Goldilocks and the 3 Bear Paw blocks

A while ago I saw a Bear Paw quilt that someone was making and thought, I've never made that pattern, I should do that. Mind you, I've tried several times, and I just wasn't liking the results enough to continue. But then I searched Pinterest, and saw quite a few that I liked, so I decided to make a trial block and see what size I liked best.

First I made one with 1.5" HSTs. That turned out to be 10.5", way too big for my liking.  So I tried 1" HSTs.  Nope, at 7" that was too small. So I made the block with the cheddar background, with 1.25" HSTs, and that was juuust right. It's actually really surprising what a half inch change in the triangle measurements does; I wasn't expecting it to shrink 3.5". My chosen block will measure around 9", and I'll be able to cut lots of the pieces from scraps.

My main aim lately is to whittle down the drawer of charm square leftovers.  I've  pilfered bits out of each pack for years, and there's only random remnants left. I'm sick of hoarding them, so I'm going to be ruthless and slice them up for this project.

One of my main gripes with this pattern was making 16 HSTs for each block. It was too tedious for words. But what if each quarter was like it's own little block, like the Boxy Bowties? That would be much more doable.

This is just adorable done with all scraps, I'm so pleased with it. My favourite block patterns have a space for light, dark and medium fabrics, so everything in the scrap drawers can join in. This ticks that box.

I know it's going to be a leader-ender, but I need to get a feel for how the blocks are going to look, so I'm making sets of triangles as my MAD piecing for May.  (My ironing pad deserves a new cover, it's disgusting.) I'm cutting up mountains of scraps, and zombie sewing late into the night. I figure if I have the triangles done and kitted, then choosing the medium squares to go with them later on will be pure fun. 

I have never used the cheddar charms from the packs, so I've built up quite a collection.  I have no idea what to do with them, but they can all live in their own container from now on. Maybe a Pinterest search will help with ideas for them as well.