Quilting round robin – Daily Fiber

SAHRR 2026 Round 2 Make-it-a-double. Twice

Posted on February 2, 2026February 2, 2026 by Laura Kate

On Wednesday Kathleen McMusing declared that round two of this year’s Stay at Home Round Robin quilt challenge will be doubled. This very clever and open invitation sent me back to my Costa Rica photographs to consider how I might interpret the challenge within my theme. It was quite pleasant looking at photos of a tropical paradise while huddling inside away from the cold and snow. I remembered several animals that demonstrated the theme of doubles, starting with the Scarlet McCaw. This bird mates for life. In Costa Rica they are seen in pairs: flying, roosting, grooming – everywhere.

We saw other animal pairs frequently

While I would love to paint these creatures, in the interest of meeting my deadline, I went back to Kathleen’s post for more guidance. She had suggested a dozen blocks to choose from that included two of a kind. I liked the double tulip block. It reminded me of tropical flowers, and that I had this fabric:

Hibiscus print, with flowers that flow in an ombre effect. It was in my mother’s stash, and she let me have it a few years ago.

I quickly worked out the piecing needed, then cut and assembled my first tulip (hibiscus)

After making one other like this one……..

….. I cut and assembled two more blocks with a leaf background instead of a sky background. I also used the solids that appear in my center block.

Now I have four blocks, but no idea about where to put them. They may become the corner blocks of the quilt. Laying them aside, I got busy with idea no. 2.

We were fortunate to stay in a beautiful villa high up on a hill in the Osa Peninsula.

One feature of the décor was the generous use of tiles. They were everywhere, on walls and floors, the pool, deck and walkway. I was inspired to make a double border in the form of tiles. While I didn’t get any photographs of the tilework, I think I can come up with something close. On pale blue fabric, I used fabric paint to approximate a fancy glaze. Here are my swatches.

I cut this and some compatible blue-green fabric into 3 and 1/2 inch squares. To imitate grout, I cut cream colored solid fabric into 1 inch strips.

And here is my Costa Rica quilt at the conclusion of Round 2.

I’m quite pleased.

If you enjoyed reading this post, please consider visiting Kathleen’s post where the InLinkz party is happening right now.

Remember each week, the host listed is the one that has a link up for you to post your progress. The others will also be showing their interpretation, so you get the added benefit of seeing 6 different approaches to the same prompt!

✓ January 14: Each of the hosts will be sharing their center blocks
✓ January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing <——-This Week
February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts
February 18: 5^th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
March 25: Parade: Your Finished SAHRRs!

By the way, my quilt is now 31 inch wide by 18 inch tall.

painting, quilting

A New Stay At Home Round Robin

Posted on January 14, 2026January 14, 2026 by Laura Kate

Yes, friends, Quilting Gail and her talented co-horts are at it again. The Stay at Home Round Robin for 2026 (better known as SAHRR 2026) is on, starting this week. For readers who are unfamiliar, I offer a link to Gail’s post, which explains it all.

https://quiltinggail.com/2025/12/18/announcing-the-2026-sahrr/

. As usual, there will be six rounds, plus the kick-off round. That’s happening now. Each participant makes or chooses a center block from which to build the quilt, then adds a border to it each week. This will be my sixth year to make one. The thing I love about SAHRR is how it provokes my creativity while providing a gentle amount of structure to keep me corralled and focused. For 2026, I want to make an art quilt that tells the story of our Costa Rican adventure last September. My DH took terrific photos, which support my memories of what we did and saw.

My center block is a fiery-billed aricari, a smallish toucan.

Using one of Bill’s photos as my subject, I painted the background fabrics with Jacquard Dyna-Flow, fused appliques into place, stitched them down, and painted details with Jacquard Textile paint. I’m pretty happy with my choice. If all goes well, I will draw on other vacation photo images to incorporate into future rounds.

I’m aware that my choice is complex and unconventional. But that’s just me. If you want to participate in SAHRR 2026, you can start with any block you have left over from a past project, or sew up a new one. There are no rules, only suggestions.

To see the co-horts who are providing the weekly clues, check out their posts from the list here:

The Schedule

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). Gail will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.
January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5^th Round: ME!!! @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

quilting

SAHRR 2025 Round 6: Kites

Posted on February 28, 2025 by Laura Kate

A brand-new-to-me quilt block, kites was select by Emily at the Darling Dogwood for the final round of the Stay at Home quilt challenge this year. First, I practiced making the shape with scrap fabric. I used instructions given by Diane at Little Penguin Quilts and came up with a decent sample. She recommended this site: Scrapdash, including a post called Catch That Kite Quilt Block.

Flipping through my Japanese block directory, I discovered no kites at all. There was a block that started out as a kite, but ended up as a tiny kimono.

So I went a different direction. I decided to “fake” a japanese style block by selecting a general design, inserting small kite blocks into the design, and then finishing the block with sashing. It went like this:

Kurume kasuri musubi is designed to be used with traditional kasuri fabrics (plain weaves in solid colors, also ikat fabrics) The design itself is based on a knot.

The four squares in the knot will be replaced with four kite squares. They finish at 3″ each, leaving room for the sashing and border in a dark color. I had to estimate my fabric cuts, but managed to figure it out.

My fabric choices are solid gold, dark gray, and a metallic print black which features little flowers.

Now the fun design decision: how will I orient my four kites?

And the winner is……..

As you might expect, the assembly of my made-up block did not go smoothly. I had to rip apart my first try, re-cut some of the strips and sew it back together. The second block went much faster.

These two will be added to the front of the kimono, just below the sleeve section.

Here is how my quilt looks today.

I still have two rows to make up, and the whole center front, which will be built from half blocks on either side of the opening. No doubt you may have trouble visualizing it. Me too – honestly, I haven’t decided what patterns to use for the remaining rows. They could be some simple repeats of earlier rounds, such as half square triangles or quarter log cabins. Or more Japanese traditional blocks.

Fortunately, I seem to have enough fabric left.

I hope you have been enjoying all the products of on-line quilters who are making SAHRR quilts this year. Check out their work at our design creators’ sites.

January 13th: Center: Gail @ Quilting Gail
January 20th: 1^st Round: King’s Crown block or inspired by your first initial Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
January 27th: 2^nd Round: Half Square Triangles Anja @ Anja Quilts
February 3rd: 3rd Round: Stars Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 10th: 4^th Round: Slice & Insert Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 17th:5^th Round: Partial Log Cabins Brenda @ Songbird Designs
February 24th: 6th Round: Kites or inspired by your first initial or the letter “k”
Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 🠜 You Are Here
March 24th: Finish Parade: Gail @ Quilting Gail

Be sure and check back with me after March 24th. Maybe I will be finished by then.

quilting

Finished by Friday: SAHRR Border 2

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Laura Kate

The challenge we received from Anja this week was ideal for my project. She had a very simple directive: Choose two colors for this week’s border. Sew them together in any way that you like.

The plan I made for this project included color assignments for each round. When pulling fabrics, I made a bag of scraps for each color. I quickly pulled out my green and my blue fabrics and spread them out. How will I sew them together this week?

To get me thinking about shapes and lines, I browsed for photographs that illustrated subjects in my theme. For the green border, I wanted to depict the re-planting of a forest after a fire has destroyed it. For the blue border, the subject was to be melting polar icecaps.

Here are my two inspiration photographs:

I started with the green image of young trees planted in orderly rows. To be honest, I don’t think large forests are re-planted in exactly the same manner. I chose the photo for the graphical quality. This representation made it easy for me to see a quilt block pattern “hidden in the trees.” Getting out my sketchbook, I drew a grid and placed the trees within it.

Voila – a nine-patch block made of half-square triangles.

It wasn’t so fast for me to put the squares together. I have very little experience in making most basic quilt blocks. But eventually I had them sewn up into rows.

Here is the green border sewn together and attached to the quilt.

While my back was turned, a few butterflies flitted into view and perched on the border. They are not green, but I hope they will stay.

The blue border is next. In my inspiration photo, the shapes of ice and open water are not regular in the least. But I knew what to do. I will make this border with improvisational piecing, using a “slash and sew” technique.

I topped the ice and water piecing with a sky cut from hand-painted fabric.

And here is my quilt with my blue and green borders.

Now that you’ve seen my challenge completed, have a look around at the other quilters who are playing. You can find their quilts at the Linky party.

Click HERE.

quilting

Stay at Home Round Robin Challenge 5

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Laura Kate

Thinking about what I have done so far on the round robin quilt, I have concluded that the work needs some breathing room. A little space and lightness from the intense colors and diverse border designs will give the eye a place to rest. So for this challenge I had already decided to add a wider border of the light blue fabric.

**Here you see the effect next to the checkerboard border.**

I like that the light blue speaks to the blues in the checkerboard border while still providing much needed contrast in value. So I was pretty happy with the next prompt – Wonky Stars – suggested by pieceful quilter Wendy. Stay at Home Round Robin Border 5 – (piecefulthoughts.com)

First of all, I like everything improv. Wendy gave us a link to a wonky star tutorial, and I recognized the same technique I already knew and had used in my tropical fish blocks for Under the Sea.

https://www.berrybarndesigns.com/blog/wonky-star-tutorial

The pile of fabrics you see in my featured photo will form the substance of the stars. I will embed the stars at various places into the light blue border, which I expect to be at least 5 inches wide.

Today I got started.