Skip to content

Easy Arkansas Traveler Quilt Block – Free Tutorial

    Let’s learn how to sew together an Arkansas Traveler quilt block. Whether you dig into your scrap bag or plan out your color scheme, you’ll make a beautiful quilt! This Ladies Art Company block is a spool-type block and is an easy block to put together. Using only snowballed corners and rectangles the block goes together quickly so you can have a full quilt in no time!

    arkansas traveler

    Fabric Requirements for a 12″ Finished Arkansas Traveler Quilt Block:

    • Light/Ivory: 8 – 2.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles
    • Medium/Coral: 16 – 2.5″ squares
    • Dark/Teal: 4 – 2.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles

    arkansas traveler fabric requirements

    Sewing Directions:

    Flying Geese Variation Units:

    Step 1:

    Using the eight Light/Ivory 2.5″ x 6.5″ rectangles and the 16 Medium/Coral 2.5″ squares, sew together eight Flying Geese Variation units. The unit is essentially a Flying Geese block but a longer rectangle is used. You can find my tutorial for making a Flying Geese block at https://quiltembroiderypdf.com/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block. Here’s a pictorial rundown of the steps.

    arkansas traveler 1

    Step 2:

    Then you repeat Step 1 on the other end of the rectangle so that the finished unit looks like the picture below. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for a total of eight Flying Geese Variation units.

    arkansas traveler 2

    Spool Units:

    Step 3:

    Lay out two of the Flying Geese Variation units and one Dark/Teal 2.5″ x 6.5″ rectangle as shown in the picture below.

    arkansas traveler 3

    Step 4:

    Now sew the units together as shown below, and

    arkansas traveler 4

    Step 5:

    Press the seam allowances toward the center. Repeat Steps 3 – 5 for a total of four Spool units.

    arkansas traveler 5

    Putting It All Together:

    Step 6:

    Lay out the Spool units as shown in the picture below. From here, the Arkansas Traveler block goes together like a typical Four Patch block.

    arkansas traveler 6

    Step 7:

    Sew the units into two rows as shown below.

    arkansas traveler 7

    Step 8:

    Press the seam allowances toward the Light/Ivory fabric as shown in the picture below.

    arkansas traveler 8

    Step 9:

    Now you can sew the two rows together to complete the block!

    arkansas traveler 9

    Step 10:

    Just remember to press the seam allowances. I’ve used the tweak/twirl/furl method for pressing as you can see in the picture below.

    arkansas traveler 10

    Layout Ideas:

    Here’s the basic 4 x 4 layout.

    quilt 1

    For this example, sashing and cornerstones were added.

    quilt 2

    Here’s the basic 4 x 4 layout but done scrappy.

    quilt 3

    This example shows an on-point layout with alternating plain blocks and setting triangles.

    quilt 4

    And this on-point layout has sashing and cornerstones and plain setting triangles.

    quilt 5

    Here’s another scrappy idea with a pinwheel in the center.

    quilt 6

    And another scrappy version with colored sashing and cornerstones.

    quilt 7