Tag: The Bee Cause Project

A Quilty Surprise for The Bee Cause

Interesting Information: July 18, 2022

A Quilty Surprise for The Bee Cause

My DIL Tami Kelly Enright is the director of The Bee Cause—an organization that began in Savannah and Charleston, SC, some years back. The Bee Cause’s project is providing viable habitats for our threatened bees and now has hives it has helped pioneer in all 50 states.

Recently Tami received an amazing gift from a total stranger.

A quilty gift.

Now, here’s the story, as told by the person who gifted The Bee Cause with this quilt—to use as they will.

The quilt was made as a ”round robin” project—where the center is started by the person who will be its owner. The quilt travels to other quilters for added rows—and each draws on his/her own creative talents. When the quilt returns, it is a surprise for the originator.

It’s a beautiful quilt, with beautiful workmanship, from some beautiful and talented people.

Radicchio in Salads

Turkey Tracks: Recipes: September 29, 2020

Radicchio in Salads

Bitter greens are really good for you.

And radicchio is red, so when you eat it, you’re “eating in the rainbow” of colors nature provides for us.

So, how can we knock back some of the bitterness of the heartier greens, especially when eaten raw? Add a little of something tart but sweet (some citrus juice or a fruit flavored vinegar) or just add something sweet (honey, maple syrup). Or add both.

In this salad, I drizzled some yummy honey over the greens—just a tablespoon. I can’t eat the tart foods.

DIL Tami Enright, who helped pioneer the Bee Cause and helms it now, sends me this delicious Tupelo honey from the Savannah Bee Company, the original sponsor of Bee Cause. (The Bee Cause Project seeks to provide habitat for endangered bees and now has hives in all 50 states.)

Tupelo honey is absolutely delicious and rare. Bees make it from Tupelo trees that grow in wet swampy soil. The blossoms on the trees have a very limited life span. The honey has a unique taste that is very different from our own local honey here in Maine.

Savannah Bee sells and ships this honey. It would make really lovely gifts during the holidays. Or, anytime. Be sure to order a bottle for yourself if you place an order.

Interesting Information: Honey and Cancer: Sustainable Inverse Relationship Particularly for Developing Nations

Interesting Information:  January 30, 2017

Honey and Cancer:  Sustainable Inverse Relationship

DIL Tami Kelly Enright is the director of The Bee Cause, which seeks to sustain bees via educating people about bees.  By placing hives in public places (schools, stores, parks, etc.), people can learn about bees and bees can have a protected place to live.  Whole Foods has been a big supporter.  And the whole project was initially started and funded by The Savannah Bee Company in Savannah, Georgia.  Tami has won a number of major funding grants along the way.

Anyway, Tami sent me this study, which shows an inverse relationship between honey and cancer prevention.

Source: Honey and Cancer: Sustainable Inverse Relationship Particularly for Developing Nations—A Review

Turkey Tracks: “Celtic Solstice” Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  February 13, 2014

Celtic Solstice Quilt

“Celtic Solstice” is Bonnie Hunter’s 2013 Mystery Quilt.  Bonnie writes a few weeks before Thanksgiving about fabric choices and releases the first “clue”–which unit we will make first–the day after Thanksgiving.  Then we are off and running–making hundreds of units each week until she reveals the finished quilt and how to put it together sometime before New Year’s.  Some of us finish right away; others take longer as life circumstances are all different.  We had the option to sign up for a Facebook “secret”/closed group to connect with other quilters making CS, and I have to say I have really enjoyed seeing their comments, their work, their different color choices, and the many different ways they put together the quilt.  Some reversed the chevron unit, which made that block more like a star, for instance.  And there were many, many different border treatments.

My CS has been finished for about two weeks now, and it’s been hard not to “share” it here until I could send it to DIL Tamara Kelly Enright for her February 12th birthday.  Tami KELLY Enright is part of the amazing Kelly Clan of Charleston, SC–which has been a boon for all the Enrights.

Two of my friends held it upright at our last quilt meeting as I can rarely get this kind of a shot of a quilt.

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Bonnie designed this quilt after a trip to Ireland last summer.  You can see that it has the colors of the Irish Flag (green, orange, white) and that blue figures prominently.

Here’s what it looks like thrown over a queen-sized bed.

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This is a two-block quilt.  Each block is a nine-patch–and you can see them in this picture.  The block with the green square on point is a Bonnie Hunter design and has appeared in a recent book from Quiltmaker magazine (I think that’s right) of 100 blocks.  The star block–see the blue points with the orange and green four-patch in the middle–is made with Tri-Rec rulers and forms the blue circles.

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Here is a close-up of the very interesting border–and you can see that I quilted with a medium green thread–using a pantograph called “Circle of Life” ordered from Urban Elementz.  I specifically wanted a pantograph with this “New Grange” circle symbol for this quilt.  (New Grange, in Ireland, is an ancient site where the solstice light figures prominently during the solstice.)

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Here’s the backing, binding, and the quilt.  I chose this bright orange backing because I know that Tami likes orange and bright colors AND BECAUSE IT HAS FAIRY BEES all over it.  Tami is a bee keeper and Executive Director of The Bee Cause Project in Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA.   See their url:  http://www.thebeecause.org/home.html.

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And, the other way:

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Here’s a close-up of the fairy bees:

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I knew very early that this quilt had to go to Tami.  I could hear John whispering in my ears–she’s a Kelly for Heaven’s Sake.  And while there are MANY of my quilts in Tami’s home, even one I made for her when she was pregnant with Bowen, there isn’t a big one that’s just for her.   And I didn’t realize until recently that she likes BRIGHT quilts.

Tami was hard hit with the loss of John–they had a very special relationship, and I’m so glad she could come spend time with him not long before he died.  I put this old Irish poem on the label for her:

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And our loved ones do not totally disappear.  We hear their voices inside ourselves all the time.  They have just gone on before us, to prepare our way.

I have so enjoyed making this quilt and so look forward to next year’s Bonnie Hunter mystery.  Meanwhile, Bonnie’s other mystery quilts are in her books, and there are many I would truly love to make.

Thanks, Bonnie!