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/

Beeswax and Bee Rescue

 When I'm not sewing or doing mom things, I occasionally deal with honeybee things.

 This past weekend I filtered out my beeswax.   For candles and cosmetic uses, it needs to be as clean as possible.  I started out by melting it in a crock pot purchased from the thrift store for this purpose.

 After melting and filtering, I poured it into aluminum loaf pans to cool.  You could literally see it cooling.

Four loaves of wax - about 5 pounds.


Also related to bees - by word of mouth, I was contacted by a lady who had wild bees in her milk shed.  She is selling her place and wants the bees rescued.



   This is me cutting a larger hole in the ceiling to try to find them. They weren't up there.

They were in the walls!   This is a picture looking up, those are combs hanging down.

 Here they are!

So the 13 combs in the picture above were mostly pollen and honey - no brood or live bees.  The above picture is pollen filled comb.

This picture is honey in the comb.

This is what a cross section of pollen comb looks like.  The bees pack in the pellets of pollen in layers, pushing it in with their heads.  This is the food for baby bees.

This story isn't actually done, because I have to go back and find the rest of the bees.  It was a pretty chilly day and I needed more/better tools to open up more walls, so I am going to go back when things warm up and the bees are flying so its easier to find them.

Stay tuned!