Like many of today’s popular blocks, this pattern was first published during the 1930s Quilt Revival, a time when many antique quilt patterns were updated and named, or renamed several times with newspapers and other publications regularly featuring quilt patterns.

Almost all were said to have early American origins, even if just drafted in the writer’s studio; however, the origins of the Honey Bee pattern do go back to one of the earliest pieced blocks – the humble 9 Patch. In the early 1800s, as quilters began expanding beyond whole cloth designs, they started with simple geometric blocks like the 4 Patch and 9 Patch. A 19th-century Honey Bee quilt is shown here, an elegant circa 1860 indigo blue and white beauty.

This earlier version is based on a single 9 Patch block with appliqué details and is the pattern one finds when searching for the Honey Bee quilts made before 1930. The pattern dates back to the 1840s with a documented example that is date 1844 (on the quilt) and perhaps back to the 1830s.

The block has evolved throughout the years and become more complex. The current version actually features two different 9 Patches – an even 9 Patch center incorporated into an uneven 9 Patch block (a pleasing repetition and variation). The earlier versions tend to have a solid, unpieced center but with the same three appliqued leaves in each corner.

In looking at the pattern, one can almost hear the buzzing and see the bees flying home to their hive in the center of the block. Nature clearly was the inspiration for the Honey Bee moniker, first published in The Kansas City Star (1929) and soon followed by Ruby Short McKim (1930), Nancy Cabot (Chicago Tribune, 1933), and Hall and Kretsinger (1935). Nature also inspired the lyrical “Birds in the Air” name from thread makers Coats and Clark’s (1942). Perhaps the most unusual name for the block, “Blue Blazes” (Hall, 1935), was also inspired by some soaring bluebirds.