In January, Dana started a scrappy bear paw quilt-along on Instagram.  I love making bear paws blocks and had a stack of fabric that I had set aside for myself ages ago.  It was a mix of old fabrics that I had been saving just for me, along with new prints that caught my eye.  Once I saw Dana's quilt a-long, I knew I had to get started right away.

I gave one paw in each block an accent paw.  In the end, it turned out to be a sampler quilt hidden in a bear paw quilt and I absolutely love it.  As soon as it was finished I had it on the bed.

The border is the Paris map print by three sisters for Moda.  It's from years ago but I squirreled away yards of it because it is one of my most favorite prints.  It was my jumping off point for the prints for the rest of the quilt.  Basically, all my favorite colors, which are mostly sort of non-colors.

One of my favorite bits is the binding.  In with one of my favorite text prints, I added sections of a black print from the first fat quarter bundle I ever purchased back in 1997.  It is a Moda print and I still love it today as much as I did back then.

The back of the quilt is a lovely black print on double wide fabric with some grey around the edges.

A friend quilted it for me on her long arm.  The quilting pattern was called bayside.  I'm sure they were going for waves, but to me it looked like thick curly bear fur so I had to try it.

She did an amazing job and I'm thrilled with how it turned out.

Most of this week's sewing focused on my bear paw.  I stitched together all the accent blocks so now I can assembly line the blocks together.  

Here they are along with the log cabin accent I already put into a block.

It turned into a fun sampler project.  I pulled most of the blocks from Barbara Brackman's, Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.  

Here's a block I'm working on today.

My center square, along with the claws are 2 1/2" unfinished.  The accent block and 4 square scrappy blocks are 4 1/2" unfinished.  In the end, I have a block the will be 14" finished.  

Here's another block I shared on Instagram yesterday.

A bear paw quilt has to have bear, doesn't it?

At the end of June, I had the chance to spend some quality sewing time with friends.  Holly, Jeni, Jacey, Anna, Faith and I met up in Wisconsin at the most amazing vacation house.

We talked about everything, we ate giant pretzels and amazing belgian frites, we checked out Madison (including a chance to meet George), we dyed fabric, we even managed to fit in a whole lot of stitching.

I finished up a new york beauty that will soon be shipped off to someone special.

I tried fabric dying for the first time.  We used an indigo kit and learned a lot about what works well and what doesn't.  These are my pieces before the dye bath.

Here's the top piece after dying.  I will most definitely be doing more with this technique.

It was fun to see what everyone was working on.  There were a lot of secret projects that I'm sure you will see popping up soon.

I brought along a cheesecake.  I didn't want us to go without sweets while we were sewing in the middle of nowhere.

iced mocha cheesecake

crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 stick butter (softened at room temperature)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

cheesecake filling

3 bricks (8oz. each) of cream cheese at room temp

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon coffee extract

ganache

1 1/4  cup heavy cream

7 oz. bittersweet chocolate (chopped)

1/4 teaspoon espresso powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put a kettle of water on to boil for the water bath.

Mix crust ingredients in bowl of food processor until combined.  Use a straight sided glass or measuring cup to press crumb mixture along the bottom and up the side of a springform pan.  Chill crust while preparing the filling.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in bowl of food processor or mixer until creamy and smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next.  Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl between each egg.  Add heavy cream, vanilla, and coffee extract and blend until smooth and creamy.

Wrap pan tightly in multiple layers of aluminum foil to make water tight for water bath.  Pour batter into prepared crust.  Place pan in larger pan (I use an oversized skillet) and pour hot water into the larger pan until it comes about half way up the sides of the cheesecake pan.

Bake 45-55 minutes,until almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together , but still have a lot of jiggle in the center.  You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage.  Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let it rest in the cooling oven for one hour.  This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently and reduce chances of it cracking on the top.  After one hour, removed the cheesecake from the oven and lift it carefully out of the water bath.  Let it finish cooling off on a rack on the counter.

Once cooled, cover with ganache.

To make the ganache, mix the espresso powder and cream and bring to a boil.. Pour cream mixture over the chopped chocolate and let sift for 45 seconds then begin to mix.  It will become creamy when fully incorporated.  Pour in center of cheesecake.  Allow ganache to cool, then cover and put in refrigerator to cool overnight.

I was thrilled when Jeni mentioned she could bring along some of her homemade salted caramel sauce because this cheesecake is extra delicious topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce.

It was a blast of a weekend that flew by so quickly, so I can't wait to do it again!

This is lulu's weekender bag.

When it was all done, she threw it over her shoulder and told me it's her favorite of all the things I have a made for her.

I really don't think you can receive a better compliment.

It's made with Ty Pennigton's home dec fabric (Moorish) and the pattern is Amy Butler's Weekender.  And, I had no intention of having the fabric line up like it did.  I didn't even notice how nicely it matched up until I was looking at these pictures.  I know, I'm pathetic.

Now I can get started on mine.

Turning seven that is... I spent an evening last week knotting strips of scrap fabric on to a piece of twine.

Lulu wanted a camp theme so we set a plan for an afternoon in the backyard with a tent full of balloons and games like bocce and basketball.  Then it turned out to be the hottest and most humid day we've had this year.  We still had the tent, but went with a water fight to try to cool off. Then they painted birdhouses.

They decorated bangle bracelets made from popsicle sticks. (here they are undecorated)

They made paper fortune tellers and signs for their rooms.

We had a sundae bar with all the fixin's along with cupcakes.

After all of that, they each went home with their own hobo bindle filled with goodies...

...and I slumped into a chair and didn't move for hours.

I just love this Freebird line from MoMo.  I also used it for the spots quilt that now lives with my mom.  The colors are rich, the patterns are bold, and what's not to love about all of those different polka dots? I based the block design on a traditional rail fence pattern, although those are usually more unified in color and made of staight lines.  That's why I decided this is more of a "broken" fence for me.

The back has some more of the pieced blocks along the right side.  These block are next to a band of print that is one of my favorite pieces of fabric around.  I just love those big blue trees.

Inspired by the some the sashiko embroidery that's been popping up around the interweb, I quilted it with chocolate brown thread in a ripple pattern, wider ripples at the top that get closer together as they spread out across the quilt.  I'm really pleased with the how well the wave effect turned out.

It's listed at etsy and big cartel.

If you would like it to come live with you, just let me know.

Here's a full view of the spouse's new quilt.

It's made from the Happy Trails line by Benartex.  I took my cue for the design from the name and created lines from all different sized strips of fabric.  The quilted the center of the top with horizontals in various widths.  I quilted all the seams as well.

The back is also from the Happy Trails line - I used a strip each of pistols and barbed wire along with the orange plaid.

Here it is on it's first test drive.

eleven tote bags complete

Pearl and I are having lots of fun. I made a stop at my local quilt shop.  I guess I was a bit drunk with power, because I managed to convince myself that now was the time to make a quilt.  I have been shoving this notion to the back of my brain for a couple of years now.  After bringing home all my supplies, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to start with something a little smaller.  I found a pattern for a table runner on Moda's website and pieced this together with scraps that were hanging out with nowhere else to go.

My biggest struggle was with evenness.  The fabric pulled as I was machine quilting.  I took the plunge and purchased a walking foot.  (a trip, that despite telling myself it would only be for the foot, ended with me buying fabric for a lap quilt as well)

I found this great tutorial on binding that helped out a lot too.