RRQuilts

The image I have in my head of quilt bees is that of women sitting and sewing together by hand. They’re probably even working on the same quilt – a special one for someone’s wedding or new home. All the little girls in the community are helping or working on their own sewing projects as well. For me, this image comes from reading the Kirsten American Girl books.

I’m sure that these bees still exist, but there are also many modern flavors of quilt bees too. The one I joined was set up so that all the participants took turns making blocks for each other. Everyone took turns being the “Queen Bee” and chose a block and fabric preferences and all the others in the group would make the block and then mail it to the ”Queen Bee”. in this style of bee, all participants have a turn selecting a block and they are responsible for assembling all the blocks together to make the quilt top and then finish the quilt. In a way, it’s like crowd sourcing a quilt top!

The pros

• Great way to meet new quilters or put a face to the name of your Instagram friends. Many online quilt bees will have a continual chat or schedule video calls.

• Crowd source a scrappy quilt. This is great if you get bored sewing the same block over and over. You can also get a broader variety of fabrics than when you raid your own stash.

• Use up some of your own scrap stash! Many participants in my bee were open to any brand or had several colors they were going for, so I could rifle through my stash to make most of the blocks.

• It’s a great way to try just a taste of a new technique. In my bee, one block was curves, some were FPP, and many were traditional blocks. A new skill can feel a lot less daunting when you only have to make one block!

• Some blocks were “quilters choice”. I had a fun time looking through some of my books of traditional blocks to choose something new to me to make.

Other things to consider

• Some quilters did have pretty specific fabric requests. Be aware that you may need to purchase some fabrics to make those blocks. I didn’t mind picking up a few things I couldn’t find in my stash, but if this is a problem for you, be sure to choose a group that doesn’t have very particular requests so you are able to pull from your scraps and stash

• Postage can add up. Sometimes I forget how expensive postage can be. And when adding up sending blocks to 11 fellow quilters, it can add up.

• Things get lost in the mail. I had one set of blocks get stuck with USPS. It felt like the right thing to do was just remake them and send a new set.

• Commit to the duration of the bee. In our group, there were a few folks that had to drop out, and we all understand that life happens, but do your best to commit for the duration of the project.

• I was surprised at how distracting it was to make a new block each month. When sewing the same block over and over for a block-based quilt, teach block comes together pretty quickly, but for me, each block took much longer when only making one. It makes sense, right – there’s a bit of math to make a block the right size or to figure out the pieces and fabric needed for only one block, then you have to cut and press just the one block. There’s not much efficiency there. And then you have to switch gears every 2 weeks to another block.

Is this the right bee for me?

If joining a bee sounds like fun, great! It’s something I’m glad I did! Before committing, I would make sure that your goals line up with the goals of the organizer.

• Make sure you understand the time commitment both in how long the bee will last and how many blocks you’re expected to make each month.

• Personally, I would say to be understanding of the number of blocks that each bee mate is being asked to make. Be considerate of the resources they are putting into your block. Avoid being overly specific on fabric requests, unless everyone is on board.

• Don’t make everyone purchase a pattern. Have a free block or traditional block in mind instead! There are many floating around out there!

• Be understanding when people get behind schedule. As long as you receive the blocks, don’t sweat the timing too much.

• Have a great attitude and get ready to have fun!