The Execution

It's been about 10 days since I shared my Now What? plea, right after I put all my Bee Sewcial Mid-Century Modern blocks up on the design wall. After a few helpful considerations from others, I plunged in, beginning with a very basic concept: I made a frame of blue painter's tape on the design wall.

I first heard about this suggestion in a class with Katie/Sew Katie Did. Basically my bee blocks were overwhelming me with all their varied sizes and shapes (exactly what I'd asked for by the way!), and by making this 18"x22" frame, I was able to fill the space and piece the blocks together in a more organized fashion, at least in a way that wasn't quite so random. Here's where I started with the first block.

Then I filled in with solids, echoing that micro line going through the block of diamonds. I was pretty thrilled how that worked out, though all the blocks didn't lend itself to that. But you will find filler solids trimmed with a contrasting 1/8" throughout the quilt.

So I went on to do 8 more blocks this size, each comprised of 2 or more smaller blocks. I would have been happy with that BUT. I still had a handful of blocks from my bee-mates left! I briefly considered making a 2-sided quilt, but went with option B, which was making 3 more block sections, each of these 9"x22". I didn't want the layout to be any more structured that it already would be, so I added the narrower blocks in thusly:

Can you see it?

So the finished top is 62"x66" and I've started quilting! I came up with a crazy free-motion stitch when I took a class with Christina Cameli a few months ago, and I knew instantly I wanted to use it on this quilt. It felt like something I could manage yet was a bit unique, so I'm going for it. Now....what shall I call it?

Anyway, I've really just begun, and wouldn't you know it, but my machine began acting up, so quilting is on hold for a while. But this crazy thing is put together and I know where I'm headed, and I'm more than happy with that!