Free block pattern – Blue Bear Quilts

How about some holiday quilt patterns? This month, we are offering 20% off of our digital download Cowboy Claus, Peace in the Valley and Adore Him quilt patterns. You can find the links to those patterns here: downloadable-patterns/

Quilt Block Mania is happening again in November and 23 quilt designers are at it again with this month’s theme of Winter Celebrations. Here is a picture of the theme colors.

Beautiful holiday celebration colors. Blue Bear lives in Florida and they have holiday boat parades as part of many city’s winter celebrations.

This is the Harbor Holidays block. It features a festive sailboat decked out with holiday lights and sailing on a beautiful teal sea.

Here is a photo of the block after the shapes have been fused and machine appliquéd to the background.

To see a few things I do to make creating a black like this a success, please look at the blog post from September 1st called Sun-Boo-Net Sue.

You can turn this fun block into a 14 x 18″ placemat. You can add additional background pieces to the completed 12″ block, or you can make the background bigger to begin with. If adding additional background pieces, you will need to sew a 2-1/2 x 7″ light teal background piece to a 2-1/2 x 6″ teal background piece. You will need to make two of these and sew them to either side of the 12-1/2″ unfinished block. Press the seams open. Otherwise, if you just want to make the background piece larger to begin with, and then appliqué your pieces onto this larger background piece, you would sew a 16-1/2 x 7″ light teal background piece to a 16-1/2 x 6″ teal background piece. Press the seam open and then appliqué the sailboat shapes onto the center of the background. Once you have completed the center of the placemat, you will add dark green side and top borders. The side borders measure 12-1/2 x 1-1/2″ and get sewn on first. Then you will sew on the top and bottom borders, which measure 18-1/2 x 1-1/2.” Next, you will baste, with spray or pins, your cotton batting to a backing piece that measures 16 x 20. Then baste the placemat on top of the batting. Quilt as desired and then trim to 14 x 18.” Next, apply the binding and you are done. The yardage required for this project remains the same as for the block pattern, except the required amount of dark green increases to 3/8 yard to account for the borders. You will need a fat quarter for the backing and a 16 x 20″ piece of cotton batting. Also you will need 1/4 yard, or (2) 2-1/2″ strips, for the binding, in the color of your choice.

You can also use this block to create a fun quilt that measures 50 x 50.” You combine 8 sailboat blocks with 8 background squares and add a 1″ border. It makes a quilt that looks like a regatta or a holiday boat parade. The yardage required to make this quilt top would be: 1/4 yard of maroon; 3/8 yard of red; 1/2 yard of off white and dark green; 1 yard of teal and 1-1/4 yards of light teal.

If you would like to download a complimentary PDF pattern of our block for November, all you have to do is look for the box on our blog, on the right hand side, that says “Like this content? Sign up for free updates” and sign up to receive our newsletter. When you have done that, you will receive a welcoming email from us that will contain a coupon code and a link back to the complimentary pattern. You will act as though you are purchasing the pattern and in the cart, you will apply the coupon code, which will make the pattern free. You will need to fill out contact information, but no payment method will be necessary. Don’t worry, we do not send out newsletters very often and we never sell email addresses or contact information. Here is what the pattern looks like. It is in a format very similar to most Blue Bear Quilt patterns, so if you see what you like in this free pattern, you will like our other patterns as well. Please note: This pattern will only be complimentary during the month of November 2020.

Current newsletter subscribers, don’t despair! You will be able to download the complimentary pattern as well as you have already been sent a newsletter on November 3rd which gave you the coupon code.

We are so happy that you stopped by to visit us in the Quilt Block Mania hop and we hope that you like our block. Please stop by to see all of the other designer’s wonderful blocks.

You can click on the links to the other blocks here.

Christmas Wreath by Slice of Pi Quilts
Baby Sue’s First Christmas
Celebrate by Inquiring Quilter
Gifts at Always Expect Moore
Snowflakes by Blockofthemodotcom
Gifts of Friendship
Fireworks at duck creek mountain quilting
Wreath & Chain at Stash Bandit
Christmas Star by Michelle Renee Hiatt
Adirondack Mountain Quilt Block
A Present from Penny
Candlelighting at Pretty Piney Quilts
Poinsettia from QuiltFabrication
Harbor Holidays at Blue Bear Quilts
Christmas Cracker at Perkins Dry Goods
Sparkling Spruce at Patti’s Patchwork
Jingle All the Way at Orange Blossom Quilt
Snowflakes & Candy Cane Trees at Quilt Moments
Tower of Gifts by Oh Kaye Quilting
Winter Memories by Carolyn Burgess
Holiday Block by Seams to Be Sew
Ticker Tape Tree at Devoted Quilter
Evergreen by True Blue Quilts
Merry and Bright at Around the Bobbin
Ski Vacation

We thought we would celebrate Labor Day by offering 20% off of our digital download Sparklers on Liberty Square and Patriotic Polka Patterns. You can find the links to those patterns here: downloadable-patterns/

Sparklers on Liberty Square Quilt at barber shop

Sparklers on Liberty Square Quilt Pattern Cover

Quilt Block Mania is happening again in September and 29 quilt designers are at it again with this month’s theme of Halloween. Here is a picture of the theme colors.

Very fallish don’t you think? So the block Blue Bear created is a take on the classic Sunbonnet Sue block. Sue is proudly holding up the pumpkin she just finished carving.

Sunbonnet Sue is one of those appliqué blocks that people either love or hate. We think she is adorable in this Halloween themed block. The fabrics that we used to create this fun block are called Coco Chic and they are part of a fabric collaboration we are doing with QT fabrics. The fabrics were inspired from 1920’s fabric prints which QT Fabrics has in their archives.

Coco Chic will be available in fabric shops in January 2021. Fabric shops are ordering this fabric now and if you would like for your local shop to carry it, we have a letter we prepared that you can snail mail, email or bring into the shop telling them all about this Art Deco fabric collection. The letter is available on our website under the heading ” Coco Chic Letter.”

Here is a photo of the block with Coco Chic fabrics after the shapes have been fused to the background.

There are a few things I did to make creating this black a success. I cut out fabric squares the same size as the paper template squares I cut.

The squares of fusible web were cut slightly smaller than the fabric squares.

I fused the fusible webbing to the wrong side of the fabric. Then with regular washable school glue, I put the slightest amount of glue on the paper side of the fusible and glued the paper templates onto the fusible webbing.

Now I was able to cut out the appliqué shapes on the solid line. When ready to fuse in place, using the placement diagram for guidance, I carefully pulled off both the paper template and the paper side of the fusible. If you need to score the paper side of the fusible webbing, you can lift the paper template up to do so.

Here I am getting reading to machine appliqué the pieces down after I had fused them to the background.

The block looks very finished with the blanket stitch and this embroidery holds the pieces to the background and prevents them from fraying over time.

When doing machine embroidery, it is important that you use a piece of tearaway stabilizer on the back of your background piece and sew nice and slowly so that you are able to pivot your piece with the needle down when you need to.

If you would like to turn this cute block into a pillow cover, please head over to our YouTube channel, after September 3, 2020, where we will have a video showing how we turned this block into a pillow cover. Here is the link to our YouTube channel: Blue Bear Quilts YouTube. We also have a pattern for making a pillow cover out of a 12″ finished block here: pillow cover pattern

If you would like to download a free PDF pattern of our block for September, all you have to do is look for the box on our blog, on the right hand side, that says “Like this content? Sign up for free updates” and sign up to receive our newsletter. When you have done that, you will receive a welcoming email from us that will contain a coupon code and a link back to the free pattern. You will act as though you are purchasing the pattern and in the cart, you will apply the coupon code, which will make the pattern free. You will need to fill out contact information, but no payment method will be necessary. Don’t worry, we do not send out newsletters very often and we never sell email addresses or contact information. Here is what the pattern looks like. It is in a format very similar to most Blue Bear Quilt patterns, so if you see what you like in this free pattern, you will like our other patterns as well. Please note: This pattern will only be free during the month of September 2020.

Current newsletter subscribers, don’t despair! You will be able to download the free pattern as well as you have already been sent a newsletter on September 1st which gave you the coupon code.

We are so happy that you stopped by to visit us in the Quilt Block Mania hop and we hope that you like our block. Please stop by to see all of the other designer’s wonderful blocks.