The Cotton Robin Big Reveal 2018

You can see all of the finished quilt on the Cotton Robin blog. 
That means I can now show you my quilt and the ones I worked on. I am still surprised at the changes to my starter block. It's always so much fun to play!

my original block

my completed quilt

I love my quilt. This is my second one from the Cotton Robin. Playing is just unbelievably fun. 

1. Something you begin and send off, comes back to you complete and interestingly different. 
2. You have no idea who will work on the quilt, their style or ideas.
3. Who knows where your quilts will go or where the blocks will come from? Last year my quilt went to Australia!
4. You get to "meet" others through their posts on the blog and their work on the quilts.
5. You get inspiration from the blocks and resulting quilts. What inspiration!
6. You stretch your quilting skills and work on quilt styles that you might never consider.
7.  A host of other benefits!  

 Tish's Old Man Winter block 
was finished by Mary, Terry and Liz

 

Traceyanne's block became this quilt 
by Andrea, Mary and Kate

 Susie's Christmas truck block is now a quilt 
by Rachel, Nan and Mary. I'm was the quilter 
for this one. Man, was I nervous!

Go by and see the other pieces. Julie posts both the block and the finished quilt on the blog reveal. The transformations are pretty awesome!  Cotton Robin.blogspot.com

Cotton Robin round 4

If you've been reading along as I've recounted the drama (ha!) of the Cotton Robin, you know that I was wonderfully excited to be able to participate. It's always fun to jump in the deep end of the pool (holding your nose, of course), and that's sort of how I began the Cotton Robin: last minute, hoping I didn't slip up, and just a little anxious. 

Since I was so last minute, I didn't have time to think. Good. It meant jumping in no matter how cold the water. Two colors left on the work table volunteered their services and we were in business. This above was my block. Yay! I really liked it--improvisational, bold, something of a watery color in there. Just fun. Anyone could do anything. I even tossed in the tiny bit of left over fabric.

Then I had the chance to look at the Cotton Robin blogpost on which every one of the blocks were posted. They were all so.... quilty! I wanted to cry. I desperately wanted to get my little blue block out of there! Why did I ever consider this? I know I'm too different to do these things. Then I did cry. Quite a bit, actually. But remember, I cry a lot. Sometimes I cry because I cried. Well, often. So you get it now? The internal drama of bipolar disorder can be overwhelming...and managed. Thank goodness I had remembered to take my medicine.

When I calmed myself down, I considered my options: 1. write Julie and beg her to undo the magic of managing the robin so people would forget about me; 2. write everyone and try to explain my block, or what I was thinking, or how I'm different. And I considered the consequences: #1 was not fair to Julie. She had put in great time and effort. Plus, I'd made my own choices. #2 seemed confusing, long-winded and overly dramatic, of which I'd had enough. I chose #3 which was to let go of the feelings of inadequency and see what transpired. There was the possiblilty (albeit slim) that it could be interesting and fun.

I just went on with my little life of living and teaching and retiring. Beautiful little quilt tops came, and I did my best to interpret and add to the story, and then the little quilts left. Finally my own little block, which had grown into a beautiful little quilt, returned home. 

Oh my! I cannot imagine that it could be better. It's perfect. And look at the quilting. Perfect. It's all just perfect. Tears? No, just happiness. Although I didn't complete the quilt or work past the beginning block, I'm counting it as a finish. It is, after all, finished!

Cotton Robin round 3

Round 3 of the Cotton Robin bee came some time before school let out, and I had plenty of time to finish it and get it out to it's happy owner. This is how it started:

Photo credit to Cotton Robin blog

But it went through two rounds before arriving at my doorstep, so there were some pretty awesome quilters feeding ideas to me through their work. Of course, no one told me what to do in words. Let's just not open that squirmy can.

The first border is the colorful balloon one with a black background. The second border is the HSTs in yellow and white. First I tried a black binding, thinking it would frame the piece, but I didn't like the additional darkness. In the end I had to go with the yellow for an extra punch of brightness. Plus, I had a yellow that came from the same line...sort of the fabrics making the decision there. But whatever. I liked it. 

Quilting is all custom quilting: SITD around the bird with some weird feathery lines that mimic the print on the body, clouds in the blue background, bubbles in the balloon border, and curvy lines in the HSTs. 

The bird needed only one more detail: an eye. You can see in the pictures above that a little beady eye really brings it to life. Strange how a beady eye on one creature is perfect, on another not so much. Take an alligator--when the only thing sticking out of that murky water are those beady eyes, it's creepy.

So this guy got a beady eye (literally a brown bead). I took all kinds of close ups of the bird's face with that eye, but not one the whole quilt. I have no idea why but it's likely the same reason I didn't snap the back of the quilt. Yea, yea, goofy again. You're probably tired of that story, but it's the truest one and I'm sticking to it.  

That wrapped up my work on the Cotton Robin. The only thing left for me was to wait for my own quilt to arrive. It has, so there's a round 4 coming your way in a day or so. How's that for a tease? Are you curious?

Cotton Robin round 2

First the first time, I participated in the Cotton Robin hosted by Julie. See this post about round 1. What fun! I recommend that you look into it and join next year.

For round 2 I received this center block, but it didn't look like this. Oh no! It looked oh so much better. Don't get me wrong--this block is fantastic and anyone can see the potential. But some people just out do themselves!

See my problem!?!  Luckily, I was able to come up with something. Not anything great, and certainly not very competitive, but I'm not really much of a competitive girl. :) I play for fun.

I decided on a circle, although I had tried to make four hearts to go in each corner of the block. The problem became the corners of the block. Even though the circle is not perfectly round, I wanted it to appear somewhat so. My answer was HST's that didn't quite fit the width of the rest of the circle.


Luckily, the block went to Liz, who knew exactly how to quilt it. She quilted small hearts in each of the circle squares and small circles in the open white areas. 

Isn't this one precious little quilt? I love the small hearts in the inner border and the quilting is perfect!

Cotton Robin round 1

I'm not sure how much I've said about the Cotton Robin that I joined back in January? February? I do remember jumping on board at the last second; then getting my block out after the deadline.  Way to make a first impression, right? I was so hoping to I get all the goofiness out the way and be serious or at least on time!  All that said, here's "Round 1: a block tells its own story."

In no time the block was in the mail and arrived at its destination, and a new block found its way to my hot little hands. 

I'd get so excited when a package came in! It was fun seeing what others were doing and looking at how they did it. Then, of course, there was the pressure of coming up with an idea that would work and pulling it off in time.

I found that the time factor was perfect. I easily kept up with every deadline, except the first. More on the Cotton Robin in a day or so.

Cotton Robin 1

I decided to join The Cotton Robin: 2017  which is hosted by Julie. It's been around for six years, yet I have never participated. I figured it's time to step up the game. I'm a little nervous.

Rules for 2017
"...your center block...should be no bigger than 9"x 9" or 8" x 10" and can be smaller if you wish, or some other dimensions as long at it's not more than about 80 square inches, finished size.

As before, please don't use any fabrics that can't be ironed or that will ravel a lot, or will cause problems for sewing/quilting (if you want an exception, contact me -- I've approved one so far.)

Your choice of block and fabric should reflect the sort of quilt you want at the end, although there are no guarantees!"

Doesn't Julie end her directive in a fun way? What until they see my block! Who know what will happen: I fully expect it to come back stamped "RETURN TO SENDER" with a handwritten note that says, "Are you kidding me?" 

Now you know why I'm nervous.