STATE BLOCK CHALLENGE WEEK 3 ARKANSAS

Welcome back. My hand is healing well. I appreciate all the wonderful get better wishes. Luckily I kept it in ice for about 8 hours and have very little blistering!

I had such wonderful blocks from Alabama and Alaska! I was so impressed with them. I did finally figure out an easy way for you to vote on the blocks. I do have winners from the Alabama blocks. You will get to vote on the Alaska blocks by clicking on these links.
Alaska Block A. Alaska Block B. Voting is closed on the Alabama blocks.

I thought I'd share a couple different blocks in case you didn't get a chance to see them. One of the quilters told me that she had difficulty with curved seams so she machine appliqued the curved pieces. Quilters are very resourceful!


Here are the winners:
Beth Caldwell won with this wonderful Block A! I wanted to know something about Beth and why she joined this blog challenge. She chose my Mosaic Magic pattern. Here is what she said.

"I entered because I like your patterns and met you when you did the workshop for the Hannibal Piecemakers Quilt Guild, which I have been a member of for about 10 years.  It was when I joined the guild that I became a much more serious quiltmaker. I first made a couple of baby quilts for my sons in the 70’s.  I have been sewing since I made doll clothes with a needle and thread because I was too little to treadle my mother’s machine. I live on a farm in rural Monroe City, Mo area a few miles from where I grew up on a farm.  I am a retired registered nurse. I thought entering the challenge, would be a “challenge” to  try something new."

This block is Mary Steimle's! As soon as she sends me some information about herself, I will share it with you.

On to blocks 3A and 3B from the state of Arkansas. (I know, I skipped Arizona. We will do that one next week.) Remember, this is your project so it does not have to look like mine and you can choose to fussy-cut different pieces of the blocks. I decided that I needed to give you both cutting directions for pieces that can be rotary cut and the templates so you can make your own for the sections that you want to fussy-cut. Don't forget to send me a message through the contact form on the top left of the page to get the templates.

Block 3A is a simple block with squares and half-square triangles. I chose my dark and light main fabrics, and a light, medium and dark coordinating prints.

 

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:
Main print(s): (8) 3 1/2" squares (I fussy cut four of each)
Light print: (2) 3-7/8" squares; sub-cut into (4) half-square triangles.
Medium print: (2) 3-7/8" squares; sub-cut into (4) half-square triangles.
*Tip: If you prefer, cut the squares at 4" with the fabrics right sides together and then cut into triangles. They will be ready to sew. Then trim squares to equal 3-1/2".
Dark print: (4) 3-1/2" squares.

PIECING INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1. Piece the triangles to create (4) half-square triangle units. Press to darker fabric.

 Tip: For faster pressing, layout the patches all at the same time and press across all four.

 

 Step 2. Layout the (4) half-square triangle units, (8) main 3-1/2" squares, and (4) dark 3-1/2" squares as illustrated. Sew the patches together across the rows, chain stitching down. DO NOT CLIP SEAMS APART Press seams in opposite directions.

Step 3. Sew rows together matching seams. Press seams in any direction. I usually try to press towards patches that have less seams.

Block 3B is more complex. It is a Kaleidoscope block. Originally it had inset seams so I adjusted it so you do not have to sew those. I took the diamond and cut it in half, then fussy-cut the same patch from the fabric for both parts. I chose both my dark and light theme fabrics and a medium light fabric for the background.

CUTTING INSTRUCTIONS:
Main print dark: (8) template A.
Main print light print: (4) template B.
Medium light print: (4) left and (4) right template C. To get the left and right sections, cut them at the same time with the fabric wrong sides together. You will make 4 cuts.

PIECING INSTRUCTIONS:
Step 1. Sew a left and right template C to a Template A patch. Edges of the patches will match so there is no guessing as to where to place them when sewing. Press to template C. Make four.

                                                                                                                                                       
Step 2. Layout the template A and B patches as shown.

 

Step 3. Sew a template A patch to a template B patch. There is no guesswork as to where to place the patches. Just match the ends. Press seams open. Make four. Be sure to keep the same patch, whether it is A or B on the same side when piecing. (If you sew with the A patch on the right, then always keep it on the right for the four sections.)

Step 4. Sew two sections from step 3 together to create a half block section. Press seams open. Repeat for the other half.

 

Step 5.  Sew the two halves together, matching center seams. Place a pin on each side of the seam to hold the center seam together when sewing. Press seam open. To get the block to lay flat, spray with water and press seams. Use tip of iron to get the center seam to lay nice and flat.

Step 6. Sew the sections from step 1 to each corner of the center section.

Sew opposites sides on first, matching seams. Press seams towards the outer corners.

I do hope that more of you choose to share your blocks so that they can be viewed by other quilters. I think all of the blocks that I have seen so far have been wonderful! Please tell your friends to join along. They can enter the challenge at any time and do as many or as few blocks as they want.

I would like to know if you would prefer that I do 2 blocks every other week instead of every week. Please use the comment section below or the contact form to give me your opinion. I will do what the majority of people want.

Looking forward to seeing more wonderful blocks! Please email me at tlischko@yahoo.com with a flat photo of your block. You can take it with your phone. Just tape it to a wall with good lighting so you can get a nice flat shot.

I think I found an application that might work for the pdfs! Please let me know if any of the links in the blog don't work.

Here is what you have to do to open the pdf: Click on the links below one at a time. It will open a page that says download. Click on the download icon and a box will open asking you to either open or save. Save the document (remember where your downloads are). Once you have downloaded it, you can click on the document and your Adobe will open it. I hope this works!!!! Let me know if it doesn't. Thanks

Arkansas Block A pdf 
Arkansas Block B pdf 

As always; Do what you love and love what you do. Thank you for reading. Toby Lischko