Round Robin 2011

My Round Robin group got together recently for our final official meeting of the year — it was very exciting as we had THE big reveal of all of this year's blocks.
At our first meeting (late January) we had to present a block depicting a saying, poem or similar. That was the last we saw of our own work.
Our bags (containing our original block and our choice of fabrics) went from friend to friend each month. We all made one block for each other, based on the theme depicted in the original block. (There was also an additional challenge each month - to be explained soon in this post...)
Of course rules are made to be broken; someone (who shall remain nameless) hadn't made an original block (she wanted to do an outer border with her saying once all the blocks were made), another someone (who will also remain nameless) made two little mice who will go in the corners of the quilts. We had "The Owl and The Pussy-cat" poem, a Christmas themed story, "When I'm an Old Lady I'll wear Purple" theme, friendship sayings, garden theme, New Zealand theme, and sewing sayings.
So, lots of variety, and lots of fun.
My initial block is the appliqué shown on my sidebar - "I cannot count my day complete, 'til needle, thread and fabric meet".
Below are photos of the blocks my dear friends made for me —
Ans made the first block.  This month's additional challenge was to include an appliqué element.

A big basket of fabrics - without it I cannot sew, stitch or needleturn!

Clever, huh? Love the rolled up fabric!

Jacki was next with this gorgeous spool block. This month's challenge was for a triangle to be included. Challenge well met.

A great way to show my lovely fabrics :-)

Jenny based her block on one from the "Breast of Friends" BOM. I love this one too.

French knots were the challenge - she managed to squeeze some on top
of the 'i's.

 Kerry rose to the 3-D challenge with this clever needlecase— 

Totally functional - and absolutely beautiful!

-See, it even opens!! 

I'm sure you can guess this month's challenge- met beautifully by Kerryn — 

Yes, foundation piecing. What a sweet machine.

Jacki came to Mary's rescue in the next month and stitched a second block for me. The challenge this time was 'quilter's choice' which suited Jacki down to the ground.

Another lovely block and my thoughts exactly!
{Something weird happened at the bottom of the photo - blame the camera,
not Jacki.}

You would be forgiven for thinking we had another challenge of a 3-D block - it wasn't. Janis made a totally original pincushion block - the challenge was to include a circle - I see several here.

Complete with complimentary pins!

Superb!

As the months rolled by, some of us were having trouble coming up with fresh ideas, but Jan came up trumps with her spool block — 

These funky spools are so cool - love how they are done...

One's even filled with thread!

The final month's challenge may have been to include an oblong shape, but as Jan is new-ish to our group, I'll forgive her :-)

So, whew, that's my rather photo-heavy post - aren't the blocks gorgeous and aren't I lucky to have them - and such talented friends. Thank you, Ladies!! My next challenge is to put them together - I have ideas (and fabric) but you know me, it won't happen overnight!!

Thank you for visiting - have a good weekend every-one, and happy stitching :-)