My RARE Science Celebrity Bear for The Quilt Show Auction

The Quilt Show has partnered with the great non-profit organziation, RARE Science, whose mission is "to work directly with patient families and foundations to find more immediate therapeutic solutions for children with rare diseases." Together they have a special project this fall!

Some background first: One of RARE Science's wonderful programs is RARE bears, where a specially made bear is sent to a special child with a rare disease.  Hundreds upon hundreds of these bears have made children happy--just look at some of the videos on the link above.

There are many ways to join the RARE Bear Army. I was lucky to be asked to make a bear for the "Celebrity RARE Bear Silent Auction", sponsored by The Quilt Show.  A new bear is being revealed each day for the next three weeks on The Quilt show's blog, and mine debuts today, September 29th. They will be on display at the International Quilt Festival in Houston this November, and auctioned off to raise funds for RARE's ongoing work.

Here is the link to The Quilt Show's blog about my bear: 

Meet "Wooly Bear"!

I thought you might like to see how I went about making this cuddly bear.

I rough cut extra large foundation muslin pattern pieces and crazy pieced my wool onto them, using a curved flip and sew method.

Then I had a delightful time embellishing all the seams on each pattern piece, as is traditional in crazy quilting.

Once the embellishment of a "body part piece" was completed, I machine basted along the traced line of the exact pattern piece.  The size had to be exactly accurate so that the bear would sew together well.

When the bear was all together, I thought it would be fun to make a little accompanying quilt for him to sit on.  After the simple quilt was pieced, of course I had to add some matching embellishment to it!  This was during the summer, and I loved stitching outside...all the while thinking of those incredibly brave children who are living with challenges we can hardly imagine.

Again, there are many ways to join the RARE Bear Army. You can create your own, host a sewing or stuffing party...click on the link to learn more.

And be sure to visit The Quilt Show blog each day as a new Celebrity Bear is revealed, and see them all as they are added on the Auction page (the link is there on The Quilt Show's  blog.)  Wooly Bear is in very, very great company!

Free Viewing for my Quilt Show Episode from Sept 19 through Oct 1st!

Here is the link for my show, where you can view it online for free this week:

http://thequiltshow.com/watch/show-list/video/latest/show-1906-crazy-for-crazy-quilts?artist_coupon=19060911

On the show there are three segments: the first is an introduction where I am talking about a few of my quilts, but then the next two segments are about how I build the blocks and embellish "Idaho Sugar".  It's a great video tutorial, so I invite you to have a look!

 Here is the overall--it is 68" X 68"....

 ...Here is a detail.....

 ...and here is the back!  I used corduroy for the backing fabric, very cozy and textural.
So come see me on TV with Alex and Ricky!