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Quilt Block Mania- Gathering Block- Free Pattern For October 2020

Be sure to scroll to the bottom to see our brand new pattern for Sunbonnet Sue! Blue Bear Quilts is participating with approximately 30 quilt designers in Quilt Block Mania. The theme for October is Family. At the very bottom, you can see links to all of the wonderful Family blocks. Blue Bear Quilts has created a free pattern for you.  It’s called the Gathering Block. Here’s the block. What do you think? The fabrics in the photo below are from my stash.

Gathering block
Gathering block

 

 

When one thinks of family, you may think of gatherings for holidays, or parties, or celebrations, or just gathering at the dinner table. We call this block Gathering as it looks like people gathered together around a table on a gorgeous tiled floor. You can decide what your gathering will be. Please let us know what gathering you are thinking of when you create the block and then post a picture on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #bluebearquilts.

 

Here is a photo of the block that I sewed up with fabrics from my stash. This pattern creates the block using a stitch and flip, or clipped folded corner method.  We give you instructions for making the block either way.

Sewn gathering block
Sewn gathering block

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are not familiar with the folded corner method, it is a way to stitch, cut and sew several pieces in a block together at the same time. It can be done by drawing diagonal lines on the back of one piece; then stitching on the line and then trimming 1/4″ away from the line. Or, it is slightly easier and quicker to use a ruler such as the Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper which is shown in the photo below. To use the ruler, you place the two fabrics right sides together, trim of the corner of both pieces, at the same time, and then stitch 1/4″ next to the edge you just trimmed. The next photo shows how you align the ruler on the fabrics prior to trimming. Next, there are pictures of the trimmed and sewn corners, and what the back of the unit looks like when the corners are pressed. If you would like to watch a video to see how to do both the stitch and flip and the using the Folded Corners Clipper Tool, please head over to our YouTube channel and look for the video entitled: Cutting the Gathering Block. Here is a link to the Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1T1opvZnI8

Folded Corner Clipper Tool
Folded Corner Clipper Tool
Placement of folded corner clipper tool
Placement of folded corner clipper tool
Front of trimmed unit
Front of trimmed unit
back of pressed block unit
back of pressed block unit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This block makes an eye catching quilt just using this block. Here is what it looks like in a 16 block quilt, which measures 50 x 50″ with a 1″ finished border.

Gather Together Quilt
Gather Together Quilt

 

 

If you would like to download a free PDF pattern of our block, 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. Please note: This pattern will only be free during the month of October 2020. Here is what the pattern cover 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. If you want to purchase anything else on our website, please do it in a separate transaction as other discounts may not work in conjunction with this free coupon code.

Gathering Block cover
Gathering Block cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 October 6th at 9 am 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.

QBM Oct
QBM Oct

 

Warming by the Fire
Paper Chain Family at Slice of Pi Quilts
Family is Love
Family Quote Pineapple Block by Blockofthemodotcom
Family Pumpkin Pickin’ Day
Family Crest at Always Expect Moore
Old Rocking Chair at Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Love@Home at Stash Bandit
Sisterhood by Michelle Renee Hiatt
Glimpse of Home at Scrapdash
We Are Family by Heidi Pridemore
Family Trees at Pretty Piney Quilts
Family is the Heart of Home by QuiltFabrication
Gathering by Blue Bear Quilts
Sister’s Choice at Perkins Dry Goods
Every Family Has One at Patti’s Patchwork
Orange Blossom Quilt
Wonky Nesting Hearts
Family Photo Block
Celtic Trinity Knot by Appliqués Quilts and More
Scarecrow
Family Ring at Devoted Quilter
Tartan Block at True Blue Quilts
FindSewingStuff.com
Flying Geese Family by Tacy Gray
Family Heart by Amarar Cracions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all of you Sunbonnet Sue fans, We created a brand new appliqué quilt called Sunbonnet Sue Calendar Quilt. It features Sue and her adorable friend, Overall Sam, participating in many holidays and activities throughout the year. You can use he blocks in this pattern to create the lap size quilt, or you could make seasonal pillows, wall hangings or table runners. We hope you like this new pattern. Grab it now as it is on sale during the month of October.  Happy Quilting!

Sunbonnet Sue Quilt
Sunbonnet Sue Quilt
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Quilt Block Mania- Girl’s Favorite Block- Free Pattern

Blue Bear Quilts is participating with more than 40 quilt designers in Quilt Block Mania. The theme for August is Back to School. At the very bottom, you can see links to all of the wonderful Back To School blocks. Blue Bear Quilts has created a free pattern for you.  It’s called the Girl’s Favorite Block. Here’s the block. What do you think? The fabrics in the photo below are from QT Fabrics Rapture collection, which will be available in quilt shops in August 2020. Rapture is a fabric collection of colors that are just yummy.

Girl's Favorite Block
Girl’s Favorite Block

 

 

Now when it comes to school, a girl might have many favorites, such as a favorite teacher, class or beau. She might even have a favorite hot lunch from the cafeteria. You can decide what your Girl’s Favorite will be. Please be sure to tell us what your favorite is when you create the block and then post a picture on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #bluebearquilts.

 

Here is a photo of the block that I sewed up with fabrics from my stash. In the pattern, we give you instructions fro both rotary cutting and Accuquilt cutting. With Accuquilt, you will use the dies from a 6″ Qube.

Sewn Girl's Favorite Block
Sewn Girl’s Favorite Block

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are not familiar with Accuquilt, it is a fabric cutting system. It uses a roller in a cutting machine, that rolls over a metal blade in a die, and as your fabric and the die go through the machine, the roller presses down on a mat, covering the fabric and die, and cuts out the fabric in the shape of the die blades. In this photo, there is an example of the half square triangle die. The metal blades are surrounded by the grey foam and this die cuts out 2 half square triangles at the same time. You can lay 6 layers of fabric on the die, so with this particular die, you can cut out 12 shapes with one pass under the roller.

Girl's Favorite Block with Accuquilt die
Girl’s Favorite Block with Accuquilt die

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This block makes a pretty interesting quilt just using this block. Here is what it looks like in a 16 block quilt, which measures 50 x 50″ with a 1″ finished border.

Girl's Favorite Quilt
Girl’s Favorite Quilt

 

 

If you would like to download a free PDF pattern of our block, 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. Please note: This pattern will only be free during the month of August 2020. 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.

Girl's Favorite cover
Girl’s Favorite cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 August 4th 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.

SchoolQuiltBlocks
SchoolQuiltBlocks

Crayons by Slice of Pi Quilts
Lockers by Powered by Quilting
Math Problem by Pretty Piney
Chalk Board by Inquiring Quilter
Stack of Books by Carolina Moore
Pointy Pencil Block by Sew Brainy
Geometry by Duck Creek Mountain Quilting
Pencils by Quilting Room with Mel
School Bus by Orange Blossom Quilt
Book with Animal by Seams to be Sew
Stack of Textbooks by Quilted Diary
Shades of the Sun by Charisma Horton
Basketball by Devoted Quilter
Apples by Perkins Dry Goods
Box of Crayons by ScrapDash
Apple with leaf by Blockofthemodotcom
Crayons by Off the Wall Quilt
School Time Schoolhouse by Quilt Moments
School House by Utah Quilt Appraiser
Pencil by True Blue Quilts
Owl by The Whimsical Workshop
Calculator by Quilt Fabrication
Crayons by Linda B Creative
Applique Computer by DooHikey Designs
Modern Apple by Cotton Street Commons
Glue by Quilting Mod
School Girl’s Puzzle by Sew on the Go
Snack by Quiltfox Design
Backpack by Oh Kaye Quilting
Math Signs by Patti’s Patchwork
Bookworm by Appliques Quilts and More
Backpack by Tacy Gray
Schoolhouse by From my Carolina Home
Girl’s Favorite by Blue Bear Quilts
Origami Paper Plane by Amarar Creacions
Show up and Shine! by SewJoy Creations
School House with Children by Aunte Ms Quilts

 

 

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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.

Pixie Party Class
Pixie Party Class
Autumn Leaves Table Runner
Autumn Leaves Table Runner

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.

Quilt Folk magazine
Quilt Folk magazine
Paul Bunyan
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.

Canoe Junction
Canoe Junction
Canoe Junction in Love of Quilting
Canoe Junction in Love of Quilting
Winter Visitor
Winter Visitor

 

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/

Quilt Cruise to Alaska
Quilt Cruise to Alaska
Alaskan beauty in fabric
Alaskan beauty in fabric
Northern Star Garden
Northern Star Garden

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

 

Antique Americana
Antique Americana
Orange Cream Soda
Orange Cream Soda
Sherbet Dreams
Sherbet Dreams
Love Letters
Love Letters

 

 

Fall is Coming
Fall is Coming

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.

Fit For a King
Fit For a King
Kings and Queens
Kings and Queens

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

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Busy Summer

Kaleidoscope Quilt

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!

X Marks the Spot
X Marks the Spot
Snow Cones
Snow Cones
Sea Glass
Sea Glass
Blue Diamond
Blue Diamond
Big Star Grid.
Big Star Grid.

 

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.

Reed at start of Mississippi
Reed at start of Mississippi
Crossing Mississippi
Crossing Mississippi
Llamas
Llamas
Sunflower Field
Sunflower Field

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Niece and husband
Niece and husband
Stillwater Riverboat
Stillwater Riverboat
Lights at Wedding
Lights at Wedding
Wedding Bouquet
Wedding Bouquet
Hot Air Balloon
Hot Air Balloon
Como Park Conservatory
Como Park Conservatory
Very large hibiscus
Very large hibiscus

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butterfly at flower farm
Butterfly at flower farm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Kylee’s Kite
Kylee's Kite class
Kylee’s Kite class
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 

Northwoods Holiday Medley Placemats
Northwoods Holiday Medley Placemats

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.

Kaleidoscope Quilt
Kaleidoscope Quilt

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.