Teddy Bear quilt

Here is the Teddy Bear quilt I wanted to share with you.  This quilt was made by a friend and I quilted it for her.  It is sweet. The little old fashion teddy bears.  I also like it because it is unique.  This is not a traditional block quilt.  The whole quilt is appliqué.  I am not sure of the actual name of the quilt or it's designer at this time, but I will see if I can get it later, if anyone is interested.

My friend added buttons for the eyes, ribbon for the balloons and each bear is outlined in black floss. The bears were appliqué to a block, borders were added to the block and the now larger block was appliqué to the large base fabric.  Hearts were added to the base fabric, which adds colour and a small rectangle of gingerbread men, that was fussy cut from the backing fabric was also appliqué to the base fabric.

On the background fabric I quilted an overall pattern in connecting three quarter squares that from a distant look like a grid, but more relaxed and easier to do.  I outlined each bear and their clothing.  Around the borders of the bears I added a primitive chain of hearts.  The background of each bear block was done with a different plaid or stripe fabric, so I just followed the lines in a matching thread to achieve some texture without making it standout.  Lastly I did a free hand echo quilting in each heart.  I did this with a larger spacing than the traditional 1/4" because I wanted the primitive look that I find looks good with simple free flowing quilts.  For the ribbons my friend stitched them down with a running red floss stitch.  A red binding was added to finish the quilt.  

When I brought the quilt back finished to the bee meeting, all he women exclaimed on how beautiful and cute the quilt was.  My friend loves it, and that is the most important thing.  She gives me a free hand at the designs of the quilting.  Sometimes that in itself is scary, as I am afraid that one of these days I will do something that she really does not like.  So far though she likes everything that I have done with her quilts.