7-block

Bear Paw Pattern

By quiltshome ⋅ June 10, 2006 ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Ruby McKim describes this quilt block pattern as the “Bear Paw,” although some call it “Duck’s Foot in the Mud,” and Pennsylvanians called it “Hand of Friendship.” The Bear Paw is “unquestionably” from frontier origin, where a creative woman might have copied a graphic version of a bear’s paw onto linsey-woolsey or hickory dyed jean, using the unworn parts of much be-patched garments into a sturdy quilt block. If you set this block with alternate white blocks, you would need 36 blocks (at about 12.5″ square), 18 pieced and 19 plain white, plus a three-inch border at top and bottom. That will provide you with about 72″ by 79″ quilt, and it would require 5 yards of white and 3 yards of colored material. This pattern is also a 7-strip block, where seven strips are laid side-by-side to create the block. You can see the bear paw pattern in a full-sized quilt (without the white blocks). That page will have a link that will bring you back to this post.