Farmer's Wife Blocks - 3 Basket - 14 Butterfly at the Crossroads - 63 Ozark Maple Leaf

Block 3 - Basket

 Paper-pieces with a little fusible applique for the basket handle.

  

Block 14 - Butterfly at the Crossroads

Not paper-pieced.  The 5x5 grid made for cutting some odd-ball measurements (7/8 and 11/16), but I did it.  And the block still came out too big.  I will have to go back and shave out about 3/4 inches to make it the usual 6-1/2 inch block--probably along the blue cross pieces down the centers.

Nesting seams is a great tool to make things match up properly.   I probably learned that trick from Nancy Zeiman!

 

 

 

 

Block 63 - Ozark Maple Leaf

For the life of me, I could not SEE a maple leaf in this block as given in the templates.  However, in my research looking for color options, I came across this tutorial with a slight difference in the corners.  And that one little design change made ALL the difference in transforming this awkward block into more of a maple leaf--to my eye at least.  It still looks blocky, awkward and square, but the half-square triangles are a big improvement! [What kind of maple trees do they have in the Ozarks with square leaves?]

In my defense (or to my credit), I live in Wisconsin.  There are maple trees all over my neighborhood.  We have real maple syrup on our pancakes and French toast -- no excuses for any corn syrup substitutes.  I know what a maple leaf looks like, and this block as given didn't even come close.

The colors in this block may be a departure from the color palette for the rest of the blocks.  I went with orange in an attempt to evoke a maple leaf (again) because the shapes in the block itself are strange to my eyes.  I am pretty sure it will still work in the overall quilt top, once it comes together.  ;-)

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 12.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.