Roly Poly Teddy Bear Baby Quilt

Help! My sewing room is a disaster! Earlier this year I bought a tall dresser at an estate sale. I slid it into the closet in my sewing room. I thought some big drawers would help me organize my fabric. When I brought it home I quickly filled up the drawers and started piling fabric on top. Ugh. The closet shelves re-grew stuff and it feels like I’m back where I started.  After a holiday season of distractions and gift-giving projects, I’m a mess.

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The ugly underbelly of my crafting room.

I think I’m going to have spend the upcoming snowstorm downtime making some order out of chaos. Anyone want to help? I have wine and/or a little vodka and some killer Muddy Mary Mix in exchange for free labor….(yes, Cindy, I did just write that — haha)!

Would now be a good time to talk about a baby quilt? I thought so too!

About a year ago I purchased a box of old quilting books. One of my favorites is a an Eleanor Burns gem called Christmas at the Bear’s Paw Ranch (2004). I love all the cozy designs and the sweet teddy bear patterns. The book inspired me to create my own teddy bear quilt. So I hauled out the graph paper and started to work. Here’s what I came up with.

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Rolly Polly Teddy Bear Sketch

I dove into my stash of 2.5″ squares and gave my Burns-inspired bear a modern edge. It was so much fun creating those sweet baby bear paw blocks.

I finally finished the quilt top.

quilt top

I kind of miss little teddy because she’s been on my design wall for most of the summer. As a last touch, I stitched on a flannel heart using a blanket stitch. I have another cuddly piece of pink flannel that I’m going to use for the backing.

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Roly Poly Teddy Bear finish

Here’s a link to the Roly Poly Teddy Bear Pattern FINAL.

Glam Girl Wall Hanging

Today we are going to make our Glam Girl Wall Hanging!

**GET THE FREE PATTERN HERE**

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General Information:

  • Finished size is 15 1/2 inches x 31 1/2 inches
  • Blocks have been squared to 7.5 inches
  • All seam allowances are 1/4 inch
  • Assume all fabrics are 42 inches wide, especially for the width of fabric cuts

What you will need:
*Three Glam Girl Blocks (I squared my blocks to 7.5 inches because one had stretched a lot during piecing)

¼ yard of Hot Pink Fabric for sashing between block and inner border

½ yard of Pink and Yellow floral fabric for outer border and binding.  I used Windham Fabrics “Mariposa” by Another Point of View;  Pattern No. 40088.

½ yard of backing fabric

½ yard of batting

Fabric for the hanging sleeve

Cutting Instructions

For the Hot Pink Sashing Between Blocks:
Cut 4 strips that measure 1 ½ inches x 7.5 inches.

For the Hot Pink Inner Border:
Cut 2 strips that measure 1 ½ inches x 25.5 inches

For the Pink and Yellow Floral Outer Border
Cut 3 strips that measure 3 ½ inches x Width of Fabric (also known as WOF)
• Take one 3 ½ inch strip and cut two rectangles that measure 3 ½ x 9 ½ inches each.
• Take one 3 ½ inch strip and cut it to measure 32 inches long
• Take the remaining 3 ½ inch strip and cut it to measure 32 inches long

For the Pink and Yellow Floral Binding
Cut 3 strips that measure 2 ¼ x Width of Fabric

Let’s Start Sewing!
1. Sew the hot pink sashing strips to your glam girl blocks as shown below. Press seams toward the hot pink fabric. Your wall hanging will look like this:

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2. Sew one hot pink inner border strip to the left side of your wall hanging and sew one hot pink inner border strip to the right side of your wall hanging. Press seams toward the hot pink fabric. Your wall hanging should look like this:

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3. Sew one 3 ½ inch x 9 ½ inch rectangle to the top of the wall hanging. Next, sew one 3 ½ inch x 9 ½ inch rectangle to the bottom of the wall hanging. Press seams toward the hot pink fabric. This is coming together nicely! Does yours look like this?

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4. Sew one 3 ½ inch x 32 inch strip to the left side of your wall hanging. Next, sew one 3 ½ inch x 32 inch strip to the right side of your wall hanging. Wow! The piecing is done!

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5. Quilt your wall hanging using your favorite quilting technique! I started on mine by stitching in the ditch of my seams. Then I decided to outline my seams with a straight stitch.Slide6

6. I got a little braver and sewed some gentle waves. THEN I got really crazy and sewed a decorative zig zag stitch around the hot pink inner border.

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AND I went overboard crazy and outline quilted around all three blocks!

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I grew even more daring and quilted in different stitch widths and directions…it looks great if I do say do myself!

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7. Once I finished my machine quilting, I added a sleeve to the back of the wall hanging before I added the binding.  Click here to learn how:  Hanging Sleeve Tutorial

8. Next, make the binding for your quilt and attach it. This Craftsy tutorial shows you how to do it:  Binding Tutorial

9. Your Glam Girl wall hanging is now complete!  I hope you enjoyed sewing along with us!

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Glam Girl Block #3

The last block for our Glam Girl Wall Hanging is the cutest paper pieced block on the entire planet!  When Sandy created this block, I knew it would be a big hit – don’t you just LOVE it?

Click on this link to download a free paper piecing pattern:Glam Girl Nail Polish Bottle

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As with the lipstick and lotion blocks, the sky is the limit on color choices but I decided to continue with my pink theme.  I had lots of pink polka dot fabric in my stash and I like the small white polka dots next to the larger white polka dots.  I found a little scrap of pink plaid fabric so I used it for the rim around the black cap.

Next week we will complete a wall hanging from the three Glam Girl blocks we’ve made so far.  This wall hanging is just so glamorous, I can’t wait to show you!  You will be finished in no time!

If this block inspires you to learn paper piecing, here is a good tutorial to get you started:Paper Piecing Tutorial

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See you next week!

Glam Girl Block #2

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Week 2 of our Glam Girl Series brings you a fast and easy paper pieced block to try!

Sandy created this lotion bottle for all the glamorous lotions we use every day.  The pattern goes together quickly AND the fabric possibilities are endless!

Click on this link to download a free paper piecing pattern:Glam Girl Lotion Bottle

**Design Idea** If you are a machine embroidery aficionado, this would be a great block to add some wording or special design features to the lotion bottle.

Since I am sticking with the pink theme, I decided a chevron fabric would be a fun way to introduce more pattern and texture into the block.  Placing the chevrons at an angle adds even more visual interest.

If you are new to paper piecing and would like to learn how, we found a good tutorial to help you get started:  Paper Piecing Tutorial

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Next week, we will bring you the third block for our Glam Girl wall hanging.