Filling the Bingo card with a Bear Paw block variation

One of the last open squares on my quilt guild Quilting Bingo card was, “Try a new project or technique from a quilting book.” I'm usually winging it—sans instructions—when making quilt blocks, but thought I'd flip through the pages of a Missouri Star Block magazine to see what it had to offer. 

Quilting Bingo card and Block magazine, Vol.7, Issue 6, 2020.

One of the first articles was an assembly variation of the classic Bear Paw block. Let's try it!

Bear Paw article in the Block magazine.

Methods for creating the sawtooth edge

As seen in the photo, the Bear Paw block has a sawtooth edge. Following the instructions in the article, I cut fabric for 4 blocks. The batiks are for the Bear Paw (foreground) and light fabrics are for the background. The block finishes at 6" (6.5" unfinished).

Cutting units for the Bear Paw block.

Instead of making four HST [half square triangle] units for the "claws" of the paw, the Block magazine assembly variation uses the "snowball" or "flippy corner" technique for making the sawtooth edge. Here is the Missouri Star Bear Paw video with Jenny Doan. For comparison, here is the traditional block assembly using HST units with Eleanor Burns from Quilt in a Day.

In the Missouri Star video, Jenny also offers an efficient, assembly line sewing process for making multiples of this block. 

Using the snowball corner technique to achieve a sawtooth edge.

The Jenny Doan method with the snowball corner technique is quite simple and eliminates the fussier patchwork assembly process of piecing HST units side by side (for which I usually use pins so I don't knock off any points). There seems to be fewer seams and less fabric bulk at seam intersections (or is this my imagination??). However, there is more fabric waste with the snowball corner method because of the extra fabric layers that are trimmed away. 

Of course, you can always follow quilting legend, Mary Ellen Hopkins' suggestion and just leave these extra layers in... especially if you're not going to hand quilt the piece.

Four Bear Paw blocks with extra half square triangles.

I trim away the extra fabric layers and just add the extra HSTs to my pile of patchwork crumbs... for use in future projects.

A new look at a classic quilt block

So, this was a new look at a classic quilt block! What do you think? I like it... and as I take the time to compose this post and upload my photos, it's growing on me even more.

I learned a new patchwork method which could actually be faster than the traditional method (if you don't take time to sew the trimmed triangles), and it was easy and fun. 

Four Bear Paw blocks using the snowball corners technique.

This quilting dog learned a new trick!

And, I'm marking this square on the Bingo card.

My last Make Nine finish for 2021: A string quilt UFO

This quilt spans two centuries.
It incorporates fabrics and quilt blocks from four decades—the 1990s, 2000s, '10s and '20s.
It's a string scrap quilt and my last finish for Make Nine 2021, the UFO project.

Scrappy string quilt. Make Nine 2021.

"She had a deep scrap basket."

This string quilt top was finished in April of this year, 2021. The blocks are a combination of left-over blocks from a 1990s quilt, demo blocks from a quilt guild program in 2017, and the remaining blocks are a stash buster with fabrics spanning four decades—including this one. This is what they mean when they say, "she had a deep scrap basket."

String quilt top completed in April 2021.

Free-motion quilting on a domestic sewing machine

With a recent sewing machine upgrade—to a Janome M7—this was a perfect project in which to "kick the tires" and put the machine through its paces. The 13.5" bed made maneuvering the quilt sandwich a breeze. This project prompted me to clear off the card table to the left of my machine and the drawing board at the back of the machine so I had plenty of space to rest the quilt and build a quilting nest.

Machine quilting on my domestic sewing machine.

Scrap quilts are so forgiving! 

You can hide a lot of flaws when quilting a scrap quilt. The variety of fabric prints and colors will camoflauge any wobbly quilting and inconsistencies. At my whim, I did free-motion swirly/loopy designs in the "light" diamonds... and zig-zags and straight line motifs in the "dark" diamonds. All different designs or a "variety on a theme." The different motifs tested the capabilities of the machine and the operator (me).

A sampling of free-motion quilting patterns appear in the blocks.

I practiced rulerwork and ditch quilting on each side of the narrow inside border. I like the ruler foot that comes with the M7.

Rulerwork and ditch quilting the inside border.

The faux piped binding was comprised of a newly-purchased DecoStitch Elements from Art Gallery Fabrics and a Canvas blender from Northcott. The binding was attached completely by machine.

Faux piped binding. Applied all by machine.

I decided to add a meandering doodle in the narrow border. This was a last minute decision, but thought the border was too wide to go without any quilting.

Faux piped binding and free-motion doodle in the inside border.

I took my time sewing on the binding (taking 3 hours) but I got that bobbin thread close to the ditch on the back.

Stitching line for the binding (shown from the back).

I used the royal blue 108" Canvas wide backing [Northcott] for the backing fabric. The the texture from the free-motion quilting patterns shows quite nicely on this tonal wide back.

Free-motion quilting seen from the back of the quilt. 

Quilt Stats

Cotton and poly threads used for free-motion machine quilting.

Here are the quilt stats for the string quilt:

• top threads: 50 wt, 40 wt. variegated cotton threads [by Wonderfil Threads, Superior Thread, YLI]
• 50 wt 2-ply cotton thread [Aurifil] for the rulerwork ditch quilting
• bobbin thread: Glide trilobal poly thread [by Fil-Tec]
• 19.5 hours free-motion quilting and rulerwork
• 3 hours to attach the faux piped binding completely by machine
• finished December 19, 2021
• finished size: 59" x 83"

All Together Now

It's about time these orphan quilt blocks found their way to a finished quilt! They're All Together Now.

"All Together Now" finished size 59" x 83"

And all 9 of my Make Nine 2021 projects are complete!

Make Nine 2021 worksheet.

A new, green kitty quilt

Now that we've had several cold December nights, the kitty beds on our back porch are more frequently occupied. Sometimes the kitties sleep single, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes they're in a big black-and-white pile where you can't tell where one cat ends and another begins. This is Stan Leigh and a buddy on my latest, green kitty quilt.

Stan Leigh and friend in a kitty bed.

After the long process of working on my guild Challenge entry, it was nice to whip out a small, stress-free quilting project—like a kitty quilt.

Let's Go Green

This quilt started with a test block. I pulled from my stash of green fabrics and patchwork scraps to go with the orphan block. 

A test block converted into a small kitty quilt.

A loopy, all-over free-motion quilting design was quick and fun.

Free-motion quilting.

The zingy, lime green binding was applied by machine. I think this binding livens it up the color palette.

Machine binding.

Voila! A new kitty quilt for our entourage of tuxedo kitties.

Green kitty quilt.

I think the black kitties look quite dashing against the green fabrics.

Two black cats in the kitty bed with the green quilt.

My Picnic Dropcloth: a stitch and thread sampler

The pandemic moved many of us to the mindfulness and calming effects of handwork—stitching, embroidery, English paper piecing, sashiko, mending, and the like. Something that caught my eye on my Instagram [IG] feed this summer was the Picnic Embroidery Sampler hand embroidery stitch-along hosted by embroidery artist, Rebecca Ringquist of Dropcloth Samplers. 

Picnic Stitch Sampler from Dropcloth Samplers. 5.5" x 4.25"

Although I couldn't make the stitch-along calendar coincide with my schedule, I did purchase one of the pre-printed sampler canvases to work on at my own pace.

Progress on September 17, 2021.

An ideal portable project for travel

This—and small samplers like this—is a great portable project for traveling stitchers. Minimal supplies are needed and all the bits fit nicely in a small zipper pouch that can be tucked into one's travel bag.

Travel tools for hand embroidery projects.

A sampler is a sampler is a sampler

While this is designed to be a embroidery "stitch" sampler, I think mine is more of a thread sampler. I tested and used a variety of threads from my thread collection—6-strand embroidery floss, perle cotton, and a "new find" was a cotton hidamari sashiko thread [from Lecien] that was the perfect weight and thickness.

Hidamari 100% cotton sashiko thread, size #22/6 [from Lecien]. 

With the multitude of hues and shades available in 6-strand embroidery floss, I used floss for stitching the flowers. The colors and stitches were easily blended and I could "create" intermediate colors by combining strands from two different colors in the needle if needed. For the French knot flower centers I used a combination of 3- and 6-strands of floss.

Progress on October 26, 2021

The surrounding "grassy" area was comprised of a sampling of different threads. I used 8 wt. perle cotton, 3- and 6-strand floss and a hidamari sashiko thread size #22/6. The sashiko thread was smooth and lovely to work with.

Progress on December 5, 2021.

Once the marked areas were stitched, I decided to add a few more rows around the perimeter so all the diamonds were surrounded by green. The finished piece is 5-5/8" x 5".

December 7, 2021. Picnic Dropcloth Sampler. 5-5/8" x 5"

I plan to block the piece and at some point, work it into a larger project—a zipper pouch, small project bag, or possibly a needle book. For now, I'm calling it "finished." It's colored red on December 7 and documented on my Stitch Success Tracker.

December 7, 2021 Stitch Success Tracker.

And I' don’t  apologize for a "messy back." It’s part of my process… part of the structure… part of the form… part of the story.

The back view of my Picnic embroidery sampler.