and triangles in the borders.
Here's some photos of how my quilt developed. Each person just did whatever they thought was best for the quilt at that time. We could give general preferences, but mainly they took inspiration from what other people had done before them.
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| First border by Sharon of Mother Dragon's Musings |
Our Possum Magic round robin started after we found each other through the New Bloggers group back in 2014. Over 100 people from all over the world joined that online group, but we got ourselves organised and setup a round robin for those of us in Australia and New Zealand.
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| Second border by Jo of Riddle and Whimsey |
Jo had been in a round robin before, so she drafted some rules, and we all set to work making our own centre blocks.
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| Third border by Serena of Sew Giving |
We had about six weeks to add our borders to each quilt before it was time to send them on to the next person on the list. The dates were all agreed at the start.
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| Fourth border by Carla of Granny Maud's Girl |
The quilts traveled around in a circle, and the idea was that we would blog about the borders as we completed them. Unfortunately times have changed, and we all spend more time on Instagram than we do blogging now, but we still got to see updates of how our quilts were progressing.
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| Fifth border by Jane of Where Jane Creates |
We have developed close connections with our fellow Possums while working on these quilts. Carla, Serena and Jo are in in Perth so they have met up to exchange quilts and brain storm ideas for borders.
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| Sixth border by Rebecca of One Wee Bird |
Rebecca, Alice and I are all in New Zealand. I've become friends with Alice because she lives in Wellington. I haven't met Rebecca yet, but she has a great Kiwi sense of humor, and I'd really like to meet her one day.
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| Alice's final border |
I'm so pleased I took a risk and joined this round robin. I really didn't know what I was in for, but I've met some great people, and stretched my sewing boundaries. Plus, I've now got a beautiful quilt top in all my favourite colours. Thank you team!!
You can see the other Possum Magic quilts on the tab at the top of this page.
17 comments:
What a lovely start, middle and finish! I like that there is little white in the fabric choices. I think the rainbow squares were a great touch. Although I can't really pick my favour round.
Thanks for cropping the picture to feature each round for a closer look. Did you crop them all from the same picture? I ask because some of the squares appear to change colour depending what they are framed with. A way of changing colours without overdyeing them. I did take into account the rotation of the quilt in some of the pictures.
Enjoy!
The sixth border was very eye catching, what is the name of that block? It certainly is a great way to get a quilt top completed and one you can remember for a long time to come.
That quilt is so perfectly you with all the gorgeous colours they have used. I am sure you will do a beautiful job of quilting it too. Looking forward to seeing the finished quilt one day.
WOW!! Its really beautiful. Your group definitely captured your taste for vibrant colors. Its fabulous!
It looks fabulous Wendy. The round of rainbow squares really make it sing.
Thanks for sharing all the stages, i love watching these quilts grow.
that's amazing Wendy. what clever ladies. it's all come together beautifully. you must be so pleased.
No wonder you are thrilled with the finished quilt top - it's fabulous! Great vibrant colours and styles of borders. What size was your original block? Did everyone in your group make their blocks the same size?
Wow, it is beautiful! I love that it finished out large enough for a queen size bed, too.
I'm so pleased you love your quilt top Wendy ... I think we all did really well (I'm loving mine so far too). You're hand quilting will really add something special to it :)
what a wonderful journey your block went on and came home such a beautiful quilt, can see lots and lots of thought and love has gone into all who took part in this
The quilt looks perfect on the bed. What a transformation from your small block. Sometimes stepping out of our comfort zone can give us huge benefits and it looks like you have made some good friends and learnt a lot along the way. I think it would be quite challenging having to add on to someone else's work.
The creativity and commitment you all have shown in the round robin is fantastic and what a lovley result - still you but a piece of all the others too!
It was a brilliant round robin. The quilts are all gorgeous and i enjoyed reading all the updates. Yours is absolutely stunning. A colour pallet i wouldn't have thought of but now want to use
It was a brilliant round robin. The quilts are all gorgeous and i enjoyed reading all the updates. Yours is absolutely stunning. A colour pallet i wouldn't have thought of but now want to use
What a beautiful quilt. I've seen several blogs about round robins and all have been positive. This is the opposite of what I've heard from local quilters. Perhaps the distance and not knowing someone personally, gives each member a greater sense of responsibility and a desire not to let down the group. Again, a lovely quilt.
I worried that I should have added more lime green, but the three after me definitely filled the lime gap! No need to worry! I am glad you are happy with it. Didn't we all have fun!
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