Kits and Cubs

This is the THIRD time I have been tasked with making quilts for twins!

The request was both specific ("We like foxes and bears") and vague ("in neutral colors like beige and gray").

So off we went in search of patterns for a fox and a bear. The thought was to make the "same" quilt for each, one with foxes and one with bears.  So blocks was the logical option (as opposed to each quilt having ONE large animal on it). Surprisingly, there are not that many fox and bear blocks out there!

We finally found some really cute ones on Etsy from Burlap and Blossom Patterns. They have some  adorable animal head patterns!

So these make either 6" or 12" blocks. We decided to do 6" blocks (because 12" would have just been too big), and alternate them with some geometric pieced blocks.  I came up with an interesting design and we laid it out with appropriate sashing. 

Each Fox and Bear head block contains more than 40 pieces, and took an average of 90 minutes to assemble. 

We used the same perky gray for the pieced blocks on both quilts (but changed colors on the inner diamond), as well as the same fabrics for the animal heads background, the sashing, and the inner and outer borders (along with the pink in the ears). So while each quilt is unique, they do make sort of a matched set. Kind of like twins!!

 

Kits......

...and Cubs

Those fabs were a combination of ones we had in the stash plus others we bought at Quilter's Heaven. 

We really lucked out on the fabric for the back. We wanted to use the same fabric for both, but also wanted it to tie into the front. We first looked for forests / trees, but eventually stumbled onto one which had trees plus BOTH cute foxes and bears!! OK...it also has deer, which is fine....

...but can someone explain why it has lions as well???  The Etsy site said that the seller was in CHINA (maybe there are lions in Chinese forests?), and that delivery would take 4 - 6 weeks. I was a bit leery about ordering, but it was sooo perfect, so we did. Guess what? It actually arrived in about 10 days. Supply chain? Hah!!!

For the quilting, I did free-motion in the yellow head backgrounds using a subtly variegated yellow-white thread. I used a gray thread in the ditch around the inner and outer squares of the pieced blocks. And I ditch quilted around the inner border using the same variegated thread. 

Added the monogram bars to the corners and they're ready for delivery to Eloise and Wesley!