A cheer for Hana…Go mustard! Go ketchup! Go! Go! Go-go! One! out of Five! Yay! and the crowd goes wild….

My friend Hana reads my blog. She is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know. In fact, last month she baked me a loaf a bread and told me it was for how much she enjoys reading my blog! Last week, Hana and I attended a meeting together. As the meeting started, she leaned over to me and whispered, “By the way, I have to tell you, your blog post (which I posted earlier that day) was sooo boring. I just had to tell you, it was all fluff, there was nothing to it.” This would be harsh news from anyone else other than from Hana. In fact, it made me laugh. I knew it was true. It was rushed and lacked any luster. I’m not sure why hearing it from her made me laugh, perhaps because most people wouldn’t have the nerve to be so crystal clear, honest. It was refreshing actually.

So on that note… let me just reach down here… and grab my pom, poms! Aren’t they are a beautiful yellow? Can you hear them as I shake them? Okay, I haven’t done this in a while. Let me get up and stretch… Okay, one, two, three! Jump, jump bounce, Sis Boom Bah! Cartwheel and flip! Ta Da!

Wayyyyy back in November as our little Fab Bee trucked a long, it was my month to be the Queen Bee. This is where I send out fabric and my design to all the other members. They in turn sew up the fabric to my specifications and send it back to me. My inspiration for my block was an illustration from my very favorite book, Naive Folk prints. I bought it a couple of years ago on my birthday at Anthropologie (my very favorite store in the whole wide world!) Having been in an online quilt bee before I knew, even though you set parameters, sometimes you get back things you didn’t quite predict. So it’s important, in my opinion, to pick a block pattern that has structure. However it’s also really important not to squash the personality of the sewist. This has been a big debate around our house as my husband prepares for his month in April. That’s why bees are joined right, to get to know people, learn new techniques, not just be slave bots. So I came up with this tree idea. I asked all the members to sew an insanely long block (100″- 6″) so I could easily sew the trees all together. Even thought it was long I was pretty confident it wouldn’t be too laborious.

I also wanted to send out packages that were unique and pretty! Again, a couple of years ago I bought these standard thank you notes from Anthropologie, the ones where you plunk in descriptive words in the blank spots. Kinda like Madlibs but in a thank you note format. Inspired from these thank you Madlibs letters, I made up a quilt bee letter. Plus I thought if I do another Quilt bee, I could use the letter again.

Holly sent, along with her block, this wonderful letter that made me giggle!

I did make up my block beforehand I sent my packages out. Berene, who sent out her fabric package back in September, mentioned in her letter that coming from a long line of caterers it’s always better to have too much then not enough. In my case I come from a long line of frugal farmers and apparently I was extra thrifty with my fabric. Whoops, my bad! As a result some blocks were shorter than 100″. Some of the sewers requested more fabric and others agreed, if needed, I could add to the ends. It will all work out in the end. I’ve received most of my blocks back already (quite a few from our January FVMQG as shown in the photo below). I can’t wait to get them all sewn together. It’s going to be quite fabulous, if I do say so myself!

Photo by Carol Browne

I plan on giving this tree quilt to my son oldest son. Shhhhh! I made him a quilt when he turned 8 but I didn’t think ahead to who he was going to be. Instead I concentrated who he was at the time. Even though he is determined to keep the quilt I made for him (he is now almost 13 – gulp!) I think it’s only a matter of time before a friend comes over and says, “Dude, you’ve got a baby quilt on your bed!” Hopefully the Fab Bee tree quilt won’t age as quickly as his last one.

Okay, phew, I’m outta breath, hopefully that will pass the Hana test! I think I might have pulled something! Don’t worry I’ll rest up for the next post!

Thanks for Popping by,
Cheers
Lysa

PS. if you’d like to browse though other blocks made for the Fab Bee, here a few links:
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (one of six) Darlene’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (two of six) Ellen’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup with sprinkles on top (three of six) Berene’s block
Hurry up mustard and ketchup (four of six) Eryn’s block