Butterfly Bear Paw Baby Quilt: The FINAL, Final Plan, Revised

Okay, I changed my mind yet again, and THIS is what I'm REALLY going to do with those bear paw blocks that I made ages ago:

53.5" x 53.5" Baby Quilt with Satin Binding

I decided to ditch the on point layout in favor of a straight set with 4" sashing and 4" sawtooth stars as shown above.  The idea is to use some of that purply fabric that I used as my bear paw centers for a border, but if I don't have enough of it I'll have to use something else.  The 2" wide hot pink border is actually the satin binding, and there's a purple minky for the backing that's similar in color to the inner border. 

With this arrangement, I need to piece 10 more sawtooth stars, cut the sashing, and then I can assemble the quilt top with no leftover blocks.  I printed off 10 foundation patterns on newsprint from EQ7 and I have an hour or two that I can spend in my studio before I need to leave for Anders' Honors Orchestra concert.  Hopefully my mojo will kick in and it will be all smooth sailing, since this baby is due TOMORROW.

No, the quilt will NOT be done tomorrow...

Back to the Butterfly Bear Paws!

So does anyone remember these bear paw blocks that I was working on an eternity ago?

10 1/2" Finished Bear Paw Block, One of Nine

I was experimenting with cutting up large scale patterns, and really liked the way this oversized Anna Maria Horner print looks when its cut up and pieced back together again.  Like exuberant gobs of paint!  I didn't do any fussy cutting with these blocks, just rotary cut my fabric randomly but then carefully laid out the patches for each block to ensure a level of balance within each block as well as in the final layout. 

9 Finished Blocks On the Design Wall, with Hand Marbled FQs

But then I couldn't decide what that final layout should be, and got bogged down with different options, and distracted by other projects...

Fancy Borders and Sashing Stars

Plain Alternate Blocks, Sashing Posts, and Sawtooth Star Border

But a friend of mine is expecting a new baby granddaughter soon, and I've decided that I have a better chance of turning these UFO WIP blocks into a baby quilt over the next few weeks than I do finishing something new that I would have to start from scratch.

I made a bunch of 4" sawtooth stars using hand marbled fabrics along with the same background white that I used for the bear paw blocks, and I'm planning to frame four of those stars with white so they "float" between my bear paw blocks like so:

EQ7 Mockup, approximately 50" x 50"

The hot pink outer border is actually going to be satin binding.  And I already have some lavender Minky fabric that I'm planning to use for the backing.  So I have everything I need to do this already in my studio, and all of the difficult piecing is done.  There is also lots of blank white space to play in once I get to the quilting stage...

Wish me luck!  And if you and I happen to know the same expectant grandmother, please don't tell her I'm making something for the baby.  Just because I broadcast what I'm doing all over the Internet doesn't mean that I don't want it to be a surprise!  ;-)