Exploring Collaboration Part 2 - Tips and Techniques
About this collaboration series
If you read about the Welcoming Lamp quilt, you will know that I appreciated that successful collaboration with Ellyn Zinsmeister. We enjoyed working together so much that we decided to continue exploring collaboration, this time through a series of blog posts. Twice a month, on the first and third Wednesdays, we will be covering related topics from our own perspectives. This series began with an overview of two types of quilting collaborations – block swaps (over on Ellyn’s Space) and series collaborations. Today, we’re each sharing tips and techniques for successful collaborations. Ellyn will tailor her tips to bees and block swaps, and here I’m focusing on series collaborations and some specific tips for working with round robins.
How to hold a successful collaboration
Designing a successful collaborative project – and participating successfully – can be a challenge. Many people fear group work for a variety of reasons, and I will share some of my recommendations for “best practices” to help your next series collaboration run as smoothly as possible. While it mostly boils down to “good communication is key,” I’ll go a little more in-depth than that.
First, clearly define the rules and guidelines
This tip may seem like a no-brainer, but the forethought will be useful. This step also helps ease some of the challenges that might come up later, as it’s easier to refer to the guidelines to guide any conflict resolution that might be needed. I covered some of the basic guidelines in my last post, and I’ll summarize here:
Assign a team leader and share their contact information.
Define a reasonable schedule and share it with everyone.
Decide on project specifications, like size and scale of contribution, fabric content, style, technique, or theme.
Specify the recipient of the finished project.
Some groups may want to discuss and decide on policies in advance for potentially contentious situations like:
What do you do if someone misses a deadline? Or more?
What about modifying or removing someone else’s work? I’ll go into this a bit more down below.
How will you go about changing rules (if it comes to that)?
Second, work with integrity
Most of the “problems” with collaborative projects, and especially with series collaborations, come up when we feel someone is not working within the designated guidelines or offering less than their best work. Working with integrity goes both ways. Commit to yourself to do your best work and sincerely attempt to follow the guidelines. Temper any judgment you may have for others’ work by remaining compassionate. When working on any type of collaborative project:
“Remember that part of the fun - the reason to do it in the first place - is to end up with a final project that is something you could not have made yourself, imperfections and variations included!”
For round robins, add to a square, flat top
When you are adding a round, or row, to a round robin project, the first step you should take is analysis.
Flatness first! Lay it flat on the design wall (or design floor) and check for flatness. It is common to see wavy or pinched borders, especially as the project progresses through multiple rounds of quilters. This step isn’t so you can assign blame to any other quilter! It’s to make your job easier. You have the opportunity to plan your work to correct any creeping wonkiness either through creative addition of your border, or through subtle, nondestructive modifications of what has been done to date. Big note: if your rules are explicit about not modifying others’ work, respect them! If you can tactfully and compassionately discuss a proposed fix with a previous artist, and offer nonjudgmentally to flatten the work, do so! Remember your integrity and be respectful.
For wavy borders, you have two good options, depending on the degree of ruffle. (By the way, wavy borders are the result of adding a border, probably without first trimming to size, that is longer than the side it’s being added to. The bulk is eased in and often accumulates over several additions.) Option 1 is to commit to adding a properly sized border and easing it in, and Option 2 is to modify the previous work. Yes, attempt to prioritize Option 1.
For Option 1, fold the quilt in half and measure the length of the fold. This is the length of the new parallel borders. It will be less than the length of the parallel sides. When you add your borders, pin at the center, then the ends, then continue pinning half way between every two pins until the extra fabric is distributed. Sew with your new border on the bottom so you can see the parts that need to be eased in and avoid puckering. If needed, gently (gently!) stretch your new border to help with the ease. Ironing with steam is usually helpful after each addition.
For Option 2, your artistic expertise comes into play. Identify areas that could accept an invisible dart (existing seams are perfect candidates, and sometimes all it takes is widening a few scant seam allowances). Only if the waviness is egregious, and the previous work won’t be destroyed (for example, with non-pieced solid fabric in the corner), consider trimming at the corners to reduce some of the extra length.
For pinched borders (when the edge is shorter than the parallel center length), the challenge can be more difficult. I once worked on a project that was just about bowl-shaped. I’m not going to give any specific tips here, because it really depends on the situation. The only thing I’ll recommend is to remember your integrity and be respectful. Didn’t I say that already? I mean it.
Squareness second! Measure the length of each side, and the length of each diagonal. If opposite sides are equal, and both diagonals are equal, you’re golden. But, it’s unlikely this will be the case. To return the project to square, you have three options: Option 1 is to add compensating strips before you add your border, Option 2 is to add non-square borders that will return the project to square, and Option 3 is to square up the quilt before adding your border. Again, prioritize the nondestructive Options 1 or 2 if you can.
Option 1, compensating strips, are your best friends when working on round robins. They help not just with squareness, but also to get the top to an easy size for your addition. Say you’re set on making a border composed of 4” (finished) blocks, but the project you’re adding to is only 30” long (30 is not evenly divisible by 4). Add 1” (finished) compensating strips, and voila, the project is 32” long and your 4” blocks will fit perfectly! Back to squareness, before adding your borders, sew strips of fabric to all the edges and then trim the quilt to square, discarding without guilt any part of the compensating strip you just added.
Option 2 takes a little more planning, but can look perfectly seamless when you’re done. For this to work, you basically make wedge-shaped borders so that when they’re added to the edges, the resulting quilt is square (or rectangular, you get it).
Option 3 is of course the last resort, but can be done respectfully in some situations. Like the second flatness option, your artistic intuition is important. I recently used this option on a medallion project. One edge was short, but the fabric allowed a creative solution. Instead of doing Option 2 (which maybe I should have thought of), I sewed oversized triangles over the corners (like “snowball” corners) and trimmed the edge to the correct length. Because it was all with solid black fabric, I didn’t compromise the previous artist’s vision, but I made it easier on myself to add a straight border.
This is a detail shot of the upper left corner of this medallion quilt. If you look closely, you can see the seam of the triangle I sewed to the corner of the border with the bright snowball blocks. Perhaps the snowball blocks inspired my choice. My border in this corner is mostly solid black with one “lightning bolt” exiting the mustard snowball block.
Now I want to hear from you
As I’ve been writing this post, I feel like there is SO MUCH to say on this topic. Do you want to hear more? I thought about making graphics for all the specific tips, but decided that would take more time than I have scheduled for blogging. Would you like to see a downloadable tip-book for working with round robin projects, complete with graphics and more examples? Tell me in the comments!
Finally, a shameless plug
Did you know I teach and lecture for quilt guilds? If you are interested in seeing more from me about collaboration, check out my “Collaboration is fun” lecture and ask your guild program chair to reach out. Thank you!
