Terminal Bee

... or the story of a curious child who went out to see the flowers.

An unexpected sight... Curiosity... Action... A happy moment!

All of these is Terminal Bee. 

(I guess that at this point, I should confess that this wall hanging was finished last year, in June, for the MQG challenge... (Big sigh!) Life went on, remember? And in the middle of the every day needs, I missed the draft that had been waiting so patiently for me to give it a final read and click "Publish." Well, it´s a 2014 finish published in 2015, but it´s still a happy quilt and I can´t wait another second to share it with all of you!)

So here it is... Terminal Bee!!

Terminal Bee is the wall hanging I made for the MQG challenge last year. The fabric was gorgeous and there was this one print with a yellow background and pretty huge flowers begging to be showcased.

However, I really wanted to experiment with geese, so I decided to make one goose with each of the prints; after arranging them in a long line, my husband walked by and said something like: "Look! Like the lines in the airport!" My head went  like: "Airport?!?! Really?!?! Men!" Well, scratch the "Men!" lol...

Anyway, I prepared the print and decided that the wall hanging was going to be a field of flowers with geese flying by. It just didn´t look right and seemed to be unbalanced. That´s when the idea of a curious goose spotting something and exploring came to my mind. "Hmmm... not quite... I need seeds flying after the goose flew all over the place, played around and messed up with the flowers!!"

A happy thought indeed!

The piecing came along and it took an extra dose of patience to shape the scrap background into seeds and fuse them around the right part of the quilt.

Here it is, all pinned and getting ready to be quilted... I could only think "quilt as desired," just as many instructions indicate, but I had a big blank in my head... "How on earth was I going to quilt this wall hanging? Happy quilting? How is THAT done?"

Well, something that I once heard and that has stuck with me is quilting that enhances the piecing. This time, the piecing was telling a story, and I only knew that I wanted the quilting to emphasize that.

I started with the appliqued flowers and quilted concentric petals... and the crafty bone was unleashed! lol

Somehow, in the middle of a loop or a turn, I was able to "see" the wind, shaped by large concentric circles with a tail. The green goose, a.k.a. disobedient child, would leave a trail in its hasty escape from the formation; somehow, straight lines would have to interrupt the dancing of the wind playing with the seeds...

See, it´s making a mess!! :)

I knew I wanted the geese to be puffy, so I decided to quilt the background only. I ended up outlining each goose and trying a different quilting pattern between each of them.

Here is something I had always wanted to try: a feather fan. I am still experimenting with feathers, and thought that this space would be the perfect opportunity to emphasize this bit of negative space.

And here is an attempt at a herringborne; I am not completely happy with the results, but I guess it´s not that bad for a first time.

I wanted to quilt clouds in the "cloud" area, but I was not too sure of how to do it. I drafted some and decided to make Cs, lots and lots of Cs!

The Cs went on around the geese and in the border. And there´s even spiky lines crossing each other. I like the contrasting quilting textures and shapes.

Here is another look at the disobedient child...

... and the wind and clouds meeting, in the back.

And talking about the back, look at this! I was thrilled to turn the quilt and discover a great surprise in the back: the quilting telling the story!

The puffy geese, the flowers, the wind, the clouds and the hasty flight of one curious goose.

I just couldn´t take enough pictures, lol!

Oh! And I also made an experiment with filters; I wanted to see if the quilting would look different in them. I think that the following would be the better, but it also shows where the quilting mistakes are...  No biggy, I am still happy with the end result!

So here it is! A happy quilt that makes me smile :)

I must confess, deep inside, I guess this quilt could also be called something like "Curiosity taking the best out of me," or something like that... Smile! :)

Stay blessed,


Yiya.