The Orange Bear

Orange is Little Boy's favorite color. This bear was specially made for him, in yarn that he picked out, complete with... an orange bow!

We went into a yarn shop awhile ago... and on display was a darling little felted teddy bear, a brown one. Oh how Little Boy wanted that bear - but it was not for sale. However, the very nice lady at the shop offered to knit him his very own and he right away understood what that meant - he could pick out his own yarn color, hence orange! Clever boy.

In due time the bear was finished and I picked it up a few weeks ago when I was in the area. The lady asked me if I would mind taking a photo of Little Boy with his new bear... I am happy she did because these are some of the best Christmas photos of him this year. Now that the festivutues of Christmas is over (we have had a wonderful 2 days) we will go to the hardware store today or tomorrow to get these printed to mail to family, friends and of course, the lady who knitted the bear.

He is sitting in a rocking chair that has been in my family for just about forever. I am happy that I took photos of him in it this year because it looks like he is just about growing out of it! Yes, he is wearing orange socks. And yes, if you look closely at my tree ornaments you will see a little strawberry pin cushion!

Missing Puzzle Pieces

Hummm, I think there are a few pieces missing. Actually, I knew that chances were very good before I even started on this one that there would be missing pieces - the old owners of this place left a bunch of puzzles on the shelf. Abondended and left behind puzzles are usually the first clue. The big mystery that I love to solve is.... how many pieces are missing?

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While it seems that most everyone else is busily trying to finish last minute Christmas stuff, we are in low gear, very low gear around here! Blissfully so.

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But, back to old puzzles. I enjoy piecing old puzzles. DH could not believe that I would continue onward after I was able to figure out that 3 outside edge pieces and that red boat piece was missing for sure. I knew that pieces were missing, so why continue? Ah, but how many pieces are missing? I just have to know! As you can see - there were several more pieces missing.

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One thing that we used to do a fair bit when I was little was go to these great New England auctions. Loved, loved, loved going to these things and sometimes my parents would bid on a "lot" of items and the odd puzzle or two was bound to be included in the lot. So, I am used to piecing puzzles with missing pieces! It doesn't bother me one bit. After I finish the puzzle I write on the outside of the box how many pieces are missing - just in case missing puzzle pieces bothers the next person who comes along. And me? The mystery is solved. I'm happy.

Using a large print in a quilt

Basically, I think there are 2 ways to really use your stash... you can either start with a pattern/idea and start cutting, or start with the fabric and then find the pattern/inspiration to use it. In this case, I started with one fabric that I wanted to use and went looking for the pattern.

I think I can honestly say that I really like all the fabrics in my ever diminishing stash! In playing along in the "Stashbusting" game I am not interested in making a quilt with BIG pieces just to hurry the process along. I prefer quilts with lots of little pieces - most of the time. And these small patterns usually work very well with my stash of small scale prints. The other thing I will not do is put together fabric that really doesn't go well together just because I had it on hand - I feel that my time/energy/effort/talent has a value and I want my finished project to look nice and most of the time that means that buying additional fabric is necessary in order to make a project and have it come out the way I want it to look. So, I never feel badly if I need to buy a fabric(s) in order to be able to create something wonderful! But - I do try to use what I already have on hand first.

All that being said... I've had this 2 yard piece of beautiful floral sitting on the shelf for some time now... And all my other fabric - well even though they sort-ov match there really isn't a close match - but they all would sort-ov match if there was a bit of distance from each other! So - I was on the look-out for a pattern that did not cut my large print focus fabric down to nothing AND something that would give a little border around it - a bit of space - so the mis-matchyness of the other fabric would not be obvious.


Don't you think this block is the perfect solution? The 2nd block is a 9 patch with borders/cornerstones, but I don't have an individual photo of it.






And here is a photo of my quilt in progress! It is all pieced together since the photo and I am now working on the inner/outer border part. When finished it should measure 66.5 X 86.5. When figuring out yardage used - I always go by what size the backing is - 5 1/2 yards in this case! All from stash. But not in a "I've got to hurry up and use it" way, but in a "I love this fabric and really want to make a perfect quilt for it so I can enjoy it on my bed instead of just pulling it off the shelf once in awhile to admire it" kind of way.

I even used some medium value fabrics in here - these are always a challenge for me to use! And some really oldy-but-goodie fabrics too - I always feel a tiny bit sad cutting that last piece of a fabric from stash - silly me! And a good many fabrics from my Dresden Plate project (which I am still cutting out). I questioned some choices (even cut strips of "back-up" fabrics just in case, but stuck with my original choices and altogether I think it is a nice mix! I did not buy a single piece of new fabric to put this together! Of course - it always helps that I try to have neutral background yardage on hand for instant use.

Pattern info: From the book Save the Scraps by Gayle Bong (bosum buddies is the name she uses). She used a more neutral fabric for the alternate blocks but I think it was perfect for my large print! The directions are really accurate and everything went together fairly quickly. This is the 2nd quilt I've made from this book (I made a huge Bars quilt 2 winters ago)... and there are still some more patterns I would like to try in this book - plus I plan on making another Bars quilt in the future.
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You can get your very own copy of this book at Amazon here:  I highly recommend it!



Edited on March 19, 2011 to add another great pattern for a large print:

I blogged about this quilt here:  http://scrappyhappystarfishy.blogspot.com/2011/03/large-print-quilt.html