Finished Round Robin Top

My Frida Kahlo quilt top has arrived home!  And just look at it! Who would have thought that centre panel would inspire such a stunning quilt!!
It is actually SO big that I can’t get a very good photo of it (90 x 81″). But taking it outside yesterday in the sun should give you an idea of how incredibly saturated with colour it is.

The girls that worked on this did such an amazing job. Here are some close ups from the outside in. The last round was done by the only other Brit Quilter in my group SewJo. I love how she framed the whole top with these brights/black points. And look at that tiny piece of fabric origami in the corners! Jo is so good at these tiny pieced corners.
You can also see part of Dolores’s round here too. I had suggested a ‘mysterious jungle’ theme inspired by the centre fabric and Dee really went for it with this gorgeous Echino fabric – so perfect! And then out did herself with those needle-turn appliqued exotic flowers in the corners.

The round before was Greta’s. How ingenius is that piecing?! I love this effect and the way she carried on the swathes of solids from Nichol’s round of black gold and green bands (Rastafari!)

Susan pieced these clever stacked bricks for her round, all the girls have done such a great job matching the colours for this top!
Those awesome leaves and lines of sawteeth were all paper pieced by the very talented Christine, and I think this round, along with Pam’s first one, really set the tone for the whole piece (and totally intimidated the rest of the group!). I am also in awe of their piecing abilities.

And here is Pam’s first round. Those blue and red ribbons are all curve pieced into the red! She has done it so well that you are fooled in to thinking it is the design on the fabric. And looking it this again while typing, I’ve just realised how cleverly Dolores has mimicked the piecing in Pam’s corners with her appliqued flowers!
There is just so much details here that I am still finding stuff!

 Here is the siggy block I sent with the quilt, all filled up!

 Look where Frida has been! She is very well travelled round America! You can read more about the start of her journey here.

I think I may have had a few wee moans about the cost of posting the tops to the USA, especially as they got so big! Dear Jo, who was always sending to me from Northamptonshire, sent me up one of her beautiful sewing/crochet wraps to compensate!

Jo, you are such a sweetie and I can’t believe you hand made this, it is so professionally done. And also just what I need!

And on the day that my Around the Bend Across the Pond top came home, somebody else came to visit from Across the Pond (but she’s not round the bend!). It’s Karen Cosmos, an ORBC regular and Flickr friend from Vancouver. Karen came over 2 years ago and we had a lovely day in Edinburgh with Marg and Lynz. Karen was over then for her son’s wedding to an Edinburgh girl and this time she is over to visit her first grandchild. She came to my shop to see me and buy a couple of my husband’s photographic prints. I jumped at the chance to show her the top and she helped me spread it out on my craft table (which is actually really big!).

I feel so honoured to have this beautiful quilt top which all these lovely ladies have worked so hard on and put such beautiful work in to. Thank you ARRR8!!
Now this is going to have to go in my UFO pile for a bit as I have decided that I really should hand quilt it *gulp*, and I have a few other projects to finish first!