Katrin's Round Robin Quilt

This year I joined my very first Round Robin, the Rakish Needle, hosted by Katrin in Germany. Six European ladies will contribute in making six very different quilts throughout the year. It was exciting and a little bit scary to commit to such a project, I didn't know what to expect, but Katrin is a good organizer and she is very helpful and keeping us in line. On her blog she has assembled a block parade  that shows the starter blocks for all the six participants in Rakish Needle Round Robin.

I was the lucky one to to receive Katrin's BIG starter block, the compass rose block measured approximately 31" x 32". She envisions "jewelled adventure galore on a low volume background. What unknown lands will we discover, what weird creatures and which magical myths?" That is a mouthful, but I already had plenty ideas before the block arrived.

She also included this fish block in the starter package, and I chose to include it in my round, because it fit so well with the rest of my blocks.

The first block I made was this cute, little crab. I was inspired from a picture I found, and the block is a combination of foundation paper piecing and ordinary piecing. The block is 5" finished, and it is the first time I have constructed a paper piecing block myself. The teal crab got accompanied by an orange/yellow one in my final work, just so it wouldn't be lonely.

I also discovered the Wee Animal Quilt made by danimiller.com . I fell in love with the simple shapes made with the Mini Quick Curve Ruler. It is obvious that the above creature is a lobster, right?! The claws that are tied down with a jeweled "ribbon" of Mostly Manor fabric by Victoria Findlay Wolfe makes this my favorite curved block.

Here are all the blocks I made for this round of the Rakish Needle. The curved piecing of the teal fish and purple sea lion was fun and fast.

The first test layout of the blocks. (Oops, the compass rose was turned the wrong way here, that was fixed later). Of course the blocks needed some adjustments to fit in, my own background fabric plus a few pieces of Katrin's provided fabrics were added.

Here's the right column with the sea lion and crabs.

And above the bottom row with my teal fish, red lobster and Katrin's lovely pieced fish.

This concludes my round in the Rakish Needle Round Robin. The piece has grown to be approximately 39" x 40". Katrin indicated that she wants to use the finished quilt on her bed, and big is beautiful!

I may have gone a little bit overboard with my addition to the quilt top, but I had so many ideas! I had to restrain myself not to make it bigger; I have to let the other participants be creative, too!

Finally, a picture of the quilt top in the morning sun on my deck. The piece will soon be on its way to Poland and Maja for the next installment. I hope Katrin will be pleased with it in the end!

Keep on sewing!