Bear S Paw Quilt Pattern Meaning

Two historians say african american slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the underground railroad.

Bear s paw quilt pattern meaning.

This saves time both marking and cutting and provides perfect results. Beautifully sewn vintage log cabin quilt. Early 20th century writer ruth finley was sometimes as much of a story teller as she was a quilt historian. It actually helped save real people s lives.

Bear paw follow an animal trail through the mountains to find water and food. Yes you heard me right. 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.

A single bear s paw quilt block requires 16 hsts so we ll use the very efficient 8 at once method. One of the most popular theories about the origins of the bear paw quilt pattern is that the quilt block was used to guide escaped slaves to food and water in the days of the underground railroad. However this quilt block is a wonderful choice especially if you wish to make larger quilt blocks for your finished quilt. Today let s put together a variation of the traditional bear paw quilt block.

The bear s paw quilt block is an old favourite. This is despite its unusual size due to the fact that it is a seven patch block. A bear paw block looks just like the big claw of a bear. Patches 3 and 4 used for this technique are cut oversized.

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. Bow tie dress in disguise to appear of a higher status. The hst units are trimmed to size after stitching. The bear paw quilt block.

The bear paw quilt isn t just a pretty pattern. But of course even this has several names. Quilts with patterns named wagon wheel tumbling blocks and bear s paw appear to. Free quilt block pattern.

Bear s paw is the type of quilt block that sparks your creativity because it lends itself to so many piecing options. You think i mean what can i really do with a few half square triangles squares and sashing. You can easily rearrange these blocks to create a unique pattern. Saving lives since 1850.

They need to follow the trail of bear tracks to the food and water that has been left for them. 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. 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.