The Christmas round robin

This year I participated in another round robin with five other members of the Heart of Vermont guild.  I have participated in several over the years and find it fun and challenging.  This time around, I had a nice Dresden Plate orphan block waiting to be used as well as a variety of holiday fabrics.  With six people and nine months to finish, we were able to take two months for the last few rounds.  This was great because, as the quilts grow, we often need more time to work on those rounds.  

I am always amazed at the work people put into these projects, and I enjoy getting to know different quilters through their work on the quilt tops.  While I certainly would not have added the borders group members added, I like the way my quilt turned out.  It measures about 50" x 50" and will look nice on our dining room table during the holidays.

One of the group members, Tammy, owns a long arm machine and generously offered to quilt everyone's quilts for free.  But I wanted to quilt mine myself, using my walking foot.  I find medallion quilts fairly easy to handle because I can anchor the rounds in the ditches and then go back and fill the borders in with quilting.

I especially enjoyed quilting around the "ornaments" border although I didn't go around the smaller cathedral windows.  I just quilted those 4" blocks in the ditch because of their bulk.  There was one green and white "ornament" left over which I turned into a signature block on the back, adding all the names of the participants.  This was a successful group which I'd love to work with on another quilt in the coming year.  We'll see how they all feel about it in September.

Although we had a reveal of all of the tops at our last guild meeting before the summer break, we will be showing our finished quilts at the September meeting.  Mine's all set to go, and now I'm quilting another UFO that's been waiting patiently in the closet.  It's been hot and humid, so the quilting room is the place to be.