Couldn’t resist those Bear Paws!

 I have never made a Bear Paw block before. No idea why because I always thought they looked great. I think it might be because over the years I’ve probably looked up patterns on Google and found they need odd sized pieces, cut at 2.875”, for example. so I was put off trying.

I follow Cathy’s blog Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting and this year she finished a gorgeous turquoise, purple and white Bear Paw Quilt and  since then has been making more Bear Paw blocks in all sorts of colours and fabrics. Well, of course they caught my eye and then my eyes positively gleamed when I read that she used 4.5” and 2.5” scraps. In my head I translated that as “squares” so I sorted out some yellow scraps ( still March yellow ) and kitted up 7 blocks. Sewed the first making the HSTs as I always do but when I came to join those to the square they were too short, so I had to swap out the 4.5” squares for smaller 3.5” ones. That worked, ending up with 5” Bear Paws.  I’ve since kitted up a few more in the original size and I’ll make the HSTs by sewing 1/4” away from the diagonal and snipping of the bonus triangle corners.

Of course I’ve since learned that Cathy used 2.5” strips, using her Easy Angle ruler for quickness. 

I do have one of those rulers so perhaps next week I’ll try that method for some Pink blocks.

Here are my original 7 Bear Paws and the one Ticky Tacky House I made.

And that was all the sewing I managed to do. On Monday I started a cold, Tuesday felt a bit better and went out to my Volunteering work but on Wednesday I felt dreadful and ended up in bed - still there. I was having these unbelievable bouts of coughing and yesterday morning I literally couldn’t breathe and we called the ambulance as I have several heart conditions and was afraid this wouldn’t be good for my heart. The two paramedics were fantastic, checked me over thoroughly with their battery of machines and decided I had a viral cough. So, no antibiotics, just time, before I start to feel better. Really frightening, but the things the guys suggested are helping and my husband has been great calming me down and helping to get my breathing under control when I’m having a bad coughing spell. 

So, an odd week. A shame because our weather has been beautiful and that is due to change to cold again. 

Linking up with Angela’s So Scrappy blog.