Finished 4x5 Bee Quilt

At the beginning of 2012, Sukie wrangled me into joining the 4x5 bee as she was taking over as the head caretaker. I signed up for one round, but then life got busy and I didn't commit to any other rounds. As 2012 was coming to a close, I decided I better do one final round so the lonely blocks I received earlier that were sitting in a drawer could join others and be made into a quilt.

For Christmas 2011, I had gifted my sister and one of her daughters quilts. I don't remember what exactly he said, but my brother-in-law left me with the impression that he wanted a quilt too. As I was trying to come up with handmade gifts for family for Christmas in 2012, I figured this 4x5 bee quilt would be great for my brother-in-law.

I had received 10 blocks (5 from each round I participated in). Since I had a red sheet on hand and didn't want to piece the 10th block into the backing, I asked the mister to pick his favorite (top middle in this photo) so I can make him something with it. The rest of the blocks were pieced into the top.


I needed to make the quilt a bit bigger so I added a border of Laurie Wisbrun's Perfectly Perched that had the aqua and red color scheme I was going for.



Like I mentioned before, I used a solid red sheet for the backing. For the quilting, I tried stippling for the first time (in the border). It was hard not to want to cross over those lines, but I'm sure it'll get easier with practice. The rest of the quilt is my typical meandering loops. There's one blank space in the quilting because I didn't want to quilt over the hexagon block since it had some hand stitching in it.



For the binding, I used one of the swirl prints from the Perfectly Perched line.

The quilt measures approximately 56x62 inches.

4x5 Bee Blocks and October Sew Beautiful Bee Block

Last year, Sukie talked me into participating in the 4x5 bee that she was heading up on Flickr. I participated in the first round, but had so many other things going on that I didn’t join in on any other rounds (quarters). I’ve had my five blocks sitting in a drawer since then and decided it was time to do it once more so I could collect a few more blocks and put a quilt together.


For the girls in my hive, I made these broken herringbone blocks. (Check out the pouch I made using a modified version of this block here.) I’ve loved my group. Everyone picked great color combos, which I was lucky enough to have on-hand already, and everyone’s been really active in our discussion thread on Flickr.

Here are the blocks:











Friday nights seem to be when I get the most sewing done so last week I also managed to make this feather bed block (free block tutorial by Anna Maria Honer) for Katie for her month in the Sew Beautiful Bee.



The Field Study, Indie, and Quilter’s linen work so well together in this block.

Now that I’ve finished all my bee blocks for now, I need to get cracking on finishing up my Pillow Talk Swap pillow. I made a list of all the projects I’d like to finish by Christmas. It’s a bit overwhelming so I need to work hard at being as efficient as possible.

Blocks for 4x5 Bee, 3rd Quarter

Thanks to Amy twisting my arm (wink wink), I joined the 3rd quarter of the 4x5 bee on Flickr. I finished up my blocks this morning and I LOVE how they turned out. I seriously want to make a full x and + quilt of my very own.

K*D Quilts asked for purple and orange.



Dashasel asked for lilac, garnet, and baby blue.



Around the Quilt Block asked for bubble gum pink, yellow, and cherry red.



Handmaderetro asked for red and white. This one turned out to be my favorite, which is weird because I'm not a big fan of red.



Kate @ swim, bike, quilt asked for buttercup, robin's egg, and ash, or yellow, aqua, and gray.



I really enjoyed making this block in different colorways. Bees like this one are a good way to try out a design in various color schemes. I'm excited to see what the girls in my hive end up making for me.