Bear paws... RARRRR!!!!

When it comes to quilt patterns, I have always loved the Bear Paw. I don't know why. Back in 2015,  I decided to make my own Bear Paw quilt. But other than a sewing machine and fabric, I didn't have many other tools of the trade. So I did all my cutting at Mom's, and brought the pieces home to sew.

I wasn't using pre-set measurements from a pattern (I couldn't find one with really big paws, which is what I wanted) so I did the math myself. Unfortunately, I did it wrong. I cut my large squares too big (forgetting the seam would make the claws smaller). Nor a huge deal  - I decided to piece as is, leaving an overhang I could trim.

Then I took all the squares up to Mom's to use her cutting mat and rotary cutter. All was going well until I managed to trim some a full inch smaller than others. I'm still not sure how I did it. But the only fix was to rip seams, trim things down and sew all over again.

I just wasn't up to facing it, so everything got shoved in a bag and buried in the deep dark recesses of the studio. That is until this summer, when I started cleaning things out. I came across the bag and was finally able to wrap my head around the best way to redo them.

Back at the start of the summer, I spent an afternoon on Mom's porch with them. She spun yarn, I ripped seams, we chatted and it made the task seem much less daunting.

And this weekend, with my Pinwheels under my belt, I was finally confident enough to take another stab at the Bear Paws. I admit, it has a lot to do with the studio set up I have now (plus Mom bought me my own cutting mat and rotary cutter for my birthday last year)

With the new/old machine, I have room to lay my blocks out while I piece them (resulting in fewer mis-sewn seams). Kitty corner to the table (not in the picture), is my ironing board and iron. I have a rolling chair at the machine, so I can just roll from sewing to pressing and back again with ease.

It wasn't too long before I had a perfect paw done

And then 11 more!

This is the layout I'm going to use. The floor makes a nice stand in for the neutral fabric I still need to get for the plain squares. Despite all the cutting down, the  finished paws are still very large - 11".
I've got a stack of coordinating fabrics collected from remnant bins, and once I get my neutral fabric in there, I'll start playing around with some colour-coordinated sashing.

But for now I'm just thrilled to have 12 paws, all the same size!