Honey Bee Quilt

Product Details

The Honey Bee quilt was stitched over 50 hours of time, but its conception started years before that.

The Story:

The backing is made from cotton muslin dyed with black walnut hulls in 2017 from a tree down the bike path from my old apartment in Western Mass. The organic cotton/hemp cloth that makes up the patchwork was dyed over an open fire during the summer of 2020. The onion skins that made the golden brown were collected over time by myself and my parents. The goldenrod that made the grayed out sage green was harvested in the yard of my “Lost Nation Auntie”, one of the adults that was a huge part of my life growing up in the Northeast Kingdom. I boiled it in an iron pot for the alchemy that turns a yellow dye to various shades of green when it contacts iron.

Since that summer, the majority of my dye work has been done in the same spot, on a little fireplace my dad and I made out of fire bricks he had laying around.

This cloth has been sitting in my workshop waiting for the inspiration that is my compass to tell me what needs to be created. The patchwork was sewn together on a machine, the quilting done by hand with sashiko thread dyed with onion skins, the final binding also attached by hand. The batting is made from 100% cotton.

This quilt was named by a beloved and long time honeybee tender. She saw them dancing through the patterns in the dye. Later, we watched a late season honeybee dance her final dance before crawling over this quilt as her final act of life. This quilt’s blessings are beyond what energy I have imbued it with.

It measures approximately 50”X50” and comes in a rose leaf and iron dyed 100% cotton denim tote.

Care Instructions

Botanical dyes are just more changeable than chemical dyes. Many are sensitive to pH changes, they will fade with excessive washing, and even chemical dyes can be bleached when stored in direct sunlight. This quilt wants to be used, but keep in mind that botanical dyed hand quilted quilts will last longer with spare washing.

When you do wash, handwashing with a gentle, pH neutral soap and air drying is always the best. But I very much understand how much labor that is. Second best is washing on a delicate cycle (still with a gentle pH neural soap), partial drying on low heat, and then finishing with an air dry.

Store the quilt on your bed or couch (or the wall if a hanging art piece is what you are after) out of consistent direct sunlight, or if you need to put your quit away for a time, use a cotton bag like the little tote it come with.