Sugar Bear Quilt – Funshine Bundle – In Progress

 

Sugar Bear Quilt

I designed Sugar Bear last summer (around June 2020) and I started writing the pattern the following August. It took me forever since the blocks are all so different and I was distracted by other projects, but around December the pattern was complete and I was just waiting for the moment to start. Once I started, I was on it, no stopping.

I have the pattern hopefully releasing on March 8, 2021. Fingers crossed we stay on track to make that timeframe.

The pattern is available here as a pre-order and discounted at 20% off. Once I place an order for the pattern with the printer, the discount will no longer be available (There will still be a release sale, but it won’t be as big. Pre-ordering helps me place more accurate orders and I really appreciate it).

Let’s chat about it….

 

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Beginnings

I have this friend, her name is Kathy, and last winter/spring she was making all these Bear Claw blocks. Bear Claw blocks are my favorite of all the quilt blocks. Ha, I bet you thought it was Dresden plates, didn’t you? No, that’s a close second. Bear Claws are number one. Anyway, I was trying to think of more quilt patterns to play with the half rectangle triangles and poof. It was that quick! I thought, I’ll swap the HSTs with the HRTs.

This idea marinated for months without me drawing it out.

Come June 2020, Wade was packing orders and I love him, but he has a lot of opinions (some are occasionally helpful). Lol. He was letting me know that Oh Honey didn’t sell too well. And of course it didn’t, selling it wasn’t the point. I wanted to write a pattern with EPP. Quilters that are into EPP are only a fraction of quilters. I always knew it would be a hard sell. I’m not thinking about money when I write a pattern (how dare he!), I’m following my curiosity and if I happen to make a little money on the way, great. Ugh!

Okay, so anyway, he is packing up an order for my Little Miss Sawtooth pattern, which happens to be my best selling pattern. I’ve made it like 12 times myself. It’s fun, right? Anyway, he says to me, “You need to make another pattern like this one.” And boom!

I stop printing the labels for our fabric orders (what I was doing during this convo), and pull up Illustrator, draw out a Bear Claw block, swap the HSTs for the HRTs just like I envisioned and then I started changing out the centers just like Little Miss. It was drawn out in less than an hour and the whole time, I’m going “omg, omg, omg”. I have never enjoyed drawing out a quilt pattern more, and never has one poured out of me so quickly.

 

 

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About the Pattern

The pattern is currently with my testers, my beautiful wonderful testers, who I’ve tasked with double checking this 17 page quilt pattern (a tall ask, I know). Let’s keep our fingers crossed that they keep it BEGINNER, because that’s who I’ve written it for. The blocks are easier, perfect for learning or just for playing with fabric and pairing this and that. It’s fat quarter friendly too just like I like them. And another cool part is that I’m spending the rest of the month making those “working” videos like I did for Anthologie quilt on my second version of Sugar Bear quilt and I’m doing it with a brand new fabric collection sent to me early by AGF. I AM SO EXCITED! Lol.

I’ve had some questions about the name. “Bear” obviously for bear claw. And Sugar Bear because it just popped into my head and as soon as I said it I started singing that Elton John song.

The blocks are all named the same way I did in Little Miss. They are named after women. Not women I know, just female names. There’s Anabel, Cristina, Lizbeth, Imani, Jessalyn, Rita Mae, Maya, Eloise, and Ruth Ann. Again, just like in Little Miss I’ve tried to give them some modern and some old fashion names. All the blocks are different, but they are also all the same. Just like people.

 

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I need to get this one quilted before my focus can be on the other one. I’m excited about the quilting too, and the ideas are all over the place. I was chatting with my friend Tracy, just the other day about making the Bear Claws pop, and what I need to do to make that happen. Here’s to hoping I can do that!

There will be a Funshine bundle if you wanted to make a quilt similar to mine. When it’s available, you’ll find it here.

 

 

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