Bear Paw baby quilt

Another Bear Paw, I really enjoy making this block so much!  This baby quilt was for a Uni friend who had a baby girl during the summer.  I had lots of this gorgeous elephant fabric which I used to make curtains for my son's nursery previously and I thought my friend would really like it.  It's an organic cotton, I think Birch fabrics, I got from M is for Make way back in 2013/2014.  I think I've had the orange Atelier Brunette, also bought from M is for Make, almost as long.  When I put them together I thought it would work but I had a moment of doubt while making it.  Thankfully it worked out well and they match perfectly I say!

 My son makes a perfect quilt model helper doesn't he?! After making the Bear Paw cushion I knew I wanted this baby quilt to be one giant bear paw block.  I had a wee look online and found the brilliant Scrappy Bear Paw baby quilt tutorial from Jeni Baker of In Color Order.  I already followed Jeni on instagram and admired her quilt patterns but hadn't seen this tutorial before.  The instructions include cutting measurements for a version from scraps or from yardage. I only just had enough of the orange but luckily had enough of the elephants that I could back it with that too.

The quilting is just a simple grid quilt pattern which I think looks really good with this block.  The batting is the Quilter's Dream orient quilt batting, bought from Cotton Patch.  The quilting is done with Aurifil 50wt thread.  I was in such a rush to get on with this quilt that I completely forgot to square off the half square triangles! So if you look closely you can see the points aren't all the same, I also somehow managed to attach some of them the wrong way round.  In spite of that I still love how this turned out and the recipient seemed really happy with it too!

Improv Quilt

This quilt was started way back in 2017 when I made my 'Little Critters' quilt. It's funny as I'd say pink and yellow are my favourite colours yet I seem to make a lot of quilts out of blue and yellow! The block in my Little Critters quilt was called the 'Odds and Ends' quilt from Quilting Happiness' by Christina Lane & Diane Gilleland.  Making this block left me with lots of little odds and ends, and when I put them together with the scraps from the quilt I thought they would make a good quilt back.  I put the scraps together in some different shapes and as it started to grow I realised I'd like to make it into a quilt top so used something else to back the quilt and decided to keep working on this top. It started off quite small then I put it aside for two years as I couldn't decide what to do with it.  Earlier this year I found the folder with all the scraps in it so I bought some more of the white & black triangles and just started improvising again. It was so much fun just to let this develop naturally.

Some of it was left over shapes from the other quilt - the lines of black and white fabric so I used them as the were. With the other scraps I made some half square triangles for some shapes.  The most fun bit though was just picking up small scraps, stitching them together without too much thought then making these new pieces into different shapes and patterns. I loved this process and think I'll do some more improv quilts in 2020.

I used a polyester eco batting made from recylced plastic bottles from Cotton Patch as I planned for this quilt to be a picnic blanket and thought that would be quite hardwearing. However it's currently residing on our couch as a winter blanket!

The quilting pattern is from 'Walk: master machine quilting with your walking foot' by Jacqui Gering.  I bought myself a Hera marker so I could try some of the patterns in this book with a bit more ease and it's definitely my favourite new sewing tool!

You can see some of the different stages of this quilt in the photos below. It's nice to have another quilt in our house and I plan to make more for myself and our home next year!

the 'odds and ends' block where the scraps that started this quilt came from

Bear Paw cushion

The Bear Paw quilt block is definitely one of my favourite blocks. I love the name, the striking design, and how easy it is to put together.  I know there are still so many blocks I've never made but I think it would be hard to displace the Bear Paw from my favourites.

A Bear Paw quilt block cushion

This was a birthday present for my brother.  I wanted to make him something using some of the fabric I have that belonged to our mum.  I would like to make him a quilt too but the birthday present was late enough as it is so a quilted cushion it was.  The dark blue fabric is a beautiful cashmere, made in Scotland. I can't remember where it is from but do remember my mum telling me a story of visiting the factory and coming away with this fabric. I've made myself a skirt from it and had some scraps left over. I always thought it would be nice if I could use it for something for my brother.  I decided to use the bear paw as I wanted quite a bold and simple design.   The pale blue wool is a scrap of Harris tweed which my mother-in-law brought back from Harris (she brought me a bag of scraps and I'm sure they will all be used in quilts over time!) I didn't think it would look right with a plain white fabric and wanted something with a bit of texture to complement the wools so I found this Robert Kaufman remnant I picked up in Ray Stitch a while ago though I can't remember what the exact name of it is.

Bear Paw quilt block cushion

The tutorial for the Bear Paw block is one I've used before and it's such a good tutorial. It gives you different sets of measurements for different sized blocks, the instructions are really clear and it gives you midpoint measurements which ensures you get accurate and consistent blocks.  It is also a no-waste method which I like because, well it's no waste but it also makes it very quick!

I used the 14" size block and then found a tutorial online to turn this into a cushion.  I know I should have stretched myself and gone for a zip at the back but I just stuck to the envelope opening.  The instructions in this tutorial provided too thick an envelope though so I had to reduce the size of both back pieces.

In-progress photo of basting all the quilt layers.

The colours are much more muted than I would normally go for but I really love the way it's turned out.  It feels really good to have shared this fabric with my brother by making it into something which can be used every day. I've just finished a Bear Paw baby quilt and feel I'm on a bit of a role with this block as I have another baby quilt planned and some more cushions!

Gift bags

I love making little gifts such as pencil cases and bags but don't always remember to record them here. I thought I'd share these ones as the tutorial I used is so good I thought it was worth sharing again. The elephant drawstring bag was made with some scraps of this organic cotton from M is for Make. I bought this fabric years ago to make curtains for my son's nursery.  They didn't fit in our new home so I washed the fabric and unpicked it all.  It was used to make this quilt and bedding for a dolls bed but I still have plenty left.

This was a present for the son of one of my best friend's so it's nice to use special fabrics for special people!  I chose this book as it was one of Harris's favourites when he was 3/4 years old - we now read the Jolly Rodgers chapter books but he still likes the picture books too of course.

So lets get to the tutorial! It is called the Kids Washbag Tutorial from Handmade Jane.  Obviously it is meant for waterproof fabrics but the tutorial works just as well to make bags for all other purposes.  The one I made for my son is used to transport Lego, cars and other toys when we go on holiday.  The elephant one was used as a book bag but with the intention it would work as a toy bag too.  I've made some before and will definitely make them again!  I made my son's one to match his pencil case but now he's asked if he can have another pencil case so that he can have one in his school bag and one at home so maybe I'll make another drawstring bag to match a new pencil case. This time he's requested superhero fabric so I'll need to do some shopping for this one!

As an aside, I'm not sure how many people still read blogs. I mean I know I do but I definitely don't comment nearly as much as I used to, mainly because the Bloglovin app was so terrible on my phone and I never really got round to looking into a replacement.  I hope people still read this but when I was thinking about whether or not to post I realised I post here as much, if not more, for me than for anyone else. having this reminder of everything I've made together like this is very good for me. Whenever I feel anxious or stressed about what I am doing, or not doing, one way I can cheer myself up is to look at my blog and remind myself of all the things I've created. So that's me up to date with finished makes, now it's time to get on with some of those unfinished ones - cushions, quilts, EPP project etc etc!