Thursday, June 29, 2006

I really have to do something with this - gulp!



You may remember those funny little grey and cream quarter square triangles I was so proud of the other day - and the brown butterflies I'd appliqued a while ago. They are part of this years internet challenge I'm involved in where you do a round robin without actually passing on the piece of work - namely you work on your own each month but to a prescribed set of instructions. We called it an 'Ostrich' challenge as it is a bird like a round robin but as it never leaves you it doesn't fly - and you do have the option to 'put your head in the sand' for one round only and not participate if you so desire. Everyone was expected to post a photo each month to show their progress before they received the next month's instructions

The picture shows my completed top from the same challenge last year. The real challenge is to sandwich and quilt it - mainly the sandwiching because finding somewhere large enough to spread it out will be the major challenge as it is about 90" square.

Added to this it is our group's quilt show on the 5th and 6th August and I have sort of promised it will be completed in time - if not there will be a big hole in one area of the show

Therefore I ought to stop faffing about with letters and bullseyes and concentrate on working on this.

The centre celtic knotwork was a sample for a demo at my old quilt group in Gloucester before we moved - you could use anything you liked for the centre so I went with that. The rest of the rounds are all as instructed but interpreted in our own way - nine patch or log cabin - curves - flying geese or other birds - applique - stripes - hst's - and finally friendship stars.

As I've always wanted to make a quilt for our bedroom but had never been able to come up with any ideas I used this challenge for that purpose and the colours of navy, lilac, lavender and crushed raspberries match my bedding

It would be nice to take my time and quilt it all to match the patterns but I just don't do that sort of quilting, particularly not to a deadline so IF and it's a big IF I do get it sandwiched it will be quilted at random all over

It's difficult to see but there is loads of applique all over it, even in the rounds you'd think there wouldn't be - but I am an applique kind of girl and I loved stitching all those circles on it

Maybe tomorrow I'll dig out some of the work-in-progress photos I took along the way so you can see it in greater detail

12 comments:

Kim West said...

I love the idea of a "Ostrich" quilt - may have to do something like that on my forum - as I am very leary of swapping after a ton of bad experiences.

Can't wait to see the closeup photos of the inprogress...

Fiona said...

Just beautiful - fantastic colours - show us some close-ups please!!!!!

quiltpixie said...

love the idea of an ostrich round robin -- then you know the quality of fabric and stitching thorughout...

Lois R. said...

What a beauty! Are all of those circles applied? Holy Cow! That looks like a ton of work. I love the "wandering" geese. And the colors are yummy. Please show us some closeups!

Alena said...

wow, what a beauty! and it is so huge, I cannot imagine I would be able to fulfil the monthly task in time... I would never get the next instructions :o)
great job!

kim said...

That is beautiful! I second the above requests for close-ups!! I really like the colors.

Congrats on finishing the longest of the names!! Keep up the great work- you inspire me to be better with my time!
:-) Kim

Judy said...

Oh this is so wonderful. Your applique is amazing and the colors are great. My that looks like a lot of wonderful work went into this quilt! When I have a super big quilt I start pinning in the center section and let the other hang off the table. I use binder clips to keep the edges taut and then pin away. After the ceter is done, I slide it over and re-clip it to the table and start pinning that section Keep moving and keep clipping and pinning.

Linda C said...

This part sounds like heaven! "the option to 'put your head in the sand' for one round only and not participate if you so desire."

I am so dragging my feet on the one that I have to do this month. It is so dark--two rounds of black background in a row and I just cannot get inspired.

I am going to suggest this if we don't all murder the group leader before the quilt is finished and consent to doing it again next year.

Granny said...

That is one gorgeous quilt! I'd never heard of the ostrich type round robin. That is so neat. Goodness . . that is so pretty.

Judy L.

Anne Wigfull said...

Lovely stuff, Anne, and nice to see it completed. I still haven't found my effort in the challenge, disappeared during the upheavals over the kitchen rebuild and still not surfaced. I have the nasty feeling it went somewhere no nice girl's quilt should go.
It's a good feeling to know that one of our challenge members, Sally Bramald, won a big prize with her Ostrich quilt at Sandown.

BTW, I will relax and forgive you now I know that you are doing liberated piecing, and I'm NOT up for dares at the moment:))

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I really love those kinds of round robins!

Mary Johnson said...

I like the idea of an Ostrich round robin - sounds like fun. Your quilt turned out very pretty and I did see all the applique when I enlarged the picture.