Have to say, this one didn’t turn out as I’d hoped. (It’s been redesigned and needs to be rewoven.) In its defense, I designed it on graph paper–long before I began designing with charts on the computer–using the palest pencil imaginable. It was hard to see the diagram to transfer it to digital media, so I can only imagine (because I can’t remember) how difficult it must have been to design. Apparently I had no trouble following my nearly imperceptible graphite marks because I wove what I wrote. Nevertheless, while transcribing the pattern I decided to make some improvements (untested at this point, but I’m certain they’re improvements).

Before I could transfer the semi-visible drawing to the computer, I thought I’d better get a look at the original so I could know what I was trying to copy. Here’s a rough sketch of what Road to Tennessee looked like in my quilt block book.

Road to Tennessee sketch

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Though I’ve listed this pattern as a variation of Whirling Diamond, I decided to give it the name it had in my quilt block book. There are online quilt block designs called Churn Dash that look very different, but I suppose one woman’s churn dash might easily differ from another’s. Churn Dash and the pattern that follows (Whirling Diamond variation 2) look like their namesake, but their diagrams are dissimilar.

Churn Dash, front

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Apparently I designed a LOT of quilt blocks on 20 Oct 2017. These three are only a few of them. This post focuses on the third block. I’m sure this is a really common quilt block pattern, but I can’t find a name for it anywhere (though I’ve located a few very similar-looking blocks). I decided to call it “Whirling Diamond” till someone comes along and corrects me.

20 Oct 2017 — a good day for pattern designs

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A PLW friend’s birthday is today, so in her honor—because she’s so supportive of my pattern designing attempts—I’m posting some new patterns.

I haven’t given much thought to PL patterns lately. I’d felt so discouraged recently trying to post the patterns I designed earlier this year (but didn’t post while they were fresh in my mind) that I essentially gave up on them.

The squares in this post are a small stack of experimental designs based on a pattern originally devised 25 June 2016. They’re listed in the order they were woven. You might notice the evolution of certain ideas and motifs. A few are interesting, but none of them have proper names. Read More →

I’m not crazy about this one, but the flower-ish design in the center of two columns (on the back of the square) is interesting. Perhaps I don’t favor this sample because it’s woven with L1&2/3&4 warping, which is my least favorite combination. It might be worth weaving with L1 darker/2-4 lighter.

DuO Diamonds 3a, back. On this side of the square, the center diamond gets overwhelmed by the flower shape amidst two columns.

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