Beatrice Quilt - Three-Tone Version

Meet the Maker

Hi there, my name is Breanna Gaudaur and I am an avid quilter, pattern tester, tech editor and long arm quilter based in Ontario, Canada. I’ve been quilting since I was six years old, and it is still my favorite way to spend time. My favourite soundtrack while quilting is a toss up between my latest audiobook or whichever Taylor Swift era fits my mood in the moment.

You can follow along with what I'm up to over on Instagram - @roseivyquilts!

About The Quilt

Completed Cotton and Joy Beatrice three-color bumblebee quilt in black, gold and blue displayed outdoors under a pink blossoming tree

I love that Beatrice was designed to be precut-friendly, but I couldn’t get the idea of cute little yellow and black bumblebees out of my head. So I decided to make a few adjustments to the pattern and created a 3-color version. The good news is I made note of those changes so you can make your own 3-color version too if you’d like! Keep reading below for the details.

The Three-Color Option

Three Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt blocks in black, gold and blue hanging on a clothesline against a wooden fence

The only change to fabric requirements to make the 3-color version is for the Wings/Stripes fabric. Instead of cutting these pieces from a variety of fat quarters or 10” squares, we will be using yardage with one fabric for the Wings and one fabric for the Stripes. See the chart below for the adjusted Wings and Stripes fabric requirements for each quilt size.

	Baby	Throw	Queen
Wings	½ yard	1 yard	1 ¾ yards
Stripes	¼ yard	⅝ yard	1 yard

Pre-cut Ruby Star Society fabric pieces in black, cream, gold and blue sorted by size on a cutting mat for the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt pattern

Cutting Instructions will remain the same for the Dark Details and Background fabrics in the 3-color version. For the Wings/Stripes you are going to cut all of your A pieces out of the Wings fabric and all of your B pieces out of the Stripes fabric. The pattern already includes the total number of A and B pieces needed, so just use the numbers listed in the cutting chart for the size you are making.

About the Quilt Fabrics

Ruby Star Society Unruly Nature floral print in mustard gold, Spark in Metallic Black and Speckled in Polar blue fabrics stacked for the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt

I wanted to keep a bit of extra whimsy in my quilt top, so I chose a delightful floral mustard print from the Ruby Star Society Unruly Nature Collection for my Stripes. And for the Wings I chose Ruby Star Society Speckled in Polar. Both of these fabrics have a metallic element to them, so I decided to continue on with that theme by using Ruby Star Society Spark in Metallic Black for the Dark Details and Ruby Star Society Add it Up in Copper for the Background fabric.

Ruby Star Society Unruly Nature in mustard gold, Spark in Metallic Black, Speckled in Polar blue and Add it Up in Copper fabric stack against a brick wall for the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt

Sewing machine stitching blue fabric pieces for the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt blocks with gold and black fabric scraps on the sewing table

Close-up of Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt blocks in black, gold floral and blue hanging on a clothesline against a wooden fence

I started out by working on all of my blocks at the same time, but decided to take a break and focus on just three of the blocks so I could see how they were going to turn out. Once I got those first three blocks done the rest of the piecing flew by. 🐝

About the Longarm Quilting

Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt loaded on a longarm quilting machine with a large thread collection visible in the background

Close-up of the Daisy Daze pantograph longarm quilting pattern on the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt showing dense floral quilting detail

Husqvarna Viking sewing machine stitching the gold floral binding onto the longarm quilted Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt

This was one of those projects where I knew right from the beginning which pantograph I wanted to use. I knew that Daisy Daze by Karlee Porter Design would be a perfect fit and it did not disappoint! I kept the quilting quite dense (because why not?) and it ended up taking over 7(!?) hours for my machine to stitch out. Totally worth it!

A Quilting Adventure

Completed Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt displayed at the Cotton and Joy booth at the h+h americas quilt trade show

Hand sewing the gold floral binding onto the Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt by hand at the h+h americas quilt trade show

I had the opportunity to drive down and attend the h+h americas tradeshow in Illinois this year. Since I had space in my car I brought along my Beatrice quilt so I could work on my binding if I had any downtime. I’m so glad I did because I ended up spending the last day in the Cotton and Joy booth and was able to get the binding finished just before we started tear-down.

Completed Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt in black, gold and blue displayed in front of a large bee mural by artist Nick Sweetman

In addition to having the perfect pantograph in mind, I also knew I had the perfect photo location for my Beatrice quilt! I had stumbled across this stunning mural by multidisciplinary artist Nick Sweetman almost a year ago and knew I’d have to visit it again once my Beatrice quilt was ready for photos. We also found some beautiful trees in blossom nearby, which seemed fitting for this family of bees. I’ve done a lot of quilt photoshoots in public places before, and I’ve never received as many compliments as I did with my Beatrice quilt. What can I say? Beatrice is a crowd favorite!

Completed Cotton and Joy Beatrice bumblebee quilt in black, gold and blue displayed on a lawn in front of a full pink blossoming tree

Quilt Information

Pattern: Beatrice by Cotton and Joy
Quilt Top Fabrics: Fabrics are all from Ruby Star Society – Unruly Nature Cup and Saucer Vine fabric in Cactus, Add it Up in Copper, Spark in Metallic Black, Speckled in Polar, Speckled Wideback in Black
Panto: Daisy Daze by Karlee Porter Design