This is block 42 and we are 3/4 of the way through with this sewalong! Next week begins our last cycle of blocks from designers. This week it is Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree and Company with her Starburst block.

You can treat the quadrants in this block as one piece/color or make the half square triangles a different color. I have also played around with making my pieces that make up the big square pieces as rows of colors vs a single color. I like how it can look striped by trying doing that. The last one makes little bows in the corners!

I am making all my blocks in the 8" size so I tried out some border options. Making a 1" border (finished) around the whole block makes it 8" and I also envisioned adding some of the same squares and half square triangles to bring those same elements out into the borders and creating additional shapes. 

If you want to make the version with the HST in the center of the strip and squares in the corner, follow the same directions for making the half square triangles using the 2" squares. The other pieces are 1 1/2" square and 1 1/2 x 2 1/2" rectangles. 

This week I decided to make my print block in SOLANA since it is shipping to shops now! I've used the little tractor and barn in the scenic print for my center with coordinate prints from this sunflower line. My outer border is using my happy, busy ladybugs and gold varietals corner squares. 

My all-Thatched uses yellow and orange on the front and flip sides to get those lighter shades. For being such happy summery colors, this still feels calming with those paler shades of the colors. 

Enjoy this happy, bursting Starburst block and visit Joanna's blog for the pattern!

Get ready for round 4, our final round of patterns, starting next week. I think this week I am going to try to catch up on any blocks I've missed so far. Happy sewing!
​Robin

Happy Moda Blockheads Wednesday! Well, its actually Tuesday night but I am going to post this early so I can go to bed!! On blockheads days, when it is my pattern, I stay up till crazy late night/morning hours to make sure my post goes up, etc. Tonight I'm trading that for sleep and you all can get this pattern a little early! Win-win! Read a little further down to get your link to the pattern (link in the gray bar). AND for sharing this week, it would make us all happy to see YOU with your block so snap a selfie for your posting!

This block is called MAD ABOUT PLAID and explores some lines that intersect in solid squares, both horizontally and vertically, to make a plaid-like block. You can take it very straight forward and do simple rectangles and two color combo, or play with those stripes more for gradations and accents. I wanted to have a block with lines and some simplicity to balance out the more complex and intricate blocks in the sampler. When I design a collection of fabric, I have the focal print with big florals, but the line also needs small prints or some kind of stripe or plaid to balance out the group. You can see that simplicity doesn't mean boring since there are still plenty of options for interpretation. (Also can you believe you have two weeks in a row with NO half square triangles or flying geese??)

My first block is clean and simple and just as much about the negative space as the colored bars. As soon as you enter color within the big rectangles it starts to change and have more depth. Play with gradation and lightness? Background color within the squares where the lines intersect can make that recede or come forward. The last one plays a little with different colors on the corners.

What if you wanted the colors of the rainbow? Carry a color all the way through the lines, horizontally and vertically to make it feel like continual stripes. Or, the middle and last one show the rainbow moving around the shape and being specific to the corners. I love how the colors look as accent to the black and gray version.

Focus on the center by just emphasizing the squares and one row of rectangles, making a central square. Or take a completely different and asymmetrical approach with more random placement or focus on a side or corner. I like how this can be a framework for more improv work. The last one shows that even if plaid is not your thing, you can still use this as a framework around a baby fancy block. If you make the 12" block, you would need to make a small 3" finished (3 1/2" unfinished block) for the center.  That little 3" size is cute in the center!

Okay, you made it this far so you can get the pattern!! I hope you will keep reading (and see me in my work-from-home no-makeup glory), but in the meantime, your pattern is here. Click this bar for the link to the pattern info:

Want to know what I made this week for my actual blocks? It's October so I'm in that Halloween ORANGE mood. I made two 8" blocks- one all Thatched, one with a mix of prints- in the orange family. For my prints I used a mixture from Blushing Peonies, Solana (which should be shipping later this month!!) and Abby Rose. On the all -Thatched, I used Tangerine, Apricot and the backside of the orange from Solana. I love how soft an orange that is on the backside! And of course Thatched Cream.

But it is Halloween this month and I've just been getting the fall decorations out with my daughter. So I also made a 12" in Tangerine and a fun scrappy mix of black and white fabrics for the bars. If I make this into a pillow cover I will either make more to make a set of 4 or add a border around it in another shade of orange. I could extend those lines out into the borders like I did on my FRINGE quilt, pictured below. That quilt was actually the inspiration and starting point for this block design.

Are you feeling MAD ABOUT PLAID yet? I hope so and I can't wait to see what you come up with for this block. Oh, one more thing...those squares could be really fun for some cute novelty fabrics and fussy cutting! Think of little lines connecting intersections of cute prints or some little treasure in each square.

When I'm making a block with the lines/rows in the same fabric in multiple sections, I sew long rows of my strips then subcut them down to size for the smaller sections. This makes the construction go much faster!

This week we thought it would be fun to see a little more of each other so it would be lovely if you felt like taking a picture with your block. We love to see a face with the maker and get to know you a little more. So snap a selfie or see if  your cat or dog is talented enough to take a photo of you (they are probably thinking 'leave me alone but scratch my belly first'). Let's see your smiling faces!

All this orange is putting me in a fall mood and I'm ready for a pumpkin latte! Happy sewing everyone! 

Visit my fellow Moda designers for more Blockheads fun:
Corey Yoder - https://corianderquilts.com/
Sherri McConnell - https://www.aquiltinglife.com/
Betsy Chutchian - http://betsysbestquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/
Jan Patek - http://janpatek.blogspot.com/
Brigitte Heitland - https://www.brigitteheitland.de/blog
Lisa Bongean - https://lisabongean.com/
Lissa Alexander - http://modalissa.com/
Laurie Simpson - http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/
Vanessa Goertzen - https://lellaboutique.blogspot.com/
Stacy Iest Hsu - https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/
(next week is Janet Clare!)
Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/
Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog
Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

Stacy Iest Hsu said this block was inspired by her love for the log cabin block and that the first quilt she made was a log cabin quilt. This makes me smile since my mother loves log cabin blocks and she too made her first quilt using a log cabin design. It was a quilt that was in yellow and green and was for me! I still have it. Who knew that years later, she would still be loving the process of making quilts and that I would be immersed in this world as well. Thank you log cabin blocks!

I've started this week's color study with Stacy's version and in the colors she showed on her instructions. I thought it was a lovely palette! If her block radiated darker colors from the center going outwards, what if I flipped that to light on the inside? And maybe light little corners to make those edges fall away? Or just two color families with a little extra color pop in 2 corners? On the next row it is all about stripes and color on color or color stripes with cream. The bottom looks at changing up the color darkness with a dark single piece offsetting the "L" shape, almost creating more of a pinwheel center. For the very last image I switched up the placement of the blocks. Each week I stay within the exact placement of the pieces with this exception...I just could not resist how rotating the corners of the block quadrants made it looked like shades of boxes within boxes (so a little cheat!).

Have fun sewing and if you need the pattern, hop on over to Stacy's blog for the download. I'm busy sewing with a new fabric collection that I'll be showing very soon! Hopefully I'll catch up on Blockheads soon but for now I am excitedly sewing away at a rather frantic pace to make some videos for Fabric Forecast. Oh, and stay tuned because next week is one of my blocks for Moda Blockheads! 

Happy Moda Blockheads day!! Time for a few color studies of Laurie Simpson's Broken Dishes block. Started out with simple black and white and shades of gray with dark corners to make an diagonal direction. Then pinwheels and more playing with introducing color to give the feeling of color transparency (can you imagine a transparent film of color over the corners on number 4?). You can play up the diamonds within a bigger diamond or emphasize the middle band as a horizontal pointed shape. In the last row I tried more of a spectrum of colors and love how the very last one becomes an arrow by using the background color to make a couple triangles disappear!

I've been working on 8" blocks for this project and this week I was busy on another project with smaller blocks. I forgot I was doing the 8" for this and ended up making a 4" one! I'm debating adding a border or remaking it and I'll post the blocks after I do my scrappy one too.

Did you know it's National Sew A Jelly Roll Day on Saturday?! September 19th get your rolls ready for a day of sewing those long strippy beauties. A couple of my jelly roll patterns that I wanted to share are Definite Plus and Showering Stars. Both quilts can be made large with Jelly Rolls or smaller with Honey Buns. I recently made Definite Plus in Abby Rose and I'm hoping I can get to longarming it on Saturday. That's still working with Jelly Rolls, right? Equalizer is another pattern that works with Layer Cakes or a Jelly Roll and has a clean modern look. Pair your prints with some solids to create that gradated look to lighter color to create the feeling of movement. Whatever you pick for your project for the day, I hope you have fun sewing!

Coming Together by Lissa Alexander is a lovely play on Xs and pluses. I played a little with color, two tone color or no color in the center and one color or shades of color moving around on the X sides. For my layout, I'll be putting this to the lighter end of my blue row so I did the white X and kept my color in the background and center plus.

I used my tonal white on cream sunflower seeds for the white X and some of the blue coordinates for the background and center plus. For the Thatched version I used cream and the blue Horizon and Pond blues from the Solana line too.

For the block pattern, visit Lissa's blog and it will be posted in the Moda Blockheads group on Friday and in the Moda archives. Happy sewing!

When you have a lot of half square triangles, there is opportunity to play within the angles to show shapes within shapes. I did some background colors that defined the quadrants of the block and also highlighted the white triangles to create diamonds, corners, and compass points. Try squinting to see the shapes more clearly. I also tried making a lighter center with radiating light going out. Also, how about that cute little star in the center? On a few a made them accent colors or warm tan color and others just left them full white. 

My Thatched block uses a light purple version that is from the Sweet Pea & Lily group. And that is also the group I used for my scrappy block, with a little flower in the middle! I made the 8" size and was really pleased with the little half square triangles. 

Hope you are finding your own fulfillment from this journey! Thank you Lisa Bongean for this rich and beautiful block design. Be sure to check out her blog at https://lisabongean.com/2020/09/02/moda-block-heads-3-block-34-fulfillment/ Happy sewing everyone!

Are you ready for a little applique this week? It's Jan Patek's week and that means it's time for a sweet applique design. But keep reading all the way down since we also have an AWESOME GIVEAWAY this week for a lucky quilter- a MODA BLOCKHEADS T-SHIRT!! But first...the block...this week's block has a charming Beeskep with stripes. Color studies are simple, just showing light on dark, dark on light with some little alterations (flowers and bee). The pattern is at Jan's blog:

I decided to make my flower more of a group of circles. I added extra circles on the Bird and Urn block and liked that and thought this would tie in well with that block. Instead of a star, I liked the idea of a bee on this block. My blocks will be living on the lighter end of my brown row so I'm staying closest to the last color image.

The all-thatched block has a soft tan background from flipping the Oatmeal Thatched to the backside and letting that chambray look be the whole background. Chunky stripes for my beeskep with a nice fat bumble bee. For my block with a mix of fabrics, I've used Ombre Confetti for the beeskep darker stripes and the background. I cut graphic flower circles from my Stalks print in Solana and used the charcoal leaves from Dandi Annie for the hive base. The bees are little ones cut from one of the coordinates in Painted Meadow. They are small but I sewed them on along the black rows on their tiny bodies (and these all use fusible material too).

So I mentioned a GIVEAWAY! Moda has some BLOCKHEADS tshirts with a sampling of blocks from this 3rd year of the sewalong. There is a block from each designer. I'll be doing a random drawing for one lucky person to get one of these tshirts of their choice. To enter, scroll down and leave a comment telling me what you liked best about the start of the school year! For me, it was new clothes, new lunchbox, the excitement of possibility for the year ahead,  and the smell of fall leaves!

This is the image from the front of the tshirt. The back has the designer's IG names. You can purchase one of these shirts if you'd like and Moda will donate money to local food banks. There are three styles- short sleeve, long sleeve and 3/4 sleeve baseball tee. If you want to buy some, use the links below to order. The short sleeve v-neck is $29.50, long sleeve is $34 and baseball tee is $3o. I will draw a winner from my blog comments on Sunday, August 23rd.

Happy sewing everyone!!
​-Robin

It is such fun to see the differences you can come up with for Basket blocks. Last year's Blockheads sampler had one that ended up being one of my favorite blocks in the group (although I couldn't pick just one favorite). I like to see the variations on them. Visit Betsy Chutchian's blog for this weeks lovely basket block that she has provided!

For color studies I looked at the outer triangles going from light to dark on the outsides, light basket on dark background and more variations of scrappy grays to make a sparkly mix of light and dark. When I introduced another color I did a light to dark gradation and one where background ramps darker going in the opposite direction of the basket getting darker. Then I just played with the triangles to see what forms I could get that broke out of the basket theme. They feel very graphic to me. The very last one reminds me of corners of paper folded over and touching in the middle, almost like folding origami paper.

My baskets will live in the brown row so I'm staying with the more traditional basket theme and making the top part of the basket in lively oranges while the base is a lovely oatmeal color.

For my scrappy version I've got some Solana, Abby Rose and some Ombre Confetti to add some pattern play and some roses in the center of the basket. I thought the ratan/caning look of the Solana print had that basket feel in the print.

For those people placing their blocks on point, the basket is especially nice. I can't wait to see the versions of ones that people make on the facebook group!

Be sure to visit other Blockheads designers for more inspiration and happy basket collecting!

Doesn't it just make you happy when the block is about love? It does for me! Visit Sherri's blog for her sweet Love at Home block instructions:

The hearts are adorable and I think it is absolutely perfect that there are 4 of them and we have four in our family! I think the color studies are fairly straightforward.

What I've tried here is alternating colors of hearts, playing with color in the background with lighter hearts, making the hearts multiple shades of red (reminiscent of shading) and trying a single switched out heart to light on dark within the composition, or with neutrals and one pop of reds! How about tucking a little accent in there to reflect the reds? And the last one was an idea...remember Stacy Iest Hsu's Won't You Be My Neighbor block? What if ONE of those houses took up a quadrant of this block to signify the "Love at Home"! I just love it when blocks can play together!

My hearts this week will live in my purple row. Purple Heart Honor? Royal heart? Or just the majestic feeling of purple theatrical drama. Paired with pink it is romantic and pretty.

For my scrappy quilt I used fabrics from my Sweet Pea & Lily line. Did you know the two purples in Thatched Basics are from that particular line? AND in August there is a Basics Bundle that Moda is showing on instagram and that Aster purple is in the basics bundle. It makes such a nice lively color combined with the greens and blues of the group (and oranges too)

So would you like a peek of how my quilt layout is progressing so far? When I jump around each week from color family to color family it is hard to tell so here is a preview: 

For reference, below is a computer image with blocks I've filled in as I've done them. I am working on making a darker/more color saturated left side gradating to a lighter, less saturated right side, while keeping rows of rainbow color. Can I say rainbow color when I have brown and gray in there? A spectrum of color, I guess, is a better description. It is very interesting to see how it is progressing as I work along. I do have some things in advance but not everything so I keep working with a large part of this being a mystery to me too!

Have fun with your hearts and lots of love this week! Visit the other Moda Blockheads designers:
8.5 – Sherri McConnell- we are here!
8.12 – Betsy Chutchian
8.19 – Jan Patek
8.26 – Brigitte Heitland 
9.2 – Lisa Bongean
9.9 – Lissa Alexander
9.16 – Laurie Simpson
9.23– Vanessa Goertzen
9.30 – Stacy Iest Hsu
10.7 – Robin Pickens
10.14 – Janet Clare 
10.21 – Jen Kingwell
10.28 – Joanna Figueroa
11.4 – Corey Yoder

We are half way through the blocks at this point! It is so fun to see them all come together as a group. This is a cheery block from Corey Yoder to kick off round 3, RING AROUND. The pattern is at Corey's blog:

This week's block has a ring of squares that surrounds the center diamond. You can keep the "ring" around the center fairly straightforward (like the first one and the one below it) or treat the small squares as more of a checkerboard (second image). Playing with shades of light and dark can make a glowing square overlaying the horizontal and vertical bands running through the block. Dropping out the corners to white emphasizes the octagonal shape that the block can take. And that last image treats each corner as it's own color group.

I was intrigued by dropping out a couple opposite corners and how the shape can look like a leaf out of a Minecraft world. I also experimented with the dark outside going into a light inside as well as creating more of a hashtag shape within the center. So many possibilites!

At first I thought I was going to try one of those giant pixelated leaves but when I tried it with the other blocks it looked a little out of proportion. However, someone commented on Facebook at the leaf could look good with the circle one next to it (middle of bottom row) as a big bloom. That could be a fun pillow! So I'll still try it on another project. 

I had fun with the center being a little picture frame for my scenic print from Solana (shipping in October 2020 to quilt shops) and a mixture of prints from Abby Rose and Painted Meadow surrounding it. Thanks Corey for the fun block!

More Moda Blockheads Designers:
7.29 – Corey Yoder- we are here!
8.5 – Sherri McConnell
8.12 – Betsy Chutchian
8.19 – Jan Patek
8.26 – Brigitte Heitland 
9.2 – Lisa Bongean
9.9 – Lissa Alexander
9.16 – Laurie Simpson
9.23– Vanessa Goertzen
9.30 – Stacy Iest Hsu
10.7 – Robin Pickens
10.14 – Janet Clare 
10.21 – Jen Kingwell
10.28 – Joanna Figueroa