Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Round Robin Dilemma and other stuff...

What is a quilter to do? Yes, I have a dilemma... As you know the Pelham Quilters are doing our annual Round Robin. We have three tops going and each will have 4 contributors. I was absolutely thrilled when I saw who I would be sharing a top with... Teri Lucas, Doris Green, me and then Anne Frascarelli... all real fine quilters. Teri and Anne entered a piece in the Hoffman Challenge and it was accepted into the traveling show. You can see why I was excited!

Well, once I saw Teri's beginning 2 months ago I was even more excited. As usual, she created a wonderfully colorful square made with appliqued batik jewel tone diamonds on a Kona Black background. Doris brought in her addition last night and she added a bright on black print boarder then batik diamond and circles appliqued on a Kona Black boarder. It was a wonderful complement to what Teri had started and gave me quite a bit to think when I got home. The colors and fabrics could have been taken right from my own stash. In fact, I have quite a few of the batiks in the quilt in my own collection. But, do I continue the applique theme or do I change it up with some piecing? Do I add some curves to offset the geometric shapes or do I continue with points and diamonds? Do I work with it as a square, or do I do what Doris suggested and set it on point? I drifted off to sleep last night dreaming of all the possibilities.

So you can imagine what popped into my mind tonight when I hung it up on my design board and stepped back. Oh my, the center square is not a square, it is not a triangle... no, it is uneven...one side is almost 2/3" bigger.... and two of the circles in the last boarder are just a tad too close to the seam allowance... one will definitely get eaten up by a 1/4" seam!

What am I to do? Do I leave it as is, add my round, whatever that ends up being or do I take off the second round, square the center and then fix the circles, so they won't become ovals???

If I leave it as is, it will effect they type of design I add... I can't do any drafting, as the square is not a square and it will become increasingly noticeable as the piece gets bigger. If I don't try and make some adjustments, at the very least it will put poor Anne in the same quandary I am in now? Do I call Anne and discuss, so we can make a joint decision?

What am I to do???? I definitely won't be fantasizing about all the design possibilities tonight in dreamland.... I won't even get to focus on the piece I just basted with minkie backing and all the quilting possibilities for my great nieces quilt that has to be done by Friday night!

Ugh... I wish I had left it in the bag until I was finished with my deadlines :-(....

2 comments:

rccar said...

I know how stressful this can be. For a work gift I added borders and finished the off-square centre made by a co-worker.

Have you considered adding some curved shapes that overlap the present almost square and even it up that way; adding a border with rectangles split diagonally and use matching batiks on the corner that is oversized cutting shape to blend in; do an applique over that coner; snowball the corners

Good luck

Anonymous said...

Think about leaving it as it is, setting it on point as Doris suggested and squaring it from there. This is an opportunity to work with what you have from a design standpoint. Your ability to think and play with quilts outside the box never ceases to amaze me.
Finish your other projects first then take this one out...you do have until March to work on this piece.

Teri