What If...

Earlier this year I joined up to participate in a Round Robin called Cotton Robin.  All members start by making a center block no larger than 8 inches and we send it off to our lovely hostess, Julie (Floribunda Quilts), who mixes and matches and sends us a block to add the first along with further instructions as to where to send the block when the first border is added, etc.  For some further fun we don't know who belongs to the blocks we are working on nor do we know who is working on ours until the BIG REVEAL months later after all quilts have arrived back home. 

This year Julie suggested we all challenge ourselves to make our starter block in colors outside our comfort zone.  Well, actually no colors are outside my comfort zone but I don't really like lime green so I chose lime green and purple - a wild combo.  AND I also chose to make the block with some freeform letters...free form being a challenge for me. 

So, above you see my starter block..."What if..." 

Tami of Lemon Tree Tales added the first border. 

And then Sophie of Sophie Junction added the second border and what a border it is!!!  Helen (no blog) added the backing, quilted it and bound it and added a hanging sleeve.   

Don't you just love Sophie's addition of  "Thinking Lady"?  She tells more about her method and has more photos on her blog post about the Cotton Robin. 

What a bunch of talented ladies worked on my little quilt!  I took it outside for photos but it hangs in a prominent spot in my sewing dungeon.   I sometimes look almost exactly like "Thinking Lady". I'm sure she has better thoughts than I. 

The first block I received to add a border to was Sandra's (no blog). 

I added the first border to it and sent it on to Jay to add the second border. 

Kate of Kate's Quilting sent in that center block in this pic of her finished quilt. If I remember correctly she requested we stay with neutrals.  Shannon of I'm Working on a Project added the first lovely border which didn't leave me much room to stay within the finished size guidelines to add a second border.  So I added some neutral scraps and HSTs for a narrow border along with some circles in the four corners.  I sent it on to Rachel (no blog) for quilting and finishing. 

I was only supposed to quilt and finish Cathy A's (no blog) quilt with the first and second borders added by others when it came to me. However, I thought the first border needed a fix so I added some embroidery and trim and blogged about it in an earlier post.    This is how Cathy A's mini quilt looked when I sent it home to her. 

If interested you can see all of the starter blocks and the finished quilts at the Cotton Robin Big Reveal. 

I'm waiting for the next one! 

Last year I started out with a jar of chocolate. Hmmmm...what should I start with next time?