How my Quilting Bee has invigorated my creative practice
I’ve been a member of the DC Modern Quilt Guild almost since I started quilting (2022), and during my second year in the guild, we started a Charity Quilting Bee initiative. The bee consists of small groups of 6-8 quilters in bees all around our region. We take turns hosting a month in which all the other members make a quilt block of the leader’s choosing, which they then assemble into a quilt for one of our charitable organizations, the Greater DC Diaper Bank and Inova FACT.
My first year in the bee, I selected a block that would be simple and easy to execute, but would offer some fun in terms of color and layout. I chose a lattice quilt block, inspired by a piece by quilter Amber Johnson (@gigisthimble on Instagram). I asked my bee mates for eight lattice blocks in print fabrics in a portion of the rainbow, including yellows, greens, blues, purples, and pinks. I shared a photo of my blocks as an example:
The resulting quilt was so much fun to make, and my daughter (age 6 at the time) helped me with layout
I quilted the quilt very simply with size 5 perle cotton thread along the diagonal lines and added double hand ties at the meeting point of each of the squares. It was quite challenging quilting with size 5 thread, which is thicker than the thread I usually use, but I loved the effect and it was fun to try something different and experiment.
The next year, I took inspiration from quilt artist Ashley Brown Durand’s (@latesummerflowers on Instagram) amazing work with blue and white quilts. I asked my bee mates for square and rectangle-based blocks made with solid fabric (or fabric that reads like a solid, including ombre/dyed) in any shade of blue with white. I left the sizes and shapes of the blocks is up to the quilters, but provided minimum block dimensions of 2" and maximum 16.5" in length and/or width. These were the block examples I shared:
The assembly turned out to be so much fun, and I was really amazed at how beautifully the disparate pieces fit together.
I did a mix of machine and hand quilting for this quilt, and had a lot of fun taking photos of it at one of my favorite murals in Downtown Frederick
This year, I was all set to ask my bee mates for two-tone 9-patch quilt blocks (inspired by this amazing quilt top by @roseivyquilts on Instagram!) but then I realized that I have so many solid scraps that it might be more fun to make that quilt on my own…so I did :)
I’ve admired improv quilting bees like Bee Sewcial and Bee off the cuff where the prompt is a little more loose and allows flexibility and creativity from the members of the bee within the constraints set by the leader. So this year, I asked my bee mates to make one or two blocks inspired by green leaves and oh my goodness they delivered!! This is just a sampling of the blocks I received from my bee mates:
I’m just about ready to start puzzling the pieces together! One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that having this focus on green leaves has guided my choices when I’ve been at various guild fabric swap events this spring - I’ve collected several possible fabrics for the backing, and I even found a template that I’m planning to use for hand quilting leaves along the quilt:
I think I’ll probably machine quilt it first with a simple cross-hatch design, allowing me to take my time with the leaf hand quilting and take any pressure off of the hand quilting to provide stability for the quilt.
Every single iteration of providing a prompt for my bee mates and making a quilt has been such a pleasure, and I love how my strategy and ideas have evolved over the years. I can see the ways in which my confidence as a quilter has grown, and my desire to control the specific outcome of a quilting project has diminished. I remember for my first bee blocks, feeling nervous about asking “too much” of my bee mates, and wanting to keep it very simple and clear. As I’ve moved to looser prompts and less specifications, I think I feel more trust in my fellow quilters, more trust in the creative process, and more trust that I will find a way to make it work. And as the element of surprise increases, my joy in the process increases, too! It is so much fun receiving blocks that are unique to each person, and my brain loves the puzzle of fitting different pieces together.
At this point, it feels like my charity bee is an invigorating part of my creative practice, and I’m looking forward to seeing where the green leaves quilt goes and what else may emerge in the future.
Thanks to my bee mates for making blocks for each of these quilts. I have tagged them in my Instagram posts for each quilt: