Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Back to the Butterfly Bear Paws!

So does anyone remember these bear paw blocks that I was working on an eternity ago?

10 1/2" Finished Bear Paw Block, One of Nine
I was experimenting with cutting up large scale patterns, and really liked the way this oversized Anna Maria Horner print looks when its cut up and pieced back together again.  Like exuberant gobs of paint!  I didn't do any fussy cutting with these blocks, just rotary cut my fabric randomly but then carefully laid out the patches for each block to ensure a level of balance within each block as well as in the final layout. 

9 Finished Blocks On the Design Wall, with Hand Marbled FQs
But then I couldn't decide what that final layout should be, and got bogged down with different options, and distracted by other projects...

Fancy Borders and Sashing Stars

Plain Alternate Blocks, Sashing Posts, and Sawtooth Star Border
But a friend of mine is expecting a new baby granddaughter soon, and I've decided that I have a better chance of turning these UFO WIP blocks into a baby quilt over the next few weeks than I do finishing something new that I would have to start from scratch.

I made a bunch of 4" sawtooth stars using hand marbled fabrics along with the same background white that I used for the bear paw blocks, and I'm planning to frame four of those stars with white so they "float" between my bear paw blocks like so:

EQ7 Mockup, approximately 50" x 50"
The hot pink outer border is actually going to be satin binding.  And I already have some lavender Minky fabric that I'm planning to use for the backing.  So I have everything I need to do this already in my studio, and all of the difficult piecing is done.  There is also lots of blank white space to play in once I get to the quilting stage...

Wish me luck!  And if you and I happen to know the same expectant grandmother, please don't tell her I'm making something for the baby.  Just because I broadcast what I'm doing all over the Internet doesn't mean that I don't want it to be a surprise!  ;-)

5 comments:

Jennie in GA said...

Oh my, that is going to be wonderful!!! Lucky baby.

Barbara Sindlinger said...

What a great idea and way to use the blocks. That will be a very lucky baby.

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I like your design any of these would have been good but totally understand that you want to whip it up into a baby quilt instead - sometimes just using up the blocks is a good thing instead of hanging on to for some time while you decide what to do with it.

Jenny K. Lyon said...

What a lucky baby! I love the large scale print. I could not decide on layouts-they all look good. I'd go with easy!

SJSM said...

All are good ideas. This is new to me and you probably already know this, using temporary spray adhesive on the minke when you sandwich the quilt will make quilting easier. I saw a woman at a retreat do this. Enjoy making the quilt.