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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Arkansas Traveler Block

Finished the Arkansas Traveler block today and it is number five in my blocks for Quilts for Boston. 

My shortcut for cutting and creating diamonds worked perfectly every time, so I plan to share this process with Lee Heinrich at Freshly Pieced




Speaking of Lee, towards the end of yesterday's post, I wrote about this block and incorrectly attributed the design to Faith Jones at Fresh Lemons Quilts.    I edited yesterday's post with the correct information.

Lee and Faith are collaborators with Katie Blakesley at Swim, Bike, Quilt and they created and hosted the Summer Sampler Series quilt-a-long during July and  August 2011.  Earlier this year, they published the Summer Sampler Series Anthology and I was thrilled to purchase it.   As you probably figured out, the Arkansas Traveler is one of the blocks in this anthology. 

The block came out okay; I'm still not thrilled with the center joining.  There are twelve separate seams converging in the center and the bulk was simply very difficult to sew;  I guess I have to dig out the walking foot.   I also didn't plan properly which diamonds I wanted to point towards the center; hence the off kilter background pieces and the duplication of colors.   I've got the process organized for the actual quilt. 

After the block was finished, I thought about the pattern as written and played around with it to potentially eliminate four of the center seams.   So now, I  have to make another block to test the re-written pattern.....then I'll contact Lee and run the changes and shortcut by her.

Tomorrow afternoon, I'll be teaching another crochet class as the fill-in instructor at the Fleming Island Michaels, so I probably won't post my progress on the pattern re-write or my blocks for Boston until the weekend.

See you then.


Maus





   

3 comments:

  1. Love this block! I've been wanting to make one, just haven't done it yet. Your yellow and grays look great together.

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    1. Hi Julie: I just posted pictures of my new Arkansas Traveler blocks made from the revised pattern. Much easier to make and they look fabulous. Hope you'll check them out.

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  2. Great idea to revise that pattern. I made one of those for Lee in a sewing bee and there definitely were a lot of seams in the center. Good thinking!

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