Friday 20 July 2012

Teddy Bear Picnic

Friends of ours are expecting their first born, and against what seems to be the norm now they decided not to find out the sex of the baby. When P&M (the mom and dad-to-be) told me the nursery was a green colour with a teddy bear theme, I immediately knew which quilt to prepare for their new arrival.

Early on in my sewing days, I purchased a quilt kit from The Hobby Horse, a quilt store in Georgetown, Ontario. It is a Crazy 8 pattern and I thought I might be able to tackle it. Below is a series of pictures documenting my process. The end result is adorable, I think! The parents will get it next week. This is just the third quilt top I've pieced (and I also pieced the back) and the second quilt I have quilted and bound.


After cutting up a storm, the pieces were in piles all over my cutting mat.
These are the block variations. I stacked them to ensure an even distribution of patterns throughout each block type.
Here are the pieced, pressed blocks, ready to be assembled into rows.
I arranged them on the floor to ensure the pattern looked pleasing.
Attached rows of blocks together.
I pieced the back by using two left over blocks in the centre of the flannelette alphabet pattern. I chose the brown because it works with the teddy bear theme and the brown dots in many of the fabrics. (I took the picture after it had been folded for awhile- I promise I pressed it before basting my quilt!)

Here is the basted quilt. I used a fusible batting on advice from Elaine, my instructor for the one quilting class I've taken (Free Motion Quilting at The Hobby Horse). Her blog is http://crazyquilteronabike.blogspot.ca/. The fusible is great for novices like me. I then used a free motion foot to do random loop quilting throughout. It was WAY more work than I expected, but I think it is pretty cute!
I used a walking foot to sew on my binding, and then hand stitched the reverse. My fingers are killing me but I was really happy with the result (much smoother than my first quilt).
Here are the results!


I think it is super cute! Thank goodness the recipients won't know to look for my errors in quilting, binding and piecing. I hope their new addition gets lots of use out of it!

Lynn (aka Buttons)

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