Coast to Coast Traveling Quilt Bee

I've mentioned the Coast to Coast Traveling Quilt Bee a couple of times, and today I'm excited to share more about this project with you. Earlier this year, my quilting sensei, K, and I were discussing how fun traveling bees are, and that turned into some discussion about starting one, and before I knew it, C2C was born, six ladies (myself included) were excited to be a part of it, and we'll commence January 1!

If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a traveling quilt bee, the long and short of it is, we'll each start our own quilt, then mail it off to the next person in line. Each person in the bee adds on to it and mails it to the person after them, and in the end, each quilt will be worked on by six individuals and return to the person who started it. Fun, right?

I had the hardest time settling on a fabric pull for this quilt. I originally used Katarina Roccella's Avant Garde collection as a starting off point--specifically her Steps Above Print in Prism--and had planned to do a super bright bit of fun. But it was never quite right. I subtracted prints, I added prints, I shopped around for other prints, but nothing was right. And then, the my pull-in-progress was sitting next to a Tula Pink print from her Acacia line--the raccoons on tan fabric--and that looked divine, and I added fabrics that finally felt right, but then I had no idea what to do! Finally, I axed the raccoons and started cutting strips of my fabrics.

There was a lot of weird cutting, and when I got to this point, I pretty much knew I'd either love the finished result or hate it. There was not going to be any middle ground. I was all kinds of nervous.

Here's where I landed. Friends, I'm in LOVE with this. Like, wanna go to the chapel and get married kind of LOVE. Y'all may know I'm a super huge fan of Rebecca Bryan's Modern Rainbow book, and I'm slowly working on making every quilt from that book. Well, this is my go at her Wavelength quilt. I ADORE that quilt. I seriously want a super big version too, but I felt that starting off with a smaller version was a smart idea as I wanted to make sure I had grasped the improv piecing properly.

I need to write up some notes and whatnot, but after that, I'll be sending this off to Chelsea. And come January 1, I'll start work on Alison's. I am ALL SORTS of excited for this bee, as I know it's going to be splendid and amazing and awesome all packed into six quilts.

Have you ever been in a traveling quilt bee?