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| Flight of the Bumblebees: 14" x 18.5" |
Last January I posted a Pay It Forward (PIF) on facebook, and my mom was one of the people that signed up. Then earlier this year my mom and her husband (they've been married like 3.5 years and it's still weird to stay stepfather, ha) added bees to their little farm. Around that same time my friend, Samantha at
Making Life Prettier posted
some hexie bee blocks on IG she was making for her mom. Finally I had an idea for my mom's PIF gift!
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| Bee detail on the back. |
I used the
Free Hexy Bee pattern from badskirt to paper piece 8 little bees (two of them were turned into a pair of coasters for a friend that got bees this year too).
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| Paper piecing bees. |
It was my first time piecing hexagons together, and didn't particularly enjoy it. The best tips I found were from
Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts.
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| Piecing the hexagons together. |
I decided to add an extra layer of batting to the bees before layering the quilt (a trapunto technique).
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| IG photo: Adding trapunto to the bees. Top: pinning batting scraps to the back of the bees, then I stitched in the ditch around each bee. Bottom: trimmed the extra batting off from the bees. |
I used some Warm and Natural batting scraps for the trapunto, and Quilter's Dream wool batting (from
a Massdrop deal!) for the rest of the quilt. If I'd had little scraps of the wool, it would have been better for the trapunto. Regardless, the results were pretty awesome:
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| Puffy little bees using trapunto. <3 |
I quilted it using Superior Threads, So Fine in #473. I hand stitched the flight path and antenna using Aurifil 12wt. I used Aurifil #2024 to quilt the flower area.
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| I hand embroidered the little bee antennae and flight path on after the other quilting. |
The flower print is Wild Carrot from the Madrona Road line. I got a tiny piece in a scrap pack and used up just about all of it for this quilt. The rest of the blue fabric is Kona Cornflower. The binding is also Kona, but I don't know which.
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| Flight of the Bumblebees back. |
I meant for them to be honey bees, but as I was putting the last little hand stitches in my husband said I should call it Flight of the Bumblebees. I was like, haha of course! Seems like such an obvious name now ;-)
Oh no....this is simply adorable! How special to have such an appropriate PIF gift.
ReplyDeleteYou are a gem! What a lucky Mom to have a talented and sweet daughter like you! (((Hugs)))
ReplyDeleteThis is SO cute! She is going to love it. The batting between the bees is genius. :) As always, love the quilting, too!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a sweet and well thought through gift.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this! The hexies, the puffy little bees, the quilting and the embroidered bee lines. The photos are superior... especially the close ups. It's all sew perfect! What a lucky mom you have, Renee!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful, I would love to receive this and I don't even have bees. I always do my hexagons by EPP and love it as I find it quite relaxing and there is no problem with the angles at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stunning mini. A really perfect PIF gift.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect gift! I've never tried machine sewing hexies. The hand embroidered flight path looks so good on top of all the pretty fmq. It's a great little detail.
ReplyDeleteToo cute! I am keen to try some of those hexie bees now too.
ReplyDeleteI find it weird calling my mum's husband my stepfather too. We all adore him, but our relationship is not 'fatherly'; we're friends, and I like that.
This turned out absolutely amazing Renee! I love the trapunto effect with the bees, and their little antennae and flight paths are so cute!! Your mom will love it for sure!
ReplyDeleteThis is so cute! I love the bees and their puffiness haha! The hand quilting is so fun too. What a sweet little PIF.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sweet and cute and perfect!
ReplyDeleteThese bees are the knees. No wait. They are the knees on a bee? No. Bee's bee's knees? hahahaha!
ReplyDeleteIn serious - you know you have something awesome here. It's a lovely gift for sure!
Absolute genius!!! I love everything about this quilt, and especially that it is a gift for your mom :)
ReplyDeleteXX!
I love the finish, so much work went into this and it is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw your bees mini in the previous post I wasn't sure if I liked it, however now that you have completed the trapunto work, added your wonderful quilting plus the hand quilting - well I think it looks pretty amazing. I've not tried trapunto but think I will one day.
ReplyDeleteI linked this post to my sewing group. Several like me enjoy a hexie and at least one, loves bees! Bzzzzz!
ReplyDeleteLeeAnna at not afraid of color lapaylor.blogspot.com
What a fantastic way to use up those little bees. You'll never believe it, but I just posted a Zipper pouch using the exact same Bee paper piecing block. Crazy coincidence, or are we ahead of the trend?
ReplyDeleteI love this piece so much! It's just too cute for words!
ReplyDeleteRenee this is just amazing! Congratulations on putting together such a simple, yet beautiful PIF. Love the process you shared too -- thanks again.
ReplyDeleteI love how this turned out, Renee! The puff to the bees is perfect, and the flight path lines are great.
ReplyDeleteWow - this is fabulous! I love the simple, yet really impactful, use of blue and the print from Madrona road. Love this so much - your Mum is going to adore it I'm sure!
ReplyDeleteHere is another example of your amazing quilting ability. When I saw just the pieced top of this, I thought it was cute, but not really my thing. Now that the quilting is done, I think it looks amazing - gorgeous. I'm sure your mum will love it.
ReplyDelete