I joined an online quilting bee last month. What’s an online quilting bee, you ask. Back in the days of yore, ladies (bc that’s who quilted back then) would gather and work on a quilt together. It was a practical and social gathering - many ladies working on one quilt sped along its production, and simultaneously allowed for them to have some fun social time together. Fast forward to 2010, you don’t need to gather in your local church basement to be a part of a bee - the internets changes things!
I found the Quilting Bee Blocks flickr group through a quick internet search, and “met” the other 11 members of my group via the page where people say: “Ooh! Me, please, I want in!” We quickly formed our little group, Sew Bee It, and decided that we would try to go for a fresh, modern look as a unifying theme. Each person gets a month during which they send out little packets of fabric to the other 11 people, along with some guidelines on what you’d like made. At the end of the month, you have a bunch of finished blocks sent back to you, very possibly with each one different than the next since 11 different quilters created them. Hey presto, insta-quilt top.
The nice thing about our little group is that there are some beginners, slightly experienced beginners like me, and very experienced, advanced quilters. This month Heather of Bitty Bird Quilts got us started with fun whirligig blocks. She sent us a cute little kit of fabric, a template and a printout of her handy tutorial on how to make these blocks. They went together very easily, and I foresee a whirligig quilt in my future!
One of our group members suggested that we also make a “friendship block” each month that the recipient can use on the back of the quilt. I struggled to come up with something good for my block, but decided today to bite the bullet and pull something together. 沈 for my last name Shen, and little shapes of places I have called home. I like how it all came out looking like a G. I mean… I planned it that way… ;)
