Hive 3 June tutorial 2016

Hello all
My name is Marie Doyle and I live on Mount Desert Island, Maine, home of Acadia National Park.  This is my first tutorial so please feel free to offer any questions, comments or concerns.  The block I decided on is a Bear's Paw.  If you've never made one, it's nothing more than HST's and squares.  But first, I thought it would be fun to hear a little bit more about everyone, so your question this month is, "What was your first job?"  Mine was as an ice cream scooper at a local amusement park.  It had large vats of many different flavors and I went home sticky most of the time.  The worst day occurred when a boy I had a HUGE crush on came by just as I was diving into the bottom of the vat for the last of the chocolate chip.  Needless to say, he wasn't all that impressed.  Anyway, on to the block.

This is the color palette I'm going for:

I've wanted to do a Bear's Paw quilt for quite a while and thought this was a perfect opportunity.  I've been going to thrift stores picking up men's plaid shirts and would love the blocks to be made in plaids if you have them.  If not, checks, stripes, etc. are fine.

For each "paw"  (there are four of them in this block)  you will need:

(1)   4 1/2" med/med. dark plaid square
(2)   3" med/med. dark plaid squares
(2)   3" low volume squares
(1)   2 1/2" low volume square

The HST's can be made in the same fabric as the 4 1/2" plaid square or not - it's up to you.  In the picture below you can see a brown for the HST's rather than the navy.

The HST's are made in the same way as last month.  Place a plaid 3" square with a low volume 3" square, right sides together.  Draw a diagonal line, sew 1/4" on either side of this line and then cut on the diagonal.  Press to the dark and trim to 2 1/2".  You will have 4 HST's.  Repeat with the other 3" squares.  Sew together as shown below.  The paw should measure 6 1/2" unfinished.

After you have all 4 "paws" done, assemble the block as seen below.  This isn't the usual set-up for this block, but I've included a picture of the finished quilt so you can see the end result.  The unfinished block should measure 12 1/2".
Thank you for taking the time to put this block together and I look forward to hearing about your first job.