Block of the Month July 2015 - Bear Paw Block

July already - not a great summer here in England. We had a week and I am perfectly content with that. We are having lovely vampire weather with no sun much at all and I am as happy as a clam.

My ta dah! moment of the week is one which you will very much enjoy this time I think. My lovely Pretty Patches editor has asked me to write a web tutorial series on sewing basics and quilt techniques and it is free for you to enjoy. Pretty Patches is one of my beautiful English magazines and I will have a column in there beginning soon (I will let you know when).

But at the moment, it is all about the tutes. You can find them here and I urge you to check them out if you are starting out in sewing and quilting. There will be more to follow at some point too.

I thought that we might get a little bit more involved this month and make a block with a few components, triangles and squares. But fear not! The triangles are all half square ones and they are not too difficult at all.

I am very into text prints at the moment and I have used some low volume prints and slightly upsized the block so that you can see what is going on. This makes it easier to make and looks a little more modern too. Anyway, here it is...

It was actually a lot of fun to make and the more subtle tones are a bit of a change from my usual brightness - just to prove that I am versatile!

Start with three fat eighths or similar. I love the pretty softness of these but you could equally go for brights or red and white.

My block is 26.5cm x 26.5 cm.

Begin with a 10cm square for the top right corner (fabric #1: text print). From fabric #2 (pink ditsy floral), cut an 18cm square. These two pieces do not require further cutting.

To make the 'claws' cut two more squares  10.5cm x 10.5cm each. two from fabric #1 and two from fabric #3 (blue soft floral).

Take a square...

cut it in half diagonally. Take a second square of the other colour and cut it in half diagonally too...

Now join the two pieces...

One claw made. Using the main photo as a clue for the alignment, repeat this for all of the other pieces so that you have four claw segments plus the two original squares.

By the way, pay attention to the direction of text prints and one way only designs. Make sure that they are all facing the right way. It is worth it for your finished make.

Now, working on the right hand column, join two of your claw bits one on top of the other...

Attach this to the right hand side of the large square like this...

Now make the top section which is two more claw pieces plus the corner square that you cut first...

Join them to the top of the block

And that's all there is to it! This looks pretty with a plain square every second block and it looks fabulous made into a scrappy quilt.

As I said, it is a larger version so you could size it down a little but be aware that it will become progressively fiddlier as you do this.

Enjoy and thank you so much for stopping by!

Happy sewing

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx

All things bright and beautiful

We are enjoying a lovely summer here in the UK and the sun makes all colours pop beautifully. I have taken a break this week from sewing and put together a little set using glass beads instead. Here it is...

This is easy to make and it is a wonderful way to use up single beads. I love buying job lots of beads with mystery mixtures in them and then seeing what I have. The trouble is that it is rare to get more than one or two of each.
The good news is that matchy-matchy is not so stylish. The trick is to avoid a pattern like the plague. Enter our mixed bag of beads.

So, what do we need this time?
You will need some very basic tools - chain nose (pointy) pliers and some flat ones. You will need some wire cutters too. They are not too expensive if you haven't got them and they look like this....

1- chain nose 2-flat 3-wire cutters

-a large silver lobster clasp
-4mm silver spacer beads
- tiger tail wire
- 2.5mm silver crimps
-a couple of small split rings
-BEADS! Colourful and varied but stick to a couple of colours so that the look is not lost.


I am going to make a bracelet to show you the technique but rest assured, it is the same as the necklace exactly. Just use more of everything to make the necklace! Okay, here we go....

Measure your wrist and then add about 8cm more. My wrist is 17cm and to add 8cm makes the measurement of the tiger tail wire 25cm. This will give long ends for security and I poke these back through the holes in the beads. Cut the wire and thread a crimp bead on and thread through the lobster clasp...

Now poke the wire back through the crimp bead....

Slide the crimp bead up to the base of the clasp and give it a squeeze with the pliers to flatten it....

We are using tiny crimp beads so that you don't need special crimping pliers. These tiny beads can be flattened with the flat pliers. Double duty saves a bit of money.

Fun bit next! Thread on your chosen beads, keeping an eye on your wrist measurement. Too small and it will not fit comfortably and too large and it will dangle onto your hand and that can become very annoying.

As you thread the beads on, pay attention to the wire end...this would be wrong...

Poke that end into the beads (it will fit) so that your bracelet looks like this...

Neater? You will notice that the beads are alternated with a silver spacer. this helps with flexibility and endurance (don't really want glass grinding on glass as you move). Aim to begin and end with a spacer too because it looks better.

When you have finished and the bracelet fits your wrist, do the same thing with the crimp bead but this time use a split ring. 

So finish with a silver spacer, thread a crimp bead on, thread the wire through the split ring and then back through the crimp and the wire end goes into the beads. Flatten the crimp bead.

By the way, normally, you would use a jump ring and not a split ring. I prefer the split ring for added security. The choice is yours though. If you are a professional beader, you will know what to use. For newbies, this gives a nice secure and quick to make set with a minimum of tools.

That's it! You have achieved a bracelet!

Very pretty - like something made of sweets. Thank you all so much for stopping by.  I am going to mix things up a little and put the earring mini tute onto my Facebook page and you can find that by clicking here.

Have fun and happy crafting!

Love and hugs

Debbie xxx