What makes a good medallion/round robin center?
 

I’m thinking of joining a round robin, where you send in a center block and other people add 6” borders around it. What makes a good center for this type of quality. I usually like my borders to be of different sizes like 2”, 4”, 6” and 8” How do you like all borders being only 6”? Any suggestions on color constraints?

any other suggestions you have for this type of quilt swap?
thanks
MJ

I don't like the idea of all borders being composed of 6" blocks, but some of them could consist of a combination of different borders that add up to 6" (e.g. a 1", followed by a 4", followed by another 1" border). The center could be a pretty panel, a fancy block (such as carpenter's wheel or lone star) or some nice applique.

MJ, I don't quilt, but do enjoy looking at the pictures of quilts and blocks. I think you will find that while the rounds may be a certain size, it is sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the next one begins. Since a lot of the Round Robin swaps cover many pages, it can be kind of overwhelming to go through some of the prior ones. In the last one Carriem put them in her albums https://www.quiltingboard.com/member...04-albums.html I also found some other pictures of prior partially completed round robins pictures at
https://www.quiltingboard.com/5791238-post361.html
https://www.quiltingboard.com/5875335-post421.html
https://www.quiltingboard.com/5970661-post445.html
https://www.quiltingboard.com/6104122-post497.html

I'm sure there are many others that give some ideas of the variety of centers and borders. I've seen some of your BOOM blocks and enjoy seeing them.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

I've done a couple round robins or row robin swaps and we have included fabric that we would like them to use. That way, we know the fabrics will match. They can add fabric if they want to, but your included fabrics may help them with choosing the other fabrics and designs to add.

They're fun to do! Good Luck!

Thanks this is very helpful. a lot to think about.


Special thanks to Ourworkbench for pulling together the list of applicable posts. I’m glad you enjoyed the boom blocks. Mine usually win the game one of these things is not like the other in the boom gallery

One of my sewing groups just finished a row quilt that was a round robin. The most successful ones (in my opinion) had a multi colored focus fabric in each block. I would suggest if you go with a focus fabric. Decide on an amount for each person. Whether it's a third of a yard or half a yard per person and cut the fabric. Staple to each piece that it's one piece per person. It's amazing how fast fabric disappears when several people work on a project. I requested a red, white, and blue for a Veteran's quilt. Even included a small USA flag just so I was clear about colors. Didn't work. Everyone has a different idea of what works.

Here are two different round Robin quilts of mine. I’ve participated in many round robins. Quite often I just choose one of my
( orphan blocks- blocks I’ve made as a trial block, learning a new technique, or just extra I haven’t done anything with) for my center,

I found Harriet Hargrave’s book Master Quiltmaking Academy : Vol 5 very helpful in creating a Medallion quilt. She covers the history of the style, modern examples, suggestions for centers and help with the math involved in planning each border.

Choosing a center block with a clear or strong color palette will give your "rounders" a better idea of what colors to use in their round. But I generally think that participating in a round robin is likely more of an unknown outcome than doing a mystery quilt! LOL