I asked my studio assistant Neptune to help with picking colors, but I think I overwhelmed him. Lol.

I wanted something different for Soph’s Sugar Bear quilt back and when she was home for Luke’s graduation last summer we looked at several quilt backs and finally settled on a “big patchwork” style back that both of us loved (inspired by this quilt). Finally back at my sewing machine this winter, I started piecing the back together. I used some leftover pieces from the front of the quilt and pulled some coordinating colors from my stash. (I organized my fabric by color last year and it is a game changer ya’ll!) I definitely leaned into my sappy “missing my girl” mama heart in selecting extra prints…. all of them had something that reminded me of little Sophie, a tiny bit of childhood magic sewn into her first mama made quilt as a grown woman. See those mermaids up there? I’ve had them in my fabric stash forever and I was pretty excited when they matched Soph’s quilt because the print is called “underwater sisters” and I sewed two other colors of the same print into her big sister’s first grown-up quilt.

I used my design wall to “interview” prints and see the whole piece as one – it was incredibly helpful. (I moved those butterflies several times) I made myself a little map of shapes to help me spread out light, medium and dark colors and keep track of the sizes I was cutting. I worked in some little patchwork pieces into some of the bigger shapes. I totally forgot about giving myself extra seam allowance with sewing all those shapes together – oops. Once I sewed together a few big panels of patchwork shapes, I realized it wasn’t going to be quite big enough as a quilt back…. luckily only one strip had to be seam ripped and I added a few more colors/blocks to make it bigger.

It’s basted and I’ve started quilting. So far I’ve sewn “in the ditch” around each bear paw star, next I’ll sew around each one again with a quarter inch seam allowance. I’m hoping this double line will make the stars really pop (doing all that with a walking foot). Next I plan to quilt inside the stars with lighter quilting and some denser meandering style (free motion) quilting on the white – this should also make the stars really pop.

For now I’ve really enjoyed stitching away on this golden sunshine quilt during these ridiculously cold days we’ve been having.

stay warm + cozy friends….

steph

*previous posts on this quilt here and here.