In praise of Round Robins

Not a fat little songbird , though sometimes they participate.

Round Robin is a group quilting practice. Each person makes a small start to a quilt project, swaps it with someone else and adds to what they received. It goes on, exchanging and adding, until everyone has worked on every project. The finished works - usually quite large - is given back to the person who started it.

Some groups have a "recipe" for what technique or design to use at each swap. Many groups keep the growing project secret from the originator, so there are wonderful surprises at the final handover.

It's a great experience to get you out of your comfort zone and face a regular design challenge.

A bunch of my friends are using this process to make quilts for the Mangere Women's Refuge.

The picture above is Cherry's Mariner's compass centre, I've added the deep orange framing triangles. I can't wait to see how this turns out- and to swap for my next challenge.

Memories for all time: #3, the first hour in Singapore

02-DEC-1978

It was a much longer plane flight than we were accustomed to. 12 hours! half a day from your life is a big deal at 9 years old. I don't remember being grumpy. I don't even remember my 5-year-old brother being grumpy. Probably best I don't ask my Mum for an adult recollection of the trip.

We were charmed by the care-package of strange fluffy socks, folding toothbrush, tiny tube of toothpaste.  We'd had a smoker in our home until the previous year - so the drift from the aeroplane's smoking section had a familiar comforting feel.

Mum had prepared us for moving to Singapore by teaching us to eat with chopsticks. Sliced banana in a bowl! No mere noodle, beansprout or shrimp was ever safe from us after that initiation. We were quite disappointed to discover there were forks...

So...finally the big plane lands. The doors open. A wave of soft warm moist air rolls almost visibly through the dry chill of the cabin. And the smell! A complex mixture of avgas and jungle - decaying leaves and waxy sweet perfumes dissolved in kerosene.

Down the stairs onto the warm tarmac in the sudden dark of tropical early evening. Bright lights haloed by the most Enormous flying insects, unable to dodge the tiny bats feasting among them. Strange faces and accents directing us onto the old-fashioned white bus, rattling off into the mysterious scented night....