 This week is ROSES for Moda Blockheads. Jan Patek has a lovely applique design and I was going to do that, especially since I have done all the applique designed blocks this year. However, when I saw it was themed "roses" I felt inclined to deviate a little and still do applique BUT make it with my roses from Abby Rose. And just doing a big bloom and bud and leaves to blossom fully on the square. I used fusible raw edge applique, which is the same technique I used for the other applique blocks.  For my all- Thatched block I wanted to use a flower that Joanna Figueroa posted a number of weeks back. I used her tulip block in the second round of the blocks and saw this alternative on week 32. She calls it The Posie Bloom and you can see her blog post with directions here: Posie Bloom Block. It is such a nice compliment to the earlier pieced tulip she designed.  These blocks will fall right about in the center of my orange rows. But even after my first alternative block from Joanna was done, I saw an alternative just for this week. Stacy Iest Hsu made this super cute Roses Alternative block in a 12" size and it is just the cutest, chunkiest flower grouping!  This one will go towards the light end of my blue or green row. Since Stacy made it in 12" and all my blocks are 8" I made some adjustments on sizes of pieces. CUT SIZES: All my flower petals are 2 1/2" squares. The stitch and flip squares for around the petals and for the center of the flower are 1" squares. I made the leaves 2 3/8 wide x 2 1/2" tall. The stitch and flip on the leaves are from 1 1/4" squares. The stem is 7/8" wide x 4 1/2" tall. When I joined the top flower with the leaves, I just trimmed up the leaves as needed to match the 4 1/2" width for each flower unit and the 8 1/2" width for the overall block. Thank you Stacy for this cute flower pair!
I've got a regular garden going on here and I'm enjoying the lovely blooms! Happy sewing everyone and happy decorating for the holidays and festivities. Stay in, stay safe and stay creative.
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 In Moda Blockheads I am doing two versions, one scrappy and one all-Thatched. This is the progress on my scrappy version! I've used mostly fabrics from my collections with some additional fabrics from V&Co Ombre Confetti and a Little Red Riding Hood from Stacy Iest Hsu. I've mixed Thatched into these blocks to be a blender and make a link to the other version. For the rainbow bands I am debating adding some strips of color in between the blocks and I plan on having white sashing between the horizontal rows of color.
I'll be posting my blocks for this week on Friday so stay tuned!  Half square triangles in rows can be straight lines of direction or create more square formats within the space. Here are a few experiments in playing with different lights and darks on the half square triangle colors. When I squint my eyes, I can see things more as overall shape and not be influenced by the smaller pieces. Xs, bowties, circles...do you see them?  My blocks are for my brown row. I have Thatched browns but not many prints so Ombre Confetti is my go-to for brown blocks. I just love those metallic gold polka dots!  Visit Betsy Chutchian's blog for the pattern at athttp://betsysbestquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/  Did you know there are giveaways going this last round of patterns?? Yes! See Betsy for more details on this week's giveaway! Happy sewing!
 Another purple week for COLOR STUDIES! I really like Flying Geese blocks a lot and was really happy to see this lovely block by Sherri McConnell. I love the idea of just one arrow head being an accent color or a pop of lightness. I also like how 2 flying geese together can look like a V shape when you alternate the base and corner fabrics. You can play with different fabrics on your corners to emphasize the center fan blades or make more of a pinwheel. Thanks for this block Sherri! Check out her blog for the pattern and a fun giveaway this week (click the gray bar below).  Next week I'll show you what my print blocks look like spread out in their rows so far. As it has progressed to this point I have a better feel for what colors I need more of and it seems I am needing blocks in the medium to light value range.  I've done my block with warm and cool purple colors with one quadrant being about pink. Not light girly pink, but keep berry background and fuschia! The Sweet Pea & Lily prints have a sweet little pink branches and leaves print and I could use this for both the light pink arrow and the light purple arrows. I feel like the pinks give this an added energy.  The dark deep purple in the corners of the print block (lower left corner) is Moda Bella Solids Prune. This Prune color is so deep and rich! I love it! It is the same purple I used for the background on my original Showering Stars quilt.  This block looks great on point too! This past weekend I also spent a little time trying to catch up on a couple other blocks. I was able to get my "Fractured Rainbow" blocks done.  Log cabin blocks are so nice to work on. Every time I do some I think I NEED to do more log cabins. I've chosen to work with light gray alternating with white/cream for a more striped look.  The seedlings are from Dandi Annie and the gray strips and graphic motif are from Sweet Pea & Lily. We brought back the lines from that line in Cottage Bleu, which will be shipping in April 2021. The white on white lines in this print block is from the Cottage Bleu version. The all-Thatched grays use Gray 85 on the front and back sides.  Make sure to visit Sherri's blog for her giveaway info and have a great time sewing this week!
-Robin  What a fun block this week from Corey Yoder! I love the possibilities in this with the diamond shapes and squares. I didn't even realize it was Wednesday till I started to see blocks being posted so I didn't get a color study done this week. I'll be back to playing with colors on the computer for next week's block though.  On my all-Thatched version I wanted the lighter end of the spectrum for my layout. My quilt will be in rainbow bands of color and going from dark on the left to lighter on the right. One of the ways I get those lighter shades is by using Thatched on the back side. I love the soft look it has when I use it that way!  My print version uses Thatched with Sweet Pea & Lily for lacy branches and a graphic floral center. For both blocks I made my diamond stitch and flip blocks with half dark purple corners and half cream corners. I wanted to emphasize the star in the middle but I think it made more of a petal shape on this print version and I like it. The all -Thatched with the dark purple emphasizes a bigger diamond square in the center.  Visit Corey's blog for this week's Moda Blockheads pattern. Can you believe this is our fourth and final cycle of designer blocks in this sampler project? Woooo hooooo! Keep sewing!  |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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