Accuquilt – Page 2 – Blue Bear Quilts

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 February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 by Reed — 1 Comment

Tutorial For Sewing the Accuquilt Hattie’s Choice Block

We have a pattern on our website called Fit For a King and we also designed the pattern called Antique Americana on the Accuquilt website, so I thought it might be fun to do a tutorial for sewing this block. Here are photos of those two quilts.

Here is what the Accuquilt Die looks like.

The die has three shapes on it labeled A, B & C. Now at first glance, you may think that shape “A” is an equilateral triangle, and the die packaging would lead you to believe that it is an equilateral triangle, but it is not. When piecing this shape, there is a correct orientation for laying it out and piecing it.

Look at one of the shape A’s laid over another one, as in the photo below, and you can see that they are not the same on all sides.

There is a distinct orientation for correctly piecing shape “A.” You need to identify the top of Shape” A and stack them all with the top on top.

The next photo shows the correct orientation of shape A on the right side of the shape B Diamond. You flip shape A over to the left on top of shape B per the photo below. Notice the orientation of shape A on top of shape B for sewing.

It helps if you sew with leaders and enders. These are scraps of fabric you start sewing on before sewing on your quilt pieces and stop on after you have sewn your chain of quilt pieces. This prevents the corners of your pieces from getting jammed down in the feed dogs. This next picture shows the 1/4″ seam sewn. Notice how the seam starts on the top point and ends by going through the bottom point.

Next press the seam toward the triangle.

Place another shape A onto the B diamond. Notice the orientation of the top on shape A.

Look at the 1/4″ seam below. Notice how the it starts at the top point and ends by going through the bottom point.

Press toward second shape A. Second photo is view from the back. Make 4 of these combined units.

Layout these combine units with shape Cs to the left of them.

Flip the combined units onto shape C as depicted below. Note how they are sewn from point to point.

Press toward shape C. View from the back. Make 4 of these units.

Lay out the 4 units per the photo below.

Place one of the units on top of another and sew along the right edge with a 1/4 ” seam. Second photo below is view of seam from back.

combined units showing 1/4" seam — combined units showing 1/4″ seam

Press seam toward shape C.

Lay out two half units.

Flip one half unit onto the other and pin where the diamonds intersect. Note the 1/4″ seam line in the second photo.

1/4" seam on half units — 1/4″ seam on half units

Press the center seam open.

Voila! You have a completed Hattie’s Choice block. In a perfect world, these blocks would measure 8.5″, but you can see that mine are only 8.25.” This will be fine as long as all of your blocks are consistently the same measurement.

Posted on December 8, 2019September 18, 2020 by Reed — Leave a comment

Alaska Quilt Cruise June 6-13, 2020

On June 6, 2020, we will be in Seattle getting ready to board our quilting cruise to Alaska’s Inside Passage. We hope you’re coming with us on this trip of a lifetime to quilt at Sea and see the wonders that Alaska has to offer. It’s going to be a blast. You can register for the cruise @ https://quiltretreatatsea.com/quiltinginthewild/.

The trip starts out from the beautiful and vibrant Northwest city of Seattle. You will want to extend your trip in order to explore this wonderful city.

There will be three days at sea. That is when we will be quilting. Sewing machines and quilt kits will be provided. Here is a picture of the project called Northern Star Garden. It will involve three different techniques. First, using shapes that have been pre-cut by an Accuquilt cutter. Second, paper piecing a mariner’s compass. And third, appliquéing snowflakes onto the border.

The first port of the trip will be Juneau where you will be able to see the Mendenhall glacier and perhaps a whale or two.

The next port will be Ketchikan. Here you can watch a lumberjack show or perhaps check out one of the quilt shops that are in every port. Look at the different kinds of fabric you could add to your stash from Alaska.

Ketchikan, Alaska Photo by Curtis Gregory Perry. no changes made. https://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisperry/44435291191/in/photolist-2aGAtYc-2ayRmSs-N8f9Cv-oZAz2U-2c3t7hW-29JLxWw-2c7fzZb-pqtjmy-rDr465-a58tt1-bW1zh6-6acMHk-3ZvFH-fNt8Bb-fNboCn-bhqSc4-9H4fAe-4SusWm-4Sqfmx-syi5GX-9H4fAB

The last port in Alaska will be Sitka. Here you can see historic Russian churches or native totem poles. You might catch a glimpse of a mountain goat, puffin, bear or moose.

The last port, before returning to Seattle, aboard Holland America’s Eurodam, will be Victoria, BC, Canada. Among the amazing things to see here will be the Butchart Gardens and the Parliament building lit up at night.

If going on a quilting cruise, or to Alaska, has been on your bucket list, then this is the trip for you. Bring your friends, spouses, kids and grandkids. There is something for everyone on this trip. Spouses will not be bored when you are quilting, as there are so many different activities on board the ship everyday or numerous places to sit and relax, if that is your thing. We hope you will join us on this trip of a lifetime. We are going to have a great time.

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Reed — Leave a comment

New Patterns Aplenty

It has been a busy summer at Blue Bear Quilts. We taught our Pixie Party Quilt and Quilt in a Day’s Autumn Leaves table runner, in August, at Affinity For Quilts in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Everyone had a great time and some beautiful quilts are in the making.

While we were in Minnesota, we ran into the editors from one of our favorite magazines. Quilt Folk. They were kind enough to pose for a photo. If you have not discovered this magazine, you need to. It has gorgeous pictures of quilts on premium matte paper and really interesting articles about everything Quilt Folk might be involved in. We also went to the Great Minnesota Stae Fair and I had to have photo with my favorite lumberjack, Paul Bunyan.

We had a couple more of our quilt designs show up in magazines. Canoe Junction made the cover of the September/ October issue of Love of Quilting magazine. It uses Flower Garden Gatherings Fabrics from Moda. Winter Visitor is featured in the November/ December issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine. It uses the Cardinal Woods flannel collection from Northcott Fabrics.

Speaking of lumberjacks, don’t forget about our Quilt Cruise to Alaska’s Inside Passage June 6-13, 2020 aboard the Holland America Eurodam. We will be making the beautiful Northern Star Garden Quilt, a pattern that was designed exclusively for this cruise. It involves shapes that have been precut for you with Accuquilt, a no tear-out the paper, paper pieced center star and Hawaiian (should be called Alaskan) appliqué snowflakes in the border. A different technique for each day were are quilting, while the ship is at sea. When the ship is at sea, it is up to you as to how much time you want to spend sewing. When the ship is in port, you will be able to go into the the ports of Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka and Victoria, BC with your family and friends. This is a trip of a lifetime to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. The trip is over half full, so don’t miss out and sign up today. Here is the link if you are interested in joining us on this cruise. https://quiltretreatatsea.com/quiltinginthewild/

We have created some wonderful free patterns for Accuquilt, which we hope you will enjoy making. They all were designed with Timeless Treasures Fabrics. Speaking of which, we have several new patterns, which will be making their debut at Fall Quilt Market for Timeless Treasures Fabrics. More to come on these patterns at a later date. A couple of them do involve panels, however. The first Accuquilt pattern is Antique Americana, which involves the use of the Hattie’s Choice die. Here is the link for the pattern. https://www.accuquilt.com/go-antique-americana-throw-quilt-pattern.html Then, we have Orange Cream Soda which involved the use of the Studio 6″ setting triangles. Here is the link for that pattern. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-orange-cream-soda-throw-quilt-pattern.html Sherbet Dreams involves the use of the Glorified Nine Patch die. Here is the link. https://www.accuquilt.com/go-sherbet-dreams-throw-quilt-pattern.html Love Letters uses the Studio 8″ setting triangles. Here is the link for Love Letters. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-love-letters-throw-quilt-pattern.html And finally, Fall is Coming, which uses the Studio 8″ setting triangles. The link to Fall is Coming. https://www.accuquilt.com/studio-fall-is-coming-throw-quilt-pattern.html

Last, but certainly not least, we have two new patterns making their debut with QT Fabrics at Quilt Market, In Houston, October 2019. They are Fit For a King, which utilizes the Accuquilt Hattie’s Choice die and Kings and Queens. You will be able to purchase these patterns from QT Fabrics, if you are a quilt shop and also from our website, very soon. Fit for a King uses QT Fabrics basic lines, Quilting Illusions and Color Blends. Kings and Queens uses a fat quarter bundle from QT Fabrics Illuminations collection, which will be arriving in shops around April 2020. Kings and Queens pattern is perfect for those fat quarter bundles you would love to turn into a beautiful quilt.

Well, that’s it for now. Happy Quilting till we come back and share more of what’s happening at Blue Bear Quilts.

Posted on July 12, 2019July 12, 2019 by Reed — Leave a comment

Magazine Quilts Galore

Before we get to the magazine quilts, I have to tell you about an exciting discovery that I found. I was perusing the WWW.Accuquilt.com website and i did a search for embroidery patterns. What I discovered was that they have added many new free embroidery downloads for their older dies. We have two patterns that utilize Accuquilt appliqué shapes and now you can download the embroidery files for free, which will make doing the appliqué on these quilts so much easier. This is so exciting! They now have embroidery files for GO! Baby Baby, which has the bear and a duck and GO! Lullaby, which contains the sheep. Here is what they look like all stitched out in the satin stitch. The embroidery files also contain the blanket stitch and a motif stitch.

Here are the two Blue Bear Quilt patterns that use these Accuquilt dies: Dancing with Bears and Where R Ewe?, which are available on our website.

We have had several of our quilts appear in magazines recently. The first was Grandmother’s Garden, made with McKenna Ryan’s batiks in her Seed to Blossom line for Hoffman. This quilt appeared in the May/June 2019 issue of Love of Quilting magazine. The beautiful quilting was done at the Florida Quilting Center and I have included a close up photo of the quilting.

quilting on Mother's Garden — quilting on Mother’s Garden

The next quilt was Addie’s Garden, named after my great niece, appearing in the July/August 2019 issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine. It was made with gorgeous fabrics from the QT Fabrics Adeline line.

The third quilt was called Grandmother’s Garden, appearing in the July/ August 2019 issue of Love of Quilting. It featured fabric from Moda’s Morris Garden line.

We have been very busy creating new quilt designs for Accuquilt and these patterns are available as free downloads on their website. They have a die for making the Cleopatra’s Fan and our quilt pattern is called Cleo’s Garden Gate.

We also created cute mug rug rugs called Spring Medley Mug Rugs.

Finally, for Accuquilt, we created the packaging pattern for their Sea Life Medley die. The pattern included on the package is Fun at Sea Life Medley. We created a second pattern for that die called Storm at Sea Life Medley.

We have some beautiful wooden and acrylic seam rippers for sale on our website. These were created by the husband of one of our students and they are a delight to look at and hold. They take the drudgery out of ripping.

One last thing, we are leading a quilting cruise to Alaska’s Inside Passage on June 6-13, 2020. It is aboard the Holland America Eurodam and departs and returns to that great city in the Pacific Northwest of Seattle. There are quilt shops in every port and we quilt while the ship is at sea so you don’t miss out on any of the fun in the ports. Our sponsor for the cruise is Happy Apple Quilts. Their website is located at www.happyapplequilts.com Please mention that they referred you when registering. The project that we will be working on is called Northern Star Garden. It will involve 3 different techniques: piecing with Accuquilt cut shapes, no fear paper piecing and Hawaiian appliqué. Janome sewing machines and kits will be provided with fantastic fabrics from QT Fabrics.

Quilt Cruise project- Northern Star Garden

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Happy Holidays!

We have lots of news to share with you. We were the runner up in the Accuquilt Block Design Contest this year with our Sea Glass block. Here are pictures of the block that won this year, me saying goodbye to last year’s winning block and a pic of where my block will be displayed in the Accuquilt headquarters for the next year. Going to Nebraska for the unveiling event is always a good time and a great opportunity to explore the midwest. I met Kaye England, who brought a trunk show, and she was fabulous. I wrote a guest blog article about my trip on the QT Fabrics blog and here is a link to that article so that you can read all about my trip. https://qtfabrics.blog/2018/09/26/guest-reed-johnson-of-blue-bear-quilts/ While there, we saw the most amazing statue, called Dignity.

We designed several new patterns for Accuquilt, which are available as free downloads from their website. They are Lilac Table Topper and Fall Frolic Table Runner. We will have two new ones coming out soon called Spring Medley Mug Rugs and Cleopatra’s Garden Gate.

We designed four quilt patterns using QT Fabrics fabric. Two of the quilts, Seahorses in the Reeds and Pixie Party, were featured in the QT Fabric’s booth at Quilt Market 2018 in Houston. The other two are called Kaleidoscope, and Rhythm of the Stars. All patterns are sold through QT Fabrics and should be available at your local quilt shop soon. We will have them for sale on our website soon as well.

We taught several fun classes this fall and several of my favorites were the Triaxial Weave Pillow, the Snapshots quilt and the Jinny Beyer Sew Along Mystery Quilt. When Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably were giving their workshops at Happy Apple Quilts, I was able to be their assistant for a day and had a blast.

Several of our quilts are about to have their patterns published in the May/ June and July/ August issues of Love of Quilting and the July/ August issue of McCall’s Quilting magazine. I can’t show you the quilts yet, but here is a pic of a block from Momma’s Garden, which is in the May/June issue of Love of Quilting. This quilt uses a new line of batiks from McKenna Ryan called “Seed to Blossom” from Hoffman Fabrics. I love her fabric designs.

We will be hosting a quilting cruise in 2020 going to the Inside Passage of Alaska, where there will be quilt shops at every port. The cruise will depart Seattle on June 6, 2020. So if you have ever wanted to quilt while on a cruise, or travel to Alaska, or do both at the same time, this is the cruise for you. We will have lots of fun. Start saving now. Stay tune for details on how to sign up and what the quilting project will be for the cruise. It is not on their website yet, but in the meantime, if you can’t wait, the travel company is call Quilt Retreat at Sea and their number is 210-858-6399. Call Michelle and tell her that you would like to sign up for this cruise.

Whew! That was a lot of information! Thanks for reading to the bottom. We wish you a very Happy Holiday season and look forward to sharing many exciting adventures with you in 2019. Happy New Year!

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Busy Summer

It has been a very busy summer, designing new quilt patterns, teaching classes, attending a Niece’s wedding, designing quilt patterns for magazine submissions and entering a contest.

We entered the Accuquilt Block Design contest again this year. They should be announcing the winners very soon. Here are a few of the blocks that I entered this year. Thank you to everyone that voted for my blocks. I appreciate it very much!

Before attending a wedding, we went to a family farm, in Northern Minnesota, and I was able to walk across the Mississippi River, in Itasca State Park. This is where the great river originates and it is very narrow and shallow, enabling you to walk across. I would not try that in New Orleans where it is deep and wide. I also saw amazing sunflower fields and llamas.

My Niece got married this August in Stillwater, Minnesota. It was beautiful wedding at a flower farm and the rehearsal dinner was on a riverboat. I also went to the Como Park Conservatory, which has amazing floral displays.

I taught a Quilt-in-a-Day class on Kylee’s Kite at Bear Patch Quilting Company in White Bear Lake Minnesota. Everyone had a great time. Several students brought in their completed tops from this year and last year.

Student's Kylee's Kite — Student’s Kylee’s Kite

Student's Bear in My Watermelon Patch — Student’s Bear in My Watermelon Patch

I can’t reveal the quilt designs for the magazines yet, or several new patterns I developed with QT Fabrics. However, I can show you the Northwoods Holiday Medley Placemats that were designed for Accuquilt and the pattern is available as a free download on their website https://www.accuquilt.com/go-northwoods-medley-holiday-placemats.html

I can also show you our latest pattern, Kaleidoscope, that was designed with QT Fabrics. This pattern is available on our website, Craftsy, and coming to a quilt shop near you soon.

It is going to be a busy fall writing patterns and making a sample quilt for QT Fabrics that will be displayed at quilt market this November, utilizing a new line of fabrics for them.

Also, Blue Bear will be teaching on a cruise in 2020. We are very excited about this and hope to be able to provide you with details soon. When it is this far out, it will give you lots of time to plan and save for a quilting cruise. We are so excited to have the opportunity to quilt and cruise with you! Stay tuned.

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 February 12, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Learn Electric Quilt 8

Today, I participated in Electric Quilt’s Design and Discover Strip Quilt Lesson, which can be found at http://www.doyoueq.com, and designed two quilts using a vertical strip layout. The quilts were easy to design, but I would not want to rotary cut them, so I think they would be best as paper pieced blocks. The first one is called Royal Court and the second is Tumbling Hearts. What do you think of them?

During the third quarter of 2018, from May through August, at Keep Me in Stitches, I will be teaching at an event, where on the first day students will learn the basic operation of Electric Quilt 8 (EQ8) and to design a basic quilt. Then on the second day, we will use the Accuquilt Go Big Electric cutter to cut out the shapes for the quilt we designed, and then sew it together. Students will be provided a free two week trial of the EQ8 software and will be able to use the Accuquilt die and cutter, without having to purchase them first. This will be a great opportunity for students to test out EQ8 and an Accuquilt cutter. I will update this blog when the dates of the event have been determined.

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.