July has been a busy sewing month! The other sew along I am participating in is the #100days100blocks with Gnome Angel using the Kinship Fusion Sampler pattern. My hygge happy dance color palette is enjoyable to sew with. I'm usually not a brown color kind of quilt person but I love the light Washed Linen color and find the colors feel calming to sew with.  These blocks celebrate a modern, natural and simple style and I have had so much fun finding things around my space to photograph with the blocks.

Pinks add some lively pops of color in Early Dawn light pink and Fuchsia vibrant pink. More warm colors of Smoked Paprika, Pink Grapefruit, Green Curry and Olive add spicy color flavor.

Ellie the elephant is another treat from my daughter and the rounded wood cutting board is from my son. They know me well.

Here is the Pink Grapefruit mixed in. Yummy!

These little friends remind me of my dear Roxy and our visitor friend Stevie the cat. She does like to sleep a lot so the expression is fitting. 

First 10. Even if it is 100 degrees outside, these make me feel like a cup of cocoa and a snuggle with my dog. Next week I'll share the group of the next 10 or you can watch every day on instagram. Check out the hashtag #100days100blocks to see the great fussy cutting and fun fabric choices others are making. 
​Cheers!

Week 2 for Sampler Spree had a prompt for yellow. Since I am making my quilt in mostly blue, I will not be following the suggested colors each week, BUT I did think it would be fun to make some extra blocks here and there in the weekly color and maybe use those for an accent pillow at the end. I made an additional block 76 in yellows with a blue butterfly that flutters in the center in blue and teal. 

The upper right in the next group shows my block 76 that will be in the quilt body. I played with a gradation of blues in the background, going from cream to light blue. The middle sides are using the same Thatched light blue (Mist 146) but flipped to the back side for a lighter shade. Block 58 took me the longest but I am really happy with how this block looks. It is so interesting with that little patchwork center that the angled pieces point to.

Here is the whole group of 10 blocks for the week plus the additional yellow one. 

On to week 3 and the color was teal/aqua/turquoise/seafoam. I've lucked out with my accent colors within Cottage Bleu that those greens are right in line with the teal/seafoam family.

My extra block this week is the lower left, block 82. I tried this with a gradation of a light small corner building out to darker rows wit a butterfly accent. I also really liked making the fun ship this week! And I love the pinwheel blades on block 67.

The upper right is my actual block 82 for the quilt top. I must admit, I prefer the teal/seafoam one I made.

For the last blocks of the week, I made block 96 and the blues and whites look cheery with red for the 4th of July. The backdrop is red toweling from Pieces to Treasure/Jenelle Kent with Moda Fabrics. 

Each week I like to see the blocks all together and it feels like so much accomplishment!

Week 4 and my trusty Rilakuma sewing assistant looked on with approval. 

The pear block is the very first one I made, before the sewing officially began. I thought it was the cutest block and it was a sweet week with the tree and basket added as well. For my tree, I was thinking of the white and blue striped lower band as being an icy snowy ground. 

This summer, I'm sewing along with the Sampler Spree, using the book from Susan Ache. The other sew along I'm doing is Kinship Fusion Sampler for #100days100blocks and I'll share those next! I'm enjoying using two very different color schemes and plans for the two projects. I hope you are sewing something fun this summer or are joining in one of the numerous sew alongs happening. Next week we will be about half way through this one. Summer sure is moving quickly!
​Happy sewing.

It's almost here...the 2021 Kinship sew along with Gnome Angel and I thought I'd share a bit of past projects and my plans for this year's quilt! Make sure you scroll down to see the new color combinations!!

I originally did the #100days100blocks in 2017 when we were using Tula Pink's 100 Modern Blocks book. That was lots of fun. I was really excited to see Ange release her own 100 blocks quilt "Kinship Fusion Sampler" for the 2019 sew along and I knew I had to do it! My Thatched basics fabrics were coming out with Moda and it was a great opportunity to play with them. If you are not familiar with Thatched, it can function like a solid or a blender with subtle drawn, nubby lines. It gives the colors a nice rich feel and a little more depth to the look than a plain solid.

My goal was fairly simple- use a limited color palette of white and 3 grays and add in pops of color with pairs of orange, green and teal/turquoise. I really enjoyed making my blocks because the cutting schemes were so logical and efficient and I knew that if I cut a width of fabric strip in a 4.5" size, I'd be using that whole strip in the variety of blocks we were making. 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, 1.5"...it was consistent with a nice amount of play and experimentation. A block a day. I can do that when they are no too hard yet have the right mix of variation. I bought my pattern directly from gnomeangel.com as a download but shops also have a printed pattern. I just saw them at Cozy Creative in San Diego this last week! Links to Ange's shop are at the end of this post. 

I used Ange's Kitchen Sink version of laying out the blocks with 1" finished sashing in between the blocks (1.5" cut width). I decided to "frame" my quilt top by adding a thin strip of scraps of the colors I had used (1" cut width for 1/2" finished size) and surround that with a 3" cut border.

I really like the balance of white and color and clean modern look of this quilt.

Even though I pieced the top in 2019, I didn't get around to quilting it till mid way through 2020. I purchased a used longarm Bernina Q24 and had some pandemic self-training using YouTube videos to figure out what I was doing. That is a whole other blog post...but it was tremendously gratifying to get this quilted and bound! The pantograph is Swirl Out Jr by Mike Fountain, purchased from IntelligentQuilting.com. 

This is sized to be a twin quilt but with the sashing and border, I can put it across the bed and cover my king bed! I started this sew along again last year, doing a scrappy version of blocks, and started making 2 of each block to made a king quilt. Now I'm rethinking that plan since I probably don't need two of all the blocks if I add sashing. I got busy with other projects so might rejoin with some of those scrappy blocks this year as well (or save them for 2022?)

That brings me to THIS YEAR and what my plans are. I like the layout, the idea of a limited palette with some accents, the distribution of accent colors, and the border additions. So I'm calling this Kitchen Sink Renovation (Ange's layout with a little reno). And since some NEW Thatched colors launched at the beginning of this year, I'm keen to try it with some of those.

This is Hygge Happy Dance because I think of that Danish soothing comfort vibe with these soft neutral warm colors and a little coral to red to pink warmth. This is the version I am making this year. I am currently very smitten with the new background color, Washed Linen, Thatched 158. Since I'm making this color combination, I'm gathering the fabrics to get ready for July 1st. The other colors in this quilt will be 62 Fuchsia, 122 Early Dawn, 185 Olive, 177 Green Curry, 156 Toast, 72 Cocoa, 183 Smoked Paprika, 181 Pink Grapefruit and 36 Cream.

This next mockup is called Midnight Jazz and you could make it with a dark blue Thatched, like Midnight (which is in the new Cottage Bleu line) or Dark Wash Indigo. But Pam at Serendipity Woods, and I decided a Nautical Blue Bella Solid was a great background fabric for this. The Thatched colors are 173 Bluebell, 144 Ocean, 125 Seafoam, 124 Greenery, 103 Apricot, 82 Tangerine, Cream 36, Washed Linen 158 and Toast 156.

Changing the background to White (Bella 200) brings a light and sparkly look to this same color combination in Morning Blues.

And my original, which I'm calling "Winter Turns to Spring" is Bella 200 Off White pared with Grays of 117 Shadow, 24 Pebble, 85 Gray, oranges 103 Apricot, 82 Tangerine, and greens of Chartreuse 75, Sprig 14, Peacock 77 and Turquoise 101.

If you are looking for these kitted and ready to go, then check out SerendipityWoods.com for some kits of each of these color ways. I believe Pam will be sewing along with us. I'll also be meeting with Quilt Emporium in Woodland Hills CA to go over the colors and they usually have all the Thatched colors! I'm happy to share any information of shops with Kinship/Thatched kits so let me know.

I hope you are joining in the #100days100blocks sew along with GnomeAngel using her Kinship quilt pattern. See you posting in July!

Visit Gnome Angel's website/blog  for more info on the sew along and answers to questions you might have at  https://www.gnomeangel.com/100days100blocks-event-information/ or purchase a pattern in her shop https://shopau.gnomeangel.com/collections/books-patterns/products/pattern-kinship-100-block-fusion-sampler

My dear Roxy has decided she likes this quilt. It's her colors. She must be touching it and making sure it is hers...at all times. 

Week one of Sampler Spree is ON! Whew! I kept up and got 10 blocks made.

With block 42, I used a bigger mix of fabrics than the block in the book. I still made strip sets to subcut but just not as long. I'm happy with how that block turned out. With the top left light block, I used Mist Thatched and flipped it to the backside to get a lighter blue shade. 

Block 99 in the lower left is another favorite since I like how those white triangles sparkle in the corners. For this block I used a 4 1/2" rectangle that I added stitch and flip corners to, instead of the rectangle with half square triangles attached. I thought I would simplify by taking that seam out since I wasn't changing the background color.

The last two for the week are 86 and 80. I meant to put the butterfly fabric into the little squares in the middle of the block on the right and realized I used dark blue instead after sewing that part together. So guess what, it stayed! Getting to the last block of the week was an accomplishment and I wasn't going to undo that.

It is fun to look at them all together!

Susan Ache is sewing with different color groups each week and I'm doing BLUE each week so hope you don't get tired of seeing my blocks. I have to say, I am really happy to be doing this project in Cottage Bleu since I have not made many mostly blue quilts until I designed this fabric line. I think having a sampler in all blues with a little yellow and green will be really calming and serene.

I think I'll try to tuck in another block here and there, trying out the other colors, and those could make blocks for a nice accent pillow!

In case you were wondering if I am planning on doing color studies on the individual blocks...at this point I have not planned on it and the sewing is at a faster clip than blockheads...so I think I'm going to adopt a summer vacation break from color studies, at least for awhile...we'll see. Also, Sewcialites just ended and I need to still join my blocks and make the quilt top! AND...ANOTHER sewalong is starting in July that I am going to play with. I'll post about that too but it will be an all-Thatched project so very different feeling than this one.

​Happy summer sewing!!

If you've been to the blog before you probably know I enjoy doing sewalongs for quilt samplers. I love the community and seeing the different interpretations of the same block. Plus I find my motivation to "get 'er done" is higher when I have other people to sew along with. So why not add some summer fun with a sewalong?! Yup, I'm happy to jump back into the weekly community with the Facebook group from Moda Blockheads to do Sampler Spree by Susan Ache.

Sampler Spree is published by Martingale and is the book to get if you are sewing along. Susan has done a number of books- as a contributor as well as authoring them fully herself. I was first enchanted by her work in her lovely instagram feed (@yardgrl60) and enjoy seeing the beautiful quilts she creates. For this quilt, Susan is sewing in color groups but I'm keeping my colors a bit more uniform...more on that in a bit. Some of the things I really like about this project: I enjoy the little pops of fun things I see like a pear, some baskets, an evergreen tree and some boats, combined with other blocks that are purely geometric play. And I like making 6" blocks which feel so doable and cute.

Cottage Bleu fabric was a little delayed in arriving to shops. The perfect thing about that is that it is freshly in the quilt shops now and just in time for this sewalong! I'm making my whole quilt from Cottage Bleu, focusing heavily on the blues and using the greens and yellows as smaller accents. I will be following the sashing and layout that is shown in the book, although the squares where the sashing meets will be 4 smaller patchwork squares. And I'll be rotating between blue background colors.

My overall theme of the colors will go from darker blues on the perimeter, medium blues next and white to the middle. Think of light radiating out from the middle block. I mocked it up on the computer to play around with the idea and this was the one I was most satisfied with. It might look a little rough, messy, "off" to you but that is how I sometimes play quickly on the computer, with shapes I draw quickly and not so perfectly aligned and matched. 

I'm pretty excited! I haven't made many all blue or mostly blue quilts (except for my Gypsy Wife quilt with blues and grays and that was also in a sewalong) and I am just so happy to have my fabrics and see those big blue hydrangeas and yellow fluttering butterflies. The Thatched colors in Cottage Bleu that I am using for the borders are Midnight 148 (the darkest), Cornflower 147 and Mist 146 (the lightest). For the middle ring of light/medium blues, I'm planning on using Mist for all and flipping to the lighter back side for the every-other sashing to get that lightest blue shade. 

I know one of the next questions would be "how much yardage is this for each color?" and this is a computer generated mockup and not an actual yardage based file in EQ8. This is done in Adobe Illustrator and is a rough idea.
Moda so kindly put these yardage suggestions from the book page 8 on their blog:Page 8.  All yardage is based on 42" wide fabric. 

• 1 yard total of assorted cream prints for large blocks
• 3 yards total of assorted light scraps for blocks - or approx. 3 yards for a single background.
• 3.875 yards total of assorted medium and dark scraps for blocks - referred to collectively as "dark".
• 1.25 yards of white solid for sashing
• 2.375 yards of peach solid for sashing

​My best estimates based on my sashing plan is to have:
1.5 yards (one and a half) of each of Midnight, Cornflower and Mist for sashings. 
.5 yard (a half yard, in case you can't see the . decimal) of  each Midnight, Cornflower and Mist for making blocks background
.5 (a half yard) of Broken Lines from Cottage Bleu in Midnight 48694-18 if you like that on the outer sashing
1 fat quarter bundle of Cottage Bleu (and this is really a guess...you may want more of a particular print or a little extra of yardage on the hydrangeas)

So its not exact and is an estimate/best guess. The great thing about this sampler quilt is that it will look great being scrappy and having more fabric friends join in!

I couldn't resist. I had to make one and get started. Hydrangea pear anyone? 
Hope you are joining us over on the Facebook Moda Blockheads group, starting next Wednesday, June 16th.
​See ya there!

​Just a note about the giveaway I was doing with the Martingale book...I have drawn a winner and congratulations to Karen Cole! Thanks to everyone for such nice comments!!

In May, virtually we started showing the lines that would have been at a spring Quilt Market. I am happy to share my Carolina Lilies that will be shipping in November. This line started as I was thinking about my mom who loves day lilies and I know she has been waiting so patiently for me to do some with warm happy colors. She always had a mix of yellow, orange and red day lilies in her garden and I particualarly liked the ones with spots. When I saw the Carolina Lilies and their dramatic colors and big speckled petals and curved back cap shapes, I knew they were the ones!

The curve of the petals, and the hanging stamen remind me of twirling dancers with their elegant legs and ballet slippers. I've added graceful ferns, lacy leaves and a painted paisley to accompany the spotted florals. 

The colors for this line are Ruby, Peach, Grass and Aqua, with a few pops of Teal. It is a similar palette to the Painted Meadow Coneflower palette. The teals, greens and aqua especially correlate strongly with Painted Meadow.

The selvage quote is from Dolly Parton and says "Wildflowers don't care where they grow." Dolly Parton has given so much to research and vaccine development for Coronavirus. She is a fabulous example of a beautiful, creative and strong presence with the spirit of giving to others. Thank you Dolly!

With Carolina Lilies, we have five new Thatched colors to complement the collection. I am especially smitten with the deep red of the Ruby color. I'm happy to say that with wideback Thatched fabrics, the Seafoam, Cream, and Pine are wonderful compliments to a Carolina Lily quilt top.

I had a great time playing around with some existing patterns with these new fabrics. I used Emilia and love how the half square triangles and border look in both Thatched Soft Washed Black and the tone on tone cream of little vines and leaves from Carolina Lilies, as well as in the Ruby Thatched border with Toast Thatched triangles. 

I've also redone Blockstep in this new line and use Thatched seafoam, soft black, washed linen, pebble and greenery as some of the accent colors for the light and dark versions.

A new pattern for this group is Mod Flower Box. I'm showing this in both Carolina Lilies and in all Thatched. The Thatched version uses Fat Eights of fabric. The Carolina Lilies version uses yardage for the background with a single charm pack. The pattern has a template for making the quarter circle blocks but I usually use the Creative Grids Circle Savvy Ruler for cutting my curves. This is a wall or lap quilt and if you want to leave the outer border off, it can work on smaller wall surfaces or as a table topper. This unit can also be grouped with four units to make a bed sized quilt. On the Thatched version, I've used the darker Soft Black for the background and pared it with the Chalkboard Scribbles fabric for the bigger background. I like how this emphasizes the corners on the circles. 

Carolina Lilies should be shipping to shops in November. Due to the world events with the pandemic and the shortage of shipping containers, there have been delays in the past year for deliveries. Every effort is made to get things shipped on time but things happen and there are only so many resources and containers. Just know that we are all trying as hard as we can to make it happen. Your patience is appreciated so much!!

Now, back to summer and graduations and designing new lines and working with new arrivals. Happy summer. Stay safe. Stay calm. Enjoy each day.

My week with my second SEWCIALITES block is here! Celebrate "ABUNDANT"!  I've got some variations and a fun project you can make with more blocks!

I've made blocks this week from all three of the sizes- the 9", 6" and 3". In honor of SPRING arriving and Easter around the corner, I've made a project for a cheery table runner from three of the 9" flower blocks. I used the Solana fabric line for the blocks and border since it felt so happy and summery and I just could not resist some of those busy ladybugs.

One variation that I made on my runner blocks, was to make the flower base out of two strips of fabric as horizontal bands vs one body color. This allows you to add more dimension or prints into the flowers or you could make the bottom green and the top band the petal colors. If you would like to do this, take the finished size of the flower base, divide in half, then add your 1/2" for two 1/4" seam allowances on sides. On the 9" block you would use (2) 9 1/2 x 2" strips, the 6" uses (2) 6 1/2 x 1 1/2" strips, and the 3" uses 3 1/2 x 1" strips.

Each of my flowers for the runner use two strips for the base. I picked colors of peach, blue and yellow for the prints from Solana for my blocks. I also wanted to give my petals (made with the flying geese) two fabrics to suggest a little more dimension. To keep it looking like a cohesive unit, I chose stems and leaves in similar fabrics for all three flowers. ​

If you are making the flower base with two pieces as shown below, I suggest joining them first, then add your stitch and flip corner to the joined unit. I find my seams will press flatter this way (vs corner first then joining the two strips).

My runner also adds little pollen dots on top of each flower. The pollen pieces are made from 1" squares joined by background strips and that row is placed on top of the flying geese. To balance the flowers and make the bases and leaves line up when flipping, I've also added a 1" strip to the bottom of the flowers.

Each of the flower blocks are joined, side by side, with 10 1/2 x 1 1/2" strips to make the body of the table runner. A 2" border surrounds the group.

Here is my pieced top. It still needs quilting and binding but I can get that done by Easter. It adds a pop of spring to the table. I'm planning on binding in the light green Thatched from Solana.

These could be so cute as white or light colored flowers on a dark blue, dark green or purple background. Or play around with string quilting pieces in the leaves?

I also think a longer runner with more flowers that drapes over the edge of a chest or table could be nice!

But I'll just enjoy this Solana version this spring and maybe make another one later!

One more variation idea for this Abundant quilt block. I wanted to try patchwork squares within my flower to get a mix of warm pink, orange and red shades. Using the same formula for figuring out the horizontal bands for the flower body works for size of squares. This shows if you keep one a solid band on the underside of the bloom vs all patchwork squares.

This 6" sample is done with some of my new Thatched colors! The background is Chocolate Bar and the leaves are Green Curry and Olive. The flower uses Peach, Pink Grapefruit, Sugar Rose, Fuchsia, Apricot, Tangerine, Rose and Crimson. The Fat Quarter Shop is carrying the Thatched colors, including the new additional range, as well as Solana fabrics.

If you want to make patchwork squares, use 2", 1 1/2", or 1" squares for the 9, 6 or 3" blocks.

My overall Sewcialites quilt is made with 3" blocks in Thatched in grays with three of the blocks in color. For this quilt with the small blocks, Abundant is one of the color ones! The other is the heart block from Corey Yoder and the third one will be the sewing machine from Lori Holt.

Want the FREE pattern for the ABUNDANT block? It is on the Fat Quarter Shop page about SEWCIALITES!

I hope you have as much fun with this block as I am having. Keep it simple or add to the blooming delight! And thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop for organizing this sewalong and thank you for including me. Happy sewing everyone!

The last of the new patterns that accompany the Cottage Bleu fabric line have finally arrived. Wind Drifter and The Collector are now available!

I JUST finished putting the binding on the small version of Wind Drifter and have been trying it out around the house. I intended for the small one to be a wall quilt but I think it also makes a lovely table topper!

I enjoy seeing it paired with the larger Wind Drifter quilt and the combination of dark and light. The background fabric I have used on the small one is a new Thatched color in the Cottage Bleu group called Pond 48626 145. It is such a nice deep tealish green. The medium green on the small binding is Horizon 48626 144.

The large quilt is sized at 65" square (vs 32 3/4" for the small) and I've used the white/cream tonal Floral Fling print for my background fabric. It gives such a nice, subtle texture in those open spaces.
Both of these quilt directions are written for using Fat Eighths. You can use a larger, scrappier mix of fabrics as well for the half square triangles. The larger arrows are a nice opportunity to show off bigger prints.

Moda Fabrics is kitting Wind Drifter in the large size with the cream background. The kits will have triangle paper on a roll, which makes the piecing of the small half square triangles so fast! I love triangle paper. There is less trimming and they are so accurate. They make HST a breeze!

My other new pattern, The Collector, was a really fun project with vases, jars and bowls to show off pretty prints. I went with a chinoiserie feel with my vases but I also think these would be super cute in novelty fabrics like cookies and pickles and crackers in the pantry...just flip the wide vase angled top upside down and you have a wide jar with a lid instead of a vase. Is your collection of sewing items? Fill your vessels with buttons, thimbles and threads. Or maybe you like toy airplanes, marbles and jacks? So many possibilities for these collector jars. 

These vessels are arranged into sets of 2 or 3 units, then repeated. I had sewn together one strip and put it on the dining room table. Wouldn't that make an interesting table runner? 

And I used a couple extra blocks I made to make a coordinating pillow with my quilt.

The Collector is sized 67 1/2 x 65" and is also made from Fat Eighths with background and border fabrics added. This would also be a good scrappy project. Look for pieces for your vessels that are 8 1/2" high and 8 1/2 wide to fit the larger jars and vases.

The quilts shown here are using Cottage Bleu, which should be shipping from Moda Fabrics in April. This quilt also goes well with English Breakfast mini quilt with tea cups. I enjoyed a little home decor theme with this collection and had fun with those big hydrangeas in bursts of blue splendor. I hope you have as much fun as I've had with these patterns and I'll share more as other versions are done with new fabrics.

Happy sewing!

After joining my Moda Blockheads quilt tops, I felt like the scrappy version needed something a little extra and fancy to go with all those prints and prettiness. I thought a border based on flying geese and little squares provided a nice "fringe" to play off the rows and colors.

From computer plan to quilt top, I think it went pretty much as planned. I wanted to follow the dark to light scheme and reflect that in the flying geese and squares. I've changed colors as the rows have changed from blue to green to orange and so on. 

The flying geese on the sides are in pairs with the same sashing width between pairs. Along the bottom, as the blocks are side by side with no sashing separation going across, so are the flying geese. 

My blocks were the 8" size. Therefore my flying geese are 2 x 4 finished size. The spaces between the 1" finished squares are 3 x 1" and with the sashing spaces on sides, those are 1 x 41/2". 4 x 4" squares go in the corners and 2 1/2" borders line the outsides (all finished sizes. Cut sizes are marked on diagram as well).
The flying geese with 1" sashings are added to quilt top first. The bottom and tops have the 4 x 4" added when attaching those. Small squares with background rectangles and outer border are added next.

The fabric I have use for the sashings and borders background color is Modern Background Paper 1581 11 by Zen Chic. It is such a nice low volume background fabric.

I like to see the difference of how the little squares and flying geese look in the darker values vs the lighter shades. 

I also like to see the differences in the scrappy fabric quilt top vs the all-Thatched version. I think the border on one and not the other will help to create differences between the two, as well as different quilting. Another change between the quilts is I used piecing for most of the applique blocks on the all-Thatched version. The scrappy quilt used the applique designs. Notice the darkest blue and green blocks have the original designs for flowers and birds and birdhouse. The Thatched quilt has pieced blocks from Joanna Figueroa of the tulip, house and posie (which replaces the applique rose that I used Abby Rose fabric for).

Sometimes the fabric choices for scrappy provided a different mix of light and dark so I rearranged some blocks within rows between the two types of quilt tops. The blue row especially flipped positions of some blocks.

I liked adding the little bird in the center of the Fixer Upper block from Vanessa Goertzen. Small peeks of color help to tie the gray blocks in with other rows. 

Time for quilting on these tops. The finish line is in sight! Hope you are having fun with wherever you are in the process!

56 Weeks of sewing fun. I've been busy adding blocks together to make my rainbow colored rows. But one block was missing...that final block. Joanna Figueroa from Fig Tree & Co. is our final blockheads designer to wrap it all up. Thank you Joanna for your lovely "Star Dance" block! To get to Joanna's blog with the free pattern, click on the gray bar below. But keep reading if you want to see my color study and how my TWO quilts have come together!

Flying geese and squares to make sparkly stars. A number of my patterns such as Showering Stars, Little Star Shower, and Constance, use stars like this. I liked how Joanna's version also played with the very center square in the overall composition in a color or print too. Let's take a look at a couple of color studies.

My last block belonged in my blue row so that was my starting place. Light, medium and dark blues with subtle variations between the stars. It could be fun to play with black for the background (or starting rectangle of the flying geese) and I love how the white really pops in contrast. The white and black backgrounds make new shapes within the block. The left middle image uses a mix of medium and dark blues on some of the geese corners, positioned so it looks like the colors run diagonally through the block. And the last image creates arrows pointing to a glowing center.  

After designing Cottage Bleu (shipping in April) and adding new Thatched colors, I have more blues in my Thatched range now. I have used a few from Cottage Bleu and used back sides as well for lighter shades. 

When making my print blocks, I used blue prints from Abby Rose. The plaid fit nicely into the centers of the four stars and I decided to use a different print for the center with my light background and roses.

If I were to make another one of these blocks, I would try the blue hydrangeas from Cottage Bleu. For this particular print quilt, I felt the warmer blues from Abby Rose were a cohesive color group with the other surrounding blue blocks. Here is an image of the rows joined together on my mixed prints/scrappy version. For the sashings on this print/scrappy version, I've used Modern Background Paper from Zen Chic. It is one of my favorite low volume fabrics to use.

On my print version quilt, I chose to do applique on the weeks that Jan Patek and Jen Kingwell had their  sweet designs. Last year I did all pieced blocks so this was a change for me. I still seem to resist doing turned edge applique and find my happy place is with the fusible raw edge applique. 

I think my favorite of the appliques is the bird on the upper left, dark blue. I added and extra flower or two and more white dots. They make me think of little white baby's breath in a bouquet. And for the "rose" applique week, I chose to cut out one of my Abby Rose blooms instead of the template shapes. 

How perfect is it, that the block that says LOVE was actually pieced by my mother? She was visiting a year ago January when it was the week for that block and she helped me out. Then the pandemic and quarantines started and I have not been able to see her in person since then. So I am especially happy to have a little bit of her in this quilt!

The little bird in the middle gray block is one I had not shown yet. It was a block I did late, catching up one weekend. It is the Fixer Upper block from Vanessa Goertzen and I liked it as a framework around my birdie friend.

I love to see how the light comes through when a quilt top is hanging on the frame, before it is quilted. It looks like stained glass and the colors almost glow!

I started this project with a few design parameters I set:
1. Horizontal rows of color (rainbow-like rows), separated by a simple white line. 
2. Each of the rows would use gradations of the color to go from darker shades on the left to lighter shades on the right.
3. I would make TWO quilts, one with all Thatched basics and one with a mix of Thatched and colored prints from my collections (with some other designer's goodies added in there too) for a scrappier look. This was to see how different or how similar the quilts ended up looking by the change in prints.

So how about that all-Thatched one?

I must admit the vibrancy and saturation of all that color was surprising to me when I got it all joined together. I was glad I graduated color to the lighter right side so it was not too overpowering. I used the Thatched Cream 36 for my sashings. 

Instead of the applique blocks, I used pieced alternatives from Joanna Figueroa. The upper left has the tulip block, house block and another flower posie. I did keep two applique blocks- the Bachelor Buttons from Jen Kingwell since it felt so graphic, and the Bee Skep from Jan Patek. My sister likes bees and having this block reminds me of her. So now I have a mom remembrance and a sister remembrance in my quilt.

Its hard for me to say if I like one version of the quilt better than the other. I will keep some things different as I finish these, using different pantographs for quilting them, and I'm also thinking about adding an additional little decorative border around the scrappy/print one. I like the Thatched one being simpler with no outer border. 

I am happy to come to this finishing phase of Moda Blockheads, but I'm also sad that it is ending. I know the connection and sewing along is so important during these strange and unpredictable times. So I made the decision to join in on sewing along with "My Favorite Color is Moda" because of course I need another project! I think the quilt design and colors they have suggested are beautiful! I hope to see you while sewing along with that!

The resource link to all the free block patterns from this Moda Blockheads sew along- archived at the Moda website: