Bee A Bee 2017 and the Queen of Sheba

Well, its my turn again to be The Queen Of Sheba, sorry Queen Bee. It has come around very quickly but the nearer it got the harder it became to make my choice. Originally I was going to have everybody make me random Christmas blocks in red and white, but it felt rather uninspired. Then I went on a bus run, that's what you do when you are an early retiree, go on bus runs. It was a bus run to this National Trust property, Derramore House in Bessbrook, Co Armagh.

 

 

It was whilst there I saw the light. This light to be exact, or rather the light filtering through this window. I was spellbound.

I just loved the way the blue sky came through, but there was also a definite orange glow too. Was it the sun or the light reflecting off the outside walls? Whichever, it was lovely. This I decided would be my block for June. The quatrefoil block has been on instagram recently and there have been some lovely quilts. Anneliese suggested it would make a lovely baby quilt too.

 I typed up a pdf to circulate around us with all our instructions. For some reason known only to the internet explorer gods, I cant copy and paste this without it going all funny. Paragraphs and photographs all over the shop. Now, I presume you aren't actually interested in all the cutting dimensions and so on, so we will glide over this. If you are, click on this link where blossom heart quilts has a great tutorial for hives which I used for guidance.

I decided to go mostly with blue, with the alternative of a small scale children's print. Black or dark grey for the frame and a white background.

Sew the black bits round the orange bits, use red if you prefer.
Sew the little black bits to the slightly bigger white bits.
Sew an orange or red square to the top corner of a larger white rectangle.
Sew little white squares to the top corners of the blue rectangles.

Sew these a white and orange bit to a pillar bit, then to a blue bit, then another pillar and then a white and orange block.
Repeat the last step.
Sew a row with a blue bit going sideways, the orange centre then another blue bit.

Sew these rows together.

See? Who needs specific instructions?

This will be an interesting baby quilt but not too cute. And you can never have enough baby quilts.

Now, as for the Queen of Sheba. I have told this story before, apologies if you are yawning. I always wanted this played at my wedding. Come the preparations for the big day and our organist, Mrs W stamped her foot and said no, no, no. I tried over the weeks to persuade her but she was adamant. Apparently a bride in church is to be demure, humble and modest before God and her husband and the congregation. Seemingly to play the Queen of Sheba would make me too much the centre of attention. Who does she think she is ? The Queen of Sheba? Well, yes. Had she never heard of Bridezilla. The organist won, after all, she was the playing the organ. When I die I will have the March of the Queen Sheba at my funeral. For now, just take a moment or two and enjoy the music.

Helen x