Newington Group Quilt(s)

After a few winter-weather postponements, the ladies of the Newington Schoolhouse Quilters finally managed to schedule a successful worknight for assembling our group quilt. This year we are using Elizabeth Hartman's Roller Rink pattern, using a vibrant combination of blacks, whites, with small random pops of bright color. I made ten blocks a few months ago; the ladies of our group provided over 200 blocks for this project!

We started with about 100 blocks of each border color.

Eleven of us got right to work, starting by sewing blocks into pairs, then pairs into quads, then quads into strips of eight. About halfway through the process, I stopped sewing and started directing, because I didn't want us to end up with too many long units that would eventually need to be taken apart. Before we realized it, we had ten strips of 19 blocks!

The tables filled up fast!

Our energetic co-president Tammy, taking a turn at the pressing table.

Within three hours, the eleven of us had assembled TWO beautiful finished quilt tops! Each measures 76 x 80", a very generous and usable size. The second top actually still needs the final seam sewn, which I volunteered to do in the interests of everyone getting home before it was too late, and because I felt bad for shirking my sewing responsibilities while everyone else worked so hard.

First finished group quilt top! (76 x 80")