Quilting bees

By : Katherine Bell

The other day I watched Bee Movie, a smart, funny animated movie about a young bee, Barry, who questions life in the hive and seeks adventure and friendship among humans. He discovers a great conspiracy: the sale of honey stolen from bees, fields of hives pressed into slavery. When I heard this, I couldn’t help thinking of the Quilting for Peace campaign:

“Mr. Ditchwater, the way we work may be a mystery to you, because making honey takes a lot of bees doing a lot of small jobs. But let me tell you something about a small job. If you do it really well, it makes a big difference. More than we realized. To us, to everyone.”

Quilts for the wounded at Fort Hood

By : Katherine Bell

forthoodquilts
I am constantly amazed by the speed with which quilters respond after a tragedy. Less than two weeks after the shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, 31 gorgeous quilts, one for each of the wounded, have been delivered to the chaplain. Cherri from Cherry House Quilts organized the effort, with the help of her son Luke, an Army Specialist based at Fort Hood. Cherri wrote on her blog, “Even among the tough military personnel, at the sight of all quilts; tears were shed. Luke had the honor of handing out the first quilt to one of the wounded in Darnell Hospital.” Home of the Brave Quilts, profiled in the book, is gathering quilts for the families of those who died. If you’d like to give a quilt, contact Sandi at homeofthebravequiltsnational at yahoo dot com.

Why bags should be beautiful

By : Katherine Bell

I am terrible at remembering to bring reusable shopping bags to the store with me. Having bags made of great, interesting fabric helps. That’s one purpose of design, right? When you appreciate how something looks, you remember to appreciate the object itself. When something is a pleasure to use, you’re more likely to use it. Here’s a bag I stitched up last night before bed, using Claire Morsman’s pattern (it’s in the book), two fat quarters, and a couple of scraps. I love it. And this morning it carried a couple of books I’d been meaning to bring to work for ages – I just needed an excuse to use the bag.