Busy like a bee..

I signed up for two sewing bees this year. My first Bees ever, sew exciting to be asked! The Must.Stash Bee is run by Amy and it’s a nice small Australian bee. These folks have awesome stashes! The premise is that the Queen bee chooses a block for the month and the hive all pull fabrics from their stash to create a couple of blocks for her. It has been a wonderful and eye opening experience. I think we’re going for round two. The benefit of running a bee this way is the postage costs are kept down and I’m challenged to make something that someone else will love from my fabrics.

Here are some blocks I’ve made for the Must.Stash girls so far.

I’m still receiving the Jacobs Ladder blocks from my month and love them. It’s going to be a spectacular quilt. I’ll have to remember to take a photo of the blocks together to post here. Thank you Must.Stash girls!

The second Bee I’ve been in is the AusMod Bee organised by Jeannette. This is a much larger Australian bee with 15 members and each Queen bee sends out her fabrics and chooses a pattern. I only knew a couple of the members before I joined this bee and It’s been wonderful to get to know everyone over the past 4 months. I’ve made blocks for Jane, Charlotte and Bronwyn so far. The great thing about a big bee is the sheer number of blocks you get back, perfect for a big quilt. And I LOVE big quilts.

Jane designed her own paper pieced pattern Refractatorium, isn’t it awesome?

Charlotte sent out three solids Snow, Pink and Grey for modern 12” blocks. It was hard to send these away!

Bronwyn sent out a variety of blue and aqua fabrics for some 12” modern blocks. I’m loving these stars. I think I see stars in my future…

I was lucky to be first cab off the rank and have 60 gorgeous AMH Feather blocks to show for it. I’m thrilled with the experience so far. Postage was a little expensive sending out the 14 parcels especially given how big the templates were. I’m very happy that my long hoarded stash of Anna Maria Horner fabrics is finally being put to good use! Now I need to find some time to sew them all together.

Luckily one of the Bee members recommended Lisa at Sunset Seams to make the templates too, they really helped with making the feathers and we’re using them again this month for Kirsten’s blocks so it was a good investment.

There’s only 13 cause I hand delivered Jane’s and Catherine's in January!

Will post photos of my gorgeous feather quilt when I have the top together, but here are some of the blocks. I have to say it felt like Christmas receiving all the gorgeous parcels in the mail!

Phew! Today I’m making some Granny Square blocks for Belinda, I’m really excited about using some of my new stash that I know she’ll love!