Thanks Margo, you are a doll.

Sharon

I'm not sure about the 2011 kits, but I think they will be referred to as "Bear Essentials" which are the bright colors in Sue's original version, and "Beloved Beauties" which are the softer pink and greens designed by Elly Sienkiewicz. They are both DYNAMITE quilts!!

As usual, I'm hoping that we will also see lots of original color combinations. Jill, I'm sure that a border print would work on this as a replacement for any of the pieced or appliquéd borders! You may need to add some floaters to make everything fit, but it's definitely do-able!

Sharon, here are the three versions in one location:

Sue's "Bear Essentials":


My Totally Scrappy Version:


My "Beloved Beauties": (This is just the first 4 months of instructions. I'll be posting the finished quilt as soon as I get it done!!)
{!-- ia0 -->Beloved Beauties.jpg{!-- ia0 -->

As for the instructions....Once again, Sue has written amazing directions for each month that you will print out to follow. However, the Beloved Beauties fabrics did not translate well for a one-to-one replacement, so I am writing an additional set of instructions for anyone using the Beloved Beauties kit. You will need to check each month to see what changes need to be made, and also follow Sue's directions for the parts I didn't change. I am trying my best to make the directions easy to understand, and I hope there won't be too much confusion, but there are some major differences.

For instance, where Sue has put those bright yellow setting triangles around the center appliqué (which is a great place to show off wonderful quilting designs!), I used a striped fabric to fussy cut beautiful miters. I will show you how to make a template to do that. It's not difficult, just a different element. And you don't need to do it!! You can put something else there. Make this quilt your own!

I have added mini-piping to several places in my quilts, and I'll show how I do that. It's not necessary, but it's a nice added touch!

Sue's instructions are once again for needle-turn appliqué. You are welcome to use your favorite technique...by hand, or machine, or fused! For the appliqués on my quilts, I'm using a turned edge machine appliqué with Ricky Tims' STABLE STUFF as a foundation. I have a tute for the 2010 Hugs and Kisses quilt using this technique, but I'll be doing another tute to demonstrate with this pattern.
(If you want to see that check it out here: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/576127612MrslzR)

BTW....You can get Ricky's STABLE STUFF here: http://www.rickytims.com/online-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=64&category_id=26
He also has glue sticks: http://www.rickytims.com/online-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=63&category_id=26
and cording for the piping: http://www.rickytims.com/online-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=72&category_id=26

If you want to see how Ricky makes his piping and applies his wonderful piped bindings check out his Grand Finale DVD:
http://www.rickytims.com/online-store?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=2&category_id=2

This is a 2 hour instructional DVD and the last 30 minutes is a great demo of exactly how to do the piped binding. I use this technique all the time now!

I know someone, probably Margo, will know this answer. I know I saw the quilt you made with the stripes in pink and I can't find it. Will you be posting on your tutorials all three with the different colors? I assume both the pink and yellow are from Sue's fabrics. Not sure. As usual thank for your help, we will probably need to make you another quilt next year for all your hard work.

Thanks, Sharon

great looking quilt Margo and wonderful for us all to see some of the different versions that could be made.

Hey Carol I love the tumbling blocks quilt.........

One of my friends Margaret has commented that Jinny Beyer's new range (Sophia...I think its called) has some lovely border prints that would also look good on the border/s of a scrappy version of 2011 BOM, what do you think.

I can't wait to get started

Carole, I love your scrappy quilts! And I've made some doozies in my time! LOL!!!

Thankfully, most of my quilts get used up so eventually there won't be evidence!

Love your scrappy quilts CarolD. The tumbling blocks look just great.

Margo, I love your very organised wardrobe of stash fabrics. I have six big tubs named: red/pink, blue, yellow/brown, white/beige, green and now purple ... lol.

Your scrappy quilt for 2011 is very nice but I am still besotted with Elly's fabrics but a second version just might be scrappy which is how I did my Star Crazy this year. Love all the information and contributions everyone makes to this blog site. Cheers from 'downunder'

Margo, in 1963 I doubt I could have even told you the difference between a quilt and a blanket! That was the year I got married. I was very good at sewing, but it was garments, curtains, etc. It wasn't until much later that I was introduced to quilts and quilting. I do have a stash, but it's not all neat and organized like yours, and lots of it is just totally random, not purchased with the thoughts of it maybe matching something else. Because of that, I've made some almost "horrific" scrap quilts out of totally unrelated fabrics, but I actually was fairly pleased with them anyway!


I'm a bit more subdued now. That quilt in my signature is also a scrap quilt. The background is made from almost every piece of white and tan fabric scraps I had lying around at the time!

Margo. Thank you for sharing. I have to echo the others who have said that the decision as to which one to do will be very hard. I guess we don't have to make that decision this week LOL. Good thing.

Quiltbuilder
Joann

Carole, because I made my first quilt in 1963, I've had a while to work on my stash! And I've got to tell you that there are some real DOGS in that pile of fabric, but if you put enough pieces in a quilt they all seem to play nicely together! Especially if you pay attention to value!

Margo, I love your scrappy version and if I were going to do this quilt, that's the way I would go. You must have a phenomenal stash! Mine isn't well-developed enough to come up with that many good choices to go with one focus fabric. GREAT job!

JoJo I am with you girl. It is going to be an extremely hard decision. Just might have to make more than one. LOL

Sharon

Jeez oh peez oh Margo.... How's a person to ever decide. I've been sitting here looking at each color version and truly they are all works of art. I think a person could spend a lifetime recreating this one quilt in different color variations and still never become bored with the pattern.

OK, Eileen! This is what I did for the 2011 Scrappy version. (This was my first version of the 2011 BOM, and I'm still working on the Beloved Beauties version.)

The two kits that will be offered next year (the yellow version and the Beloved Beauties version) will each have 16 fabrics in them.

I don't usually purchase yardage, but prefer fat quarters, so most of my stash is small pieces. For this scrappy version I started with a "focus fabric" with lots of colors in it. My focus fabric happens to be a floral, but anything with 5-6 different colors to work with is a good start. I started pulling out fabrics from my stash that looked nice with the focus fabric. I paid a lot of attention to value for this quilt, so there is a definite contrast between the background fabric and the pieced and appliquéd elements, but even the backgrounds are scrappy! If I didn't have enough of one fabric to make an element, I would just change the color, or add something similar. I started with about 100 different fabrics, and used a little bit of all of them! I made some changes to Sue's original pattern and will explain them in additional tutorials as we work through the BOM next year. I hope lots of you will be working on it with us!