Bear Paw Modern Low Volume Quilt: "Bears in the Meadow"

Here's my completed "Bears in the Meadow" low volume quilt with a modern setting using the classic Bears Paw block. I love how the bear paws are wandering to and fro off the margins of the quilt!

Along with swirls and several tiny hearts, there are 16 bears done with free motion quilting. (See my last post).  I initially thought I'd only stitch 5 or 6 bears into the quilting but I had so much fun that there are 16! You have to really look hard to find them! Even my count might not be accurate!

The quilt backing is a flower print with a large block of bear fabric in the middle. So, it's bears all round!!

I did try to get a photo of the quilt in a meadow but because the quilt is so large, that turned out to be rather difficult. Here is my best shot, taken from the top of the slide in my neighborhood playground!

in dappled sunlight in the park.

This quilt is so me!  It's a keeper!

Gallery of Summer Projects

I love Creativebug.com.  I learn so much watching their craft videos.  This summer i watched several videos presented by Jody Alexander on binding books with Japanese bindings (shown above) and books sewn with Coptic bindings (below).  She made this totally doable and lots of fun!  I didn't have all the book binding supplies initially but my sewing drawer and tool box had usable alternatives!

The Coptic binding looks like a braid on the spine of the book. My first attempt was rather lumpy but subsequent books have been looking better.

I also did a bit of fussy cutting for some doll jammies made with organic cotton knit printed with my Spoonflower design, "Springer Spaniel with Flowers."  I didn't take a photo of the back of the PJ top but there is a Springer on each side of the back. That's Tipper posing with Penny a Bamboletta doll.  If you look closely you'll see that the doll has freckles just like the dogs!

The "Bears in the Meadow" quilt top is finished. It's too large to hang on my fence clothes line so here is a peak of the quilt folded and laid on the deck railing. It wasn't my plan to make a low volume quilt but that's how it's turned out!

Quilt top waiting to be sandwiched and quilted

I'm really looking forward to having this quilt finished so I can use it!

Bear Paw Sighting!

Making a quilt using the classic Bear Paw block has been on my quilting bucket list since the 1970s.  But there were no rotary cutters or short cuts back then....just cardboard templates. My accuracy cutting with cardboard templates left a lot to be desired!  It was just too much trouble and the blocks didn't look good enough for me to want to make a whole quilt. Since I could do free form needle turn applique that's what I used to do!  Bear Paw blocks were put on an indefinite hold!

Digging through my stash recently, I came across a short stack of floral fat quarters. How fun would it be to make a quilt that looked like a meadow with Bear Paw prints!

That idea ruled out the traditional Bear Paw layout with the paws facing outward in 4 directions (often with sashing between the blocks). See below.  It's very sweet with these floral fabrics but not what I wanted.

I started to draw the quilt on graph paper but quickly realized I wanted to see a variety of layouts. So I opened EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) on my computer. I needed to draw my single bear paw block (the bear paw block in the EQ7 block library is similar to the 4 patch above) but then it was was easy to use my new bear paw block to look at a number of options. I started with the straight forward quilt on the far left below. Next to it are other two possibilities. 

I've picked my design (not exactly any of those shown!) and with the aid of all the current quilting tools and shortcuts have been happily sewing Bear Paw blocks! I love working with these cheerful summery Sarah Fielke "Enchanted" flower prints by Windham Fabrics (2014) with Kona® cotton solid color accents!