Sunday, May 24, 2015

HeartBEEts - Ta Da! - a Bee Sewcial Baby Quilt

HeartBEEts

Let me tell you about HeartBEEts. She is a baby quilt that the members of Bee Sewcial made for another member, Marci, who has just had a new baby girl. Marci blogs at Marci Girl Designs. Now that she is safely in Marci's hands, I can tell you all about her.

A bunch of us met up at QuiltCon in February, including Marci. She let us know that the baby she was expecting was a girl and that she was into pink for baby things. The rest of us decided to make her a surprise baby quilt, and in keeping with the Bee Sewcial way, the theme/inspiration was hearts and the colour was pink and low volume. Our one deviation from the usual Bee Sewcial rules was to use prints, not just solids.

Stephanie, who blogs at Spontaneous Threads collected the blocks and pieced the top. Debbie, who blogs at A Quilter's Table created the back, with a block addition from Stephanie. I did the quilting and binding.

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by Hillary, who blogs at Entropy Always Wins. I adore this block, and I have to say I was glad of the industrial strength longarm machine as I was quilting it - all those seams really gave my machine a workout thumping through them.

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by Melissa, who blogs at We Shall Sew.

HeartBEEts, detail

This one was made by Diane, who blogs at Random thoughts... do or "di".

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by Kari, who blogs at Craft Happy.

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by Felicity, who blogs at Felicity Quilts.

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was also made by Diane, who blogs at Random thoughts... do or "di".

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by Stephanie, who blogs at Spontaneous Threads. She made a similar one that is part of the back.

HeartBEEts, detail

Stephanie also added this tiny little grey heart. She cautioned me not to sew through it.

HeartBEEts detail, with flash

The wonder of this tiny little heart is better understood when light (like the flash of a camera) shines on it. It is made from nano particle fabric and it shines that light right back at you. You can read more about Stephanie's nano particle adventures here.

HeartBEEts before washing, with flash

I did not know about the magic of this little heart when I was quilting and photographing the quilt and I generally turn the flash off on my camera. Here is the one whole quilt picture I have with the little heart shining, it is before the quilt had a wash and dry. That little heart sure holds its own with the bigger ones!

HeartBEEts, detail

This block was made by me.

Heart Block #2

Here it is before quilting. I used a lovely free pattern from Pieced by Number, go here. I also pulled out a bunch of my hand screened fabrics from Karen Lewis Textiles for the heart. And I could not resist using the bird and children print from the Wee Wanderer collection by Sarah Jane as the background.

HeartBEEts, detail

This is the other block I made.

Scrappy improv  hearts

You can see it a bit better here. It is improv in straight lines, a bit asymmetrical and quirky.

HeartBEEts, detail

Not surprisingly, I quilted this quilt with unevenly spaced straightish lines. I used a light pink Aurifil 50wt thread for the top and the bottom.

HeartBEEts, detail

It's hard to see but the light pink thread gives the whole quilt just a little bit more warmth. I think by now you might have guessed how much I love this little quilt and I know Marci loves it too.

HeartBEEts

Debbie, from A Quilter's Table designed and pieced the back, with a block from Stephanie added in. I am in love with this back.

You can also see that I bound it with the left overs after trimming of the print on the side of the back. To longarm quilt, one needs the back to have 6 - 8" extra on all sides, and that turned out to provide the perfect binding fabric for this quilt. By the way, HeartBEEts is about 45 - 48" square (I forgot to make a note of the exact size, oops.)


I had to show you another photo of the back. It really is just the other front. This photo is before the quilt was trimmed or washed and you can just sort of see the many low volume white prints that Debbie used.

HeartBEEts, detail

The label says it all, this was such a fun project to make for a brand new baby. The members of Bee Sewcial were all involved in each step of making this quilt - there was even a lot of thought and discussion about how to name her. Our newest member, Karen, who blogs at CapitolaQuilter joined too late to make a block but helped with the naming and other decisions as we went.

HeartBEEts

And I had to show you the whole quilt again, the members of the bee did such a great job creating this quilt. I am honoured to be part of such a creative and generous group of women.

Best,

Leanne

31 comments:

janequiltsslowly said...

What a lovely gift for a new baby & mom. That tiny light up heart is a neat addition.

Teje Karjalainen said...

This is so fantastic, cute and beautiful quilt! Each blog is adorable like the backing, too! x Teje

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I like that quilting with straight lines and not a lot of swirly kind of quilting that never goes with the design of the quilt. When I machine quilt I use straight lines too but mostly I hand quilt.

Rachel said...

What a beautiful quilt! R x

Auntiepatch said...

What a lucky baby.......

Ioleen said...

Such a darling little quilt.

Debbie said...

What a terrific and thorough post on HeartBEEts! So glad I could share a part in its making!

Deborah OHare said...

Adorable!

Anonymous said...

Leanne I've been mesmerized by your heart block with the birds fabric. Did you intentionally match up the seams on the left? The bird seem to fly uninterrupted across those seams-so good. What a fun project to make together. Thank you for your hard work on this and the Bee as a whole. We are lucky to have you as leader.

Hillary

CapitolaQuilter said...

Lovely post - thank you for even more details about the creative backstory of HeartBEETs. I'm not very good at keeping secrets so I'm glad the quilt arrived and is already being loved.

Georgi said...

Absolutely beautiful! Love the quilting. :)

Ella said...

Gorgeous!

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

This is such a beautiful collaborative effort that I was honored to be a part.

Kim B. said...

This is gorgeous, and for the new mother and baby to treasure, and for you all to relish your collaboration. I too find your block with the Sarah Jane birds SO charming! Lovely job ladies and nice blog post explaining everyone's contributions.

Sandy said...

What a fantastic quilt and what a wonderful group you've made!!!! Love the whole concept!!! šŸ‘šŸ»šŸ‘šŸ»

Jayne said...

HeartBeets is amazing, especially with all the thought and love behind it. You are a great group of ladies and so lucky to have a special group to share and be a part of!

Sarah said...

thats a beautiful quilt, and the wee grey nano heart is wonderful!

Leslie can't stop quilting said...

Leanne I too am just in love with your block with the kids and birds!!! I love everything about this quilt!!! Lucky mommy and baby!!!

felicity said...

I'm so happy to have been a part of this quilt and I'm especially happy to be a part of this bee. Thanks for the great post, Leanne!

Lynz said...

Oh, it is just wonderful!!! Absolutely perfect, the whole thing!

Scrappy quilter said...

Absolutely wonderful!

pennydog said...

Oh I love Marci, what a lovely gift!

Unknown said...

Love the heart quilt for the new baby and that each block was pieced by a different individual. Fabric is adorable too!

Unknown said...

Love the heart quilt for the new baby and that each block was pieced by a different individual. Fabric is adorable too!

Live a Colorful Life said...

This is such a sweet quilt! I love all the blocks. And yours is so special with Karen's fabric (I adore her fabric!). I was thrilled to meet Marci at QuiltCon so it was really fun to read about this special quilt.

Archie The Wonder Dog said...

I love the quilt and the shiny heart is amazing!

Sarah said...

What a beautiful and thoughtful gift for a new arrival!

Nicole said...

Beautiful! I'm sure Marci will treasure this quilt, as will her little girl!

Kari V. said...

I am very behind on my reading and just saw this blog post. Thank you for the lovely writeup and documentation of the quilt! More than anything, thank you for quilting and finishing the quilt. You did a beautiful job. (The block I made is the one attributed to Felicity though I really don't think that matters much.)

mascanlon said...

Such a lovely quilt. All the care and love that went into shine through in every photo. It will be treasured.

Unknown said...

stunning, what a gift