Round Robin Round #1--Piano Keys

It's week two and border one of the Stay At Home Round Robin, the mastermind of Gail of Quilting Gail and co-hosted by a small group of bloggers.  This week it was up to Chris at Chrisknitssews to choose what we would use for our first border.  The choice?  Piano Keys!

I decided to have my piano keys be light in the centers and get darker as they moved outward.  Since my starting block was 10" square, I used 5 strips total of 2 1/2" strips.  These are 3 1/2" long so they are rectangular, like piano keys.  My progression wouldn't really work around the corners, though, so I decided that I would use the next round's theme as cornerstones.  I don't like quilts that get too big and with 7 rounds of borders, one for each of the hosts, I was worried it might get bigger than I like working with.  So in the picture above, the top borders aren't actually sewn in.  You'll have to wait until next week to see it completely.

Have you decided to play along?  This is a pretty relaxed sew along and the rules are far from rigid, as you can see by the fact that it's week two and I'm already playing with them, bending them a bit :)  If you do decide to play along, link up your piano key borders with Chris. And here's the schedule for the future rounds:

• January 11: Center Blocks: Gail @ Quilting Gail
• January 18: 1st Round: Chris @ Chrisknitssews
• January 25: 2nd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood --That's me!
• February 1: 3rd Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
• February 8: 4th Round: Roseanne & Sue @ Home Sewn by Us
• February 15: 5th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
• February 22: 6th Round: Susan @ Quilt Fabrication
• February 28: 7th Round Gail @ Quilting Gail

Have more questions?  Gail has lots of answers that you can find here.