Back in 2004, when I had only been quilting a few years, I saw this gorgeous appliqué quilt by Pat Sloan in a magazine.
I had never done appliqué before and thought, I can do this!! Sigh… I found out quickly, it was not my thing… so I put it away and went back to piecing. (If I had a quilting friend or mentor back then, maybe it would have been different, but I didn’t! I am a self-taught quilter… learned from Simply Quilts episodes and books.)
When I packed up my sewing room to move to this house, I found it again. I then unpacked it here and decided that although I do not love doing hand appliqué, it was still part of my quilting journey, so I stuck it in my bee bag and when I had no newly finished quilt to bind, I would work on it at bee.
Well, I finally finished the hand appliqué and quilted and bound it. There is a whole lot more wrong with it than just the horrible stitches around all the appliquéd pieces… like poor fabric choices especially where values are too close to see the design elements…like the vine in the border that almost invisible. UGH!
When I quilted it, I tried to darken some of the light flowers by using darker thread, to make them show up a bit more against the background.
And I added black details like antennae and funky knees on those bees… hence the name- “Bees Knees”!
And even though the fabric colors and values are terrible and the hand stitching deplorable, it is part of my quilting journey, so I have it hanging on my upstairs banister…
verrrry high and far away from quilting eyes…
Soooo, what are you up to this week?
