Revitalizing "Bear Face" Quilted Wallhanging

A little while back, I found myself presented with an intriguing challenge.  My client came to me with a cool wall hanging, it was made from the pattern "Bear Face" by Janet Fogg. I posted another quilt a couple of weeks ago that needed more quilting added to it, but this one needed a reboot.  I was really excited to add my quilting and make this bear roar! 

Here is a photo of the original pattern (you can find a link to the pattern here)

While I was genuinely impressed by the intricate patterns, that this quilter had applied to the wall hanging using computerized quilting software, a critical observation emerged—the central aspect of the bear's face didn't quite capture the desired intensity, rendering the overall appearance somewhat soft.

Can you see what I mean?  The circles around the face and in the snout made the bear look less than intimidating.  I started by removing the central designs, this was pretty easy as I am very familiar with a seam ripper 🐸.  

The designs around the bear's face were well done and the other quilter's talent was evident so I decided to leave them and just focus on the central part of the wall hanging.   

Here you can see the small area that I decided to redo. I also marked where I wanted to add some detail to the bear's eyes. 

It took me a while to come up with some free-motion quilting designs that would add some attitude to the bear's face and still be cohesive with the digital designs.  I defined and elongated the face by using dot-to-dot quilting on the 'snout' and outlining it with a spike detail like what is on the forehead.  By curving the spike design around the sides of the nose I tried to add some more depth and illusion of realism. 

Here is what it looked like when I was finished, unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the entire quilt.  But all in all, I think this was a successful refire, without completely negating the original quilting. 

As you can see I had a couple of changes on the fly but I'm very happy with the outcome.

Thanks for reading!

Sam