Today’s featured quilt is this beauty brought to you by Rossie Hutchinson and the Mid Mod Bee.
Kelp Quilt by Rossie Hutchinson and the Mid Mod Bee
Tell us about your quilt:
“This quilt was made by members of the Mid Mod Quilt Bee, a bee that Cheryl Arkison and I started after a funny exchange in blog comments about mid-century design. I call this quilt ‘The Kelp Quilt,” but I realize the shapes no longer resemble kelp very closely. I guess that’s what happens when you take a piece of inspiration and run with it! The kelp is a recurring design in mid-century design. I hand-dyed the red/orange fabrics–a method I plan on covering shortly on my blog. My instructions to the bee included the following picture and the following text:
‘This is going to be a twin-size bed quilt. I’d like everyone to please make a 9″ tall, 65″ wide strip. As you can see in the picture, I would like your kelp shapes to be in the center of the strip height-wise (don’t stress, just aim for the center, okay?) Try to keep the plants less than 4″ tall and the stems no more than 1.25″ tall.
Anything goes as far as how many plants you’d like to put in your strip, how long the plants are, and where you position them in the strip width-wise. I love subtle wonk, but nothing crazy or forced.'”
Tell us about your bee experiences.
“I have been lucky in that I’ve ended up in bees where I’ve been asked to work improvisationally. I don’t like to follow patterns.
What makes it worth it to me is the pooled inspiration and interpretation and ideas. I love this quilt and all the blocks that I received. It’s so much fun to see what people did and how the different styles play off of each other.”
Based on her bee experiences, Rossie has some good tips to remember if you plan to join a bee:
1. Send more fabric than you think your bee mates will need. Seams eat up fabric and it’s frustrating to not have enough fabric to make your members something they will love.
2. Reserve some fabric so that you can add to your quilt if you need or want to.
3. Follow-thru on your commitment. When you join a bee you’re making a commitment to follow the rules and timeline of your bee. When you send out fabric, you want something in return.
4. Life happens, and if you can’t continue, let your members know. They will understand.
Tell us about you as a quilter.
I’m an unworried, unhurried, improv machine.