Fire and Water

This is Fire and Water. It was a bee quilt with the Erie Street Quilters. Each person have me a couple of blocks with blue scrappy strips with an orange to red strip in the middle.

Back is an old stripe from Connecting Threads.

I trimmed the blocks into rectangles and tried to get the "fire" stripes to touch. It was close.

Simple wavy quilting and a scrappy binding machine sewn.

I used a lightweight poly batting from my stash. Actually this was all from friends and stash. Free Quilt!!

It finished about 58" square.

Still need to make that pesky label.

Bee Words, Spelling Bee Quilt, A finish!

Warning: This post has a bazillion pictures, because I'm putting up all the info and photos I had about this quilt.

It all started in 2016 when Elizabeth of Occasional Piece Quilt got a group of us doing a bee based on words: AKA A Spelling Bee.  It was improv words, each month the queen would post a list of desired words and we would make it happen.  I chose a bunch of words having to do with beekeeping because it was my first year of being involved in that new hobby.

And then, as things happen, the words sat around for a long time.  I added a couple of words that hadn't been chosen off my list, too.  Every time I would pull them out, I would put them back because I didn't know how to start.

One of the hardest parts was figuring out how to put the words together.  You see, I didn't specify a size, so they were all different. I finally figured out a layout I liked (above) and took the whole project up north with me.

Featherweight at the kitchen table.

 Pressing/cutting station on the wood stove.

 Layout on the dining room table and the bed (below)

 I built the quilt from the bottom up, cutting strips from solid browns and making the puzzle fit.

 More progress, but this is after we came back home.

 Finally a top!  I had a deadline, which was the quilt show in October, so that kept me motivated.

 Piecing the back, with skeps, bees and flowers.  The fabric at the top with the black background is special because my cousin who lives in the Philippines bought that fabric for me from one of the markets there.

 I happened to have an extra block, that conveniently said Queen Bee, so I used that as part of my label and signature block.

 Basting at church on the large tables.

 And commence quilting!  I didn't want to lose the graphic punch of the quilt, so I did "organic" straight line quilting - making occasional marks to keep from going completely crooked.

 Brief panic when I thought I was going to run out of thread.  Ordered 3 different colors off Amazon (invisifil) and got the right one!

 Stitch and roll, stitch and roll.

 Woot, ready for the hand work.

 When I trimmed it, it didn't end up completely square, so when I washed it and it was still damp, I tried to do some blocking.

Here its hanging on the line.   With clothes pins holding things together.

 And done!

 I didn't crop this picture on purpose.  Look at all that ridiculous snow.  We've had snow that has stuck 3 times already.  6" on Halloween.  Unbelievable!

The details: 83" x 67"
Batting: Quilter's Dream Orient (because its what I had)

Thread: Invisifil on the top, Aurifil on the back. 

People who participated by making words for me:

Elizabeth opquilt.com

Lisa         nymblefyngers IG

Mary     needledmom.blogspot.com

Carla      carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com

Susan    patchworknplay.blogspot.com

Kerry     blog.pennydog.com

Simone quiltalicious.blogspot.com

Mary     maryonlakepulaski.blogspot.com

Brenda brendaandblue IG

Cindy     www.liveacolorfullife.net/

The Keeping of Bees Quilt

When I sit down to write these posts, sometimes I am stunned by how much time passes between working on various projects. 
I finished the top for this quilt in July 2018!  (after receiving the blocks May 2017!)
 And didn't touch it again until February. 

Messy pile of trying to plan the backing.

Lots of supervising help here to make sure the back is done and big enough.  Cats, dogs and children!

As I was pin basting I found this mismatched corner.  I did unpin and fix it.  I was planning to enter it in a show, so couldn't have this in it!

All pinned and ready to quilt.

My new favorite way to mark straight quilting lines: A solid tracing wheel.

I found mine at a thrift store for $.50

At this point the center and the wings were done.  Time to do the bodies.

Finished quilting

Woot, and a finished quilt.  I really need to find a place to hang it.  It is too large for my quilt hanger that I have in my stairway, so I will have to find a new location in the house.  Still working on it.

Many thanks to my bee mates who helped make this possible!

Here it is hanging in the show.  No awards, which is fine, because there wouldn't be a quilt show with out quilts. 

Gridster Bee 2017 Blocks - A Finished Top

Way, way, way back in 2017 May was my month for the Gridster Bee.

I asked for paper pieced honey bee blocks.  Each person in my bee duly made one and sent it my way.  And even though I had grand plans, they sat.  For a year!

The last post that showed them all together was in November.

I finally got them out and put them together.  

 Exactly the right number!!

 Auditioning middles.

 Auditioning letters.

The final top.  I did the lettering with my Silhouette machine and heat transfer vinyl in chocolate brown.  There is much debate as to the meaing of this quote, but as a bee keeper, I think it is apt. 

Looking forward to getting it quilted and finding a place to hang it up.

If you are interested in making your own bees, the pattern is found here.