Bee quilt from the Stingy Bees

If you are in a bee, each month you make your blocks, check the sizing and make sure you have followed the brief, before you put them in an envelope and visit the Post Office to put them in the post.

I try and get my bee blocks done early in the month so that I am not under pressure at the end of the month. It doesn't alway work like that but that is always my aim.

In the Bee a Brit Stingy bee, I was the April Queen bee and I asked the bee to make me some 'sprouts' although in my head I think of them as Orla Kiely leaves (far nicer)!

My leaves

Well the ladies did me proud and made me lots of leaves. I added a few more and 'hey presto' my quilt top was done.

Quilt top

I knew that I had a couple of metres of fabric that would help make a nice pieced black.

Sizing up the backing

This quilt came together really quickly and I was pleased that I had the forethought to ask the bee to make their signature block as a leaf, as I think that they look really cool on the back.

This quilt is really wide as I want it to drape over a kingsize bed however this presented a quilting problem - it is really large to tackle the quilting under my sewing machine arm. I solved the problem of how to do the quilting by asking my good friend Trudi,who happens to be a very talented short arm quilter, if she would do the quilting for me. Trudi did a fantastic job on the quilting by using different colour threads across the quilt. It has an amazing leaf deign running up each column that spills over onto the negative space.

So after all my rambling here is my fantastic Stingy Bee quilt.

The front

The back with the signature blocks

My leaves quilt

I cannot emphasise enough how much I L.O.V.E this quilt. It is made for me by my bee mates and quilted by my lovely friend , Trudi. How lucky am I ? It is on our bed, and every time I catch a glimpse of it, it gives me a warm fussy feeling.

A big thank you to the Bee a Brit Stingy gang and of course Trudi.

Di x