the birds and the (honey) bees {sweet as honey no. 9/25}

By now I'm sure you've seen bits and pieces of Bonnie Christine's latest line for AGF—Sweet as Honey—popping up around the inter webs as part of the SAH blog tour.  

Yesterday, my irl friend Amanda of Material Girl Quilts showed off her subdued but show-stopping mini (hands down some of the best straight line quilting I've had the pleasure of seeing in person!)  And today—after much overgramming on instagram, no less—it's my turn to share a little something sewn from the warmer tones in Bonnie's line (think nectar, coral, marmalade, and peach):

Because I sew by color, I asked Bonnie to send fat eighths in what I now* correctly refer to as an "analogous color scheme."

*thanks in large part to my friend Anne of Play Crafts and her informative Color Chat series :)

It's safe to say that this design was inspired by the carefree, barefoot-in-the-garden-type sentiment out of which "Sweet as Honey" came to be(e).

The quilt finishes at ~60" square.

Half of the fletchers feature Bonnie's prints; the others coordinating oakshott shot cottons.

The rest of the free people-inspired arrows are pieced exclusively from oakshott, with ruby red hearts pointing the way.

Big thanks to Sarah of Sew What Sherlock? for pattern testing!  (Check out her squared off, "elongated" version here.)

And last, but not least, the sweet sultan cornerstones are a perfect landing pad for fussy-cut (and famished) honey bees.

The sweet sultan block (BB #800.8) is part of my (somewhat neglected) INDEX* initiative.

*an endeavor for those among us who fancy long lost traditional treasures

Speaking of, I knew I wanted to hand quilt this piece from the beginning.  But I also knew I probably couldn't hand quilt it well enough for it to withstand as many washes as naptime quilts in our household have to endure.  So I gave myself a little bit of "security stitching" in between the arrows with my go-to Aurifil 2021...

Psssst! Aurifil lovers everywhere take note:  Bonnie is working on a collection case!

And have since started to add some handsewn elements along the border using this summery mix of AMH embroidery floss from my friend Heather of Crimson Tate.

I used Kona snow for the background, because, well, it seemed quite fitting in light of the winter we've had!

I have to say, in an unexpected twist I'm actually looking forward to filling in the negative space.  Preferably over the span of several (several) relaxing spring evenings.  ...Assuming spring is indeed still coming this year, that is!

Sidenote:  for those of you who are interested, both the sweet sultan and arrow patterns are available as free downloads in my craftsy shop.

Up tomorrow on the tour is Miss Caroline.  I'm not sure what she's got up her garment-sewing sleeve, but after watching her fabric design debut unfold over the past few weeks I have no doubt it's going to be amazing.

P.S.  If you haven't seen that video, change that!  Art Gallery Fabrics recently announced its Limited Edition project, which cleverly features a trio of talented artists who make mini-collections of their own.  SewCaroline is among the trailblazers (her line is "Gleeful"), and the whole idea has me daydreaming about what my own fabric collection would look like.  (A dreamer can dream, right?!) In the meantime (read:  for the foreseeable future), I'll continue to use others' storied designs as I add to my modest (but growing!) portfolio.

Thank you so much for stopping by ;o)

xo Sarah