The Cotton Robin’s New Face

Cotton Robin. Click here

This year Laurina, an American quilter living in New Zealand, is coordinator for the Cotton Robin this year.  We have worked on each other’s quilts over the years.  I have been doing CR for 5 or 6 years now!

There will be a few things we will be doing differently.  One thing is the initial block will go directly to the first person rather than the coordinator.

I want to encourage you to to join in.  If you want to challenge yourself to work in different styles from your comfort zone or to become more flexible in your design ideas this is what you need to be doing.

We don’t work large, most end up less than 25-30 inches.  And there are 2 months to complete each of the two rounds and then finish the final piece by quilting and binding or facing.

I hear some people say they don’t need a small art piece, but this is so much more.  It is a growth challenge for your skills.  If you listen, the quilt tells you what it needs.

So come with me and join the 2019 Cotton Robin!





This is one I finished then sent on to it's home.








This one is mine.  I didn't start the center block because we were in the middle of the flood and I had no house at the time.  So Julie started me a house WAY up on the hill and sent it around to everyone!

Chocolate Chipolte Bacon Beignets and Cambodian Art

 This morning we had breakfast at Batch 13 (Chocolate Chipotle Bacon Beignets) and headed to the Cambodian Art Sale.

It was part of the Mission from the Methodist Women who travel there monthly bringing supplies to the school they support.  Lots of had embroidered purses, back packs, jewelry and hand dyed scarves.  I bought a fish purse and some bead bracelets.  Frank gave
them the rest of the $20 as a donation.  I can see some Christmas presents down the road!

Later at home, I told Frank he had to take care of all the dogs
.  That meant I could have uninterrupted time in my studio without having to let dogs in and out.  I could concentrate and complete my thoughts.

I got so much done in the afternoon.

I finished the first round on the Cotton Robin and packaged it up for mailing off to Christa in Virginia.

I got the Modern Robin round finished up and boxed for the meeting on Monday.

I did the Lotto Block for Remember Me for the April Meeting.

I did the Lotto Block for the Modern Guild meeting for Monday night.

I did an improvisational piece for my Fiber Exploration Group this month.







 I passed out some letters like E, T, H, I, L and O.

I asked the members to use those letters as inspiration and use the shape  to

create a piece for the next meeting.

I am really happy with what I have so far on my project.  Being
able to work improvisationally is incredible.  You start out with an idea.  I work with a What If...... style.  What if I add this color....yes or no.  What if I add white......oh no!

I wanted a cityscape.  Then I wanted to add a factory to my piece.  I guess I am into factories since I have one in my blue jean road piece as well.  

I kept trying to add white into the mix and it kept kicking it out!  After looking at it for a while on my design wall, I may be able to add some in by doing a ladder grid under the last row of grey.  I can try it a bit in the next day or so.

Sawyer is sick, so I get to have him tomorrow.  So long planned day........

Top Secret Doings

Yesterday I had Sawyer at the house.  I had a clear day and picked him up from school.  He is cutting some teeth and was having a hard time, so I got him one of those freezer teething rings.  He was funny, with his pink teether hanging out of this mouth as he scooted around my living room. 

With no rug in there, I can move the chairs back and create a huge area for him to crawl or use his walker.  Man, he is fast fast fast in that walker now!  I guess it is a really a RUNNER.

I pulled him in his wagon down to the end of the block and back.  Having the wagon is a special thing for us.  We took Carrie everywhere in her wagon and now we have her son to take places.   

Sometimes, only a grandma can make you feel better!

Today I made my block for the Cotton Robin and the Modern Robin.  I made similar blocks because i love seeing how different people interpret them.  If you want to get into the Cotton Robin, you can probably still talk to Julie.  When she gets all the blocks together, she will post them on the blog site at: 

The Cotton Robin

I can't show them to you.......they  are top secret!

Here is one I finished  up last year.

This was mine from last year.

When Julie was collecting the blocks last January, I told her I didn't have a quilt room any more.  She said, not a problem - got it covered.

She made the center block, with the house high on a ridge so the flood waters can't get to it!

Cotton Robin Reveal

Cotton Robin 2017 Reveal

Please click on the above link to see the Big Reveal from this year's Cotton Robin.

This day is like Christmas to me!  It is always so exciting.  I worked on Sophie's quilt, and the two Terry/Terri's quilts.

All were vastly different, all needed specific design attention and all were challenging to create.

A big thanks goes out to Julie for keeping it all going. And bigger yet, for keeping me in the fun this year by creating a block for me when I had no sewing room!  My Modern Robin people unveiled their little quilts last week, but didn't include me this year.  I guess they just didn't love me as much! 

My Cotton Robin quilt arrived yesterday.  You can see my house, perched on the edge of the rising water.   But notice it does come back to being a house again......

In other news,

I finished the top for the Diamond Dogs.  And am auditioning borders.  I
wasn't going to put borders on it, but it does need some to keep the triangles in check.

I sent off an Eagles t-shirt I found for Patty the Quilt Lady.   But first I cut off the sleeves, I lusted after those sleeves!  I doodled quilting designs on the back of her package.  Maybe I should have included the three mandarins for her in there too!

She uses Rock t-shirts to make quilts for the Akron Art show she enters every year.  Her heavily hand worked quilts have made quite a name for themselves and she has been invited to participate several other venues with them.  If you have any rock band t-shirts you want to get rid of, I will make sure they will get to her. 

The cardinal chicks are growing fast.  I am afraid one may not make it though.  When you look in, only two raise their heads and those are the ones the parents will feed.  The third chick doesn't look smaller though, so maybe it is getting food.

Not to be connected to the birds above, but I made Chicken and Dumplings in the InstaPot last night.  OMG........Amazing.  And easy.  

And I got mail from Germany!  I will tell you about it tomorrow!

Cotton Robin Center Blocks Are Public!

Cotton Robin Center Blocks

Click to see the center blocks we will be working with this year.  They are exciting!

I have a second block like the one I sent in.  A couple of years ago, one of the other participants (Sophie) kept a block similar to the one she sent in and created a parallel hanging.  I might save mine for the Modern Robin. 

Although I am not really sure that will happen anymore.

Sorry I can't show them to you!  LOL

We had some pretty good sized hail this afternoon.  Frank drove into the driveway and under the carport about 5 minutes before it started!  What luck!

If you look just past the fountain, you will see some green wire bundles laying there to keep the dogs out of that area, hoping to grow some grass.  Everyone steps off the patio and pees......all day long every day!  This makes them go futher and disperse a bit!

Maybe with the deluge it will clear out whatever is causing my allergies to flair!  I can only hope.

I just saw some photos of tornado damage not too far from the house here on Sherwood Forest Blvd. 



I am trying to figure out how this will get me a dinner out....

Dates for the Cotton Robin 2015 Are Out!

 Remember, these are small pieces ending up around 25 to 30 inches.  I have done this for 3 or maybe 4 years now.  If you go to 

http://cottonrobin.blogspot.com/ 

and see what we did in 2014.  Julie has the starter block then the finished piece together to see the amazing transformation.  Mine was the lemon piece.

Please join us!

IMPORTANT DATES: 2015

- center block should be mailed to Julie to arrive by January 31, 2015; the blocks will be distributed by February 10.

- center-with-one-border should be mailed to the next quilter no later than March 20.

- center-with-two-borders should be mailed to the next quilter no later than May 8.

- finished quilts can be mailed to their owners whenever you wish, but no later than June 30.

Finished - But You Can't See It! LOL

I finished the Cotton Robin piece this afternoon.  It will head out to Oregon tomorrow.  Which is good considering the deadline was today!  Not too bad, there are four of us still hanging out here.

Soon there will be only three.

I can't wait till the Big Reveal happens.  It should be soon.  I worked on four of these pieces and have no idea how they went in the succeeding rounds.  I can't wait to see how those houses went, that was the toughest one I have ever had to do.

When we get ready to do  this again, you really need to join Sophie and I and stretch yourself.  You have two months to do your round so there really is not a lot of pressure.  And what you gain is practice creating in something that may not be your specialty.  Like I said, those houses really stretched me!

Cotton robin flies again!

I was excited to get the post from the cotton robin Krewe.  She is ready to start another round starting maybe in mid January.  The basic idea is that you make an 8 inch block and send it to Julie.  She shuffles them around you get someone else's block.

You put on a small border, it passes to the next, then the next.  The fourth person quilts and binds it.

The whole thing is like twenty inches total so the comittment is not huge.  And the exciting thing is the day you get it back is like Christmas when you are 5!!!

And at the big  reveal the second most exciting thing is that you have a piece of you in someone else's quilt too!

Check out the big reveal from the lat session and sign up for the next round of the Cotton Robin with Julie!

http://cottonrobin.blogspot.com

I did!!!

glen

The Big Reveal

Since the beginning of the year I have been involved in a fabulously creative group of people and we have been passing around fabric.  Each lends their unique talents to adding a round to what shows up on their door stop.

you don't know who it is coming from, what is coming, or where yours is for all this time.  But I guarantee, when you get it, it is fabulous!

here is the big reveal and who worked on what:

http://cottonrobin.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-reveal.html

Thanks, all I loved it!

glen

A Finish and a Flop

I finally finished my Cotton Robin Project. It looks amazing, to say the least. The top called for a screaming modern backing and a bias striped binding. So that is what it got! I still can't show you the final product just yet, that will have to wait for two weeks. Here is the back of it. Don't you just love that fabric?

That was the finish...now for the flop.


After the problems with not having white flour the other day, I went to the store and bought some. Now with white flour in hand, I made some Olive Oil Bread.

Olive Oil bread must have a lower incineration point because I definitely reached it! When the buzzer went off I walked in the kitchen and noticed the smoke just drifting around the ceiling like cumulus clouds. I instinctively knew something was amiss. The bread, it turns out, was a bit, uh, shall we say, overlooked?

I took it out and had to rush off to dinner with Ann and the quilt meeting. So it sat on the countertop until I got home last night. Even DiNozzo didn't want it! I thought I should at least cut into it and TRY to salvage it, and it was actually not bad. So that is what I had as my bedtime snack last night.

For breakfast this morning, I had two slices of the turmeric bread Caroline made. which is more like you SHOULD make bread. I need to take lessons from her I guess. Her yard is looking beautiful this year once again. They have figs, lemons and oranges among the flowers and the pond fountains. We went to the Master Gardener sale and picked up some plants and fig trees. For Carrie and I, I scored an LSU Gold fig tree designed for our summers and winters here for $12.50. And an echinacea plant. Now all I need is a stevia plant and I will be excited and content......well maybe not totally content, you know.  Really......

glen

Stuff I can't show you........

I have been cleaning my room, you would be so proud of me! I actually cleaned off a corner of my quilt table!  This piece of my table has not seen daylight in, like, three years!  It was soooo happy. 

Then I organized my shelves.  I took projects that were coordinated fabrics and a pattern (whether it was a pattern or a magazine with the pattern in it) and put them in plastic boxes and shoe boxes.  The boxes fit on the top shelf up to the ceiling.  That moved a lot of stuff

 from the floor by the door where you could barely get into the room!

I can't show my houses yet.  Not until the first of January.  But I have 8 in progress and 4 or 6 finished.  I spent yesterday working on cutting out tiny pieces to make it easier to paper piece the bottom part of the house.  I think I got this conquered.....I think.

Aren't these windows too cute?  A lion and a hippo are looking out of their houses!  LOL.  

I also can't show you the center block I made for the Cotton Robin.  It is too cute!  So instead, you can enjoy this one I did for the 100 Blocks from Quiltmaker Magazine.  Well, I tested the block for them, I didn't design it!  It is in Volume 3.  It is my most favorite block I have done for them.  I really love it. 

I have been piling up a bunch of stuff to give away.  So everyone who responded to the last post, send me your address and I will send you something in a package.  It will probably be next week before I get back to the post office to mail things, but that should be OK. 



You are ALL winners!  Yeah!

My email is obed101(at) cox (dot) net

It feels so good to be back in the world after Dutch, my mom, and all the other crap that has happened recently.  I am quilting with 2 separate groups a couple of times a month, I am doing the Cotton Robin, I created the Mystery Quilt for one of my guilds.  I am in two local guilds.  A group of friends are planning a quilting cruise this year and we have a couple of retreats in the works. 

2012 doesn't have to work all that hard to be better than 2011 !

glen:  Paula and I said we were going to stay drunk until 2011 ended...........