Bear's Paw Quilt Block Remix! - Kate Colleran Designs

Hi friends!

Today as part of our Exploring the Basics series, Tammy and I are sharing about our recent block challenge: to remix and reimagine theBear’s Paw quilt block!

The Bear’s Paw quilt block

The Bear’s Paw block is a four patch block with sashing in the middle.

The are 4 “paws” in the corners and then the sashing is used to separate the paws. The claws are made from HST units and the base of the paw is just a square.

A pretty easy block that really creates an impression of a bear paw with simple shapes!

Where to start- color or the design plan? For this block I started with a design plan but we will first chat about color!

The Remix – color

For color, I am using more fabrics from the Contempo line from Island Batik.

This is such a great collection of bright, fun bold batiks; check out my blog post about the line here.

For this block, I was planning to play with a gradation of color, or the idea of overlapping color, so I choose 3 greens; a light, a medium and a dark. There really wasn’t enough value change from the dark to the medium but… it still worked pretty well.

Then for a pop of color I chose an orange and a light background.

The Remix – the block

For my remixed block, I wanted to play around with the center of the block. I was looking at the squares and then the sashing and center sashing square and wanted to look into pulling them together and creating overlapping colors.

Also for my block, I took away some of the claws – or HSTs – and left 2 sets. Then I turned the HSTs around so they no longer looked like bear claws.

Really my block in no way represents a Bear’s Paw anymore!!!

But isn’t that kind of fun? Starting with one block and morphing it into something totally new?

The Quilt

And when you put my blocks together you get…. a secondary design! You know I love a good secondary design.

I am still in the process of making all my blocks and when my quilt top is done, I will also finish up the pattern. Because I think this one is super cool! And in keeping with the plan for all my blocks this year (naming the blocks after the tree for the month), this one will be called Oak.

Head on over to Tammy’s blog post to see her reimagined and remixed Bear’s Paw quilt block. As always, Tammy’s remixed block is so creative!

happy quilting!

Kate

P.S. We are skipping doing a block remix in July; actually I am taking the entire month off from blogging.

We are in the middle of a house repair in the basement that is not fun … my dining room is currently storing half the stuff from the basement (including a LOT of quilts, some soon for a big sample sale!).