The names "bear paw" and "bear's paw" seem to be in free variation, both when I search online or look in Rosanne's quilting books, and in my own writing!  For the sake of this blog, I'll try to stick to "bear paw", but the other option is equally correct.  It's a nice representational block: it looks like a stylized pawprint.  Compare some actual pawprints with the block:

The quilt block bear is missing a toe, but otherwise it does look like a pawprint, and it is commonly used in rustic quilts for that backwoods feel.  I like the block for my Dandelion Quilt because, if done in greens, it looks like the leaves of a plant whorling out from a central stem. 

In April, shortly after finishing the Organized Chaos quilt-top, I cast about for another pattern, but soon realized that I wouldn't be satisfied creatively unless I designed my own.  I decided on a dandelion motif. 

All my travails with fitting the sleeve/armscye of the Red Fox Vintage dress make me realize I need to understand better how these things are supposed to work.  I can't use the Red Fox Vintage bodice as a sloper if the armscye is screwy, can I?  So, after over five years of sewing clothes, hacking patterns, and altering things, I am ready to make my own sloper so I can make patterns that are right from the start. 

Wow... so I'm a terrible sister.  I draped this skirt for my sis in January 2018, and haven't done anything since then (yes, over a year)!  Sometimes I  find myself with half-finished projects which I want to have done, more than I want to do them!  Terrible. 

However, as it's been a while since I posted, let me show you the in-progress pictures and explain what I did.  Normally, I switch to present tense for the project diary, but this project was so long ago, and the way I did it is not how I would do it today, so I'll stick to past tense. 

So, as promised on August 21st, here I begin the chronicle of my Ahsoka Tano cosplay commission!  Though it's all done now, I wrote this project diary while working on it, so expect present tense throughout. 

Ahsoka Tano is a Star Wars character in the movie The Clones Wars and in the animated TV series.  She is a figure in Anakin Skywalker's younger years: he mentors her when she's a young Padawan, before he becomes Darth Vader.  My client C. wishes to dress as her for the Rose City Comic Con.  This requires, at minimum, a costume including a dress, belt, and gaiters.  Other accessories are the gray tights, armbands and gloves, headdress/hair, et cetera.  Our time is short (what with work and all, I only have five full days to work on it between the start of the project on August 20th and the due date of September 8th), so the priority is dress/belt/gaiters.  In a pinch, C. can improvise the rest.