Bear Claw Quilt Finish!

TAAAA DAHHHHH!!! I finally finished my Bear Claw quilt for my favorite person Andrew :) OK, I still have to label it but this is a small detail :) Totally off topic, this morning when I went to do a photo shoot, my neighbor's clothes line had disappeared ... I guess they didn't know that I use it to take pictures HA!

I based the design on a traditional bear paw design with a few modifications. I gave the paw some skinny claws and I also put 5 toes on the bear paw since most bears have 5 toes and not 4 or 6 toes which is the traditional way to do this square.

Here's a close up shot of the quilting. I went a little crazy after reading Karen McTavish's book about the Art of McTavishing. My favorite part was how she said that you should name your own style based on your last name so I guess this is some Doyling (I took of the e, that just looked strange!).

 

This is just a lap quilt for the couch so I decided to fold over the small border I had put on it to do the binding. I decided to try this method after speaking with one of my quilting clients who was trying to decide the best way to bind her quilt.

Here's what I did, it's certainly not something I would want to do for most quilts but I like the way it came out in the end.

First, I cut off the excess batting and backing making the edges even. I placed the quilt so that the backing was facing up. I folded the edges over twice approximately 1/4" so that there was no batting showing. I used pins to keep the folds in place. At the corner, I trimmed the excess batting so that the corners would fold neatly.

Please pardon the lint! That cotton batting is trixy!

Then I folded the corner into a triangle and placed a pin to hold it.

 Then I started to fold and pin the next corner.

And here's what it looks like all pinned. Once all the pins were in place I used my walking foot and sewed a straight seam securing the edges. It's not as pretty as regular binding but it does the trick and I like the way it looks :)

I'm going to link up with Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts ... my favorite linky party of the week :)