The Bees Knees
August – December 2018

This is the first time that I have participated in a Block of the Month (BOM), and so far, it’s a lot of fun! This free BOM project is called Save the Bees and is being hosted by Jacquelynne Steves over at The Art of Home. It is running through December, and there is still time to join – just use the form on the right side of this page.

The first block in this BOM is the one pictured on the left above, and while it called for an appliquéd flower and bee for the center of the block, I chose to use an embroidered tea towel instead for a couple of reasons. First, since I had been on vacation for much of August, I only had a few days left in the month to get this done before the September BOM came out. Second, I always try to incorporate a ‘piece of the past’ into my quilts, and I really liked this tea towel I had inherited from Edith for the center of this block. I then embroidered the bee to keep with the #SavetheBees theme. 

For September’s BOM, pictured to the right above, because I had drifted from August’s BOM flower design, I designed the flower appliqué to better match my first block. I haven’t done much appliqué since I learned the freezer paper technique about 15 years ago, so it was great to dust off this skill 🙂 I used Heat n Bond Lite to hold the pieces, and then needle turn appliqué around the edges.

While I am excited for next month’s BOM, I have plenty of other quilting projects to keep me busy until then – don’t we all? 😉