TGIFF! - Bearly Finished

Micah's teddy bears snuck
in for a snuggle!

Happy Friday, all! I actually have a finish! Just bearly (ha ha), but I have one. And surprise! It's one from my may-never-get-done-UFO list (clearly I'm going to have to revisit that list as I've just pulled two things off of it).

I did a medium stipple last week on my friend's wedding blanket quilt. On Wednesday, as I was doing my WIP post, I was reminded that one of my UFOs is a teddy bear wholecloth Linus quilt that is already pin basted. Hmmm, I could finish my Linus quilt by doing a large stipple, which I'd never done. As the back of the wholecloth is a soft flannel, a large stipple would keep it soft and cuddly. Perfect!

Front of the Teddy Bear Quilt - Red
background with large teddy bears
wearing blue and green pyjamas. 

One of the reasons this quilt was never finished before was because I couldn't free motion quilt (FMQ) it. I was just going to do straight lines on it, but my old machine's walking foot couldn't handle the thick, puffy poly batting without major shifting. Into the WIP pile it went. While I can FMQ now, I still wasn't sure that I could quilt that batting, but I decided on Wednesday to give it a go and try a large stipple. Man, that quilted up quickly! Woo hoo!

Teddy Bear quilt - White flannel background with
scottish terriers, bows and paw prints.

I actually found doing a large stipple kind of tricky. It's easier to hide a shake or mistake in a smaller stipple by changing direction. I also found it harder to get a consistent stitch length because I'm trying to do large curves so my speed was all over the place. Does anyone else find this?

I had a tough time picking a binding. None of my reds worked with both the front and the back. Nor did any of my greens or blues. I finally found a brown tone-on-tone that works colour wise, but doesn't really give it any pop. Oh well, it's super soft and cuddly and I think it will keep some child nice and warm. The quilt finishes 32" by 42".

Lynette at What a Hoot! is hosting TGIFF! this week and has her own finished UFO to share. Fly on over to check out the other finishes.

As I've now done two different scales of stippling, I'm also linking to Leah's QAL.

Medium scale: 

Large scale: 

What a fun way to finish a project for a great cause! A win-win-win in my book.

Have a great weekend!