Island Batik Ambassador Challenge - The Bear's Square Dance

Note:  All products in this post were given to me by Island Batik as part of their Ambassador program.

The theme for the September Island Batik Ambassador challenge was Child's Play.  We were challenged to create a juvenile-inspired project quilt using the Accuquilt GO! Block on Board die we received in July.  The quilt had to be 45 x 60 inches or larger.

I received the Accuquilt 14-inch Bear's Paw block on board die.  It was handy to cut all the pieces for one block in one pass through the GO! cutter.

I struggled to figure out how to make the bear's paw block into a child-friendly quilt.  So I turned to my friend Google for some inspiration.  Here is The Bear’s Square Dance.  (Thanks to Dena for the name.)

Thanks to Island Batik for the wonderful fabrics.  I used a mix of fabrics from the Spring and Summer Foundation collections.  The colours are just so wonderful.

I miscalculated the size of my original design, and it didn’t finish large enough.  So I had to get creative with adding more blocks to make it larger.  Although it doesn't look like what I had originally envisoned, I love the new design.  It finishes at 47 inches.

I finished the top back in August, but I didn’t have any quilting ideas.  So it sat…and sat…and sat some more.  My plans to quilt in early September were thwarted by Hurricane Dorian.  I lost power for two days on the weekend I had plans to quilt.  Recovery from that and a busy time at work, meant I was scrambling at the last time to get this quilted.  So when all else fails, go for something simple.  I did some straight-line quilting.

I used Aurifil #2024 White for echo quilting in a v-shape and #3840 French Lilac (variegated) for the binding.

And my favourite batting, Hobbs Heirloom Premium 80/20 cotton/poly blend.

My plans to post this on Friday were doomed from beginning to end.  It took me a few days to get some photos.  I was offsite for work on Friday, but I thought I’d have enough time to write my post.  That didn’t work.  No worries, I thought.  I was heading to Girl Guide camp for the weekend, and there was electricity and wifi.  Turned out the wifi was spotty at best, so I wasn’t able to post.  So here I am posting after having a well-deserved nap...it's been a long and busy week and weekend.