A Beary Special Nephew Quilt

I usually only get one or two quilts made as Christmas presents.  Time always gets away from me.  A few things helped this year, one being the addition of Aunt Vivian to  my tools.  The quilting just goes so quickly! So grateful for that gift.

I really enjoy the looks of a lot of the quilts from SewFreshQuilts.  I decided I would try my hand at this bear pattern for my nephew's gift.  I made a quilt for my niece and nephews when they were born and it was time for his second, more grown up quilt.

I went with the greens just like the one pattern option using fabrics from Connecting Threads.

I finished the top a few months back.  Once I pieced the back from stash and leftover greens it was onto Aunt Vivian!  She is a wonder when I had her set up correctly.  It took a lot of trial and error on this quilt.  My tension just was NOT right.  It would be tight and then loose all in the same 12 inches.  I kept turning the tension trying to fix it and would almost have it when it would be super loose again.  I thought it was maybe the needle...but I discovered this machine uses different needles.  I traded out threads, I fixed the burr on my needle plate...all to no avail.  I tore out one row of quilting FOUR times, UGH!

Finally, I looked at the manual one more time and discovered I had been loosening the tension instead of tightening it! That discovery which made me hit my forehead didn't however completely fix the issue.  On my third day of trying to fix the dilemma, and a few tears I looked up at the machine and noticed the thread had jumped out of the tension discs and was behind it.  It would sometimes hold it tight and then release too much, hence part of my wonky tensions.  More searching led me to find that a little metal part on the bobbin case was not in the slot next to it.  I popped that in also and FINALLY I was in business!

I had planned to do some mountains for quilting but settled for a simpler pattern.  It was a relief when it was finally done.  On to the binding!  I have a pretty precious helper.  He discovered he could roll the pool balls down the space between the machine and the table!  Haha!

We were blasted with about 30 inches of snow a few weeks ago when I took the pictures.  The following week we had -40 degree wind chills, so fun.  I managed to get out and back in quickly to take some pictures outside!

I think he likes it! Yay!

Alissa

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and TGIFF!