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Berries and Figs

Modern Quilting Potholder Swap-Quilty Pleasures

Last week at the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild meeting, we had a potholder swap and I seriously scored!

Lin is a member of the guild and also the quilting teacher at our local community college and she knows her stuff!

She found the pattern for this block on a Moda website somewhere and I haven't been able to find it.

If I do, I will let you know.

Look at the neato quilting. I like how she followed the lines for the plants in the vase and made some swirls around the flowers.

I had trouble with the binding on my potholder but Lin didn't. It looks like she sewed the binding to the top, turned it to the back and then used a big zigzag to hold the binding in place.

It's too cute to use, so I will hang it in the sewing room for inspiration.

Bye Bye, Bees

This has been a sad week for me because I had to get rid of my bees. While working with a friend and her hives, I was stung twice in two days and my body decided enough was enough.

I didn't think anything of being stung and was on my way home when I realized I was having anaphylactic shock, my body tingling, itching, numb in places. I looked in the mirror and my face was a big old blotchy red blob and my breath was coming out sounding just like an old wheezy accordian.

So two miles down the dirt road, I turned the car around and went back to Sue's place where I calmly announced, "I think I need your epipen." And then I went to the hospital and received more drugs to ensure the reaction didn't recur.

It was just a year ago I received my first two hives of bees.

I nurtured "the ladies" and became a confident beekeeper. I fed them up with bee tea that first summer and fall, worried about them all winter, tucked into their hives in subfreezing weather, but this spring they emerged healthy and busy. Last month I purchased a small local hive to make three, and looked forward to harvesting honey for the first time.

Beekeeping taught me to listen to the bees to see how they were feeling. With sunny weather they were busy doing their jobs and indifferent to a stranger opening up their home for an inspection. When the atmosphere became close with an impending thunderstorm, they could be temperamental, time to close up and give the girls their space. I learned that a calm demeanor made for a good beekeeper and became a confident, patient, and respectful bee steward, making a tiny difference in our world with my three little hives.

But the doctor said I should not handle bees since another reaction could be worse and we are 30 miles from a hospital. I carry an epipen in my purse now. Maybe I will explore desensitizing shots sometime in the future. I don't know.

Friday at dusk a local beekeeper came to pick up the bees. I know they will be well taken care of, but it's like a death, a lack, an empty space.

I stood there, looking at the truck driving away, taking the ladies to their new home, and I cried.

Quilty Pleasures: Bee Potholder

The Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild had a potholder swap the other day and this was my offering.

Sis-in-law Pattie found this cute paper pieced bee pattern for FREE, compliments of Badskirt. Thanks, Badskirt, this little guy came together easily and quickly, which was good, since I waited until the last minute to get my potholder made.

Here is a closeup. I used fused applique to place the bee on the potholder. Whoops! He needs antennae.

And the back:

Both the back and wings fabric are from the Noteworthy line by Moda.  The lime green leaf stripe is from Simply Color by Moda.

I don't have a photo yet of the potholder I received, but it is cute and you will see it soon, really!