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Aircraft Quilt Block

For practice this week, I chose the Aircraft quilt block. 

Aircraft Quilt Block

It can be drawn with a 2 x 2, or 4 x4 grid.

If you have BlockBase, it is #1319.  I like to draw the blocks that I practice with, since the point of practice is to learn to use Electric Quilt, and increase my quilt design skills.

Here is what the block looks like in a straight set:

Aircraft Straight Set

The Aircraft quilt block is a simple little block, so I thought I would need lots of alternate blocks to play with.

Not so (which is good, since I have a self-imposed challenge to work with one block).

Let’s play with rotation.

Aircraft Straight Set 2

Aircraft Straight Set 3

Aircraft Straight Set 5

Aircraft Straight Set 6

Not a single alternate block was used in any of the four previous designs, yet, there is plenty of movement going on!  Diagonals, zig-zags and bow-ties for the eye to see!

I added one simple alternate block in the following design:

Aircraft Straight Set 4

For the next two designs, I’ve added just one alternate block that was created by simply deleting a few lines from the Aircraft quilt block.

Aircraft Straight Set 7

Aircraft Straight Set 8

The open spaces calm the design down and let the eye rest.  They are good spaces for lovely quilting.

I have yet to try this block in an on point setting.  That will be next week’s practice.

Tree Peony

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust

When a friend became ill, she could no longer care for her tree peonies (actually a woody shrub), and she gifted three of them to me.  They are also known as Chinese, or Japanese, tree peonies.

I don’t know the varieties of the beauties that she gave me.  I don’t even know what color they are.  I’ve been patiently waiting 3+ years for them to bloom.

But this spring I was rewarded with one gorgeous creamy yellow blossom from the one tree peony that I thought was the one least likely to survive (she did not like being transplanted at all).

Tree Peony

The blossom is all the more sweeter since my friend has lost her battle to cancer earlier this year. 

Vera would be pleased with her legacy.

Airplane Quilt Block

I have been practicing my drawing and designing skills using Electric Quilt and Nancy Martin’s calendar for my tools and inspiration. Nancy Martin CalendarLooking back, I can see lots of personal growth.

However, the Airplane block was a bit of a drawing challenge for me.  It is not done with an obvious grid.

Airplane Quilt Block

But I conquered! 

In fact, as I sit here, writing, and looking at the block, I realize that I may have drawn this the hard way.  Those bright yellow squares are now jumping out at me, and they would make an obvious grid to use as a starting off point.  Something I did not do (Why didn’t I see that when I was drawing?!).  LOL!

I started out with the EasyDraw worktable.  Mistake!  If you want to practice this block, choose the EasyDraw + PatchDraw worktable.  You’ll need the PatchDraw to draw the propeller.  If you forget, and use the EasyDraw worktable, like I did, you will need to copy your block and paste it to the EasyDraw + PatchDraw worktable. 

Thank you, Electric Quilt Genies, for making it possible to copy and paste entire blocks for folks like me!  I really didn’t want to have to redraw the whole thing!

And here is the quilt design that I came up with:

Airplane Quilt

All of the blocks can be found in Electric Quilt’s block library.  How cool is that?!