Tilted Bears Baby Quilt Finished

It's been a long time since I had a finished quilt to share. I may have a quilt holder here this weekend to help me take pictures of one that I finished in January, but it's pretty big and this one is small enough that no quilt holders are necessary:

This quilt started with the fabric:

I'm thinking I found it at Hobby Lobby many moons ago and it sat in my fabric stash for a long time. I still think it is just too cute. It has a vintage feel and who doesn't love teddy bears? They're timeless.

I just didn't know what to do with it. I knew it would make a cute backing, but I needed an idea for the top. Enter, the tilted square block. I shared a bit about the making of these blocks HERE, but I'll include that on this post as well. I didn't have a plan, but at some point thought about using a tilted block and that just stuck so so I pulled some coordinating fabric and gave it a test run.

I didn't use a pattern - just did some figuring and used the old noggin. I made a few paper templates in order to test things out. The red block had too much of a tilt so I regrouped and settled on the dimensions in the blue block.

Using a 5" square for the center block, I ended up with a 7" block.

There is some waste in making these blocks this way, but it worked for me. I made 15 blue blocks and 15 red. Chain piecing them made them come together quickly and once all the blocks were made, I made a template using template plastic to trim my blocks to size.

The template plastic is too thin, but it worked. Jackie chose a cute pantograph with numbers tossed about that is perfect and I used  brown burlap print for the border and red Grunge for the binding:

The quilt finishes at 45" x 54" . I've been wanting to make up a few baby quilts for future arrivals and this is one of those quilts. I've still got enough fabric left for another quilt. Maybe one using a square in a square. Plus, I think some of it will make a cute pillowcase. According to my notes, I started this one back in September so although baby quilts generally come together quickly, sometimes they just take a little time. :)

Edited: I just posted this a few hours ago. Our girl called since then and told me that friends of hers just had their 3rd baby, and 1st little boy yesterday. I made quilts for their first 2 and I knew they were expecting again, but had lost track of the fact that this little blessing was expected so soon so it looks like this little quilt has found it's forever home and that just tickles me to pieces!

Tilted Bears Quilt

I still haven't worked on the borders for my Crossing Time quilt, but that didn't stop me from starting something new. :) I feel like I can get away with it since I don't have any other UFOs waiting in the wings. I have a lot of unfinished quilts but they are all at the quilter's so for the time being, I'm at a stopping point.

I had one chore that needed my attention before I could sew in peace. I couldn't remember the last time I had cleaned my sewing machine. Ummm...yep. It was time:

Looked like I had been stitching on a Woolly Mammoth coat.

I've had this teddy bear fabric for 4 or 5 years. I don't recall where I found it...perhaps Hobby Lobby...it kind of looks like something from the 80's, but teddy bears are classic and timeless:

I didn't have a plan, but at some point I thought about using a tilted block and that just stuck. I'd never made that block, but pulled out the fabric on Saturday, as well as some coordinating fabrics,

 and gave it a test run. I didn't use a quilt pattern. I just did some figuring and used the old noggin.

I made a few paper templates in order to test things out. The red block had too much of a tilt so I regrouped and settled on the dimensions in the blue block. Using a 5" square, I ended up with a 7" block:

There is some waste when making these blocks and after doing some research, I saw that you could use a tri-recs ruler and eliminate the fabric waste, but I don't have one and I didn't really want to add another to my collection. :)

Once I figured everything out. I made 15 blue blocks and 15 red blocks and chain piecing made them come together quickly:

Once all the blocks were made, I made a plastic template to trim my blocks to size:

I made the red blocks tilt one way and the blue ones tilt the other.When I showed it to DH he said, "That's nice, but your bears are crooked". Funny guy.