feline fanatic

No it is not inevitable. here is a link to pics of one I made a long time ago. Paw of the Bear

If I did chop a point on that quilt it was not more than 1/16" and a chop that small can be camouflaged with quilting.
On the linked quilt the BP blocks had 1" strip of background fabric sewn (to finish at 1/2"), then the sashing strips. But the principle is no different. For some it is easier to put your sashing strip on the bottom so you can actually see your HST seam intersections when joining and not chop your points. Chopped points are usually the result of not maintaining an accurate 1/4" seam allowance when joining the HST or when joining the blocks or when joining blocks to sashing. I have made a fair number of BP blocks and some even made out of flannel and haven't chopped the points.

Another block that is very similar in construction is Maple leaf 2nd quilt off of the longarm - maple leaf quilt
Go to the 3rd picture in that topic and look at the partial block pictured in the lower right corner. You can see one of my points is chopped about an 1/16". Then look at the pic of the full quilt. Can you find that 1/16" chopped point? My point is (no pun intended), when the block is a few inches from your nose it seems like a pretty bad flaw to you, but when you view the quilt as a whole you are hard pressed to find what seemed to you to be a glaring problem when you were working on the block.

Do persevere to try and improve but not to the point where you stress and obsess over small imperfections that in the grand scheme of things can't or won't be seen by anyone else.

NT66

mea12.....try watching this video.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-X4_K4jm4w

Pay attention to the order in which the HST and block is sewn together.....that it what gives you the extra 1/4"
on the ends for the final 1/4" to trim out the block. Good luck!

For instance, notice when she sews the top three pieces together; when she flips them over to press, there's 1/4" remaining beyond the points on top....

Try one sewing it like she does.....you might be over thinking it and thinking it won't come out right; but after the bottom is sewed to the top portion, and the two side pieces are sewn together, that should leave 1/4 all around for you...I hope anyway! Best of luck.

feline fanatic

Hmm for some reason my link to my bear paw quilt isn't working. Trying again.

Paw of the Bear

dunster

Square in a square can be sewn with the technique where corners are added to the center square, and the points will be just fine. You just have to start with the right size squares on the corners and then sew accurately. Sometimes it's easier to paper piece some blocks. The bear paw is not the easiest block to sew because it does demand accuracy, but as feline showed, it can be done. And if something is just a little off, it won't affect the overall beauty of the quilt.

Thanks to Dakota Rose for reminding me of Donna Jordan's videos. I just watched her lone star from a jelly roll and now I want to make one!

jclinganrey

Take comfort in knowing you're not alone in this. While I'm certainly not perfect at it, I have found that sewing my seams from the back - so I can see exactly where my stitching needs to be - makes a big difference.

Jingle

I find everything must be accurate to get accurate results. I have not made bear paws but nine years ago i did make a couple quilts with lots of flying geese. I was not so accurate then, not always now either.

dyequilter

I did this video a while back. Hope it helps!
https://youtu.be/aqk9ebCqLoE

mea12

Dyequilter, thank you so much!! I have watched a dozen tutorials but yours is the one that addresses this problem head-on, directly and very much ON POINT (pun intended). Not only did you mention it once but throughout the videos and i have watched them several times now. I really love the larger size block..so much can be done w/ just one of that size so i'm actually going to try to follow your directions precisely and hopefully end up w/ one big block can be used as table-topper, wall-hanging, lap-quilt or baby-blanket. can't beat that! I looked as closely as possible and it looks as though your points are there even after sewing on the first border. That's where my problem lies.. they are blunted bc there's not enough room beyond that triangle point for a 1/4" seam. I'm going to pay particular attention to the order i sew those together and will follow this tutorial precisely. So exciting!! I may do this today and will report back!! if i have to lose those points with that border, i will just use a dec stitch to cover..that'll look fine on a block of this size... I hope everyone reading this thread looks at your wonderful tutorial, dyequilter. I see you have many more too!

Dodie

\I have come up with a method that works perfect for me so I love working with half square triangles for instance you want a 3 1/2 inch triangle or square I add 3 1/2 times 2 =7 so I cut 2- 7 inch squares place right sides together, draw an X sew 1/4 inch on both sides of X then cut p and down at the 3 1/2 mark on your ruler then same cross wise then on your drawn lines being very careful not to move your fabric then trim each block to 3 1/2 inches and you will have 8 perfect triangles it is much easier for me to trim than use that 7/8 inch mark hope this helps someone

osewme

Here's a tutorial from Donna Jordan where she shows making her floating points. She cuts her "point" fabric 1/4" shorter than the background fabric. I saw a better tutorial of hers one other time but can't find it now. Hope this helps you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsnBBKzSghY&t=11s