I keep reading posts about round robin this and that, but nothing that says exactly what happens with a round robin.... can someone enlighten me??

Hi and welcome to the board from Iowa. The way I understand it is someone starts a quilt; sends it on to the next person who makes the next round (thus round robin) and the quilt continues on until the quilt is done and go back to the originator. No dumb questions here (smile)!!

a (traditional) round robin---each person who is participating in the group creates a block---which will be the center of their quilt- then they send their block to the next person on the list who adds a border around it- and sends it on to the next person---each person adds a border- passes it on---when it gets back to you it has grown- by how ever many borders===
some robins have specific rules- as to the border added- such as first border - triangles, second border applique, third border squares, ect---
some robins do not specify that but many have size requirements---such as 6" borders- or 4" borders-
some robins let it always be the choice or the person making the borders.
some robins travel around the world (can be quite expensive to participate in due to shipping/insurance costs) some each person adds extra fabric- some no fabric travels with it-
there are variations such as row robins (where each person makes a row to go with the original row theme)
or a grid- where you fill in a space on a grid, block robins where each person instead of adding a border around the original block just makes another block to attach somewhere---many different variations- but the original is the borders around

if you are going to give one a try- read the *rules* and make sure you understand---the requirements, the costs involved- the deadlines (they have specific time frames for each border) if you have a sewing/quilting group in your area, or a lqs you frequent perhaps you could get involved in a (local one) before commiting to a (long-distance) one...
in the 10 years i have been participating in round robins there has only been once that i was disappointed with my finished quilt--all the rest of them have been absolutly spectacular!!! but read and understand the rules before jumping in it is a commitment===that can last 6-8 months or longer-depending on how many people are in the group.

lovesmyles - There are dumb questions in quilting, keep asking, that's how we all learn!

ckcowl, thank you for the information.
I have heard of Round Robins before but have never been involved in one. Then I read of one I could participate in and didn't understand all that was listed as rules.

My dumb question: So who ends up getting to keep the quilt?

You get to keep the one you started. Everyone in the group has worked on it but it will eventually come back home to you.

They are fun and interesting .