The Bear's Paw Star

This quilt was a joint project with my best friend and sister-of-my-heart Karen Chitwood who lives in Bend. There she is on the left.

The unifying fabric are the triangles around the center square. It is one of the first reproduction fabrics from the Smithsonian collection. We then chose fabrics from our own stashes that “looked” old.

We each made half of the blocks. Some we made together with two sewing machines going and fabric scattered all over Karen's house. Then we sent our finished ones back and forth in the mail a couple of times so that the one could see what the other was doing. When we had all the blocks finished we convened back at Karen's house. Again I took my sewing machine. We laid the blocks out on the living room floor, admired them, moved them around some and finally settled on where we wanted them. After the top was pieced together we layered it. We used cotton batting because we both like the look and we wanted it to have that old feeling.

Then the quilting started. We each quilted about half. If one of us was going over the mountains the quilt went along. If one of our family members was going the right way over the mountains at the right time, the quilt was sent with them.

In the end we had to push ourselves because we wanted to enter the quilt in a contest at the Mountain Country Mercantile. We won third place - more fabric!

We now trade the quilt back and forth. Each of us has the use of it for a year. We decided that it will eventually go to the first grandchild born to either one of us. (There are none as of yet.) Those instructions are written on the signature block on the back of the quilt.

The block size is 12 inches. . The quilt is 84" x 84". Started in 1995 and finished in 1996. We found the pattern in _Star Gazing: A Collection of Ohio Star Variations_ by Jackie Robinson, published by Country Thread Designs in 1989.

We are planning our next joint venture but haven't started it yet.

Back to Jennie's Quilts.
Last modified: 16 February 2000