Teddy Bear's Picnic

I haven't taken the time to post anything for over a week, but I have been busy.

First of all, Tom's quilt "Teddy Bear's Picnic" is  finished as of this evening.  He finished putting it together last week end after finding some fabric that would work for an outer border at JoAnn's. 



Yesterday and today I quilted it for him and did the binding this afternoon and evening (he really dislikes that job).

Here is the finished quilt

I just love the color play in this quilt! 

He came up with the vision for this quilt after seeing the Bear Tracks pattern on Quilter's Cache.  He based it on the song "Teddy Bear's Picnic", a song from the 1930's.  An interesting trivia fact....it was used by Jerry Garcia as a tuning song.

Here are the lyrics:
If you go down to the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.
For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.
Ev'ry teddy bear who's been good
Is sure of a treat today.
There's lots of marvelous things to eat
And wonderful games to play.
Beneath the trees where nobody sees
They'll hide and seek as long as they please
Cause that's the way the teddy bears have their picnic.
If you go down to the woods today
You'd better not go alone.
It's lovely down in the woods today
But safer to stay at home.
For ev'ry bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.
Picnic time for teddy bears
The little teddy bears are having a lovely time today
Watch them, catch them unawares
And see them picnic on their holiday.
See them gaily gad about
They love to play and shout;
They never have any care;
At six o'clock their mummies and daddies,
Will take them home to bed,
Because they're tired little teddy bears.

edit: actually I looked at a slightly different version when I did the quilting which says "if you go out in the woods today" rather than "if you go down to the woods today".  Both Tom and I are more familiar with the version I used.


Many people are familiar with the first verse or two, but don't know the suggestion of it being "safer to stay at home". Tom wanted to have fun with that. So his quilt has teddy bears picnicing (well actually it's Christmas fabric but they have a basket, and Tom says with their fur coats they can picnic in December) but also the scarier bears....in other words "every bear that ever there was" happen to be in this woods.

It's made of flannel and to date the most complicated piecing he's done.  I warned him that piecing HST's from flannel wasn't going to be real easy, but he ended up doing a really good job. (Dare I say he has a good teacher?)

And I quilted the words from a couple of the lyrics in the outer borders.

More of the forest fabric was used for the backing

Didn't he do a great job?

For myself, I finished embroidering the final blocks for the Raggedy Ann and Andy BOM and  set the blocks together.  I'm ready to start quilting it in a day or two.

I have the first four rows of Dutch Treat #3 layered and started hand quilting it last night. Here's what it looks like spray basted and ready to quilt. 

I'm doing it "quilt as you go" like the first two.  After these first four rows are quilted, I'll add two more rows to the right side, quilt them, add two more, etc.  until all 14 rows are done. Then I applique, add and quilt the  borders.  Works well for me as I quilt in my lap without a hoop.

When the applique blocks are trimmed to 4 1/2" from the original 6" working squares, I've saved all those trimmed ends.  I have two boxes full of them from the first two DT's.  This time I decided to work with them as I was doing the applique so that it wouldn't be such a daunting task all at once.  I made strips of no sent length, using whatever I trimmed each session.  Now I've cut those into 4 and 5" blocks, bordering the 4" ones with a brown frame and then piecing all together.  So far I have this much set together.

LOTS and LOTS of seams which may make it a nightmare to quilt.  We'll have to see.

That's what I've been doing.  How about you?