i have had this idea for a scrappy blue and green quilt swirling in my head for awhile, so when a couple of instagram-turned-real-life friends talked about a quick little informal sew-along/encouragement, i committed to making an entire whole scrappy bear paw quilt.
i started with just one block. and then quickly made three more. at this point, i recognized that my technique was highly inefficient, and cutting the fabrics for each block individually was going to take me years. and keep my quilt room in a perpetual state of complete disarray. so, i did what any perfectionist would do. i packed it all up and took a long break. (i also wasn’t sure i liked the direction i was heading).
eventually, i got back to work on it. i pulled out every last green, blue, and aqua fabric i owned, and cut what felt like 9000 squares. even though i wasn’t cutting the blocks as i sewed each one, i still was slightly ocd, and fussy cut the prints as much as possible. then i made a gajillion half square triangles. which also means trimming a gajillion half square triangles. meh. eventually, i had all of the pieces i needed and began construction of the next 21 blocks.
wnen i got to the final eight blocks, i laid them all out, to ensure i didn’t end up with a bunch of the same fabrics in the last block. thankfully, since i WAY overcut, this was pretty easy.
once all the blocks were made and sashing cut, i had the hardest decisiont to make: what fabrics to use in the corner stones. i auditioned several options before deciding that orange was the most perfect.
i sewed up all of my sashings and cornerstones and rows. and then at the very end, i found an error in one of my blocks. i had accidently sewed the bottom of one bear paw upside down. i had to do a bit of seam ripping and deconstruction to fix it. and even then, some of the sashing was upside down, but i decided i could live with that.
then it was basting and quilting time. of course i basted it in the cavernous foyer and demanded derek take an aerial photo from the loft. i quilted with loops, my go-to easy quilting pattern.
i enlisted the services of anna and ruby for help with the official photoshoot. it went ok.
we attempted some creative fun shots, but mostly just had a lot of outtakes.
i love this one so much. it didn’t turn out like i had envisioned. the colors were a littled muddled up and it was hard to make out the blue bear paw from the green background. but they are still my favorite colors and all of the fussy cuts and easter eggs are so fun.
also. for the backing, i used a vintage smurfs sheet that i thrifted three years ago. the colors were a great match. and the vibe was perfect. it wasn’t big enough though, so i pieced together all the extra squares and half square triangles and bits of sashing, and added them in, along with a scrap from a previous backing and THEN it was big enough. and since i didn’t buy any new fabric to make this one, it’s basically free.
so yeah. that’s that. 🙂