Beary Colourful BOM: Healthy Choices Red-Violet Bear

Today we truly have a Berry Colourful Bear to add to our Beary Colourful family. Please welcome the Red-Violet Bear of Healthy Choices!

Red-Violet Bear is so bursting full of health and vitality you could probably catch a wellness from this guy! He chooses good healthy food full of vitamins and antioxidants. He chooses clean air, drinks lots of water, exercises regularly. And he knows that treats are only “sometimes foods”. If there is a healthy choice to be made, Red-Violet Ted is all over it like a rash. He is of course too perfect to be true, and can get a bit irritating like the aforementioned health issue. But he isn’t into guilt trips. He just genuinely wants to inspire you to be just a little bit kinder to your body today than you were yesterday!

Please welcome the very energetic and springy Bear of Healthy Choices to the Beary Colourful family. I’m not sure this quilt is really big enough to contain him, as he looks ready to leap off his block. He also looks good enough to eat, but you’d have to catch him first!

The ninth bear in the Beary Colourful Quilt BOM series is super enthusiastic about all things good-for-you. Add this healthy bear to your collection as a reminder to live well and be kind to yourself. And then go check out the rest of the 2018 Color Challenge posts for other ideas of how to celebrate the colour red-violet and enter for September’s Monthly Color Challenge prize.

The Red-Violet Bear of Healthy Choices

The Red-Violet Bear is representative of all the healthy choices in our lives that make us feel great. The ones that taste delicious, give us more energy or help us feel positive. He thinks one healthy choice would be to use up some red-violet stash fabric this month and join in the fun here at the Beary Colourful BOM or in the wider Monthly Colour Challenge. Pick some fabrics you think look good enough to lick, and enjoy making something fun or beautiful with them.

Another healthy choice Red-Violet Bear advocates is to honour your originality. Come up with your own tummy motif for him – maybe you prefer watermelon or raspberries to strawberries. Or perhaps you’d like a lighter pink bear on your Beary Colourful BOM quilt. This is also the best bear to tweak in that direction.

Red-Violet Ted has a strawberry on his tummy to celebrate all your healthy choices that also happen to be nice. This is a simple motif, so I haven’t arranged an alternative, but you can simplify it further by not bothering with the seeds if you wish.

Download the Red-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 Red-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). 7″ x 16″ will be ample for the Red-Violet bear. 
    • Punnet of strawberries for a healthy snack

 

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  • Red-Violet fabric scraps for the main sections of the bear. The whole bear requires the equivalent of 9″ x 12″ of red-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, inner ears, paws, and strawberry.
  • 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 Healthy Choices Red-Violet Bear

Follow the construction method and fusing order for the Red Bear and you will have no trouble with the Red-Violet Bear. The only significant change is the tummy motif. 

Once your main bear is constructed, lay down the strawberry body onto your bear’s tummy.

Then add the seeds and leafy top. Easy!

That’s it. Transfer your bear to your background fabric and secure the appliqué using your favourite method.

And grab yourself a delicious healthy snack.

Information about the rest of 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, you have enough bears now for a 3 x 3 lap quilt if you don’t want to do the last three bears (really?!?). Or you can do what Michelle-Marie is doing, and make a 3 x 3 lap quilt/bed topper and turn the remaining 3 bears into pillows.

Link up for your chance to win

Don’t forget that your Red-Violet Bear is eligible for entry into the September 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 red-violet quilter is the beautiful fabric bundle from Phat Quarters Fabric shown below All link ups also receive an entry into the grand prize draw of quilting services by Jen of Dizzy Quilter.

And remember, the Red-Violet Bear is just one option for September in the 2018 Monthly Color Challenge. Five other bloggers are also here to help you with ideas for the September Red-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, Inquiring Quilter, Quilt Fabrication, Sew Fresh Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Foto Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Busy Hands Quilts.

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