Last year I had this idea that I wanted to try, and so I rounded up some willing participants and we made ourselves a Spelling Bee.

I started it by creating a blog that was dedicated to free tutorials to make these free-form letters, without the use of patterns or papers.  Some were pretty wild, but it was a great challenge.  And then we all started by choosing a phrase or a poem or a group of words and entered them into a Google Spreadsheet (we were all tired of trying to use Flickr).  This is the wrap-up post, showing our collective work of The Spelling Bee ( found as #spellingbeequilt on Instagram, where we posted our photos).

This is my phrase, done in reds, creams and pinks.  I do have plans for it.

Lisa (aka Nymblefyngers on IG), a first-time bee participant, decided on lots of bug words for her quilt, and people carried out the theme by making them in bug fabrics.

Mary, who writes the Needled Mom blog, made fun sewing-themed blocks to add to the words in her quilt.

Carla, of Grace and Favor, recently opened a yarn shop in her town, and requested knitting terms.

Susan finished her quilt the first, showing it off here and on her blog, PatchworknPlay.  This truly typifies Susan’s attitude towards life!

Just to keep us on our toes, Kerry of PennyDog Patchwork,  decided she wanted us to try her “digital” alphabet, and we made up the names of the provinces of Canada, her new country. While the how-to’s for the regular alphabet are free on the blog Quilt Abecedary, this style is Kerry’s own.

Simone, of Quiltalicious, tried to make us all go crazy by asking for color names, but in different shades.  A couple of us dutifully cranked out our word, only to realize that we sewn it up in the wrong color.  We were all getting pretty good at this point.

Mary (aka maryonlakepulaski on IG) wanted the names of her family.

Since bee-keeping was a new passion for Rachel (The Life of Riley), we all sent bee-words to her.

Brenda (aka brendaandblue on IG), requested words that describe all those things that make her happy: “comfort words.”

Cindy of LiveAColorfulLife, is doing the words to one of her favorite songs; unlike her name, she went with black, white, cream and grays to put together her phrase.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this wrap-up of our word adventure!  If you ever jump in and make a word or two, drop me a note as I’d love to see them.

Coming soon: a new bee!

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