I am so excited to share with you my finished Busy Bee Quilt. It has been so rewarding to find time to get this one off of my list of makes. I designed the pattern for Craftsy (BluPrint), but because my schedule was crazy when they needed it made, I wasn’t able to create the quilt. There are always new projects that come up, so this quilt kept falling to the bottom of my list.

Now I know why! It was destined to be made with these fresh and fun fabrics called Oh Happy Day by Sandy Gervais for Riley Blake Designs. The line is made up of yellows, reds, blues, and greens, and then there is also black. Squares is my absolute favorite fabric from this line. But I love the houndstooth, too. Oh yes, and daisies. Too hard to pick only one. I used squares (in red) for the border and I think it would make a perfect background fabric. Now that I think about it, I might need four more yards, just because it is so perfect and versatile. 

I love how the bees stand out in the Busy Bee Quilt design. Buzzing around every which way, working hard to pollinate all the flowers on a bright, sunny day. Because of the different shades of red used for the flowers they seem to play, dancing in and out of the foreground. Get your copy of the quilt pattern by clicking here. In the pattern you will find templates to create half hexis meaning there are no y-seams in the flower blocks. The bee block is also traditionally pieced. Making it a great beginner to intermediate quilt.

Quilting the Busy Bee Quilt 

Channeling inspiration from Christina Cameli and her book Step-by-Step Free-Motion Quilting, I decided to quilt it with leaves and flowers on my domestic machine. Because there is no pink in the quilt, I didn’t want to only do flowers hoping to keep it gender neutral. It is funny because deciding on a quilt pattern is just so hard for me. I think that is actually the most difficult decision that I make in the whole creation process. One that I will second guess myself on the whole time I am quilting. Quilting it this way was surprisingly quick. It only took me one full day. Amazing right!!

I would love to know; how do you decide what to quilt. Do you have a go-to design? I almost think I like straight line quilting the most, but I feel like I should explore and stretch that muscle. Does that make sense?? Or am I just crazy? LOL

Because of the primary colors and the whimsical design this is the perfect addition to a baby room or child’s room. My husband is putting in a strong defense on why it should become part of our bedroom.

At the end of last month, I shared a video on my blog about my fabric pull and I showed you the panel that is part of the Oh Happy Day fabric line. I also put together a digital quilt design on how I would use it in a quilt. If you are interested in reading more about the fabrics, click here. Oh Happy Day is inspired by bright sunny days and is in stores now, so get it while the getting is good.