During the past year, I've worked on six different round robin quilts of varied styles, colors and fabrics in addition to sending my center square off. It was a challenge to keep them secret for so long, but I did. Last week was the Dear Jane Fall Retreat in Shipshewana where the quilts were returned to their owners. Here are the finished tops from our group of seven that included three MI, one WI and three IN quilters. This is the first quilt I received. When I saw all of those colors, I had to put on my sun glasses. These are not my usual fabrics to work with, so doing the RR gave me the opportunity to stretch my comfort zone and try new things. I added the pieced hearts for my round. My second box revealed another bright beginning with some beautiful applique. I chose to applique flowers, stems and leaves and piece four baskets in the corners. My third challenge was made from all solid colors that were pulled from her inspiration fabric. The third round of colored arrows is my work. This is my sister, Connie's RR. I had fun paper piecing the four corner snowmen and adding the colored squares for my addition. This one was really tough to keep secret. Strips and nine patches were added here. I love the colors in this quilt. The last quilt had me stumped for some time. Finally I decided to add the stripped border from all of the colors used in the squares. This was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I did it. But next year will bring new challenges, so no RR for me. My quilt top! I sent an appliqued apple pie block and love what I got back. The last round is embroidered with my great Aunt Emma's pie crust recipe and an apple pie recipe. I bought a backing while at the retreat; hopefully, this will be in the done pile soon.
