JJ's Polar Bear Quilt

This post is about the second quilt I made for my Aunt to give to one of her daughters (see previous post HERE)

This one was a lot easier to choose colors/fabrics for!  My Aunt says that this cousin LOVES polar bears and that her favorite colors are blue, teal, aqua, white and brown.  So I found this awesome polar bear print and decided to feature it with various sized squares.   I LOVE the colors in this quilt.  Don't you?

The quilt was fun to make - I just cut a bunch of strips from all my fabric and started making blocks with them.  Some are off centered, some are not.

The quilting was the hard part on this one - I couldn't decide what to do!  Finally we went with straight lines echoing the squares.  Next time I suggest doing this on a very big quilt - SOMEBODY STOP ME!  It turned out okay, but I just didn't feel like it was my best work.  The quilt was way too bulky to attempt straight line quilting with my walking foot (which I did for about 6 blocks), so I had to do the whole thing free hand.  I probably should have gone with a different quilting design, but as it turns out - this one really blended in and let the blocks themselves shine.  You really can't see the wobbly lines (which are ALL OVER THE PLACE) unless you are looking very closely.  :p

 I went with a solid brown, hand stitched binding.  Mmm.  Love this color of brown.  It reminds me of chocolate.  

The back is almost all flannel from my stash.  Woot!  (I had a few extra blocks left over, so they got to be on the back with the label.)  It's so warm and cuddly, I love it. 

Here it is on my Queen bed.  It's big! 

And here is it with its sister.  :)

By the way, my aunt sent me a video of the girls opening their quilts on Christmas morning.  They love them!  YAY!!!

Quilt stats:

Started: Late September, 2015

Finished: December 4, 2015

Fabrics: Polar Bears are Elizabeth's Studio.  The rest are from all over. 

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 60/40 Cotton/Poly (It's new and I LOVE IT)

Finished size: Approx. 84" x 96"

Recipient: JJ

Methods used:  Piecing, Free Motion Quilting

Binding: Hand stitched to the back

Time to make:  Approx. 25-30 hours

This quilt was #6 on my Quarter 4 Finish-Along List.  Linking up!