Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Dance Of The Honey Bee

Gotta love a good challenge, right?  I can now say I finished the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge ~ WHEW!!

Thank you Play Crafts and On The Windy Side for hosting and giving me a run for my money!  Marsala stretched my creativity, tested my patience, but eventually I came around to not hating it so much!!


Dance Of The Honey Bee
17" x 18"
I guess I like chaos in my life.  Starting this project I didn't have a clear idea where I would go with it.  It wasn't until I brought in the Tawny Olive that I started to have a direction to follow. You can see the WIP here:  'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' WIP 



Once the honeycombs appeared, I had a plan.  A story.  A direction.  You might think that the olive color represents honey.  Nope!  You can't have honey without pollen ~ sweet, wonderful (aw-choo) pollen!

A worker bee visits 50 to 100 flowers each trip for that pollen.  You go girl!  (worker bee's are all females too)  All that work for 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their life!  



I think of honey bee's as frantic, agitate or strung out as they fly around. And to think what goes on inside of a hive...it has to be chaotic.  

I would be wrong!  Each bee has its place, its job.  Finely tuned with a mission.  Bee's have a dance.  The Dance Of The Honey Bee!  Once a bee finds that sweet, sweet nectar they fly back to the hive, shake and vibrate their little bodies and in the process give directions to that very source.  


All the different colors pieced together are the neurotic goings on inside the hive.  I machine quilted rather neurotically as well!  Except inside the honeycombs!



Those I kept calm, clean and peaceful.  Not once ounce of pandemonium or turmoil!




This is my favorite part!  I was so excited when I decided to use a bright yellow thread for quilting this little section.  I almost decided to do the whole piece with yellow, but thankfully I didn't.  It would have been too much!

When you think that a colony of bees consists of 20,000 to 60,000 bees, there wold have to be order.  It amazes me when I see a honeycomb with honey gushing out.  Did you know that bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by man?!  



Finished and ready to hang!

Size:  17" x 18"
Solids: Shot Cotton, Kona and scraps
Bee Fabric:  Emma's Garden by Patty Sloniger

Check out all the other wonderful entries in the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge!

LINKING:

33 comments :

  1. Lovely! What a great finish! I love how the yellow pops off of the background.

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    1. The bright olive yellow did it for me too! Honestly I think it saved this piece from going in the trash!

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  2. What a fantastic design! Bravo for the bees!

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    1. Fascinating bees! I was sure I was working on a disaster…only to have it actually come together!

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  3. A delightful quilt and meaning to go with it.

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    1. I don't often have a project that becomes a story! This one evolved in more ways than one!

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  4. Okay.......so where do I start? Love this! The process , the story, the hexagons ! Brilliant my dear.

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    1. Thank you!!! Your comments mean a lot to me!

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  5. I love this, it's smaller size makes it even more amazing. The story is equally engaging and you used contrasting thread to your advantage. Awesome!

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    1. I love the small size, they are a lot of fun to work with!

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  6. I really love your quilt and it's wonderful to read the thoughts and processes behind the making of it. Simply stunning.

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  7. Looks great and I like the combination you put together.

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  8. Wonderful! Your quilt makes me like Marsala a little more, too.

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  9. Sweet as honey! That Tawny Olive was a perfect pairing with the Marsala. This is a work of art!

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    1. Thanks to a bright olive ~ it helped me love this a little more and it did bring it all together…finally!

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  10. Oh, I love how this quilt glows! The piecing and quilting are fabulous, and made better by the story that goes with them. I know that there are a lot of honey bee champions that will love this quilt.

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    1. It's funny how working on something will bring a story together! Honey bees united!!

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  11. Wow, It looks fabulous, I love the colors and I sincerely admire your creativity, well done!
    I enjoyed reading your post ... of course I knew all that ... :-)) Just kidding ... Speaking of bees, a few weeks ago, we had the chance to see a swarm of bees that decided to hang on our hammock for the night ... It was all excitement over here.

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    1. Thank you! Creativity abound in this one! I can imagine how amazing it was too watch those bees too!

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  12. This is such an absolutely neat quilt. I love how modern it is with so many different shapes, sections and such a variety of quilting to look at. Such amazing attention to detail!

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  13. This is one of my favorite Marsala quilts - so much detail and though went into it. Just really lovely!

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    1. It was a challenge in so many ways, but I am very happy with how it all came together!

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  14. This is so beautiful! I love the concept, design, and the way you've put it all together. Lovely!

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    1. It was truly a fun piece. Lots of frustration, but it all came together better than I could have imagined!

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  15. Jayne this is wonderful! You did a spectacular job with a difficult challenge. Love all the symbolism you incorporated too. Those bee facts are amazing. I had no idea that it took so much effort to make so little honey. I'll be thinking of that the next time I stir some into some honey lavender lemonade.

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    1. I never knew those honey bees were so amazing either! I feel I honored all their hard work…LOL!

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  16. This is so vibrant and pretty! I love your choice of fabrics and quilting.

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  17. Wow, that really did turn out great! Loved reading the background and your bee facts, too. My dad kept bees, so I have a fondness for them. :) Huge congrats on the finish!

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  18. Thanks for linking up with me for TGIFF this week. :-) I have to say, I don't like the marsala color. I find it terribly uninspiring and haven't really loved most of what I've seen done with the color this year... but I LOVE your quilt and I've loved seeing your progress on IG. The bees, the hexies, the contrast color you chose. All SO great!

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  19. This is such a fabulous quilt and I loved reading all about it.

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  20. I love how this turned out!! That tawny olive (and I just recently saw the swatch of it, so I can envision the actual color) is a beautiful pairing with the marsala. There's so much richness and texture and depth to this, and the variation in the hexies is so wonderful!! Love the bees and the story and just everything about this.

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    1. I can now officially say I've conquered the challenge ~ a challenge! Thank you for hosting again this year and I look forward to next year.

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