Hive 3 - May 2026 - Patriotic Bear Claw Block for Wendi

 Hello My Fellow Bees,

For my block this month I would love for you to make me a large patriotic Bear Claw. Happy 250th Birthday USA! (Please note that my address has changed back to Arkansas just in case you printed the address list earlier in the year. I have updated my address on the official list.) 

I am happy with any red, blue, and white or cream background! I’m good with solids, plaids, gingham, floral, dots, vintage, modern, prints (as long as they aren’t juvenile), and tone-on-tone. Light to dark navy blues are all good, faded reds/bright reds (see bottom picture for more color palette ideas). Samples I pulled from my stash:

These blocks will be 12.5” unfinished and will be made with one large center square, one small light square, and 4 half square triangles. Here is the chart I used, with one small variation - I went ahead and cut my half square triangle pieces at 5” rather than 4 7/8” (probably need new glasses but I digress). This chart was found on zarkadia.com:

The large square, labeled medium fabric in the chart, should be either primarily red or blue. If the large square is red, please make the “claws” blue and vice versa - if the large square is blue, make the “claws” red.

Use your preferred method to make the half square triangles. The above chart allows for the 2 at a time method. Attached below is a link to instructions for the 4 at a time method, if you prefer to use it. Also you can press open or to one side - I’m not picky and am definitely not the quilt police :-)! Do what works best for you.

https://shannonfraserdesigns.ca/2022/04/12/4-at-a-time-half-square-triangle-tutorial-math-cheat-sheet/

Once you have one 8.5” color square, one 4.5” background square, and four 4.5” half square triangles, assemble the “claws” paying close attention to the orientation of the half-square triangles.

This is my vision of what I’m going to do with all the Bear Claw blocks:

Thank you so much!