The Teasing is Over

On and off, over the past year, you have been given less than satisfactory glimpses of blocks I have made for others in Stitch Tease - An International Mystery Quilt Bee. Let me try to explain how this bee worked.

This time last year the lovely Di - Random Thoughts of Do or Di - contacted a group of us and asked if we would like to take part in a bee together. This would be a bee with a twist though.

- There would be eight members;
- We would all designate our block or strip at the beginning of the year and make one ourselves;
- We would each make a block or strip for the other members over the year;
- We would each have a 'signature' fabric we included in every block we made;
- Each person's blocks were sent to someone else in the group to collect together;
- That person would piece the quilt top for the recipient;
- The eventual recipient of the blocks would not see them until she received her completed quilt top.

So last April I made a 20" x 30" block for my quilt that I posted to our Flickr group and which all the others would use as inspiration to make their blocks for me.

As always, my inability to take a photograph straight on is glaringly obvious.

I asked for scrappy, colourful, and white stars interspersed amongst this chaotic colourfulness. Looking at it here you may wonder what on earth I was thinking about. Trust me the year has been full of doubts on my part as well. But out of that chaos the most amazing quilt top arrived in the post last week, and maybe I wasn't as stupid as I thought. Because I so love the result.

The quilt  measures 60" x 80". Helen and I had to stand on chairs and stretch our arms to their limit to hold it up. Emily was the camera person as she wasn't tall enough, even with the aid of a chair, to keep the quilt top clear of the ground.

I have sat for ages just taking it all in. Looking at all the different precious scraps of fabric, finding the signature fabrics, and ooh-ing and aah-ing over it all. I don't think I would ever get tired of looking at it.

That leaves me with two things to say. First of a huge thank you to Di for organising the bee and to all those who made blocks for me. You ladies are awesome quilters as well as such great friends. Thank you!!!

Di - Random Thoughts of Do or Di
Annabella - Life's Rich Pattern
Hadley - Flying Blind on a Rocket Cycle
Katy - The Littlest Thistle
Dianne - Quiltova
Helen - RunQuiltKnitWrite
Danny - Mommy for Reals

Second thing, how on earth am I going to quilt this beast?!!

Another photo of the quilt top -
just because I couldn't resist.

Susan