Bear S Paw Quilt Pattern Meaning

Bear paw follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food.

Bear s paw quilt pattern meaning.

Designed with one square and multiple half square triangles this traditional block is actually pretty easy to make and a reader favorite. This saves time both marking and cutting and provides perfect results. A single bear s paw quilt block requires 16 hsts so we ll use the very efficient 8 at once method. Saving lives since 1850.

It actually helped save real people s lives. Yes you heard me right. These quilts were embedded with a kind of code so that by reading the shapes and motifs sewn into the design an enslaved person on the run could know the area s immediate dangers or even where to head next. Beautifully sewn vintage log cabin quilt.

Bear paw this pattern tells them to take a mountain trail out of view of the area. Today let s put together a variation of the traditional bear paw quilt block. Bear s paw is the type of quilt block that sparks your creativity because it lends itself to so many piecing options. This bear s paw is built on a 7 x 7 grid but rest assured that this does not mean that you have to construct 49 patches.

A bear paw block looks just like the big claw of a bear. However this quilt block is a wonderful choice especially if you wish to make larger quilt blocks for your finished quilt. Two historians say african american slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the underground railroad. This blocks come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

But of course even this has several names. The pattern that most quilters recognize as the bear s paw is one with 4 paws each pointed in a different direction like the example to the right above. Quilts with patterns named wagon wheel tumbling blocks and bear s paw appear to. Bow tie dress in disguise to appear of a higher status.

The bear paw quilt block. The bear s paw quilt block is an old favourite. You can easily rearrange these blocks to create a unique pattern. The bear paw quilt isn t just a pretty pattern.

The hst units are trimmed to size after stitching. See all of our bear paw quilt patterns. There are lots of other names for this block like the best friend bear s tracks bear s foot cat s paw duck s foot in the mud hand of friendship illinois turkey track and tea leaf design wow that s a lot. Early 20th century writer ruth finley was sometimes as much of a story teller as she was a quilt historian.

They need to follow the trail of bear tracks to the food and water that has been left for them. This is despite its unusual size due to the fact that it is a seven patch block. Free quilt block pattern.