Flannel Pocket Bear

I have seen a lot of cute pocket dolls online, mostly knit dolls. That got me thinking about making some, but knitting small things like dolls and animals can be rather fiddly to knit and put together, even if it is knit in one piece, rather than lots of tiny pieces. So what if? What if I made a simple sewn bear instead? It uses less material than a larger bear and scraps can be used. I have lots of miscellaneous scraps of flannel fabric on hand, so here is my cute little flannel pocket bear. Ta da!

He looks larger in the photo because of the closeup photo, but he measures 4 1/2" wide (from the tip of his paw to the tip of the other paw) x 5 1/4" tall (from the foot to the tip of his ear). I think he turned out rather cute for a first try in making him smaller. I do need to perfect the eyes. I used white felt and French knots, which works, but I need to make sure I get the size right and the colors right for future bear eyes. I could sew on buttons, but if a child under 3 years old gets one of these bears, buttons do pose a chocking hazard and I don't want that! I made a second bear, but the eyes turned out a bit odd or even creepy looking and I cannot have that, so need to work on the eyes to find a better solution. I know there are safety eyes sold, but not sure how small they go and how they would look on this bear? Plus, I want to use what's on hand and not buy anything as that is one of the ideas behind making this bear.

I used Warren the Charity Bear pattern to make this in a reduced size. Don't ask me how much I reduced it as I cannot remember 😜. I have made Warren before in full size and 2 reduced sizes, but not reduced this much. He is cute in any size. Polar Fleece is another fabric that can be used too for a soft cuddly bear.

I most likely will make a few more to donate, once I make the eyes how I like them.

Made using flannel fabrics. Hand blanket stitched the appliqué pieces.

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Polaroid Baby Quilt~ Project Linus Donation

A long time ago I saw this tutorial for making a Polaroid Quilt, from  Wendi of Shiny Happy World. Wendi's quilt used her appliqué patterns, but I wanted to try this quilt using some novelty children's fabric I had on hand first. I also wanted to make a small quilt to see how it went before getting carried away with something too large. I am glad I chose to do a small quilt because while this quilt is small (39" x 39"), the individual blocks are large and it was a bit of a challenge cutting the angles on these large blocks. I am happy with the results. I don't think I would make anything any larger than this size again. I might try reducing the block size to something more manageable if I want to make an appliqué Polaroid quilt next time.

Since I am donating to Project Linus, the smallest size requirement is 36" x 36" (newborn size) quilt. I added a border to make the bias edges more stable and so ended up with 39" square quilt. The white bottom border of the Polaroid blocks is taller than the top and side borders and to me it looked rather too stark and plain, so I decided to add some words using small die letters I have. I think those words made for a happier, more cheerful quilt. Even though the baby who receives this quilt won't be able to read it, the parent(s) will and that will make them happy. 

I ran out of the red binding, so added the green on the bottom, in case you are wondering, 😄.

I quilted this using a walking foot and quilting in a diamond shape around the quilt.

Flannel backing shows the diamond quilting, but the green is really more lime green like the next photo.

The green flannel looks like this in person.

Quilty Hugs Everyone!!!

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