beginner quilt – Blue Bear Quilts

Posted on March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 by Reed — 4 Comments

Island Batik Ambassador- March Project- Italian Color Builder Challenge with Aurifil

I have completed my March project as an Island Batik Ambassador and I am so excited to share it with you. This month’s challenge was to to make a wall hanging using one of the Aurifil Color Builders.

The Aurifil Color Builders are twelve curated mini-collections inspired by (and named after) Italy’s most vibrant and colorful destinations. Each collection contains three large spools of 50wt thread — a warm, a medium, and a dark — within the location’s primary color palette. From the lemon groves of Sicily to the pink sand beaches of Sardinia to the clear teal waters of Capri to the stark city grey of Milan… each collection is crafted to evoke images of Italian landscapes. The colors were selected not only for their aesthetic appeal, but for their practicality in every day use. Click on the links at the bottom to see the other collections used by the Island Batik Ambassadors in their projects.

03 - Italian Color Builders — 03 – Italian Color Builders

I received Milan as my collection from Aurifil. Just look at this awesome collection of light, medium and dark grays. The colors included are 2600, 2610 and 5004. The blue batiks I used from Island Batik are part of their Brilliant Blues collection and I also used white, black and gray.

The wall hanging I made is a reflection on the beautiful Italian city of Milan and its size is 20″ x 20.” My inspiration for the wall hangin was the beautiful Milan Cathedral (In Italian: Duomo di Milano, which literally means Cathedral of Milan. The church is the largest church in Italy (excluding the Vatican), and 3rd largest in the world. It is the most visited tourist attraction in Milan.

Here are some interesting facts about the Milan Cathedral:

1. It took nearly six centuries to complete. The construction of the church began in 1386, and was officially completed in 1965 when the last bronze door was installed, although most parts of the building had been completed in 1813.

2. The church is based on a Latin cross form that covers 11700 square meters and can accommodate about 35000 people.

3. The building features a variety of architectural styles, such as Gothic, Neo Classic, Baroque, and Decorative Gothic, which is the main style.

4. Milan Cathedral has 135 spires on its roof, more than any other church in the world, and each spire is topped off by a sculpture of a biblical figure. The exterior of the church is decorated with 2245 statues sculpted on the facades of the church.

5. One of the nails reputedly from the Crucifixion of Christ has been placed in the cathedral. The Holy Nail is retrieved and exposed to the public every year, during a celebration known as the Rite of the Nivola.

I wanted to create the wall hanging in the graphic style of a vintage travel poster, such as this example of Florence.

I loaded the fabrics into my Electric Quilt Software and created this design.

I created the background sky and ground by stitching four of the Island Batik Brilliant Blues together and then appliquéd the white cathedral, with gray windows and black spires. Here is what it looked like with the appliqué pieces fused on and some of the decorative stitching in the windows and spires.

Then I decided to apply decorative stitches with my Bernina 770 to give the appliqué pieces some definition and texture. The light, medium and dark gray threads, from the Milan collection, worked perfectly with the white, gray and black from Island Batik. Here are some close ups of the decorative stitching.

Since the quilt is so graphic and boxy, I wanted to do some straight line quilting. I used a ruler foot for my Janome 6600 and a quilting ruler that I love from Four Paws Quilting called the Line Tamer. It has a slot down the middle that allows the ruler foot to ride in that groove and create a straight line with your quilting.

Here is the finished project.

I used the medium gray 50 wt. Aurifil thread on the front and on the back. Schmetz Needles sent the Ambassadors some of their needles and I used a 70/10 quilting needle. I used Hobbs Premium 80/20 Cotton/Poly Blend Batting. This batting is wonderful to quilt by hand or machine. It is made with a blend of 80% natural cotton and 20% fine polyester, is needle punched, and has a light resin bonding to provide exceptional strength and durability. Close quilting yields a flat, low-loft appearance, while more space between stitching lines yields a slightly higher loft.

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

Island Batik Brilliant Blues, white, gray and black.

Aurifil 50 wt Thread (Milan Color Builders box)

Hobbs Heirloom^® Premium 80/20 Cotton/Poly Blend Batting

Schmetz 70/10 Quilting needle

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

We have two Spring quilt patterns for sale starting today and through the month of April. They are Golden Gate Park Table Runner and Spring Friends Table Runner.

Blue Bear says hi from Milan!

Please let him know how much you love this wall hanging by writing to him in the comments. The comment box is at the top left of the blog post, below Reed’s picture.

The other amazing Island Batik Ambassadors are also posting their March Color Builder Challenge projects. Check out their projects by clicking on the links next to their names to be directed to their blog posts.

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

Pamela Boatright, Pamela Quilts
Andi Stanfield, True Blue Quilts

Megan Best, Bestquilter

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

Emily Leachman, The Darling Dogwood
Leah Malasky, Quilted Delights

Suzy Webster, Websterquilt
Connie Kauffman, Kauffman Designs

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

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

Claudia Porter, Create with Claudia

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

Elizabeth DeCroos, Epida Studio
Gail Renna, Quilt Haven Threads

Gail Sheppard, Quilting Gail
Jennifer Fulton, Inquiring Quilter

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

#islandbatikambassador #islandbatik #iloveislandbatik #hobbsbatting #aurifil #aurifilthread #schmetzneedles #doyoueq #bernina #janome

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 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 March 23, 2020March 23, 2020 by Reed — Leave a comment

7 Things to do While in Social Isolation.

These are difficult times. We are all concerned about staying healthy, employed and not going crazy. Social isolation is necessary in order for governments around the world to get control of the Coronavirus. There are things you can do to make this time go by a little smoother and more quickly.

I thought I would offer 7 tips of what I am doing to get through this. In offering these suggestions, I do not want to diminished the suffering of those who are sick, have lost loved ones, have lost their jobs or businesses. I am also mindful and thankful for the hardships of those on the front lines, like doctors, nurses, firefighters, police, transportation workers, utility workers, food service workers, warehouse and delivery workers and those working in government or other essential services. This post is just to offer some ideas of what to do with your free time while in isolation.

1. Communicate with your friends and loved ones. We are social beings and still need that human connection with one another. There are many apps on your phone, or computer, that will allow you to video chat with friends and loved ones, such as Skype, Zoom, Facetime and Google Hangouts. The video chat is better than a phone call as it allows you to see facial expressions, show what you are doing or give virtual hugs. Many of these services will allow you to connect with several people at the same time and they all have a free component.

2. Volunteer your services. By volunteering, it will occupy your time and mind and has the effect of making you feel better as you are doing some good in the world. There have been many examples of people that are healthy and able offering to go out and get groceries and other needed supplied for those who are less able or more vulnerable. You could call the elderly that are sheltering in the senior homes with no visitors. One volunteer project for sewists would be to make face masks for healthcare workers as those items are in short supply and are desparately needed. You would need to check with your local health facilities to see if these masks are something they would be able to use and if they have any specifications. Here is a You Tube video tutorial on how to make masks:

3. Listen to music. Music has the ability to sooth the soul. Try listening to different music to see how it affects you. Watch this video of an Italian opera singer singing to his neighbors from his back balcony. It will be a few moments of pure bliss.

4. Exercise to bring your brain positive endorphins. Talk a walk outdoors and maintain your social distance of 6 feet and avoid large crowds of people. There are also exercise videos on You Tube which you can do at home. This is a video for doing exercises in your chair:

https://youtu.be/P-g7TAjjAE8

and this video might be a little more challenging, if you are so inclined and able:

5. Read a good book. There is nothing like a good book to take your mind new places and to forget your cares. There is a company called BookBub, https://www.bookbub.com/welcome, that you can sign up to receive daily emails of digital books that are free, or anywhere from $.99 to $2.99. Also, if you have a current library card, you can download an app called Overdrive or Libby, that allows you to borrow digital books from your library for up to 2 weeks at a time for free.

6. Nourish your spiritual side to find internal peace. For me that comes from attending a church service virtually online, or watching archived sermons, or reading a devotional or the Bible. For you, your nourishment may come from a different source. “Here is an example of a devotional that I recently read from the book 365 Devotions to Embrace what Matters Most by John Michalak. Peace Through Surrender. Here’s a simple definition of war: War is a conflict where the strength and weaknesses of each side are exposed so that one side eventually conquers, and the other side surrenders, resulting in peace. The wars you face will expose your weaknesses. They will give you the opportunity to accept the things you cannot change, and if you choose to see it, they will expose God’s strength and the need to surrender to His strength. Surrendering is scary. But know that God is more than just some distant higher power. He is someone who loves you deeply. He is someone who will stand faithful when you’re ready to give up. He will hold your troubles in safekeeping and offer you a peace that passes understanding. Will you surrender your troubles to Him?” “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”- Philippians 4:6-7.

7. Learn a new hobby or a new technique in your current hobby. If you are a quilter, you could learn how to make a mini quilt with Sue Bouchard from Quilt in a Day. Here is a video on how to make a mini red, white and blue star quilt:

You could take up knitting by watching this video:

Or, you might even take up the Ukulele by watching this video:

I hope I have given you some ideas that you can use while you are hunkering down. Please take this virus seriously and stay safe and healthy for yourself and your loved ones. We will get through this by being smart, caring and compassionate. Hang in there and keep on quilting.

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 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 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 1, 2018 by Reed — Leave a comment

Happy 2018!

Blue Bear wishes everyone a Happy New Year! It’s going to be an exciting new year, with new looks and exciting new patterns.

Here I am in a catoonish image with my new look. Going for a more artsy.

Here are two of Blue Bear’s latest patterns. They are sure to warm up any home during this cold and brutal winter.

Posted on September 21, 2017September 22, 2017 by Reed — 14 Comments

Greek Isles Modern Quilt

For the 2017 Blogger’s Quilt Festival, I thought I would share Blue Bear’s most popular pattern, Greek Isles Modern.

This pattern is much easier than it looks. It is made with 2.5″ strips of white and 2.5″ strips of light, medium and dark batiks, that you may obtain from jelly rolls, or cut on your 2.5″ strip die with your Accuquilt Go! Cutter. The blocks are all constructed the same way, and placement is what determines the pattern. At 70 x 90,” it is the perfect quilt to curl up with on the couch for binge watching your favorite Netflix shows.

Here is a picture of Kim at Keep Me in Stitches in Largo, Florida, quilting this beauty; followed by a close up of her fantastic quilting.

Here are several more photos of the quilt out and about.

I have taught this class several times and here are some of my students interpretations of the quilt. Click on the links for short videos. They did a fantastic job!

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If you would like to purchase this pattern, it is available on our website here, www.bluebearquilts.com, or on Craftsy here- https://www.craftsy.com/quilting/patterns/greek-isles-modern-quilt/490532