Kate, I think you can make as many as you want! The point is to have bears with quilts to give to as many people as possible.

One of the types of recipients they mentioned was Alzheimer's patients. My dear MIL just loved stuffed animals.

Donna

What a great idea. I guess anyone could do that on their own and give it to the local police dept. I imagine that would come in handy in some of the situations the police officers run into. Thanks for sharing the idea.

Lynn

Lynn, our guild's bears will go to the Sheriff's department unless the quilt makers give them to someone else. The folks organizing the challenge say the Sheriff's dept. can use as many as they can get.

Donna

Our local police and sheriff's dept also give out bears to kids in drama / traumatic / situations. They just featured an article in the newspaper last week about the program.
Our Guild donates 100's of bears to the Salvation Army for Christmas. We dress the bears and make a kid size quilt.
They have been doing this for over 30 years!

Making a small bear quilt is fast- you could use one square.
Making the bear is alot of work. I used to make stuffed animals....they were not quick to make....hopefully the patterns today are faster.

This is a nice cause ~ have fun with it!

I made my first bear! Fun, fun, fun!!! I can highly recommend Simplicity pattern 5461. However, I also highly recommend you read and follow the instructions. I got a little ahead of myself and blindly (but enthusiastically) sewed on until I reached the spot where I had to invert 22" of partially stuffed bear through a 2 1/2 inch neck hole. Hmmm... didn't work. I ended up sewing the head on by hand! Now I know, for the next bear, not to stuff any part of it until the head is sewn on!!!

I showed it to a friend last night who was nice enough not to point out that she has about 30 bears all much better constructed than this cute little guy. She's going to share some more patterns with me though so I think I may just be getting started on bears! This could become an addiction.

Kate

Kate, that's a really cute bear! Is that the one they had made out of some kind of felt? Thanks for the "heads up" (LOL) on not stuffing till the head is attached!

Donna

Yes, this is the 22" larger bear they had. I like the plain little turned-up snout instead of the muzzle. I just think it has such a great expression and it's very easy to make. My grandmother would have said he had a cute schnoot! (that rhymes with 'foot', not 'boot' or 'shout'.)

The mistake I made was to stuff the arms and legs before attaching them. The directions show to leave a small gap in the seam so you can stuff them after it's all put together. Never occurred to me that I would have to cram all that through the neck opening a couple times! Duh. Actually my method worked OK and with a bandana or bow around the neck you'll never see the less-than-perfect hand work.

I've got my first bear/quilt pairing done and I'm pretty happy with them both!

I did remember to include the required heart on the quilt. I cut up an old Hawaiian shirt for the bear's fabric. For the quilt, I used the Fresh Lemon's website that Marsha recently shared with us for inspiration. The quilting is free motion with variegated thread.

Aw, Kate, that is so cute! He looks very happy with his bright quilt. Great job!

Donna

YES!!! this is sooooo adorable!!!!

What a fun, adorable bear and mini quilt.

That quilt gives me an idea I could use for a pillow, made from scraps.

Someone will be thrilled to cuddle with that Teddy!

Julie

Love them! You're right, everyone needs a teddy bear. I have one on my bed. Maybe I'll make her a quilt to match the wallhanging I'm making. LOL

Cute! Making bears can become addictive, I've made a few myself. Looks very similar to the pattern I got quite a few years ago. The quilt is adorable.

Adorable! For some reason I thought you were making a furry bear. This modern Florida fabric bear is so cute! You should sew a tiny heart somewhere on the bear ~ like the bottom of his foot.
Love the quilt! You did a great job!

Oh so cute!

So adorable. Please give him/her a hug and a cuddle from me.
Vasu