quilting bee club

I was updating my qbee quilt last night and it got me thinking: it’s the only online ‘thing’ that I’ve ever really stuck to. I’ve been and gone at forums, often forgetting my login names or forgetting they even exist.. never sticking to affiliate/surfing programs and heaven knows what else. Yet, here I am, a member of the qbee for almost three years.

I know some of you probably think it’s sad :P but I don’t think my presence on the ‘net would be the same without it. A good 40% of my blog buddies have been made through the club, or through people who are also members of the club. I’ve had massive e-mail conversations and sent “Real Life” Christmas cards to people, and been involved in tons of activities. If there’s one thing I can rely on being there on the Internet, it’s the qbee.

qbee button

I don’t know why I feel the need to share this with you, I’m just having a deep/sentimental moment. Maybe it’s because it’s almost Christmas. Oh my gosh, it’s almost Christmas! :D

ETA:
1. You totally don’t have to be able to pixel to join. I cannot do pixel-art to save my life. I swear, the creations I come with have been bettered by 5 year olds. ;)
2. The q*bee is not an elite community in any way. Okay, you won’t be let in if your site looks like it was designed by my 18 month old niece, but the ‘rules’ are very leniant.

Just wanted to clear that up. :P

33 comments so far

  1. Jordie said:
    On 09 Dec at 12:08 pm

    I haven’t been very active in the QBee at all lately, and I feel kinda guilty about it. I had some problems earlier on with my site and the QBee quilt I had up got lost in the shuffle and I just kind of forgot about it and never remembered to put the quilt back up; just recently I got an e-mail asking me if I’d like to stay. XD I think I will.

  2. Amelie said:
    On 09 Dec at 12:21 pm

    If I could pixel, I’d have joined. Then again, I kind of got this impression that qbee was kind of elitist and stuff… And it also reminds me of one of my old net handle things. :P Glad you enjoy it though – it’s good to know that there are some “clubs” that stay around when the majority of them come and go. :)

  3. Stephanie said:
    On 09 Dec at 2:56 pm

    Blech. At least you do something. That isn’t related to PreCalculus or Art homework. I am so sick of Art it isn’t funny. I’m about to kill myself here.

  4. Vixx said:
    On 09 Dec at 5:28 pm

    I’d always figured that you had to have decent pixel skills too . . . thanks for clarifying. :) I know a few of the members individually and you’re right – they’re all lovely. :) V xx p.s. [offtopic] Review!! I’m going crazy with the trepidation!![/offtopic]

  5. Abikne said:
    On 09 Dec at 8:33 pm

    I know what you mean. The last time I belonged to a community was around 4 years ago. It was a community centered on L. J. Smith and her novels. I was heavily involved in the community. I played role-playing games, created role-playing games, shrines. The gradually I lost interest and never gained it back. Oh, well! Hopefully something else will come along. By the way, thank you so much for suggesting FicHive. Turns out it’s perfect for my fanfic site. :)

  6. Meggan said:
    On 09 Dec at 8:38 pm

    Does being a member of the Qbee take a lot of time? I recently closed the fanlistings I owned because I didn’t feel I could devote enough time to keeping them updated and looking good. I’d feel bad joining and then not having enough time/effort to keep things running. Otherwise, it does sound like fun. I’ve considered joining several times, but have never actually done it.

  7. Jem said:
    On 09 Dec at 8:41 pm

    ^ All you have to do is trade twice a month – every other activity/etc is completely optional. Trades take a few minutes to complete and that’s it. :) The most time-consuming thing about it all is creating your quilt layout/patch in the first place (although there are layout templates available). It’d be lovely to have you as a member!

  8. Bubs said:
    On 09 Dec at 10:20 pm

    Where would we be without our beloved Qbee? ;)

  9. Kimberly said:
    On 09 Dec at 10:49 pm

    :D I could kiss you Jem :D Thank you for blogging about it. Alas I’ve not gotten any member submissions but that’s okay :D I’ve got the network now of people. I recieved your email and I will give it some thought!! (Bee blog). Kimberly – a.k.a. the Queen Bee

  10. Jem said:
    On 09 Dec at 11:02 pm

    ^ No member submissions *yet* ;) I will persuade someone by the end of the weekend I’m sure!

  11. Stephanie said:
    On 10 Dec at 12:49 am

    It’d be nice if the qbee itself told people that it wasn’t as elite as it makes itself sound to be. Still, it’s always good to have *somewhat* of a social life online…

  12. Rosemarie said:
    On 10 Dec at 1:43 am

    lol, I used to be a member when I owned a domain. but then… I dunno. I never really got into it :P

  13. Belinda said:
    On 10 Dec at 2:55 am

    Oooh I remember the Quilting Bee. Remember from the days when it was still ran by the dude who ran loverevolution.net. It had always looked so interesting, but I dunno, regardless of what you say, I’m still intimidated by the whole pixellation process! I honestly CANNOT pixel to save my life. You say you can’t but your quilts are pretty! But now that you make it sound so good… maybe I’ll join. :P And OMG yay, you DO have link buttons! :D *random*

  14. Renay said:
    On 10 Dec at 4:02 am

    It’s funny reading through the comments here. You said it’s not time-consuming (and you’re right in a way) but the friendship part might be time-consuming for some people that trade with demanding bees like me. xD I think there’s something for everyone in the qbee. The friendship factor is always there and Kim has the awesome Pixel Academy now so anyone intimidated by pixelling could come in and learn a whole new art. I feel like breaking into an Aladdin song. The qbee gave me you, anyway, and for that I am forever thankful to it. Even if one day I have to retire the friends you can make and keep from it totally make the involvment factor worth it. Really, really.

  15. Rosemarie said:
    On 10 Dec at 5:13 am

    belinda – yeah, me too :P

  16. Lisa Marie said:
    On 10 Dec at 9:29 am

    I’ve seen the qbee on a lot of websites. I just never knew what it was. It sounds like fun. I’ll have to check it out. I wanted to thank you for the tutorial on tabless layouts. I revamped my website and using your tutorial I got rid of my tables! Your tutorial is great. I linked it in my resources section. Thanks again. :)

  17. Jem said:
    On 10 Dec at 12:06 pm

    Stephanie: It doesn’t make itself out to be anything. It’s people’s assumptions that are the problem. Belinda: it was never run by Drew (the guy who owned loverevolution.net), he just hosted it. He was lazy :P

  18. Anne said:
    On 10 Dec at 1:18 pm

    You know, I thought the qbee was elite when I first saw it, too. lol

  19. Jem said:
    On 10 Dec at 1:20 pm

    :/ I am going to have to talk to Kimberly about clearing that misconception up then. Btw.. is the qbee loading for you?

  20. Heather said:
    On 10 Dec at 3:37 pm

    The Qbee is the best community out there. It’s the only one I’ve ever been happy with and the only one that I’ve ever been driven to participate in. I’m very attached ;) Even if you think you won’t get in.. it doesn’t hurt to try. I didn’t think I’d get in at first either, but I did :D Great post, Jem :) (and the qbee is loading for me)

  21. Meggan said:
    On 10 Dec at 8:40 pm

    Okay, so I’ve finally submitted my application to be a qbee member! I’m going to try it out. :D If they approve me, that is. Heh.

  22. Kimberly said:
    On 10 Dec at 8:57 pm

    Bah.. Silly Dodo’s counter slowed the whole qbee down. Anyways I added a question in the newsletter this month that concerns the elitest point of view :D

  23. Stephanie said:
    On 10 Dec at 9:43 pm

    … Okay, so maybe I just believe it’s elite because they rejected me for not having an “about me” page. I thought having a weblog was a better way to see inside me than having an about page as well. It’s more me to not have an about page and just have a weblog. And yet I succumbed, though didn’t try again to join. It seems to me that your site has to be conventional of some sort to get accepted to the qbee – well, the must have an “about me” page rule makes me think that. I don’t like that. Who cares about me? Sorry for ranting here. x.x; I was just sad that the one time that I gathered to courage to try to enter, they didn’t want me in ’cause I didn’t have an about page. And I had a link to my personal site at that time, too, so if someone really wanted to get to know me, couldn’t they have jumped over there? @_@

  24. Jem said:
    On 10 Dec at 9:50 pm

    You don’t have to have an about me page if you have a frequently updated weblog – this is a rule and people shouldn’t be rejected simply because they don’t have an about me page providing their site follows all of the other rules. The problem is, sites are ‘checked’ by multiple bees and not all of them remember this exception to the main rule. I can only apologise to you, and suggest you apply again. You never know, you might be accepted. :)

  25. Kimberly said:
    On 10 Dec at 11:21 pm

    And since the idea of the club is friendship, we care about who you are :D That’s another reason for having an about me page, the more people who get to know you, the more people who may want to trade with you. That’s my two cents.

  26. Lynn said:
    On 11 Dec at 6:42 am

    I never joined…I will now. =)

  27. kachii said:
    On 11 Dec at 1:34 pm

    I always saw the QBee as a somewhat elitist community, and I was part of the approval team once upon a time. I’ve been behind the scenes. My boyfriend would join but he won’t because he thinks his layout http://flaffy.org isn’t pretty enough.

  28. Jem said:
    On 11 Dec at 1:36 pm

    ^ I’ve been on the “approval team” since it began, in what way is it elitist?

  29. Anne said:
    On 15 Dec at 8:29 pm

    What’s the Pixel Academy?

  30. kachii said:
    On 15 Dec at 9:28 pm

    It doesn’t let you in if your layout isn’t pretty enough or whatever. At least that’s the way it was before Kimberly took over.

  31. kachii said:
    On 15 Dec at 9:34 pm

    Leslie has perfectly adequate webdesign knowledge and standards, he just lacks the creativity to make something with images but I bet the world he wouldn’t be accepted.

  32. Jem said:
    On 15 Dec at 9:52 pm

    It’s not about whether or not your layout is pretty enough, it’s about a little bit of standards. It’s not going to let people in websites that are impossible to browse, have no personal content or a very terrible layout.. but no (similar) community does that I’m aware of. It is after all a graphics-trading club. There’s no point sitting there saying Leslie won’t get in if he hasn’t even tried.

  33. Rissa said:
    On 20 Feb at 9:26 pm

    I’m waiting for Q-Bee approval since it seemed like a cute little site & I can’t wait…if i do..get approved.Well, congrats on staying w/the program.I hope I’ll be able to do the same.