Gudrun´s World

Round Robin Rebels - Terry's Quilt

Today it is the last quilt of the Round Robin tour, Terry Atkinsons quilt that is the topic. She named it The magazine is on newsstands now, even though I haven't been able to spot it yet. I guess it's pretty popular because the two stores I've been to, it has been sold out!

Terry was the first one to send me a box, so when it arrived, you can imagine the excitement. I dropped everything I was doing and did a mad sprint to my sewing room to open up the box. 

After the first initial excitement had settled and I had put the block up on my design wall, my head was spinning already.

 

"What the heck have I gotten myself into" was what was running through my mind. I had a lot of self doubt, thoughts of nothing will be good enough for this quilt, how can I do something that is even worthy... and so on. But I knew I had to push through all of that.

 

So I dug into Terry's box of fabrics and found an assortment of greys, reds and aquas. When going through the fabrics, I found this print that had words on it. Some of the words were: Fear Nothing, Take A Risk, Take Courage, Quiet the Critics!!

OMG, if this is not a sign to shut my brain up, I don’t know what is.

Then the phrase COME AND PLAY WITH ME  caught my eye and I was ready to just go for it.

I felt the roundness of the center blocks looked like mouths or mustaches, and the next step really called for some square, straight line action. I wanted to add some aqua and grey to the quilt so I came up with this on my computer. I wanted the blue squares to connect and then the white background of the center to float into my border so they would meld together. 

In addition, I wanted to have grey on the outside of all the blue squares to create a kind of a border. The order of the center also called for a little bit of a disorder in the next step, so I decided to make it really scrappy. A sort of a "Good girl - Naughty girl" action:)

It took some math do make it all work, but it sure was fun.

When I sent it to Kari for the next step, it looked like this:

Make sure to check out the other designers blogs to read about their contribution to this quilt:

Kari's blog here.

Terri's blog here.

Terry's blog here.

The final look of the quilt included some blue squares in the center which were added by Terri Degenkolb in the last round and I totally feel like they tie the whole thing together. Especially step 1 and 2. So don't ever be afraid try something last minute because it could make or break the design:)

We would love it if you would stop by our Round Robin Rebel Facebook page too.  Here you can see what else we have been up to and also keep us in the loop with your round robin quilts.

 If you haven’t heard, we are putting together a presentation for guilds and shows.  Please feel free to contact us for booking your event. 

Pictures used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Round Robin Rebels - Terri's Quilt

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving weekend, at least those of you here in the States. I came down with a nasty cold so it was actually perfect to be able to lay low and chill with the family.

Today we are all talking about Terri's quilt in the continuation of the Round Robin Rebels saga:) We hear that the magazine has been reaching it's subscribers, so maybe you have your copy already. If not, it should be on a newsstand near you very shortly.

Terri's quilt is called Playing With Crayons and I was the third designer to work on her quilt. When the quilt arrived at my doorstep, it looked like this:

I knew right away I wanted to do something using all the colors in the box, especially with the words in her center block. The center made me wanna do something with sharp edges and a little uneven and since terry's second addition was very much a border, I felt like it needed blocks. I wanted the blocks to have a little bit of a circular motif to them, matching the center. To make the blocks feel more grounded and not too colorful I decided to use grey, same as the center.

I added one yellow scrap to what I found in Terri's box and started playing with different block designs.

After finally deciding on the perfect block, I felt like they needed a little more "Scrappy-ness" so I decided to use two different greys for the blocks.

Once the blocks were done and I put them up on the design wall, the design needed something more. I decided to add some punch with black between the blocks and just made these simple alternating blocks.

To repeat the roundness in Terri's center, I added large half-square triangles in the corners to give that same illusion. 

I really loved the additon of black to this quilt because it really makes all the different colors stand out more and really sparkle. Think about that next time you are working on a colorful quilt and feel like the colors aren't standing out.

Make sure to check out the other designers blogs to read about their contribution to this quilt:

Kari's blog here.

Terri's blog here.

Terry's blog here.

After Terri got to see her quilt, we all put our heads together and tried to figure out what else the quilt needed. We all decided it needed a little more black so we started playing with all the colors.

We decided to make this colorful border with rounded corners which took a little figuring out...

We finished that border in Des Moines and this is how it was looking like when Terri took the quilt home.

After she got home, she was having second thoughts about that border and sent us some text messages with other options. This scrappy border was a little much for the quilt and kind of took all of the attention. I totally loved the change and what she ended up adding.

Sometimes less is more right!

We have one more quilt to talk about and that post will be up next Monday!

Lastly, I want to share with you a little secret sneak that Kari revealed on her blog today:

Just to put a bug in your ear…we are planning to put together a presentation for guilds and shows.  We would love to share our quilts and stories with you in person.

Yes, we are planning a fun and fresh quilt guild presentation about this experience so we could be coming to your area in the future!

Pictures used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.


 

Round Robin Rebels - Kari's Quilt

It's been great to hear your feedback on as we gear up for the magazine coming out. We have already heard a lot of interest in quilters wanting to get their own No Rules Round Robin going. Make sure to like our Facebook page because we will be giving you tips and advice on how to do that. We want to create a community of Round Robin Rebels:) 

Round Robin Rebels Fan Page

American Patchwork and Quilting has loaded up some videos of us talking about the quilts and lots of additional photos. Go to their page to check it out:

All People Quilt website

Today we are going to talk about Kari's quilt. 

I was the last person to work on this quilt, and this one really was a challenge for me. When I got the quilt, it looked like this:

Talk about intimidation! Everything about the quilt scared me because it had all the things I rarely work with, rolled into one! Batiks, 60 and 30 degree angles and curved seams. Plus, that quilt looked really complete as is. The dark green border finishes it off so nicely, adding another border would just be like it was put there just because I needed to add it.

So.....What to do? I put the quilt on my design wall, where it sat for the whole month as I tried to get it to talk to me. All of a sudden, it came to me. Actually....it came to me as I was in a middle of a conversation with my assistant Yvonne about my quilt market booth....she was a little confused as you can imagine.

"This is No Rules Round Robin! I don't have to put a border on. How about turning the quilt on point and adding setting triangles! YES, YES, YES!"

The quilt looked really nice on point. I put a picture into the computer and started playing with designs. My first thought was that I needed to repeat some of that white in the center and continue with the tan/yellowish/browns. I also wanted to continue with the different 30 and 60 degree angles. So this was my first design.

There was not enough yellow or tan in the box of fabrics so I went shopping and got 2 yards of a gold to use as the base.

As I was so far out of my comfort zone, why not really go there and do paper piecing.....which I never do! So I found some foundation papers in the back of my closet and decided to try this water soluble paper for some of the blocks, use it up! It’s been in my stash for probably 12 years! Printed the blocks, sewed and everything came nicely together and was looking good.

According to instructions, I was supposed to soak the paper in cold water and so I did, laid all four corners on towels to dry. Next time I looked at it, I was mortified!! The ink had bled into the fabric and all the white was stained on the seams! I tried washing all the pieces with the fabric dye catchers but it didn’t come out!

Total and utter defeat! I took the quilt off my design wall and put it to rest for about 6 weeks.

When it was crunch time to get that quilt finished, I had intended on redoing it with just the same design. So I went and bought another 2 yards of a different tan/yellow batik. But when I brought it home and was gonna get going, I had another idea.I also felt like so much of that color would not work for the quilt. I dug into the box and pulled out my favorite one in there, this blue houndstooth batik. I decided this will be my base. 

I liked the idea of the white geese kind of framing the quilt from the first design so I decided to keep that but make it simpler. No paper piecing this time. For the rest of the design, I pulled out my 15 degree ruler and made the fans out of all the beige, browns and yellows in the box. 

I was instantly happy with it and very glad I started over!

And I think Kari was really happy with it too:)

 Make sure to check out the other designers blogs to read about their contribution to this quilt:

Kari's blog here.

Terri's blog here.

Terry's blog here.

You can also see the video of Kari talking about her quilt here. I talk about my contribution in the end of the video and even show the throw away corners!

I gave them to Kari and she used them on the back of the quilt!

Come back next week for the next installment where we talk about Terri's quilt.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pictures used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Introducing….The Round Robin Rebels

If you follow GE Designs on Facebook you might have seen some posts and pictures this summer of a roadtrip I took with 3 other designer friends, Terry Atkinson (Atkinson Designs), Terri Degenkolb (Whimsicals) and Kari Carr (New Leaf Stitches). Picture is taken in the Better Homes and Gardens test gardens.

The trip took us to Des Moines, Iowa....more specifically to the Meredith Corp. headquarters....and even more specifically to the editorial wing of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine. We spent a couple of days doing some tapings, photography, a little bit of sewing and a lot of laughing, hooting and hollering.

The story behind the whole thing will be in the newest issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. You are not going to want to miss this issue so grab it as soon as you see it on the newsstand:)

I have to track back a whole year to start this story from the beginning. I had been walking around with an idea  in my head for over a year, to do a different kind of Round Robin. As a designer, it is such a thrill and blessing to be able to do what you love and what started out as your hobby and favorite thing to do, quilting, as a job. But there are times where creativity is the smallest part of my job and I get stuck in the business side of things. I had talked to other designer friends about it and we all go through the same things. I wanted to do something to push my creative boundaries, took me out of my comfort zone and have fun with just making something for me. 

I had never done a Round Robin before but always wanted to. It's been one of those things on my Quilting Bucket List. The rules sometimes associated with Round Robins though were a little bit of a turn off for me so I definitely knew I wanted to defy those rules, being kind of a non-rule-follower all my life. 

The first NO RULES ROUND ROBIN email went out to 3 of my designer friends in November last year and amazingly, they were all ready to jump in the deep end with me. I knew that we all get along really well, they do exceptional work as designers so they would do nothing but elevate my quilt with their skills. I also love the fact that our styles are all very different from each other. That needed to be part of the challenge to really break us out of our comfort zone.

Here are the main parts of the letter I sent to them:

Each designer makes a center block that can be ANY size and ANY shape! She packs her block in a box along with 20 fat quarters that coordinate with the block and overall look of the quilt along with 3 yards of background fabric. Box gets sent to next designer.

The next designer makes the next step, which could be borders around the whole block, 3 sides, 2 sides or whatever she feels should come next. No rules, no set sizes….total creative freedom!! You can use the fabrics that are in the box or add to it if you feel the need to from your own stash or go shopping!

Boxes go around to all 4 designers and the top with your center block ends up back with you where you decide how you want to finish it. Add a border, just binding, scallop or whatever you feel the quilt needs!

Throughout this process we journal our thought and steps and take lots of pictures. We also keep notes on measurements so we can write up a pattern later.

Even though we don´t want to know what the others are doing, I think it would be good to let each other know which style of fabrics you are using so we end up with 4 very different looking quilts and styles. For example, if I want to use black & whites, no one else does…..if one wants batiks, that will be the only batik one. You get me?

We set specific dates for when the box needed to be shipped to the next designer, which gave us about a month for each step.

Off I went to pull fabrics for my quilt. I decided I wanted to use a black background and chose one of the prints from my Nordic Visions fabric line. The other fabrics were all from my stash in yellow, orange, green and grey, some designed by me and the rest from many different fabric companies and designers.

I wanted to do something different so I started by making some strip sets and playing with a 15 degree ruler. When assembling the units I realized I didn't quite have enough to finish a full circle so I improvised and came up with an asymmetrical block, which just made things more interesting. I knew I wanted to have a rectangular block from the get go so this is how it turned out. I finished by floating the designs on the black background by adding the small border.

As I sent my box of fabrics and my finished center block, I was already thinking that writing this up as a pattern was going to be a nightmare. I had just been able to let my creativity flow freely without the limitation of having to instruct and decided then and there that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of the experience. The funny thing is....the other designers had exactly the same experience! And when we released the pressure of having to write instructions, our creativity was fully unleashed and opened us up to discover things we didn't know about ourselves.

I sent my box to Kari Carr and to see what she did with it, check her blog here.

From Kari, the box went to Terri Degenkolb, see what she did on her blog here.

Terri then sent the box to Terry Atkinson, look what kind of magic she did on her blog here.

Instead of sending the box back to me for me to finish like we intended, Terry kept my quilt under wrap until we got to APQ headquarters. They had planned a big reveal ceremony where they photographed and videotaped the moment when we saw the quilt finished. 

The shock and awe was real and indiscribeable! Kari and Terri were genuinly surprised too because they hadn't seen it either since they worked on their part.

I was truly speechless! A rare occurrence, believe me!

Wouldn't you be speechless?

This is my favorite quilt of all time!

Hugs were in order even though they can not describe how thankful I am to these very special girls. 

After the big reveals of all the quilts we got to go and hang out in the APQ crafting suite. There we put our heads together and made decisions about all of the quilts, if they needed anything else added to them or not. We all feel like we own a little piece of each one so it was only logical that we made those decisions together. We all agreed that my quilt was complete as is!

Same day of the reveal, I decided to contact Angela Walters and see if she would quilt them all for us. It was such a team project that we felt it would give the quilts even more comraderie if they were all quilted by the same person even though they were all so different. She really elevated each one of the quilts with her amazing quilting. 

For the next few weeks we will be blogging about the other 3 quilts, the challenges, plans, change of plans, frantic despair and everything else that went on in the 5 months we worked on this, so please make sure to visit next week. Also make sure to check the other Round Robin Rebels blogs listed previously for their contribution to this quilt.

The magazine will be on newsstands really soon and if you are a subscriber, you might have it already. On top of that, APQ has put together videos and slideshows from our visit on their site AllPeopleQuilt.com so I highly encourage you to check that out after you read the article in the magazine. Here is the link to the slideshow of my quilt.

But that is not all!

We are not done!

We all agreed that we would do this again in a heartbeat. Whether it will be in the same form or not, we will have to see. But we want all of you to give it a go. Find 3 friends and get your own No Rules Round Robin going. Then like our Facebook page and share your journey with us. Tell us about your plans and introduce your Rebel friends:) There you will get first hand information about our next Rebel project and personal challenges.

Round Robin Rebels Fan Page

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.