A rant

Warning...this is a long rant that I just need to get out or I fear I would explode...so skip on to the next blog and tomorrow I will resume to rant free blogging :P

As many of you know back in December I started 2 quilting bees.  So what a quilting bee is? It is a group of 12 people who come together and make bocks for each other. Each month there is a host bee and she picks a block for the rest of us to make. We each have one month to make the block and mail it to the monthly host. Since I am just learning to quilt I decided that the bee would be about making beginner blocks.  I felt that if a newbie like me could figure out how to make them then so could everyone else. A friend of mine joined having never done any quilting before and is making some beautiful blocks. So that should show you how easy the blocks are.

The ladies in the groups have been funny, kind, beyond helpful and extremely understanding. I am privileged to have met them!

It’s been a fun journey and lately a difficult one. Up until now it has been smooth sailing. I felt bad about removing people from the group that were late. I had removed one lady back in February that was late and wouldn’t reply back to my e-mails. At that time I put into the rules that if you were late and didn’t communicate with me you would be removed. However after that I became a coward and would just send e-mails so some people who went from being a month late to 3 months to 5 months to 6. Also some of the blocks being received were not acceptable.

 So where do you draw the line. So I am ashamed to admit it, but I was stuck. I believed the e-mails and kept thinking okay they will be done soon, but they never were. I was really having trouble with this. It was eating away at me and in my thoughts all day and all night to the point that I was making myself sick over it. It was all I could think about and all I could talk about and my family said enough was enough.  It wasn’t fair to the rest of the group to have to wait 5 months to get their blocks or get blocks they could never use. My mom who is in the bee quite simply said do you want the whole group to be mad about not getting their blocks or do you want a couple of people who you have never met to be upset because, they not you have not held up their end. However, even after that I didn’t want to be the B*&$% and kick them out.  

Finally I decided that I needed to pull up my big girl panties and ask my hive mates for help. The decision was that after 6 months maybe it was time to part ways. So I sent out the removal e-mails. Ones reply was rather snippy and thought that we had not given her enough time to get the blocks done or tried to help her. I guess 6 months and comments on blogs and e-mails wasn’t enough? She has even taken to writing about me on her blog. The other person I don’t want to give up on....I am just too nice and she is nice too so I keep thinking it will work out...But again where do you draw the line. This is just a darn quilting bee right...lol

I haven’t replied to the snippy e-mail or blog post, but it has stung more than I would have liked it to and instead of bottling it all up I felt the need to write about it. Now it is out of my head and I can move on. I know that I am not the bad person for having to remove people. We all made the commitment to take part and submit blocks on time and what have ya and in being the bee keeper or bee mama it is my job to remove the parts of the hive that are not working.. So no more tears, no more second guessing.. life it too short right.

So there you go that is my rant. I in no way regret hosting a bee I still love it and have been amazed by the people willing to step in and help. I plan on hosting a few more next year and widening the we bee learning to a couple of new quilting genres.

Like I said I needed to gets this off my chest and out of my head and if anyone is still reading then congrats for reading though my complaining...LOL