People have been asking for a separate pattern for Bears for forever. I never could figure out how to do them, until now. Drawing of 10 bears, five polar bears and five other bears: grizzlies, brown bears, sun bear, and one sockeye salmon.
This pattern includes instructions for raw edge and satin stitch appliqué techniques using a fusible such as Steam-A-Seam lite, and an easy way to do pieced 3" Bear's Paw cornerstones with half square triangles. If I can do matching triangles, it really can't be hard! I specialize in appliqué because my triangles in pieced blocks never came out the same. I used a 1/4" foot for accuracy of all the cornerstone parts. I sewed on the binding from the front to back because of the cornerstones. Normally, I stitch the binding from the back and sew a decorative stitch on the folded edge in front. I included a new diagram for making mitered corners on the binding, too.
The quilt in this photo is 35" x 35".
We have made several quilts with this pattern and they all come out with different measurements because the arrangement of the blocks has been different. Should you leave out a block the whole configuration changes. If you make one block twice (reversing the design and using in a different fabric) the whole configuration changes. Also, if you used all the designs in this pattern twice, the quilt could be really big. Combining this pattern with other Critter Pattern Works patterns will vary the size of the finished quilt even more.
How do we combine blocks of different sizes? If you have a long block and a shorter one and you want them to go together, add a strip of fabric in a different value (darker or lighter than the ones around it) to the shorter one. Sew those two fabrics to the longer applique block and square them up on the outside edges. This is now a unit. Make more units. If the units don't fit exactly together, add more strips to make them work together. When all your units sewn together and are big enough to make it the quilt size you desire, add a border and quilt it.
We have How to Applique videos if you learn visually. Watch our designer, Debora Konchinsky take you through all the steps to make a Critter Pattern Works quilt.
The PDF pattern download location will be sent within 24 hours of placing your order.
