Check out this really cool idea I saw in Quiltlady50’s photostream:
This is the first row of a round-robin type quilt swap. The idea is, you make one row, send background fabrics to another person, and they use their stash to make a different row.
Fun, right?
I’m a huge fan of row quilts. (Is that even a term?) One of my favorite quilts I’ve made to date it this one, a baby quilt for my friend’s son:
The mathematical possibilities offered by quilts like this kind of fascinate me, for some reason. This is 36″ wide, and made up of blocks that are 3″, 4″, 9″, and 12″ wide. I could have also included some 6-inchers in there. If it had been 60″, I could have included almost all of the above, plus 10″- and 15-blocks. Which is crazy, but it works, and it gives great visual variety.
As far as construction goes, row quilts offer a nice happy medium. I like to assembly-line block production, so I love that row quilts include a few of the same block, for ease and speed of piecing. BUT! You get to stop after making a smallish number of one kind of block, and start on something else. So it’s easy to keep interest.
I don’t really have time just at the moment to organize a row round-robin, but one may be in the cards for later this year. Please leave a comment if you might be interested in participating at some point. It would definitely be a long-ish term project, but I think it would be so (sew!) worth it.