#QUILTBLOCKMANIA - Camping

Written By Emily Maxwell

I love the great outdoors!! If I could find a way to do all the sewing I wanted and still be outside, I would be in heaven!! When my husband and I started remodeling our old stone farmhouse, we actually took the leap and added a wraparound porch! It has always been a dream of mine to have a wraparound porch. I love having all the room and different “sections” on my porch. I have one cozy corner that is all mine!! I have plans to build a bed swing to hang there, during the warm months a lot of my house plants move out to that spot, I have a rug down and some of my antiques. It also has the perfect secluded view of the farm. We weren’t even quite done with the house and I had already put me a rocking chair out there and gone out and done some slow hand sewing. It was so peaceful!!

I have also always had a love for camping. And I mean real camping - tent, sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag camping! It is just fun to me to disconnect from everything and “rough it” for a little bit. A friend of mine and I used to always camp 4th of July weekend on the back of the farm by the fishing pond. And 4th of July in Tennessee is hot and sticky, but so much fun!! I love hearing the crickets chirp and the frogs croak all night!

Being from Tennessee, we also have the Smoky Mountains close by! If you frequent the Smoky Mountains, you are highly likely to see a black bear, and not always where they should be. So when I saw the '“camping” theme for this month’s #QUILTBLOCKMANIA, I was inspired to do a black bear in Tennessee fashion (hence the orange background).

This block is GREAT for scraps. The pattern does come with some fabric requirements, but I have made a couple now from scraps only!

When making a single block like this, I have a small cutting mat and ruler that I leave right at my sewing machine. I will quickly trim dogears off, finger press and keep going. Then I give it a good press in between units. As an example, I broke this block into the “Ear Unit”, the “Eye Unit,” and the “Snout Unit.” While making each unit, I just finger press at my machine, but then give it a good press when I finish each unit. Then give it a good final press at the end, and your block is ready!

I love this block so much I also used some scraps from the Find Your Path Collection from Maureen Fiorellini for StudioE Fabrics that were just perfect for a second block!!

She has a blog hop starting today and you can check it out and follow along. I will be featuring my block and my BIG project with her fabrics on Nov 7th. So, head back over and see what I did then!

Make sure you visit all the other FABULOUS designers and collect all the blocks! Follow the links below to each block. Also, check out all the blocks in the image below! I would love to see what you create with this block, and others, so please remember to share you makes on Instagram with the #lookingforhoneyblock, #QUILTBLOCKMANIA and #marthajanepatterns!! Happy sewing!

Emily Maxwell
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