Quilted teddybear

A colleague at work recently celebrated the birth of his daughter. I was asked to make a card to circulate at the office for well wishes.

I wanted it to be quite large for all those signatures, and a special card. This colleague is also a stamper, so no shortcuts or he'll know!

I started with a "quilted" background panel in the Parisian designer paper from the last catalogue. I had sewn a few lines when my sewing machine jammed. This put the kibosh on the card for the moment.

...time lapse (picture madly bustling family, as in a movie on fast foward, scuttling hither and yon doing laundry, groceries, going to Sparks, to the park, going to work, making dinner, going to T-ball, doing dishes, but definitely not stamping) ....

Ahh, back to the stamping desk. I dug up my other sewing machine and (importantly) remembered where DH spotted the foot pedal. I got that all fired up and tried out different designer paper in bigger squares. The previous effort used 3/4" squares but they were too weeny and fussy for such a large panel. These are 1 3/8" squares and suit much better. For some reason I had to sew on the paper upside down for the zigzag to look good. It's a better machine and probably has some fancy locking stitch on the "wrong" side. (Apparently, those who actually use their sewing machines for fabric - yes, some people really do - sew on the wrong side so this feature does make sense.) Anyway, I had to re-sew one and was able to start in the same hole so it doesn't show. (I felt inordinately clever about this. Don't give me a hard time as I seldom feel clever about anything, never mind inordinately clever so I plan to bask in the feeling for some time to come.)

The bear is stamped in chocolate brown and embossed in espresso. I watercoloured him with reinkers. What a fun technique! It gives such rich colours. I did find that the chocolate chip broke down a bit and went a bit red, so will plan to test colour combinations on scraps first. I accented him with some Walnut Stain distress stickles. The sentiment is also embossed in espresso and accented with some adorable button brads from my stash. (Thank you, AP!) The quilted panel is on a larger RHR panel, to fit on the card base. I punched the border for an accent. I really didn't want to mess around with calculating extra squares, and where the middle should be, etc. (remember I'm only a pretend quilter), so I made my quilt exactly 3 squares high by almost 5 squares wide (I had to cut off the extra little bit hanging over the edge, I told you I'm not a real quilter). Anyway, if you have the strength of character or a weakness for exactitude, you could calculate your measurements and get squares to fit your panel exactly. I accented with some ribbon, which in hindsight should have emerged through a perfectly placed eyelet, but I only thought of that after I had the slot punched. Oh well, I don't think anyone at the office follows Debbie Olson, so they'll never know the difference.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this card. Several people have commented on how heavy it is, so it must be nice! hahahah :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies (all SU except pen, brads & stickles): Stamps: Full of Life, Favourite Teddybear; Ink: chocolate chip craft; Paper: watercolour, whisper white (for quilt), Bella Rose dsp (for quilt), Riding Hood Red, Pirouette Pink, Chocolate Chip; Other: walnut stain stickles, reinkers (Kiwi Kiss, Choc Chip, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa), Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon, slot punch, sewing machine (2 sewing machines, to be exact), black micron pen for balloon strings.