There's a bear on my quilt

 Hi everyone, and happy first weekend of fall! How did that happen? I would swear that it was just the first weekend of summer. Of course, I would swear that just last week my folks dropped me off at college for my freshman year, but I had a birthday this week that puts me many times beyond college age, so my sense of time may be a bit skewed.

 

 I got myself a lovely birthday present, but before that, I had another longarm quilting lesson! I'm getting much more comfortable with the machine, and it's getting easier each time. And every time, I somehow end up with a finished quilt! Here is the latest one:

 

 

It's about time this quilt top got finished! I made this quilt, unbelieveably, in August 2016, just before we moved out of the tiny condo that we rented when we first moved to the East coast and into our own house. It spent quite a lot of time in a box, but now it is a cozy, snuggly finished quilt! 

 

This is a pattern by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts. I've made several of her quilts now and they are great. They are not paper pieced, and the bear there is made using a flip and sew method that is really easy and makes contructing the bear really easy. I love how it looks like he's walking out of the quilt and smashing right through the sashing. 

 

 

I had a different instructor for this lesson, and she was also great. She taught me a couple of tricks, including repeating to myself "out and back, out and back" over and over again. It worked! Look at those great swirls. The first few were a little bit shaky, but they definitely got better as I went. 

 

 

The bear's paw blocks all got swirls, which gave it great texture, then the bear got some simple meandering and then straight-ish lines in the two gray legs. This let me make the bear look nice and fuzzy, and gave me some practice in changing the threads. I know the black bear will naturally look fuzzy because he will attract every bit of lint and dust in the house, but the meandering was fun just the same.

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of the backing, but it was more of those big giant dots from the last quilt. They look fun on the back and hide all of my mistakes. There are still plenty, believe me. That bright blue binding is also a Kona solid, and I think it finishes everything off really well. 

 

 

And that is one more finished quilt! I can't even tell you how happy I am about this one. Keeping it unfinished for five years was too long. I'm really going to work on finishing things up much faster. I think this was the oldest one in the closet. Well, the oldest finished top. There are still several unfinished projects that may or may not be from the same era. But we're not counting those, right?

 

Everyone have a lovely weekend. We don't have any leaves changing color yet, but I think perhaps we should go hiking and see if we can spot some. It's fall now, you know!

 

 

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and Brag About Your Beauties. 

Stars

Hi everyone!  How is your week going?  Mine is pretty busy.  You know how you just "lose" days when you go away for a weekend or go on vacation? Yeah, that's what happened with me this week. We went to my friend's wedding, which was lovely, and then came home and no one had miraculously come in to do the laundry or the dishes or my sewing projects.  Where is that fairy godmother when I need her?

Anyway, not a lot of progress here, but I did make these:

These are my contribution to the friendship star swap for this month.  They're a little brighter than anticipated, but I like them.  Somehow I miscounted when I was cutting for them (months ago now) and I ended up putting a blue center in one of them:

I think it looks all right, don't you?  I hope no one will be disappointed with the color combination when they get this one.

No fairy godmother showed up this weekend, but the mailman did.  Look what he brought me:

I finally broke down and got new rulers.  I also got a new large cutting mat.  Yeah, I know.  When I was packing up, I was thinking that I could get along okay with just a few smaller rulers and a small mat.  That's what I used to do, right?  Well, I can't do it any more.  Not sure what I'll do with the older ones once they come out of storage, but that's a problem for another day.

Hope you're having a great week!  If you know how to call out some helpful mice or singing bunnies to do my housework, be sure to let me know!

Sharing at Let's Bee Social, and  WIP Wednesday.

And once again, I have to add this sad note: Je prie pour le peuple de Paris et tout le peuple de France. Nous sommes avec vous dans votre chagrin. Vive le France.