Bears By the Fire

Taaaa Daaaaa….my autumn wall hanging!

I have to say I had a “bear” of a time finishing it!

But before I go into that sad sad story, some details…..

I have always liked the Bear Claw or Bear Paw quilt block. For this quilt I was inspired by the block I made back in February 2021 designed by Robin Pickens for the Moda Blockheads 3, Bear Cubs by the Campfire.

I liked it so much, I made it twice!

I wanted to make this quilt more modern so I used a lot of solid fabrics and made the blocks BIG! The set of bear claws/paws are 21″. The extra column down the center makes the wall hanging 45″ square. (Or kinda close to that after the quilting and crooked binding.) I used a lot of solid fabrics. The background is from Ruby Star Society. I had about a yard left over from the Perfect Summer Picnic Quilt.

I went through all my autumn colored scraps–oranges, browns, and yellows. I had some layer cakes and charms that I was able to use up.

I’m calling this quilt “Bears by the Fire” and used a pretty orangish square throughout for the fire.

Everything went together so nicely but my quilting was awful. I didn’t have the tension set correctly on my sewing machine. Then I decided to use a blanket stitch on the binding–once you start that, you can’t go back! Every few inches the thread broke. What? I knew it wasn’t the thread since I had used it for the quilting. I cleaned the machine, changed needles, messed with the tension…..Bad words may have been used. Feeling very frustrated with my sewing machine after that experience!

Look how pretty this photo is after the bears went for a spin in the washer!

Anyhow, after it’s time in the washer and dryer it came out nice and crinkly and it’s very wonky. But it is finished. And it looks amazing in my dining room. You know that saying, “better finished then perfect”. That’s this quilt.

Now for some glamour shots!