Bee Neglect & WIP Pips

I have been neglectful in my Bees, I am (was) behind on 2, one is the Aqua & Orange Bee.  Katherine of Honey Hill Designs requested 2 blocks with circles, a vespa, and the letter 'K'.  I can only assume that 'K' stands for "mental block trying to put these two blocks together".  The vespa fabric was very cute, I had a hard time picking one vespa to use.  Block 1 I thought of (finally) a hot air balloon running off with the vespa, not quite a circle, but I think fitting.  

Block 1 August for Katherine

Block 2, I added the bottom most orange fabric for the 'circle' part of Katherine's request and I reversed appliqued the letter 'K'.  Yes, I reversed appliqued.  I like the look of the letter in there, I might try this on something else.  To see the rest of the Aqua and Orange photos on flickr click HERE.  And now, I have one more August to complete, and I have 2 September blocks done, so I'm almost not behind.  

Block 2 August for Katherine

Working on the back for the Sherbet Pips back.  I found a tutorial at Lily's Quilts for a large dresden plate, Big Fat Dresden.  I cut out the template for the dresden plate on paper, and I just cut around the template on fabric.  Nothing fancy.  I still didn't use up all the fabrics.  

I am making 3 of these large dresdens for the back.  Each one represents a daughter in the family that will get the quilt. 

Here is how large the dresdens are, 22" to the top.  I am not following the tutorial 100%, I am going to machine applique the dresdens to solids for the back, and I will not add the center or the side insets.

The trick for the center is to pin it everywhere until you have used up all your pins.  Now to chose zig zag or straight stitch.  My dresdens are not laying flat, so I will unsew a seam on each one and make the seam larger than the 1/4" to get a big fat flat dresden.   After these are appliqued down, I'll measure to complete the back.  I like to wing it - not measuring till the end.