Friday Finish: Not One but Two Bee Quilts

I am SO excited to share two Mid Century Modern Bee quilts completely finished!  The binding was finished up over the Thanksgiving break and photographs taken with family help.

First up is my Dresden quilt (which has shown itself to be extremely difficult to photograph!) made with blocks requested in December, 2014 from Anne, Carla, Carla, Cindy, Debbie, Elizabeth, Linda, Mary, Mary, Susan and myself.

I requested fabrics using this color palette as a guide and suggested this tutorial for making the dresden plate blocks.  After mulling over many layout ideas in my head, I got tired of waiting for some brilliant plan to emerge and ended up stitching the dresdens in a random placement onto a wideback Carolyn Friedlander print.

I handed over my quilt top and Tula Pink wideback yardage to Frank and told him to work his quilting magic.....which he did!!!

Like the quilt top, it was difficult to photograph the quilting properly.  Frank used green thread on the top but not the bottom.  This closeup of the backing gives you an idea of how wonderful the quilting is.  The binding is a Carolyn Friedlander botanics print.  Finished quilt size is 72 x 90.

My Bubble Bee quilt is also finished making me all caught up with my MCM Bee!!!

These blocks (pattern by Aylin and used with permission for bee purposes) were requested in June, 2015 and made by Anne, Carla, Carla, Cindy, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Mary, Mary, Michelle, myself, Stephanie and Susan.

The paper pieced pattern has templates for multiple size bubbles, but I sent each member the same 12.5" finished instructions and asked them to select a color and use fabrics in that color for the bubble shape and low value for the outer section.  When the blocks were returned, I enlarged the blocks to finish at 18" by adding low value strips in a log cabin fashion.

My original plan was to make additional blocks in various sizes more in keeping with the pattern sample.  In the end, I chose to stay with the twelve blocks and a three block across and four block down layout.

I am so glad because I love it!  With both these quilts, I can look at each block and remember which friend made them for me!

Again, I gave the quilt top and back to Frank, and again I am not disappointed.  He has some mad quilting skills!!!

I love that the backing fabric is my friend Amanda's.  It is the wideback print from her Good Neighbors fabric line for Connecting Threads.  I don't think I could have chosen a better print for the back.  Can you see the gorgeous quilting!  The binding is a Carolyn Friedlander crosshatch print.  Finished quilt size is 54 x 72.

This morning I attempted to get a photo of the Bubble Bee quilt by the pool with bubbles from my grandson's bubble maker.  It was not a huge success ;-)

Thought I would share them anyway (along with the bubble maker).  You have to look really hard to see any bubbles.

Thank you SO MUCH Mid Century Modern Bee friends!!!  I love and treasure you and my quilts!  Y'all are the best!!!