de Jong Dream House: lovely bee swarm

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Quilt #124 :: Purple Abacus

My 124th finish was more than a year in the making. In the fall of 2016, I decided to join an online quilting bee organized by Blossom Heart Quilts. I was placed in a group with 11 other quilters and we gave ourselves the name The Lovely Bee. Each one of us chose a month and a block. The block I chose is called Abacus.

Here are some of the other blocks I made for the others when it was their turn to be Queen Bee.

I chose August when I was on vacation. It was pretty fun to come home to squishy mail from around the country. Our group decided to send a little something extra with each block. Here are a few of my favorites.

After I received all my blocks, life happened and I worked on other quilts.

In January, I made a list of all the UFOs I could think of as part of Quilting Jet Girl's Planning Party. I want to see how many I can finish this year. Hopefully putting them in a list to compare to next January will motivate me!

The final push for this quilt was the announcement of the day when our local group would deliver quilts to a full grade of kindergarters at a local school. It's one of my favorite days because there are few things better than watching a child be surprised with a gift of a quilt. Totally makes me day!

Once the blocks were put together, it was the perfect size for a baby quilt, but I wanted it a little bigger for a lap quilt.

For the quilting, I echoed along the white chevrons to make the purple abacus pop.

I finished the night before our distribution. Just in time to let D finish the most important step. Product testing and adding his love to the quilt.

Yesterday the quilt joined 50 others to be chosen by its new owner.

I can't share photos of the little learners or the sweet girl who chose my quilt, but let me assure you that she adorable and her big smile is the reason I quilt.

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