Art Bee Block Swap

I am a "charter member" of one of the local Art Quilt Bee groups.  Members have come and gone over the years, but I have remained.  (Although, I did think about resigning during my busiest of times.)  I joined the group as a way to stretch my creativity and step outside my quilting comfort zone.  I have stayed on in order to further those goals.

The group has done a number of group challenges over the years.  Once one project concludes, discussions begin regarding the next.  Many of these challenges have been donated to one organization or another.  Last year, the majority of us decided that we would like to work on a group project that we might keep for ourselves.

The Art Bee group kicked around a number of ideas before deciding on a Strip Insertion Block Swap for our next project.  Each participant could choose a color or size for their set of blocks.  Each person made TWO blocks for everyone else in the swap.  The challenge would be to use the blocks that we receive in a quilt, adding additional blocks, if necessary.

I chose BROWN with GOLD inserts.  Certainly NOT my "normal" color palette!  It was Autumn and the fall colors were calling to me.  What can I say?!

Here are the blocks that I received at the December 2014 meeting:

The following photos are the other participants blocks:

Catherine's green blocks with any bright inserts.

Britt's batiks with low contrast inserts.

Muriel's blocks with colors chosen from a distributed print fabric.

Susan's woolen blocks.

Evelyn's blue blocks with any color inserts.

Carrie provided us with white background squares and asked for bright inserts.

Along the same vein, Susan made a Strip Insertion quilt out of thrifted materials and brought it to share with the group:

A (relatively) full view of the quilt.

A close-up shot of the quilt.

This is a picture of the BACK of the quilt.

These are the blocks that were added to my set at the January 2015 meeting:

And here are the additional blocks for the others in the group:

Catherine's greens with bright inserts.

Britt's batiks with low contrast inserts.

Susan's woolens with red, yellow or white inserts.

ALL of Evelyn's block together.

Carrie's additional blocks.  She provided the background and asked for bright inserts.

Muriel's additional blocks.

I haven't really determined HOW to put these blocks together, but I'm sure that I will come up with SOMETHING!!  It will be interesting to see what everyone else does with their blocks, too.  I wonder how many of them will have their quilts COMPLETED at next month's meeting!?!  We shall see.

Until next time...

Happy Quilting!!!