The Contemporary Bear Paw Quilt Block

Quilt a Bear Paw Block with a Modern Twist

A classic quilt block, the Bear Paw is a combination of half-square triangles (HSTs), squares, and rectangles. Perfect for beginners who want to practice their HSTs, this block offers many ways to play with color placement and use up a fabric stash pile. Advanced quilters can find useful tips for precise seams and edges crucial for the “bear paw” motif to appear. Join lifelong creative and master quilter Sue Beevers in piecing together Bear Paw quilt blocks into a contemporary quilt perfect for any season. Do not be fooled by the simplicity of the block: the Bear Paw block and its resulting quilt offer endless design opportunities with variations of fabric placement, block rotation, and color. Sue will guide you through all of it and give you a unique perspective of negative and positive space on a quilt.

Begin the course with an introduction to the classic bear paw block and tips on choosing colors for the quilt. After creating a simple Bear Paw blocks, you will learn how to rotate the blocks to create different motifs and use color placement to play with the resulting motifs. Next, you'll learn how to make a Double Bear Paw block. Using the blocks you've made, you'll move on to instructions for putting together a contemporary quilt with valuable quilting suggestions to help guide the way. Finally, learn how quilting stitches are more than just holding layers together: they will enhance the quilt's design.