Here’s some of our favorite variations of the bear paw and leaf quilt blocks. Get the PDF guide for all the measurements: Bear Paw & Maple Leaf Quilt Block Guide
Video transcript:
Hi everyone I’m Paulette Morrissey from Tulip Square and this week we’re going to be working on a real simple block called bear paw or bear claw and I’m just going to show you a couple of variations on this very simple block and how quick and easy it can be to make without wasting a lot of fabric and we’ve got a couple different variations that I’m going to show you so there you go so let’s head over to the sewing machine and we’ll get started okay for the bear paw blocks I’m going to show you three different variations we call one of them the bear paw one of them a maple leaf and one of them is snazzy square so we’re going to start with the bear paw you got one big square and all of these pieces and dimensions and everything and the amounts you’ll need are all on a PDF in the description below if you are inclined to make this pattern all right I’m going to start with on this bear paw I’m going to start by drawing a light line on the back of these two pieces diagonally because we’re going to sew on each side of that line we end up with two really nice squares make sure your line is very accurate point to point and make sure you can see it that you draw it in something you can see
Now I’m going to pair that up with my two darker squares of the same size
I’m going to sew on each side of that line I drew I’m going to sew a quarter inch on each side
Now once you’ve sewn on both sides of that line you drew you’re going to cut along you’re going to cut along the line you drew and that gives both pieces their quarter inch seam
Then you press these open and you’ve got two perfectly nice identical squares so I’m going to do that with that one and cut this one
go press those open I’ll be right back and I’ve got four nice little squares like this and unless it says otherwise in a pattern I always like to press towards the darker fabric of the two just because you can see through you can’t really tell right now but sometimes if it’s a dark fabric pressed onto a light fabric you can see through it especially once you put white batting or something behind it it’s a little more visible so I like to press always towards the dark unless there’s some reason you can’t okay so I’m going to press in pairs but they’re going to be opposite I’m going to press these two together I mean stitch these two together right here along this edge and I’m going to stitch these two together along this edge so they’re opposite each other okay now I’ve got two pieces like this and then I’m going to take one small square of the same background color and I’m going to stitch it to one end of this I’m going to put it right onto here
Now I’ve got this piece sewn to that little square and now I’m going to take this piece and I’m going to sew it to this bigger piece right to here and you’ve got to make sure you keep the direction of your triangles correct because you you want to sew it to here you don’t want to sew it to here because what we’re trying to do is put it like so okay we have a bear claw I’m going to sew this to this right here so now I’m going to sew this to this right here
And there’s our first bear paw block done now there’s all kinds of variations on bear claw blocks you can have this can be two colors cut diagonally there can be a two colors here or there can be a corner missing here all different things it’s just a very popular pattern and it’s got lots of variations and I’m just going to show you three so that was our traditional bear claw okay so this next one is called the maple leaf and if you make it in different colors it makes a neat autumn leaf it makes almost a cute Christmasy one if you make it red and green but what you need is a light color for your background and your leaf color or whatever you’re going to have for your front so I’m going to start by drawing the light lines on the back of these two pieces again
and I’m using a little leafy pattern fabric for the background I thought it was kind of cute with a maple leaf no and I’m going to sew on each side of that line
and then I’m going to cut them down that center line that I drew after I’ve sewn on both sides and see I’ve stitched on both sides of the seams and I’m going to go press these both you get two halves that are the same for each square like this and I’m going to press them all to the dark green
I’m going to take one of these green squares that they’re slightly smaller that you’ve got four of for each square and I’m going to take two of the background squares and once again you can either draw a line on these diagonally or you can just lay them on here I’m just going to lay them on here and I’m going to sew here I might as well show you an easier to do it this way
I’m going to sew the diagonal line right along here now this time I did not sew on both sides of the line I drew I just sewed right on the line and then I’m going to cut off this excess corner here and then I’m going to sew this I think I’m just going to press that now this time I’m pressing towards the dark and now I’m going to do the same thing with this other one I’m going to put in the corner and you can draw the line again if you want or you can just eyeball it up you’ve got some line on your sewing machine you can follow go ahead and do that now normally you might think you’d press this away from the center just because there’s less bulk but on this one I’m pressing it towards the center for two reasons one because the darker fabric is in the middle so you want it always towards the dark when you can and secondly because it raises up that center green thing and that’s the stem of your leaf and if it’s a little more raised up than your background that’s a good thing better than the background being raised up okay so now you’ve got this square and you’re going to sew it to one of these and then you’re going to sew these other two green squares to each other now I’ve got this little corner with the stem so I’m going to put this here so that’s the beginning of your leaf and I’m going to sew these two together on this seam and making sure seam is nestled together nicely right here now I’m going to take two of these we’ve got four of these we’re going to sew two of them together like this so they’re opposite each other okay like so we’re going to sew these two together along this seam and these two together along this seam so they’re opposite now you’ve got two pieces like this plus your piece like this so these are going to go here and here what you do is you take one of these and sew it to your square right along the seam and this other one needs a square up here to be the corner of the block so that one just goes right here and we’re going to sew that on right here and now we’re going to sew this to here last one to hear
Line up our seams nicely
and there you have an autumn leaf and your bear paw and I’ll show you one more that we call snazzy squares it’s also very simple
Start by doing quarter inch seams on both sides of your two largest pieces paired up with your dark pieces
Then we cut that along the line we drew
I’m going to press these open
Gonna sew two together like that and two together opposite that and two like that
and sew here and sew here quarter inch seams
Now when you make sure that you’ve sewn all your triangles together correctly you always have two things like this if you’re not sure picture it should look like a kind of a Christmas tree so you’ve got two like that and then when you turn them like so there’s your little claws or whatever now you’re going to sew two of your blue pieces together
Along the side seam and this could have been cut as one long one just isn’t worth bothering to cut one long piece for one pattern the one block and then I’m going to pair the other blue one up with a white one of the same size and then you will have one white one left over for this corner I’m just going to sew these two pieces into a square making sure
I’m going to sew this piece to this one just like so down this edge
and I’m going to sew this piece to the front of this one down this edge and all that’s left to do is sew these two pieces together right here so now you have three variations on the same pattern and remember there are other variations where you can have a line through the middle you can have one where there’s nothing in here at all just it’s just kind of a fun pattern it’s quick and easy and the only thing you ever have to remember is keeping your triangles going the right directions when you’re sewing them together so that’s all there is to the bear paw with its variations you got a bear paw a maple leaf and a snazzy square
so I hope you enjoyed that quick little video on how to make the bear paw blocks with their little variations I kind of like the leafy one myself and if you want the dimensions and the pieces and everything that you need to make these they’re in the description below there’s a PDF you can download and of course it’s free and also don’t forget that on every Saturday when we have a pattern video for something that is not a free pattern like one of our runners or toppers or placemat sets or something it is free for the first 24 hours when we post it at 10:00 on Saturday morning it will be free for 24 hours so be sure you watch for those just about every other week in between our blocks and other good things okay so I hope you have a good week happy sewing and we’ll see you next time bye-bye