Yesterday, I was puzzled to see a crowd of honey bees on my doorstep. They were sort of flying around drunkenly, and crawling on the concrete. I am allergic to any kind of stinging thing, including bees, but I am fascinated by them and respect them. I called my neighbor who has a hive, and asked her if they were hers, nope, hers were all together in their home, not active yet. I continued to watch them through the day, I thought maybe there was a swarm, but couldn’t see any from my vantage point, and I wasn’t keen on going out there to look. At around five, my DD came home from work and she told me that when she got out of her car she could hear a buzzing and looked up, and there in the small oak above was a massive swarm. They were there all right, and I could see them from the safety of my kitchen. I called my neighbor back and asked her if she was sure her’s were home, yes, they were. She also said that the bee keeper who helps her was coming tomorrow, and he could take a look and take them with him to a new home. That was my excitement of the day. They are still hanging out this morning, I am hoping the Keeper will be able to get them. In a way, I’d like them to stay, find a nice hollow tree somewhere, but I can’t risk it. They will have a new hive later today.

I got about half of the evolution quilt top rows sewn together yesterday, I worked on it after making a bunch of strip sets for the Hampton Court QAL. I had to quit after half, because I had been at the machine too long, my upper back was starting to ache a bit. The Hampton Court strip sets are going quickly. In my last post I explained that I mistakenly cut the brown strips for the single piece piecing plan, and realized half way through. I sewed the all the right sized strips I had together to make as many strips sets as I could. Then I got creative and figured out I could sew the rest in web-mode. I sewed the pairs or three’s of the prints together, cut them to width and then made a web with those strips and the brown spacers. It was quite a bit slower than normal strip piecing, but I only had so much brown. I’m glad I went with the brown, I was afraid that it would be lost in the prints, but it is a nice rich color, like the Sequoia fabric line. I want to finish these sets (36 more) today, and if I’m up to it the Evolution quilt top too.

Happy Worldwide Quilting Day!

Be Kind.