
After a nine day trip to the west coast, I am jumping back into quilting. It’s crystal clear that one cannot do a stay at home round if one doesn’t stay home…….. hm. I departed just as Pieceful Wendy’s revealed her challenge: Use Curves. My curvy round will be delayed until next week. I’ve got a few cute animal images to work with that are chock full of curves. I arrived home one day after Quilting Gail’s prompt, so I will jump in there.
Gail told us to use any two colors, adding some background fabric if needed. Considering that my quilt is about a rain forest, I will use lots of green to represent all the leafy plants that grow in great profusion there: ferns, bromeliads, palms, vines and grasses. My second color will be yellow. I will need a background fabric as well.
To challenge myself, and to keep it interesting, I decided to use foundation paper piecing in constructing my round 5 blocks. Inspiration and instruction came from quilter Amy Friend’s book:

Amy’s goal is to tell stories with her quilts, utilizing fussing cutting and foundation paper piecing. Each chapter is a project. The project’s templates are included at the end of the book. I chose the project Grasslands.
And this is the template I will use.

I love the idea of the zebra hiding within the grass. Since time is of the essence, and I am a rank amateur at paper piecing, I won’t attempt to insert any rain forest animals into my grass blocks. It took me several hours over two days and a certain amount of seam ripping. Eventually I managed to sew up six blocks.


Inserting this row into my project will be easy. The background fabric will blend into the “ceramic tile” row and the pale yellow strips will blend into the coati row.

And here is the lower half of my Costa Rica quilt.

If you are now a fan of the Stay-at-Home Round Robin quilt-along, please follow along by visiting the Linky parties. This week’s can be found at Quilting Gail’s post.
Here is where you can check out all the past weeks’ work, and see what will come next.
- January 14 Each of the co-leaders will be sharing their centre blocks (you will have to visit each of their blogs to see them). I will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
- January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
- January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
- February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
- February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
- February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
- February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
- March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

your SAHRR is so much fun. It’s very interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun is my modus operandi
LikeLike
I love your growing Costa Rica quilt. Your grass blocks are a perfect addition. Can’t wait to see what you do next. Glad you are staying at home now, but a trip to the west coast sounds pretty thrilling!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It definitely was.
LikeLike
That looks cool.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good choice!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks.
LikeLike
I have never tried foundation paper piecing but your blocks are just so great! I love the bottom half! (I hope you had a fantastic time out west!!)
LikeLike
Oh, those blocks are so much fun, and work really well with your quilt theme! I need to check out that book!
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I always say, I am not a quilter, but yours always interest me with the combinations of art and fabric and design. This is especially nice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. It keeps my interest.
LikeLike
Welcome home! I’m sure your curves additions will be delightful when they are ready, and I am really impressed with your paper pieced blocks for Round 5.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. They cost me sweat and hair-pulling but fortunately not blood.
LikeLike
I love that your Rain Forest / Costa Rica quilt is telling a story!! Your grass blocks look fantastic! Thank you for joining the SAHRR’26 and linking to Round #5!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that this is becoming a memory quilt for your trip to Costa Rica, and think those grassland blocks are perfect! I finally took a class at QuiltCon about two years ago and learned how to do FPP. Before that, I dreaded it, so I totally get your frustration!! But they turned out wonderfully so hooray! Welcome back!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely work. It’s coming together well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you.
LikeLike
That piece will be so awesome! I love dinosaurs (not to meet in person but from afar I like them…oh wait they are extinct so I am safe…)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry my brain is mushy from packing, those are not dinosaurs – ha! I couldn’t figure out how to delete my idiot comment – ha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your new row of fussy cut piecing tiles are gorgeous, and they go so well with the coati row!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for commenting.
LikeLiked by 1 person