modern quilt – Page 2 – Blue Bear Quilts

Posted on February 9, 2022February 10, 2022 by Reed — 6 Comments

Island Batik Ambassador- February Project- Row by Row Quilt

I have completed my February project as an Island Batik Ambassador and I am so excited to share it with you. This month is a blog hop and if you check out the Island Batik blog, you can enter each week to win a fat quarter bundle of some of the fabrics that the Ambassadors are using in their projects. I will show the other fabric collections later in this blog post and there will be a link to the giveaway from Island Batik.

The February project was to make a row by row quilt using an upcoming fabric line from Island Batik. I was so excited when the fabric I was given to use was Evergreen and Pine by Kathy Engle. Just look at this gorgeous collection of green and tan batik fabrics. The Evergreen & Pine Batiks may be found at your local quilt shop that carries Island Batik, such as Fabric Smart in St. Petersburg FL. You may find them online at www.fabric-smart.com or call them at 727-914-8850.

The quilt I made is called Timberland Tumble. It is a large lap quilt size 56″ x 77.” This is a striking quilt with a different block in each row. I think it is sometimes difficult to come up with fabrics and quilt patterns that would be appropriate to make for a man, but I feel this quilt accomplishes that and would be an awesome quilt to make for the men in your life. This quilt is easy to make as it is composed mainly of half square triangles, a few squares and maybe a quarter square triangle or two.

I will have a pattern coming out in March 2022 for this quilt after the testers are done testing the pattern. The batik bundle I was provided was the Evergreen and Pine collection by Kathy Engle. Look at this glorious selection of green and tan batiks. These fabrics were so beautiful that it was really hard to cut them up.

Row by Row quilts are made with rows of quilt blocks, with each row distinct from the others. I decided to showcase the wide world of blocks that can easily be made from half square triangles. Although all of these blocks can be made from half square triangles, and a few squares and quarter square triangles, I did construct a few of the blocks using larger quarter square triangles and trapezoids as I wanted to showcase the fabric and have less seams to sew after cutting the pieces with my Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter. Here is a picture of using the Accuquilt cutter to cut out some of the shapes.

You can see that it makes beautiful cuts which are so easy to piece together. Also, I love the fact that there are no dog ears to trim and if you do a really accurate job of sewing your 1/4″ seam, there is nothing that needs to be trimmed. This really saves a lot of time and effort.

I downloaded the images of the fabric collection into my Electric Quilt software, which is the software I use to design quilts. This is what the quilt looked like in the software. I have included a couple of close ups of the blocks with the gorgeous Evergreen and Pine fabric in them.

I also like to often piece the backs of my quilts, which I did for this one. I used some of the fat quarters that I did not use in the quilt to add some interest to the back of the quilt. Here is picture of the back. If you are on TikTok, be sure to check out the video I have posted with me and the quilt. (Look for Blue Bear Quilts)

To quilt the quilt on my Bernina 770 QE, I did stitch in the ditch with the edgestitch #10D foot, which was easy to do as there was a square grid of the half square triangle shapes. I used black 50 wt. Aurifil thread on the front and a tan on the back. Schmetz Needles sent the Ambassadors some of their needles and I used a 70/10 quilting needle. I used Hobbs Premium Polyester Poly-down batting. I had never used this batting before and it was very easy to quilt on my Bernina. Hobbs Poly-Down Batting is made with very fine, white, denier polyester which enables the batting to provide a soft feel and lovely drape. It is prized by machine quilters for its wonderful loft which accentuates quilting details. It is also very light weight.

The supplies I used to make this project were provided by:

Island Batik Evergreen and Pine for the top and Pearl for the backing.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread (black and Tan)

Hobbs Premium Polyester Poly-down batting

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and 6″ Qube

Thank you Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles and Accuquilt.

accuquilt

Blue Bear is sending you some love for Valentine’s Day. Please let him know how much you love the quilt by writing to him in the comments!

Be sure to check out the Island Batik Blog at https://islandbatik.com/row-by-row-blog-hop-week-one/ where you can enter to win a fat quarter bundle. Check it out! a Rafflecopter giveaway Citified and Contempo are the two fabric lines that are being given away this week. Good luck!

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their February Blog Hop quilts. For this week in the blog hop, on Tuesday, Suzy Webster and Connie Kauffman posted on the Contempo fabric line and on Thursday, Brianna Roberts and Sandra Starley will be posting on the Graphic line from Island Batik. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

Be sure to check out the other amazing Row by Row quilts (I have seen some amazing quilts so far) and all the fabulous new Island Batik Collections!

January 31:

Jennifer Thomas, Curlicue Creations
Denise Looney, For the Love of Geese

February 1:

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts
Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

February 2:

Megan Best, Bestquilter

February 3:

Maryellen McAuliffe, Mary Mack Made Mine
Brenda Alburl, Songbird Designs

February 7:

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

February 8:

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

February 9:

Reed Johnson, Blue Bear Quilts

February 10:

Brianna Roberts, Sew Cute and Quirky
Sandra Starley, Textile Time Travels

February 14:

Michelle Roberts, Creative Blonde
Jane Hauprich, Stitch by Stitch Custom Quilting

February 15:

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

February 16:

Anorina Morris, Samelia’s Mum
Preeti Harris, Sew Preeti Quilts

February 17:

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio
Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

February 18:

Blog Hop Round-Up Week 3 and Giveaway

February 21:

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

February 22:

Mania Hatzioannidi, Mania for Quilts
Lisa Pickering, Lisa’s Quilting Passion

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #hobbsbatting #accuquilt #accuquiltgo #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #bernina

Posted on January 27, 2022February 10, 2022 by Reed — Leave a comment

Island Batik Ambassador- January Project- Step by Step Quilt

I am so excited to be an Island Batik Ambassador for 2022.

Each month, I will be sharing a different project using upcoming fabric lines from Island Batik.

If you would like to see my unboxing video, where I show all of the fabric and batting Island Batik and Hobbs sent to me, here is a link to my YouTube video: https://youtu.be/Q-MN2HbI6dg. Be sure to subscribe and click the bell so the you will be notified when I post more videos.

For the month of January, the challenge was to create a step by step quilt using the Island Batik basic line of Gradations.

01 - Step by Step Challenge — 01 – Step by Step Challenge

The quilt I made is called South Seas Shuffle. It is a large lap quilt size 56″ x 62.”

This is a modern quilt using the traditional flying geese block. It’s modern in that the geese are going in many directions, there are large white negative spaces and there are partial seam blocks in the construction of the quilt. I will have a pattern coming out in February 2022 for this quilt after the testers are done testing the pattern. I also will have a YouTube video for how to sew the partial seam block unit in this quilt. The batik bundle I was provided was Brilliant Blues. Look at this glorious selection of blue batiks. Island Batik developed ten different colorways of gradations with 20 steps in each. There are so many quilt projects that make use of gradations in color and value. Yardage for the Gradation Batiks may be found at your local quilt shop that carries Island Batik, such as Fabric Smart in St. Petersburg FL. You may find them online at www.fabric-smart.com or call them at 727-914-8850.

The idea behind the step by step challenge was to incorporate the gradation of light, medium and dark colors into a quilt. Sometimes it is difficult to determine if a color should be placed into the light, medium, or dark category. In order to do that, it helps to place them next to each other. If it is still too difficult to determine, a little trick is to take a picture of them and then use the filters in your phone’s camera app to turn the picture into a B&W monochromatic picture. Then it is easier to see the differences in values. Squinting at the photos and fabrics helps as well. In the photos below, it looks like the 1st and 3rd batiks might be about the same value, but in the B&W photo, you can see the the 3rd batik is clearly lighter that the 1st. So in the color photo, the 1st batik is the dark, the 2nd and 3rd are the mediums and the 4th batik is the light value. The value of a fabric can change when you place different lights and darks next to it.

I downloaded the images of the fabric collection into my Electric Quilt software, which is the software I use to design quilts. This is what the quilt looked like in the software.

I used the measurements of the Accuquilt Flying Geese die to create the size of the blocks. Then the EQ8 software told me how much yardage I needed of each fabric and gave me the rotary cutting diagrams for the non-Accuquilt pieces.

Each one of the flying geese blocks has a blue batik with a light, medium and dark value. This creates the gradation in colors. I cut the blue batik quarter square triangles, which are in the flying geese blocks, using the Accuquilt cutter and die. Since the Accuquilt cutter and die cuts off the dog ears, it is easy to line up the pieces for sewing and there is no trimming that needs to be done after the pieces are sewn together.

When the quilt top was all sewn together, I took it outside to let the sun shine through the quilt as I knew these brilliant blue batiks would sing in the sunshine and wow did they.

Looking at this photo on my iPhone, I discovered something new called Lookup -Artwork. When I clicked on that, it showed me different artist’s works that were similar in feel to my quilt. I was amazed by what they came up with, so I though I would share those other artist’s works with you.

To quilt the quilt on my Bernina 770 QE, I did stitch in the ditch with the edgestitch #10D foot.

I did some quilting in the negative white spaces to mimic the flying geese that were in the other blocks. I used the Creative Grids “Chevy” ruler, designed by Angela Walters, to do this quilting.

I also wanted to do some echo quilting, which means quilting next to the seam lines, within the blue flying geese. So, I switched to a blue Aurifil thread and then used the Line Tamer ruler by Fourpawsquilting.com to get straight lines with my echo quilting.

I used a new Schmetz 70/10 quilting needle. Using new needle on a new quilting project just makes your life so much easier.

I used Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached batting as the quilt top had a lot of white in it and I did not want the batting to show through the fabrics. This batting was very easy to quilt on my Bernina. It is fairly thin and gives your quilt a beautiful drape and also lays fairly flat. It is also light weight and breathable so it makes a good batting for a summer quilt or if used in a warmer climate. It’s loft is 1/8″; it’s shrinkage is 3-5% and the maximum stitch distance when quilting is 4.”

What I liked about using Island Batik fabrics:

The colors are so vibrant.
There is a wonderful texture in the fabrics.
They have very little fraying after they have been cut.
They produce very little lint in your sewing machine.
They are tightly woven, yet very light. I had been working with the batiks for awhile and then switched to regular quilting cotton. I thought the quilting cotton was so heavy that I had a double layer, but I did not. The light weight of the batiks would make for an overall lighter quilt, depending on your batting and how much quilting you put onto the top.

The supplies I used to make this project were provided by:

Island Batik Foundations Fabrics: Brilliant Blues, White, and Black for the top and Pearl for the backing.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread (white. black and blue)

Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 Bleached Batting

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

Accuquilt Go! Big Cutter and die #55456 Flying Geese

Thank you Island Batik, Aurifil Thread, Hobbs Batting, Schmetz Needles and Accuquilt.

accuquilt

Blue Bear likes this quilt because of its fabulous blue colors. He hopes you like it too!

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their first quilts of the year. They are all making wonderful gradation quilts in a rainbow of colors. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Megan Best ~ Bestquilter

Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts

Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio

Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ M ania for quilts

Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads

Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky

Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts

Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik

#hobbsbatting #accuquilt #accuquiltgo #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #bernina

Posted on June 23, 2021February 10, 2022 by Reed — Leave a comment

New Timeless Treasures Pattern

We released a new pattern on our website today featuring Painted Paradise fabric from Timeless Treasures. It is called Snow Cones.

Doesn’t it look like those fruity, slushy, ice cold treats you used to get as a kid in the heat of the summer? We had so much fun designing this quilt. It’s a fairly easy pattern that would be suitable for an advanced beginner quilter. Here is what a couple of the individual blocks look like.

This is the pattern cover.

Our Testers had fun making this pattern. Sharon Buman really got into the spirit of a snow cone quilt when she chose these bright colors. She cut out all of he pieces using her Accuquilt cutter and said that sewing it together was a breeze.

Jogi made the quilt in her grand daughter’s school colors and is giving it as a graduation gift. She wanted the quilt to be longer, so she added a piano key border to the top and bottom to turn it into a rectangular quilt. I love how she used white rectangles instead of the navy ones from the original pattern.

What do you think? Didn’t they do a great job? Please let us know what you think in the comments and please sign up to receive our newsletters in case you are not already signed up. We should be having some giveaways in the near future and you don’t want to miss out.

I hope you like this fun and festive quilt pattern as much as I do.

Posted on July 20, 2020February 10, 2022 by Reed — Leave a comment

Patterns, Facebook Live, YouTube Channel and First Fabric Collection

We have been very busy creating many patterns, which we hope you will enjoy. We’ve done Facebook Lives with other talented designers over the summer. We created a YouTube channel. And, we have our first fabric collection.

We have been busy sewing lots of face masks. We even found a Quilt in a Day scallop ruler which helped cut out the mask shapes. Even the bears got into the act. Silly Reed thought you could wear them on top of your head but Beauregard Bear showed him the correct way.

Our Quilt Cruise to Alaska did not happen in June due to the pandemic, but it was fun thinking about the possibility and we hope to schedule another quilt cruise in the future when we can all be together.

We have two new fun summer sailing patterns we created for Accuquillt. One is called Ahoy Mate Table Runner.

You can get the free pattern here: https://www.accuquilt.com/go-ahoy-mate-table-runner-pattern.html

The other is called Let’s Go Sailing, which is a fun combination of signal codes.

Here is where you will find that free pattern: https://www.accuquilt.com/go-let-s-go-sailing-quilt-pattern.html

We have had a bunch of quilts in magazines. The first one was Firework Flowers in May/June 2020 Love of Quilting magazine.

This quilt brought some joy to my 4th of July this year.

Next was 50’s Diner in the May/June 2020 McCall’s Quilting magazine.

Can’t you just imagine drinking an ice cream soda at the soda fountain with your date?

Have you ever tried curved piecing like you would find in the Drunkard’s Path block? The Waverly Path quilt was in the July/August 2020 issue of Quiltmaker magazine.

Finally, named after a grand niece, Thoroughly Modern Vivs was in the premier issue of Fons and Porter Quick and Easy Quilts. It was such an honor to be in this magazine with so many esteemed designers.

We created several patterns for Timeless Treasures new collections. They are There’s a Bear in My Watermelon Patch 2, using their One in a Mellon collection; Patriotic Polka, using their Treats Freedom collection; Adore Him, using the Come Let Us Adore Him collection; Peaceful Valley, using the Winter Blessing collection and Cowboy Claus, which uses the Ho Ho Hoedown collection. These fabric lines are at quilt shops now and you can purchase these quilt patterns on our website.

On Facebook, we did four facebook lives covering a virtual trunk show, accurate cutting, fussy cutting tips and our top 20 favorite quilting notions. We also have a video debuting our first ever fabric collection. If you missed any of these, you can catch them all on our YouTube Channel.

You can see the videos on YouTube on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSRJrsvJV2uIdS1aquYw8JA

Speaking of a new fabric collection, our first fabric collection is with QT Fabrics and it is called Coco Chic.

It will be available in quilt shops in January 2021. This fabric collection was inspired by authentic 1920’s fabric from deep in the QT Fabrics archives. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a Great Gatsby or Roaring 20’s party using these fabrics from the time period. We see this fabric being used in quilts, bags, lady’s dresses and men’s shirts. We hope you are as excited about this collection as we are.

Be sure to ask you local quilt shop if they will be carrying Coco Chic. We have designed several quilts using the collection and will have demos on Youtube using the fabrics. Stay tuned for much more regarding this exciting fabric collection.

On August 4th, we will be participating in Quilt Block Mania, A blog hop with other designers, where they all will be giving away a free block pattern with the theme of Back to School. Watch for this coming soon! Keep on quilting. Oh, and Beauregard says Hi.

Posted on February 14, 2020April 29, 2021 by Reed — Leave a comment

Patterns Designed For Accuquilt

Over the years, we have created a number of patterns for Accuquilt. I thought it would be fun to share them all in a post. They are all available on their website as a free download. The patterns on their website may be found here: https://www.accuquilt.com/patterns.html

The first pattern that we created for Accuquilt was Hexagon Illusions and it was made by cutting larger hexagons from an ombre fabric and then cutting smaller hexagons from the same section of the fabric and rotating them 180 degrees and appliquéing them onto the larger hexagons.

Elephant Cuddles was the next pattern and it was made from Minky.

Holiday Northwoods Medley Placemats are created with a reverse appliqué technique.

Lilac Table Topper uses the die that cuts perfect 1″ finished squares.

Fall Frolic Table Runner was made with beautiful Jinny Beyers Denim fabric from RJR Fabrics.

Cleapatra’s Garden Gate featured the Cleapatra’s Fan die.

Cleopatra's Garden Gate — Cleopatra’s Garden Gate

Have you ever heard of crumb quilting? That was the technique used in Spring Medley Mug Rugs. You sew small scraps of fabric together and then apply fusible webbing before cutting out the appliqué shapes on the die. Accuquilt also supplies the embroidery files as a free download on their website.

Fun at Sea Life Medley is a great quilt pattern for showcasing your appliqué shapes.

With that same die, we also created Storm at Sea Life Medley.

Antique Americana was made using the very versatile Hattie’s Choice die. This patriotic quilt is perfect for the 4th of July, Veteran’s Day or a Quilt of Valor.

A perfect quilt for a hot summer day would be Orange Cream Soda. It features the Studio Setting Triangles dies.

A modern take on the Glorified Nine Patch block resulted in Sherbet Dreams.

Fall is Coming is a great quilt for fall which uses Kimberly Einmo’s Solidish Fabrics from Timeless Treasures Fabrics.

Love Letters also used Kimberly Einmo’s Solidish Fabrics from Timeless Treasures Fabrics. This would be a great Valentines quilt.

In the mood to create something scary? Then you might want to make the Boo! Halloween Medley Table Runner.

Boo Halloween Table Runner — Boo! Halloween Table Runner

Ahoy Mate and Let’s Go Sailing were created using the GO! Nautical Medley die and is the perfect pattern and die for all of you water lovers.

The Retro Twist Wall Hanging was made with the Starry Path die. This is the perfect wall hanging for your mid century modern home.

The Go! Yuletide Gnome Wall Hanging is a great decoration to make for the holidays. Who doesn’t love a little gnome?

Your kids will love the Deco Dino Table Runner.

Stay tuned for more fun and inspiring designs we create for Accuquilt.

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Secret Sewing Projects

At Blue Bear Quilts, we have been very busy getting ready for the summer 2018 classes. We also have been working on some secret sewing projects for Accuquilt that we can’t wait to share with you. We also have been designing patterns with QT Fabrics. Hopefully, we will be able to share these projects with you very soon.

Here are some of the exciting classes that we have coming up this summer. We will be offering a Triaxial Weave Pillow at Keep Me in Stitches on May 22& 29 in Tampa and July 12 & 19 in Largo. This is a weaving project that has little sewing and offers many creative ideas to incorporate into your sewing projects like garments, bags, and quilts.

We have an exciting Electric Quilt 8/ Accuquilt Event coming up at Keep Me in Stitches on May 25 & 26 in Tampa, and June 22 &23 in Largo. In this two-day event, you will learn the basic functions of EQ8 and learn how to create the “In the Jungle” quilt in EQ8 incorporating Accuquilt die shapes. The second day, we will cut out the quilt pieces using an Accuquilt cutter and die and sew the quilt together.

Finally, at Keep Me in Stitches, we have an Accuquilt party called “Patriotic Windings Ways,” perfect for the 4th of July, on June 8 & 9, in Largo, and June 15 & 16 in Tampa; a 3D Pinwheel Serger Blanket for the Baby Lock Serger Club, and the Bright Hope Quilt, in Tampa, on June 7 & 14th, and, in Largo, on August 20 & 27th.

At Happy Apple Quilts, We are offering “Hawaiian Stars” on May 31st and “Box of Chocolate Covered Cherries” on June 28th.

Country Quilts and Bears in Clearwater will have two offerings this summer. The first is our Accuquilt block contest fan favorite, “Not Your Grandmother’s Flower Garden” on May 23 & 30 and then “Water Wheel,” on July 14th, A Quilt in a Day Pattern.

At Bear Patch Quilting Company in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, on August 8th, we will be teaching a Quilt in a Day pattern called “Kylee’s Kite,” which we have put a modern spin on it with black and white fabrics and lots of geometric quilting.

Finally here are some photos from classes that we held this last session: Zippered serger pouch, Wonky Heart Pillow, Hawaiian Stars, and Snapshots Quilt.

Posted on January 15, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Week 8- January 15, 2018- Block of the Week- Churn Dash

Block of the week is back and this week’s block is a favorite among quilters. It is the churn dash.

It originated in the early 1800’s. It is called churn dash as the outside rounded corners look like the outside of a butter churn

and the center square looks like the wooden dash that went into the center of the churn to make the butter by pounding the dash

up and down in the churn. It is a favorite among quilters as it is fairly easy, using only a square, rectangles and triangles.

It makes a beautiful quilt.

Accuquilt makes it super easy to make this block with their 9″ Churn Dash die.

The churn dash pattern has many, many different names and variations of construction, such as the Shoo Fly and Double Monkey Wrench.

Let’s take a look at how some quilters have put a modern spin on a churn dash quilt.

It could be a red and white quilt as was done by Amy Smart.

Or a blue and white as created by Material Girl Quilts

This quilt is absolutely gorgeous turned on point.

How about something big and bold like this coloring of the quilt?

You can also piece some of the shapes in the block for a modern effect, like this colorful 4-patch center and pieced rectangles in Nut by The Happy Zombie.