Bear Tracks Quilt for Mr. F!

Here is my fourth quilt finished in 2020!

Details:

Pattern: Bear Tracks Quilt by Angela Walters

Fabric: Boundless Solids by Craftsy FQ Bundle

Finished Size: 66 x 81 inches

Finished on May 23, 2020

Made for: Preschool Teacher Mr. F

I wanted to make a quilt for my older son's preschool teacher, Mr. F. My older son, N, was in a special preschool program through our school district for kids who need a little extra help with language and social skills. N was in Mr. F's class for almost two full school years - he joined his class in October of 2018 and "graduated" in May this year, although he hasn't been in the classroom since March due to the shelter in place order. N has grown and learned so much in these two years, and I know Mr. F has played a big part in that. Last year, I volunteered for the class's holiday party, and that very short classroom experience made me really appreciate how hard teachers work, and I was determined to make Mr. F a quilt to thank him for being an awesome teacher!

I really like this Bear Tracks Quilt pattern - it's simple and modern, and suitable for a guy. I don't know anything about Mr. F's style or home, but I think a quilt like this is pretty flexible. I used a FQ bundle of the Craftsy Boundless Solids - I love the color combination in this bundle. I almost wish I had bought more of this fabric because I have so many ideas for the scraps of this quilt! I was able to use some of these scraps for the MQG's mini quilt swap this year.

"Dark" blocks - you can see the two where I used a lighter color instead of the white.

It was easy to split the fat quarters into light and dark groups. I made the "dark" blocks first. I followed the pattern pretty much exactly, except in two of the dark blocks, I used a very light fabric instead of the white background fabric, just to be saucy, although in the finished quilt you can barely tell the difference and I'm not sure I improved anything with my change. But at least I didn't make it worse, right?

I love these colors!

When I was working on the "light" blocks, it was around Easter and these colors fit in with the holiday so perfectly. I've become totally obsessed with these colors and I want to make a quilt for myself with them. This combo just really says "spring" to me! This was about a month into the shelter in place and I was beginning to realize it was going to last a lot longer than just a few weeks, and I was feeling really down about the situation. To make myself feel better, I was thinking a lot about spring and Easter and renewal, and these fabrics helped put me in a better mood. I don't mean to be trite about a serious situation, but I'm sure my fellow fabric lovers will understand.

"Light" blocks in progress.

I really wanted to finish this quilt in April but it was a tough few weeks and I didn't do much sewing; when May rolled around, I knew I better get it in gear to finish this quilt in time before the school year ended! Even though N wasn't in the classroom, he was doing a little bit of distance learning and we were still in touch with Mr. F. I knew there would be an opportunity to pick up stuff that had been left in the classroom so I thought that would be a good time to give Mr. F his gift. I had a deadline and I didn't want to miss it!

My son wrote his name on the label.

One thing I really wanted to do was have my son N write his name on the label, since he learned to do that from Mr. F! I thought it might take a couple of tries, but N did it perfectly the first time. I wrote in the other details after he wrote his name. It made me a little nervous to make such a personalized label because I didn't know if this quilt was Mr. F's style, or if he even liked quilts, and was open to the possibility of him giving it away. I would never want to create a sense of obligation for the recipients of my quilts. But I also wanted to reflect how special the two years that N spent in his class were. I also found out that N's first year in his class was Mr. F's first year of teaching, and I thought it might be pretty cool for him to have the handwriting of one of the first kids he taught to write.

I quilted it with the trusty serpentine stitch - I really don't think you can go wrong with this method of quilting.

Texture!

When we had the chance to go to the school at the end of the year to pick up stuff, N was able to say goodbye to his teacher and I gave Mr. F the quilt in a gift bag. He didn't open it right then, but he texted me later to say that he's glad he didn't open it in front of us because he cried when he did, and that he loves quilts and he's excited to have one of his own. So I feel really good about the personalized gift for Mr. F! It's just so nice to know that my work was appreciated. And I hope we communicated how much we appreciated him as a teacher!

I found a leaf print with a lot of the colors from the front of the quilt. This is generally how I make the backs of quilts.

Constellation Pillow!

 

Details:

Pattern: Pisces Constellation Pillow by Fancy Tiger Crafts

Fabric: Kona Solids in Coal and Sunny Yellow

Finished Size: 20 x 20 inches

Finished Mid February 2020

Made for: Sister J's Boyfriend

Back in 2018, I made a Constellation Pillow for my sister, J. Actually, I have to start this story by going back to 2016 when we saw the original Constellation quilt at QuiltCon in Pasadena, which we both loved. I bought the book with the constellation patterns practically as soon as it was published; I still want to make myself a quilt with the constellations of my family. But in 2018, my sister was planning a cross country move and she was visiting us for her birthday, so I thought it would be the perfect time to make her the constellation pillow for her future new place. She loved it and her boyfriend mentioned that he would like one as well, so I've had it in my head ever since to make him one! Fast forward to this year, they had recently had their first baby and he was celebrating a milestone birthday in February; it seemed like a good time for another constellation pillow.

I followed the pattern for the quilt top exactly. The only thing I do differently than the pattern instructs is that I quilt the pillow top before making it into a pillow - I just like a quilted pillow better than a non quilted one. I quilt it in straight lines about an inch apart, stitching in the ditch for some of the lines, as needed. The pattern recommends embroidering the lines connecting the stars, but I just switched to a gold thread and quilt a straight line between the squares.

My sister and her boyfriend were happy to now have a matching set of pillows for their house! This was quilted project number three for this year, but I'm (hopefully) not going to count mini quilts like this in my goal for finishing 12 quilts before the end of the year.