Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Opportunities

The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild has begun work on an opportunity quilt made from some of the blocks in Tula Pink's City Sampler.  I saw it as an excuse opportunity to try some of these blocks.

Also as a rationalization opportunity to buy the book.  It's been sitting on my wish list for a while.

I wasn't able to make it to the first sewing day to work on blocks (and buy a copy of the book at Thread Bear) and I started thinking that buying the Kindle version could be the way to go for me.

I waffled then downloaded the free sample to my iPad to see how I liked it first.

Which also meant, I made the blocks that were included in the sample pages, #1 through #5.

First 6 blocks for the Opportunity Quilt

The sixth block (upper left corner) is a duplicate of one of the blocks ... made with fabrics that were cut too narrow. It seemed to fit with the themes of crosses so I decided to include it.

I found I didn't really care for using this book in the Kindle format. In the hard copy version, directions for each of the 100 blocks are spread across two facing pages, with the block photo on the left and the cutting directions and layout showing assembly on the right.  In the Kindle version, this is spread across three pages (cutting and layout are on separate pages) and I ended up swiping back and forth a lot to see which fabrics go where. Your mileage my differ ... and I'd love to know about others' experiences using e-books for quilting.

The Drive to LV, NM mostly looks like thisYesterday, I drove to Las Vegas for the guild meeting. I left (too) early, so I could feel unrushed–autocorrected to uncrushed, so yea, that, too–and enjoy the drive and the beautiful spring day.  Most of the 70 miles between here and there look a lot like this–open road, blue skies, rolling hills and mountains in the distance.

I don't make this trip often and didn't think to check for construction ... there was some, but not enough to slow things down much.

I was looking forward to the opportunity of seeing everyone and the results of their round robin. I had seen the quilts near the beginning and now the tops were done and being returned to the owners.  I was also curious to see how well my sampler blocks would play with the rest–I had serious doubts about a couple of them.

After potluck dinner and show and tell, the round robin quilts were revealed.

Bridget's quilt started out quite Amish and ended looking very much like a piece of Modern Art.

Bridget's Round Robin

It's almost impossible to see Beverly's center in her quilt, the additions were so well integrated in the design.

Beverly's Round Robin
Lin's piece came with an optional circle which could be added to the center ... which was auditioned in a few places–this was my personal favorite placement.

Lin's Round Robin with Added Circle

There was a question about orientation for a few of the quilts.  This is Betty's quilt, in the orientation decided by consensus.

Betty's Round Robin


Ann's quilt was rotated around the design wall, trying every side up. They all look the same size here, but Ann's was the smallest of the group.

Ann's Round Robin

Michael wanted his quilt to evoke the feeling of centrifugal force–if I'm remembering that right. I think the quilters delivered.

Michael's Round Robin

The last quilt is Linda's.  It's missing a "round" (because life happened) and there was a lot of discussion, at the wall and around the room, about what could/should be added.

Lin, Ann and Michael talking design

What would you add?


Deborah's Round Robin

And, in case you're wondering ... here are my City Sampler blocks, again,  mixed in with the rest made so far.

Tula Pink City Sampler Blocks so Far

I think it's a good start. Now that I have the book in hand, I am sure it will continue to be an opportunity to sample some more of these blocks.

7 comments:

Terri said...

Love your blocks! What a fun bunch of round robin quilts... you are in a group of talented quilters. Sorry, I have no ideas to add anything to the unfinished quilt.
Hugs

Mystic Quilter said...

What great round robin quilts on display - I have always thought this was a great project for a small groups of quilters.

floribunda said...

great round robin results, and I love your Tula blocks -- aren't they just so much fun to make? I like working with the actual book, because then I can cut 4-6 blocks at a time and just tuck my cut fabric into the page with the right block.

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Love the round robin. Thanks for showing those. I am spearheading one in my modern guild too. I have Tula pinks book, don't like kindle books yet, still coming over to the modern electronics yet......I haven't made blocks yet...soon

Rhonda said...

Wow, all the round robins are outstanding. I loved seeing how creative everyone is. Thanks for sharing!!

Bridget said...

Thanks, Sophie, for featuring the Chicken River guild on your blog. Your photos are stellar!

Gina said...

Love the quilt show, thank you. I'm doing the Tula City sampler aswell. The blocks look good in your choice of fabric xx

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