Round Robin Quilt Block

Here is the quilt block I made for Brit's round robin. It's my first pass at such a project.

The theme is "running" and Juls and Jessica and Brit and I are the team. Here's my rudimentary understanding of how it works: We each made separate blocks and then we send them to the next person on the list. When we get somebody else's block, we add a border. Then we send the block on, and the next person adds another border around that. When you get your block back at the end, each person has added on to it. Then you can finish it off, or, if you like the size for a wall hanging or small quilt, you can add batting/backing/quilting/binding to your heart's desire.

I did my quilt block on the San Francisco half-marathon I ran in February 2006 (holy!!! time flies!!!) (edited to add: uh, no, 2005. *sigh*) and it was a fantastic experience! I loved that 'race'. I use the term 'race' rather loosely, by the way!

I picked the happy yellow background because it was an incredible, clear, sunny day. Crisp and sunny and perfect. (Though, truthfully, entirely too sunny about 8 miles in. Ahem.) I used the famous wool to make a 13.1, freehand style, which is the number of miles in a half-marathon. It's sort of an inside joke, to myself, because whenever somebody finds out that I've run a half, they all say, "You ran 13 miles?!?" and in my head I always add, "Point one." Because I'm sorry, that tenth of a mile is the hardest part of the half.

In the lower left corner, the green fabric represents Golden Gate Park, where the run began. I sewed on leaf buttons I had, and added some running stitch. In the upper left corner, the psychadelic fabric represents the Pan Handle of the park, which ran us through the Haight-Ashbury. I added flower buttons because, you know, flower children and hippies. The upper right is blue, because the ran took us down Highway One to the zoo, and back, which is a lovely trot along the ocean. I added the blue buttons because I could. The little pocket has a red wool heart inside, attached with a red string, and there are three french-knots on the outside of the pocket, also red. I was three months pregnant with Scotty when I did the run, and he's the little heart, hidden in the pocket (my wee co-pilot!) and the three dots are me, Tommy, and Erik. Bottom right is a cute turtle fabric (for obvious reasons, and because I'm a turtle) and I embroidered my time, 2:27, onto that space.

Now, what you need to know, is these folks are very forgiving. My "design" is unbalanced, my work is amateurish, but they have been nothing but supportive. I'm so excited to get my block back! I'm also incredibly nervous to work on other people's blocks. : |