A New Quilt Beginning

Remember the last Arkansas Traveler quilt I made and gifted? I've known since I sent that one away that I wanted to make one for myself. So as a bit of a reward to finishing up some UFOs and deadlines, I decided to start this week.

Arkansas Traveler Fabric Choices by Fresh Lemons Quilts : Faith

For the last several months, I haven't been able to stop thinking about making a quilt where the background was a nice, dark blue and the focal fabrics were cream with black accents. (Many of those here are from Sweetwater, Summersville, Comma and Collage.) I spent a bit of time last week with my solid color cards and decided to go with Moda Bella Solids Admiral Blue for this quilt.

I changed up the Arkansas Traveler block a bit. I reduced the size some to make an 8" finished block. I also decided with this smaller size, I would just use one fabric for the diamonds (rather than piecing in 4 smaller diamonds to make a larger diamond). I've started and finished cutting the fabrics for the quilt yesterday and am ready to start my chain paper piecing. Can't wait to share more!

I also wanted to let you know today that one of my sponsors, Christa Quilts, is starting a new quilt along on September 25th called Modern Trees. It uses scraps to create a fun Christmas themed quilt from "Tri-Recs" trees. Make your trees solid or improv - the choice is up to you. Visit Christa's blog for the complete quilt along schedule!