A bear paws through the woods

Hi all, and happy Friday!  Guess what?  We finally found a house and have an accepted offer!  I am so excited.  Here's the best part--we walked into one room and my husband said "This would make a great sewing room." Best husband ever! Is he a keeper or what?  The really great part is that he was totally right--it will make a great sewing room!

In between looking at houses and negotiating the offer, I did do a little sewing.  For this week's finish, I have this to show off:

Isn't this darling?  This is the Bear's Paw pattern, which I tested for Lorna over at Sew Fresh Quilts. Lorna has the cutest patterns and I can tell you that they are terrific.  They always turn out so nicely.  And they are all pieced using regular-sized pieces--they are not paper pieced!

We all know that I have trouble making a quilt exactly as the pattern shows, so I made a few different choices for my quilt.  (And of course I had to make it as difficult for myself as possible instead of following the pattern exactly.)  Lorna shows the quilt with all the Bear's Paw blocks in the same color, which looks terrific in her quilt.  I had a stack of 10-inch squares in solids, so I made the Bear's Paw blocks using those squares.  You can cut one of the Bear's Paw blocks from a 10-inch square and have some nice-sized scraps left over.

The other thing I changed was the color of the bear.  My daughter-in-law loves black bears so I made this bear black as well.  I think he turned out pretty well. Pretty sure it will show every little bit of dirt, but don't bears collect stuff in their fur anyway?  I have this piece with some fun owls for a backing:

I have a couple of tips for success with this pattern.  First, read the entire pattern before you start.  I get the patterns as a download, but then I always print them out and write all over them.  I also cross out as I go, because otherwise I get confused, and that's never pretty.

My second tip is to label all the pieces as you cut them:

It's just so much easier when everything is labelled and I don't have to guess.  My last tip is to sort the pieces by block after they're cut, which means you can grab one stack and sew without having to fuss with finding the pieces.

Lorna plans to offer this pattern as a quilt-along later this year, but you can totally buy the pattern in her pattern store and make your own before then.  She has a lot of other really fun patterns, too, so you should totally go and check it out!

Thanks to Lorna for another great pattern!  This little quilt is becoming a part of my Grandma stash, which is a bunch of quilts that I have for tiny humans when they come to my house. Who doesn't need some of those around all the time?

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  We will be sorting and putting things in boxes, at least until the thunderstorm knocks out the power again.  Seriously, is the power grid made of paper mache? It has gone out a lot these last few weeks.

Happy sewing!

Sharing atConfessions of a Fabric Addict and Let's Bee Social.

Neighborhood

Hi everyone!  Are you all ready for the snow?  Apparently we're going to get buried over the weekend.  All I know is that we have had next to no snow all winter (which is weird) and now we're apparently going to get it all at once.  I tried to go to the grocery store today, but that was a serious mistake.  It was a zoo!  I didn't need bananas that badly, so I didn't stay long.

Before the snow flies, let's talk about this lovely little quilt top I just finished:

Neighborhood

Not the greatest picture (it's cold and windy) but I love it! I have been obsessed with houses for a while now.  I am so tired of living in this condo that I could just scream sometimes.  I know I should feel grateful that I have a nice safe place to live that is tucked away near a park and everything, but I miss my house so much.  I keep thinking about all the improvements I would make to this place, but then I remember that I can't do anything about that ugly bathroom floor.  Sigh.  Spring is coming, and then we'll be looking. 

I guess for now I'll make do with these pretty house blocks! I did not make these.  Back in September, I got to "adopt" these blocks from Julie at Floribunda Quilts.  Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework had a Quilty Adoption event (and is having another in March, so be ready) where people could offer their unfinished projects that they had lost enthusiasm for to others who would finish them.  I won Julie's beautiful blocks!

These were apparently made by several different people, and they are all great!  They have all sorts of bling, too:

How cute are those beads?  And check out the roof of this house:

What pretty decorative stitches!

I set these blocks in irregular rows with this beautiful blue-green Kona cotton.  (I need a Kona color card so I can keep these names straight.)  I didn't want any straight rows or anything like that.  I tried to work it out on graph paper, but in the end I just sat on the floor and arranged them the way I wanted, then measured the spaces between them to cut the sashing.  It was a process, but it worked!

So, I now have this little top that measures about 50 by 50 (or so).  I've named it Neighborhood, because what else could it be?  Because of the buttons and such, I'll have to quilt it up myself, which I am totally looking forward to.  Could take a little while, though, because I have to figure out what to do with that negative space.  Maybe I can quilt in some trees or something.  Here's where the graph paper will come in handy!

Thanks to Julie for such great blocks! Since she had wanted these to be used for a charitable purpose, this may get donated to my niece's high school auction for their student activities.  Not sure if I can have it done by then, but I'll try.

Here's hoping your house will be okay this weekend.  Stay off the roads and stay in and sew--it's safer!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday.