Round Robin blocks

I've have completed my third round robin border, each one felt a bit harder than the previous one - I guess that's because you have more to try and work in with each time. I thought I would do a bit of a retrospective of the journey so far!

First up I received Catherine's block.

Catherine had done a small piece of seminole patchwork, so I kept that in mind as I added to the block.

Then I received Karyn's Tui cuckoo clock which Carolyn had added to with whimsical circles. 

I added some flying geese, some brown (which seemed in keeping with the whole arts'n'crafts cuckoo clock kind of idea), and finally some little woodland creatures which I attached using raw edge applique.

And then I received June's centre block, which Catherine had worked on before me. I had what I thought was a great idea when I saw the block, so I started by swapping out a couple of the colours Catherine had used so that I would have enough fabric to do it (Catherine had handed on some of her fabric). So this...

Became this,

I really wanted to join up those little strips in Catherine's border so they formed a completed rectangle in my border, but I eventually realised this would drive me I.N.S.A.N.E. Much, much indecision was to follow. And unpicking. Lots of that. It was quite difficult to get the colour balance working in this piece, and the rectangle shape didn't have a common denominator, so many block ideas I had wouldn't work. Lots of things I tried seemed to overwhelm the centre.

I finally came up with an idea that I could materialise AND that didn't overwhelm the centre. I particularly like that I could use the aptly named friendship block in the corners.

The final round is quilting a binding. This is feel a bit apprehensive about as quilting is not my strong suit!

Vintage spin {progress}

I finally finished making the 16 blocks I need for my Vintage Spin quilt. It's a fun block to make but I am happy to finish at 16. I had a trial layout to make sure there was enough balance between the light and dark blocks. I might need to move some of the blocks around, but I think it will work ok.

Then it was on to the business of making the centres. I am a novice at applique so I started by re-watching Sarah Fielke's craftsy class "Big Techniques from Small Scraps" and then I was off!

Unintentional fussy cutting from the cardboard box I used