A Beary Quilt

Hello- and welcome. Gosh, not many more hours left in 2017. This year has literally just flown by, hasn't it? I hope you are looking forward to the end of 2017, as much as we are in our family.  Praying that 2018 will be a better one for us, and all of you as well. Several of my blog buddies are having Life issues just at the moment, so sending prayers up for them, that all will be well.

We have 2 birthdays coming in January. Was hoping to get a head start on making some cards and not always be rushing at the last minute. Got some quilt dies from Gina Marie, and tucking the pieces in place while watching a tv show, is a good multi-task effort. I use coffee filters when I'm cutting dies like this, to separate the colors & not lose the little pieces. On this die, I learned the importance of checking the sizes of the little bits. Put one in where it doesn't _quite_ fit, and you're gonna not have a well-made quilt (just like in fabric piecing). Used a black mat to frame each quilt after using a white backing, but since I have a dark background for taking photos, the black doesn't show well. Here goes:

 



The first quilt is for the one SIL that I have left, and she's a quilter (in fabric, hand sewing only). The green pieces are sort of chartreuse green that brightened up the purple and blue snowflake fabric. Also the sentiment is gold foil, but shows up black in the photo. The little bear was colored before the paper colors were chosen, hence the chartreuse used. If you look at the triangles under the bear, you'll see what I mean about checking carefully that each tiny piece fits perfectly  - from the get go. Obviously I didn't on this one. Lesson Learned!

 

Unless using double sided paper, to make this quilt you use multiple colors, so the next quilt was made at the same time. Placing the colors in different formations changes up the design of the quilt. For some reason, the purple in this one looks faded, but the papers were the same in both quilts.

 

 

 

Same elements used here, and this quilt was pieced a bit better. Had fun coloring these bears and was pleased that the matching die cut out the image pretty well. Sometimes I have a problem with that, even though I may have used washi to tape the die in place. It can still shift a little as it goes through the Big Shot.

 

There were enough pieces left from this effort (I used 3 colors, so 3 quilts!) but #3 has more fitting errors than these 2 did. Both the folks who are getting these cards will be forgiving of my boo-boos (I think -[hope]!) The DP came from a 6x6 paper pad, VOS. Used a laser printer to generate the sentiment, then Minc to put gold foil over it.

 

Wishing each of you a Happy New Year, and if you celebrate away from your own home, safe travels back to home. Generally we stay put, might have a glass of wine to clink together, and usually DH will just go to bed before midnight. I'm a night owl, so I'll see 2018 in.

 

Blessings and Hugs. And prayers to those who need to be uplifted. Ya'll come back when you can.