Stay At Home Round Robin 2026 – OccasionalPiece

We Stay-At-Home Round-Robiners are now on Border Two, and the prompt, from Kathleen McMusing was ““Make It A Double.”

I carried this fully into my life when we decided to rip out the ceiling in the main bathroom and get rid of the fluorescent lights (replaced with LEDs) AND, making it a double, decided to revamp the garage laundry room. Here’s the before and after. We also ripped out the linoleum flooring, and I kind of like the rough, crazy pattern, so we’re leaving it for now. I can only do just so much doubling in one week.

So while hammering, sawing, sheet-rocking, mudding, painting, electrical stuff was going on, I was trying to concentrate on the week’s SAHRR prompt. Kathleen suggested blocks with the word or idea of double. So I created a double block border:

I was inspired by Yvonne’s border last week, with how she spaced out the hourglass blocks, and decided to try something similar. Just sort of simple: a double-block spaced out with low-volume strips. And then I made up a PDF Tip Sheet for you all. Underneath this illustration is a PDF file to download:

SAHRR 2026 Tip Sheet Border Two Download

Click to download the PDF file. Note: the original post did not include the correct Tip Sheet with the trees. This one, that has the word “Two” at the end, does. Please download it again if you don’t have the complete handout.

But, yeah. Not quite happy with stopping there, and I remember that Kathleen DID say to make it a double, so I went on to think about a second border — a doubling up on this round.

I worked up a little sketch in my Affinity Designer program (free, from Canva), kind of thinking about the idea of round robins and going around the neighborhood. I used to teach at a lot of Quilt Guilds in Southern California (where I live), from Before Covid Time and Through Covid, and taught this pattern to a lot of guilds:

I pinned it up on my design wall, and kept it there while I worked on the houses. These are slightly bigger than what’s in my pattern (but the instructions are all in there, plus a version of Far Away Doors). But this version needed a tree, or four. So in the free tip sheet above, are instructions for some of the trees in this border, too.

I have a climbing tree, and a nesting tree, and a pine tree in the Tip Sheet.

In process. Remember last week when my husband said it was wild, and I said it was going to get wilder? Yep.

Here’s where I left it (approximate size: 38″ square). I will sew the neighborhood to the slender green border, but I’m missing something for that upper corner. I had an idea (see the sketch at the top of the post), but after a week of double-construction and double-double borders, I was ready to let it rest, and see what our prompt is for Week Three.

The schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means I finished that section.]

Two remaining thoughts:

I was also thinking about neighbors and neighborhoods and was impressed with how carefully and quickly the Minnesotans came to stand by each other as they are going through these difficult times. And we were asked to take dinner to a friend whose husband grabbed the business end of a live 220-volt electrical wire; they are also going through difficult times. I’m trying to be a good neighbor where I live.

Lastly, l’m looking forward to reading all of your posts in the next couple of days. Can’t wait to see what you all are doing.

Stay At Home Round Robin

is tonight, and I had to get this posted so I could link up here. I first read about this last year, on Janine’s blog, Rainbow Hare, and loved following along on her progress. She’s doing this again.

And then Yvonne, of Quilting Jetgirl, put up her center block, and it is perfectly wonderful — an Yvonne block through and through.

Just last night, as I was wandering into walls, thinking I should just give the quilting all up and become a geneologist or something, this morning, JOIN THE SAHRR! came as a flash of lightning. Or something. Here are my two options:

— OR —

One has a vision for the future, clear, crisp, with the color scheme decided upon. It’s like a supersonic plane flying through the clouds into the distance, or to quote Buzz Lightyear: to infinity and beyond!

The other one is slightly misshapen, duplicating shapes and colors, with a mix of prints that actually might just allow for more freedom. It’s more of a meander through the meadow, the woods, and possibly, the shopping mall. And it will allow me to interrogate (in the academic sense), the orphan block box:

Sadly, I have another box of orphans, too.

So I’m going with the second one, the four blocks made in a Jen Kingwell class. (Well, started in the Jen Kingwell class and finished at home on my sewing machine.)

Thank you to the hosts and organizers of this Stay At Home Round Robin. It’s the best of all worlds, where we meet new friends, create our own bits for our quilts with their prompts, and no trips to the Post Office. Gail, of Quilting Gail, has more details on her post.

The details, from Gail’s blog:

Here are my blogging co-hosts in the order of what we will be doing and the linky parties we will be hosting each week. (There will only be one linky party each week … and we’ll direct you to it …)

January 14 Each of the co-leaders will be sharing their centre blocks (you will have to visit each of their blogs to see them). I will host the first linky party where you can show your centre block.

January 21: 1^st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs

January 28: 2^nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

February 4: 3^rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

February 11: 4^th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

February 18: 5^th Round: ME!!! @ Quilting Gail

February 25: 6^th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts

March 25: Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

Now that I’m decided, I’m off to link this up to the beginning post, The Centre Block for the 2026 SAHRR. Deadline is today, Tuesday, January 20 at midnight Pacific Time.