Beary Colourful BOM: Special Treats Blue-Violet Bear

Healthy Choices Red-Violet Bear made his debut last month…… but what of his non-identical twin, Blue-Violet Bear? Of course, he must be October’s Bear….. the Blue-Violet Bear of Special Treats!

Blue-Violet Bear comes straight after Red-Violet Bear, just like dessert after a healthy meal! You know you want him! He says that after you have taken Healthy Choices Bear’s advice and been good to your body, you should also ignore him and spoil yourself occasionally.

Special Treats Bear is the reminder that “sometimes foods” are actually okay to have sometimes…. after all they are not called “never foods”!! For that matter, treats don’t always have to be unhealthy. I am sure that Healthy Choices Bear and Special Treats Bear actually have some recommendations in common. In the same way that they are coloured two hues of purple. Highly related.

Special treats may or may not be great for your body, but when well-deployed, are certainly good for your mental health. And even more so when shared. So the tenth bear in the Beary Colourful Quilt BOM series is ready to share his ice cream with you….. or is he? Add this enigmatic bear to your collection as you work out whether that ice cream is in his hand for sharing or is on his tummy just for show. And then go check out the rest of the 2018 Color Challenge posts for other ideas of how to celebrate the colour blue-violet and enter for October’s Monthly Color Challenge prize.

The Blue-Violet Bear of Special Treats

This month’s Beary Colourful Bears are very kindly brought to you by RJR Fabrics. 

RJR have generously given me these beautiful feature fabrics for this month’s bears from their Blossoms Batik Splash collection……

3505-002 LAUREL-VIOLET

3508-004 SHOAL-PANSY

And the beautiful batik that I used to  make the delicious looking berry-ripple ice cream scoop…..

3504-003 BIG BLOOM-LARKSPUR

Now. I have given you some thinking time…… have you worked out whether Special Treats Bear is holding that ice cream, or is it just printed on his tummy?

If he is holding the ice cream, then that begs the question “What is really on his tummy?” Another special treat hidden from view? Is its identity fixed, or is it different for everyone? And if no one else knows what your treat is, do the calories count?!!  Only one bear, so many questions!

If you could choose, what would your special treat hidden behind the ice cream be…..? Frozen yoghurt, tickets to the movies, a holiday, chocolate, a friend come to visit, a swim, a perfect cuppa, more ice cream……? I imagine a survey would produce a very long and diverse list!

Blue-Violet Ted choses all natural berry-ripple ice cream with real crushed berries as his treat today. And the ice cream that he has (which may, or may not be, on his tummy and in his hand) is there to help you remember that lovely feeling of having a treat that you haven’t had in a while. The ice cream is single scoop because treats are best in moderation, or they quickly become not special anymore. This is a simple motif, with only two parts, so I haven’t arranged an alternative. But you can change the flavour of the ice cream if you wish. 😛

Download the Blue-Violet Bear pdf pattern

Sorry this free pattern download has expired…. it will be available for purchase in due course. Perhaps you would like to join the free 2019 Love with a Twist BOM here instead!

What you will need to make the Blue-Violet Bear block

• Fabric for the background of the block. Each bear block will require a base fabric square of at least 13.5″ by 17″ to allow leeway for trimming. 
• Thin batting for the trapunto layer if you wish to do the trapunto step. I use a polyester batting of 1/8th inch loft. You will need approximately 11″ x 15″.
• Fusible paper-backed fabric adhesive (for example vliesofix). 8″ x 16″ will be ample for the Blue-Violet bear. 
• Blue-Violet fabric scraps for the main sections of the bear. The whole bear requires the equivalent of 9″ x 12″ of blue-violet fabric. But he is built from pieces, so you can use multiple smaller scraps if you need. 
• White/light colour fabric scraps for the muzzle and tummy,  5″ x 8″. Or 10″ x 8″ if shadowing bothers you and you’d like to make the white components double layered (see the Red Bear post for a more detailed discussion of the shadowing problem). 
• Various coloured small fabric scraps for eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, inner ears, paw, cone and ice cream.
• Machine embroidery or sewing threads to match your appliqué fabrics.
• General tools: sewing machine, iron etc, teflon ironing sheet or baking (parchment)  paper, small sharp scissors, pencil, chalk/washout fabric marker, quilting pins, black permanent acid-free marker.
• Optional but helpful: curved blade embroidery snips 

(Note: these last two are affiliate links. I am proud to show you the tools that I use. If you purchase through an affiliate link it will not cost you any extra but I may earn a small commission for the referral).

How to make the Special Treats Blue-Violet Bear

Step 1

Start by laying a piece of parchment (baking) paper over the supplied appliqué layout template.

Tack down the legs, left arm and outer ears onto the parchment paper with a hot iron.

Step2

Add the feet, outer tummy, right paw and inner ears.

Step 3

Add the inner tummy panel and the head.

Step 4

Add the muzzle, ice cream cone and the whites of Blue-Violet Bear’s eyes.

Step 5

Add the mouth, nose, irises, ice cream and the right arm.

Step 6

And the fun you’ve been waiting for…. add the tongue to lick the ice cream!

That’s it. Give your appliqué a good press and carefully transfer it to your background fabric

Secure the edges of your appliqué using your favourite method. Don’t forget to stitch in the facial details.

The free bears have expired, but the information is still available for those who followed along in 2018.

Information about all the bear patterns can be found at these links:
January – Red Bear of New Beginnings
February – Blue Bear of High Hopes
March – Yellow Bear of Being Active Outside
April – Orange Bear of Positive Attitude
May – Green Bear of Always Learning
June – Purple Bear of A Little Bit Silly
July – Yellow-Green Bear of Always Growing
August – Yellow-Orange Bear of Loving Friends
September – Red-Violet Bear of Healthy Choices 
October – Blue-Violet Bear of Special Treats
November – Green-Blue Bear of Taking Time Out
December – Black and White Bear of Making Music

This is our quilt plan so far……. actually, we are getting scarily close to done! Soon it will be time to start thinking about a BOM to do for 2019! If you have any burning desires for a particular BOM theme, I’d love to know. Another critter theme? Pieced? Appliqué? Scrappy? Drop me a comment or an email anytime.

Link up for your chance to win

Don’t forget that your Blue-Violet Bear is eligible for entry into the October Color Challenge link up at the end of the month. The link up happens at Patterns by Jen in the last week of each month. This month the prize for one lucky blue-violet quilter is a $25 gift certificate from Cherrywood Fabrics  All link ups also receive an entry into the grand prize draw of quilting services by Jen of Dizzy Quilter.

And remember, the Blue-Violet Bear is just one option for October in the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge. Five other bloggers are also here to help you with ideas for the October blue-violet Challenge. They are:

Jen Shaffer at Patterns by Jen
Jen Strauser at Dizzy Quilter
Sherry Shish at Powered by Quilting
Jen Rosin at A Dream and A Stitch
Nancy Scott at Masterpiece Quilting

Hope to see you at the link up at Patterns by Jen at the end of the month.

P.S. Linking up the Healthy Choices Bear on all my favourite linkys as they open this week:  Monday Making,  Cooking Up Quilts,  Freemotion by the River, Quilting Room with Mel, Inquiring Quilter, Quilt Fabrication, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Foto Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts.

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