Puzzling

One of my great joys, creatively-speaking, these past years has been being a member of Bee Sewcial, an improv, solids-only bee. I remember I had stepped back from all my bees when the invitation came to join Bee Sewcial. And I couldn't resist. Let's just say it's often been challenging, and that's exactly why I joined in. I think it's helped shape my personal work in a way that I've really enjoyed and been grateful for.

That said, puzzling is always the hardest part of these Bee Sewcial quilts for me. Most often (all but once) I received back blocks in a whole range of shapes and sizes. That's part of the challenge, right? And it leaves alot of room for the maker's own inspiration and interpretation as they respond to the given theme. Since I've used a variety of methods to puzzle my blocks together over the years, I thought it might be interesting to actually note what those have been. So here's a listing of my Bee Sewcial quilts, the prompt given to my bee-mates, the quilt size, the year the quilt was finished, and a brief description of how I puzzled the blocks together.

1. Mod Mood, Bee Sewcial Goes Mid-Century, 62" x 65", 2015 - For this one, I used a technique I'd seen Katie/Sew Katie Did use, and it let me create some order in the midst of the chaos of various-sized blocks. I began by making an 18"x22" frame of painters tape on my design wall, then pieced together a few blocks to fill the space, using other solids as filler as needed. And so it continued, making several more composite blocks in the same manner. When I still had blocks from my bee-mates left over, I made a few more smaller block sections. This post shows the 'grid' I created, which pretty much disappears in the final quilt.

2. Baconrific, The Bacon Consideration, 56" X 64", 2016 - For this one, I placed all the blocks on the design wall, forming a large rectangle, though a few 'holes' were left remaining. I filled some of them with my own bacon-inspired blocks, made to fit; but in three instances, I filled the spaces with circular "pancetta blocks," aka Improv Layered Circles. Besides doing their filler work, the trio of circle blocks added some extra interest, at least to me.

3. Looking Up, Looking Up, 75" X 60", 2018 - This quilt received the most traditional of finishing techniques - improvisational sashing. 

4. Homage, A Sketch Inspired by Gwen Marston's Liberated Patchwork Style, 56" X 60", 2019 - Once I put all of my bee-mates' blocks on the design wall, I followed my own prompt and made more improvisational 'sketches' to fill in the blanks. Nothing more than that.

5. Modular, Modular, 68" X 82", 2019 - This is my only Bee Sewcial quilt that actually uses some negative space to show off those blocks. I also used thin (1/2" finished) orange sashing(?) to add some movement as well as to connect with the orange segments in each block. 

6. Rings, Improv Double Wedding Ring blocks, 60" x 60", 2020 - For this quilt, I actually asked for two 12 1/2" blocks. I had in mind to arrange them in a pretty traditional arrangement, but no ideas beyond that. Though once I'd received the blocks, I did try arranging them more separated, but I really loved how they looked right next to each other. That way they also better reflected the traditional design. So then, that left how to 'frame' them to make the design look finished. Let's just say the blocks were up on the design wall a long time before this improvisational frame came into view. And once I had that vision, the rest, as they say, was history. And lastly, I think revisiting the improv stripes used in some of blocks really helped integrate the frame and make the design a 'whole.'

So thanks for indulging me! I've had this post in mind for a long time - both for you and for me - and I'm glad I was finally able to made it happen.

I’m participating in a 31 day blogging challenge!