carriem, the added colors, especially the gold, give so much interest. Nice!
Bugaroo, what a darling!

What a cute squirrel, Bugaroo!

Carrie, pretty addition! I think your group will be mailing Sept. 1 for the second round. Group 1 mails Aug. 15, so Group 2 would mail 2 weeks later, Sept. 1.

He is pretty cute. Can't wait to see the finished round.

Carrie, nice addition.

Hello all! Lovely things going on by all. I'm still battling my nerves but my Tuesday group likes what I'm doing and I will be proceeding and not starting over. Still have a couple days before pictures but getting closer.

Our Tuesday group meets at our hostess's house because she has a husband with pretty severe dementia and other needs and he can't be left alone. We stopped meeting entirely for the first few months and have started having a garden party for quilt time because we all felt the need for this little once a week social/quilting outlet. Our hostess as much/more than anyone. Mostly we just visit and do some show and tell but we are figuring out how to have a hand/lap project to work on. We are thinking ahead to the fall and the wet weather and while we do meet all the Covid/Library guidelines, if we go there we still have to have some accommodation for her husband -- coming with us probably isn't the answer...

It's been rather nice and the regular walking/jogging neighbors say hi as they go by. Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago she got stung by a wasp and got quite the reaction on her shoulder. Yesterday we had barely sat down and something stung/bit her on her finger with an immediate ouch! We tried the usual household type things but the finger started swelling up almost immediately. About half an hour after group she called and asked if I could take her to the Urgent Care, her son had gotten home but someone still needs to stay with dad. When I got there despite the benadryl, ice, etc. her entire hand was now noticeably pink, finger severely swollen and definite puffiness everywhere it was red.

Our Urgent Care during Covid has an outside check-in. The desk lady now sits on a chair outside the entrance and does the initial intake. There just happens to be a planting of trees/benches just outside. It wasn't at all crowded, so I was able to sit in the middle of a bench under the shade with 6 feet on either side of me for people to pass so I took off my mask and worked on my project. She came out about half an hour later with 3 prescriptions in her hands, which is different from being told she was over-reacting. It was not a normal reaction! We could all see that. Don't know if she's a bit sensitive after the wasp sting, or what but it was nasty. (I got stung by a wasp and while I'm not allergic got blood poisoning, another long story...)

So -- short form, let's be careful out there!

Macybaby--First, sorry it has taken me a few days to reply to this!!! I would like to end with a rectangle quilt, but am good with adding to the top/bottom when it returns if I need to. :) If it ends up more square I won't be upset. I am sure it will be well loved!!

IB, I can identify with your friend. It was so great you were there to help her. I had a friend bring me to the hospital with a similar situation. A wasp stung my middle finger. My hand got as swollen as possible, then my arm, then my shoulder, then the back of my throat, then the top of my head itched. I needed to go to ER and had steroids, and Benadryl, and some type of IV drip. After that, I was told to carry an epi-pen because I was allergic to the venom in stings.

Progress Shots/Design Decisions -- ok, here we go. Now, for the big reveal -- despite all my fussing I chose to do applique! I'm still in my "sew large/trim down" stage, so the working size is something like 6.5x8.5, but the finished size will be 5x6".

When I first saw Bonnie's center I thought "well there goes my idea of wonky houses out of consideration" one of my pre-start ideas of something I could do. It's such a wonderful center. But I started thinking about houses and home and things like that, and one of my first ideas was a border of Dog and Bird Houses with Cats between them. Then Reba contacted me, her first impression was of the Emerald City and the Wizard of Oz and she was thinking about a yellow brick road but needed to have some fabric ordered and was waiting on that so wanted me to know where she was.

Ultimately she went into a different direction, but it sent me in a definite path. It's not that unusual that I have America's Greatest Hits in the CD rotation, but shortly after reading that message the song Tin Man came on -- Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man that he didn't already have (which was a heart). Then, a library book titled Tin Man (no relation to Oz) that I put on hold about 6 weeks previously came off hold that week. And then it was "there's no place like home" and finally, "Home is where the heart is" which is what I'm calling my round.

I tried various techniques -- pieced first of course. I tried various heart shapes, thinking of the more elongated folky ones might look good with the house shapes but the scale was wrong. I tried more of a crazy quilt approach with different stitches and had a lot of fun playing with things on my Bernina that I don't ever use but just wasn't happy. I was/am concerned that this means three rounds of applique, and I chose a different method/style to show my different hand. Ultimately, the simple shape with thick, primitive variable length button hole stitch was everyone's favorite -- even my husband looked over and said "oh! I like that!".

In Reba's round she added a star with each of our names embroidered on it. In my round I'll be placing a heart with each of our state's above our names (as close as I can!). So far the 4th of July block is still on the approved list, all the other pieced ones have failed except for one other that is subtle. Originally I was pulling fabrics on black backgrounds, but a lot of them just disappeared into the background. Some are still on the list, but I found the brighter the better.

Thanks for the sneak peek, Ice... the hearts are definitely cute! I'm excited to see the finished version.

I still struggle on with my work on LeeAnn's quilt. Have tried 3 ideas and none really work. I'll get it, tho....https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wink.png

Whew! A lot of my stress is coming because this isn't what I usually do -- but I wanted the chance to do different things with this round robin.

I should mention that I did workmanship tests in the beginning, among which was prewashing test blocks in with the regular wash so medium heat, full dry, lots of tumbling. The thread (2 strands of a 3 strand ball of crochet thread) is not shrinking or getting fuzzy and stays nice without pulling the heart or distorting the background. There is an amount of color discharge from it when I bunched a thick group of trimmings and sewed it into a color catcher, but there was no transferring of color into the fabric (even the piece I tried on light fabric and let air dry).

I've been a fan of Kona cottons for decades, primarily because of the ability to repeat buy the same colors. Before all this Covid stuff started I had already decided that I needed to try my eat/buy locally to my fabric and the black comes from this line:
http://www.clothworks.com/index.php/...profile/id/24/