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Tammy Vonderschmitt, also known as @nithaystack on instagram (from a shop she used to own), amazes me with all the projects she does! She is always sewing something new and has all kinds of great ideas. I had the pleasure of getting to know Tammy a little more when exhibiting with Moda at Road to California before all the pandemic stuff hit and she is such a treasure! This week's fun block "Indiana Puzzle" is from her. You can find this week's pattern from Tammy in Moda's blog- in the section on Blockheads archives. my.modafabrics.com/tags/block-heads Patchwork checkerboard corners pair with half square triangles to create a spinning motion. Extend the triangle color into the smaller squares in the corners to make a fanning out shape or even arrow heads. Or separate your rows by color, or make twisty arms that bend into the corners.  I had fun mixing some pinks from Abby Rose and Sweet Pea & Lily with some little fuchsia squares to tie in with my pink corner buds. I am bringing in yellow from Solana to coordinate with the center blocks and little orange corners to look harmonious with the small orange blocks.   I was also able to get two of the bonus blocks done this week too. I've made Wheat Field and Sharply Dressed in small blocks for the orange rows.  Progress. My Surrounded Square Garden is growing! 
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I have really been enjoying Crystal Manning's blocks that I see pop up in the Facebook Moda Blockheads group. Her fabrics have such color and energy and the mix of them together in her blocks is just stunning! I was thrilled to see her using her Garden Society collection with those adorable crickets and the table topper she showed on her blog! Visit Crystal's blog for a look at those lovely pictures and the pattern for HIGHLAND PLAID. Plaid blocks offer a great opportunity to play with those bands of light and dark. I love that this Highland Plaid has the thinner rectangles running through the middle to give contrast to size of the "stripes". I've tried simple light/dark studies in the gray version with dark center going out to light corners or the flip with darker corners going into lighter center. The third one mixes that gradation with white center lines and black center. For the color versions, I was thinking of a band of pink running down vertically through the orange, splitting the block into pink and blue (with a horizontal line of purple from the mixing of pink and blue), a ramp of lighter to darker and thin sashing and perimeter squares fading away to just leave the bold squares.  However you weave your squares together in a plaid, it is sure to be a versatile and enjoyable block. Thanks Crystal! For my own block, it is living in the small orange row. I have used all Thatched fabrics with the exception of the tiny center...its from Abby Rose. The touch of yellow thin strips will help to tie it in with my yellow center blocks. And speaking of tying in colors...did you get a chance to read the blog post I did for Moda last week about COLOR? Here is a link to it and hope it explains a little more of how I approach color with my quilts. https://my.modafabrics.com/inspiration-resources/playing-color  Yellow lines are not perfectly matched...but close enough...right?  That lightest color is the yellow Thatched flipped to the backside for a subtle light shade of the color.  Happy sewing. Hope you have a colorful week!
Jan Patek has flown in with a cheery applique this week. This "Bird on a Branch" is a curvy bird with a couple leaves and a berry or bud, and it looks sweet in pretty red or a peaceful white on a blue background. Since I'm not playing with changing a lot of light and dark pieces this week I thought I'd just envision some little additions, like a button eye with all kinds of pops of colors on circles. You could make a a little change to the background by making an arch that mimics the arch of the branch. Or try framing in the bird as I did on the last one.  I wanted my bird for my center yellow blocks but wanted a little extra structure, which is why I added the framing in Thatched reversed to the back side. This makes a very subtle buttery color. An extra leaf and treating my circle like a flower with an orange center.    I also added a couple extra orange dots for some more accents of color. I've used the Solana fabric on my bigger flower so the rays poke out from the center as flower petals. The little white on white print is from Carolina Lilies and gives a little more texture to the light background. I made my bird eye with a little embroidery. For my circles I used Applipops and was very impressed with how they work and the range of sizes for circles. I think I may have some more circle applique experiments to try!   Have fun making your flying friend for this week's block!
This is about the half way point on Moda Blockheads 4 and a good time to share my setting directions and the pattern for my corner blocks. If you visited my blog post at the very beginning of this round of Moda Blockheads, you might have seen my initial plan for my "Surrounded Square Garden" setting.  I wanted to make both the 9" size blocks and the smaller 4.5" blocks and combine them in a square structure, with each ring/row of the blocks being a consistent color family. These were some ideas with blue/green and a touch of purple or periwinkle. Or a Christmas palette of reds with green accents. Or the happy summery palette of pink, orange and yellow. I decided on this palette as my direction and I am making the very last image with a Cranberry Thatched for the background on that outer square. Here are some of my blocks so far:  I am making small green blocks for the corner of the inner small row, just like my outer row will have leaves in each of my big outer corners. I thought my garden of blocks would be structured nicely with those consistent corners, plus it would give a pop of a few of the row colors with a blocky bud in the inner corner.  Since my outer row has a Cranberry background, I used cranberry in the background piecing for my corners. For most people, if you are using a white background, I'd assume you would want those background pieces as white for the leaves and but to stand out against.  I used scraps of fabric I have from past collections. For the leaves, look for 5.5" squares to start making your half square triangles with. You can have your leaves all go in the same direction, or do as I did and make them fan out from the center point. Because I had planned to use this Fuchsia pink in my buds, I made certain to weave the color through some of my 9" pink sampler blocks. This pattern is up at my shop at robinpickensINC.com in the freebies section. There are two patterns (block and setting) but combined into one PDF document. The corner blocks are called "Blocky Bud and Leaves" and the overall quilt setting is the "Surrounded Square Garden." This bar below will take you directly to the shop Freebies section! Look for the image of the corner Blocky Bud with Leaves! For the sashings that separate the rows and the very outer border, you will need about 2/3 Yard of background or sashing fabric. This setting makes up a 53.5" square lap/wall quilt but feel free to add more outer borders to increase your size.  Here is where I am at so far with my progress in terms of where these will fall within the color rows.  Over at the Quilt Emporium, my local shop, they are making one in the blue/green/periwinkle/purple color family and I love to see their blocks evolve each week! Lisa made up some bundles if you like these color groupings. The red/green with a touch of turquoise was with Christmas holidays in mind. This would make such a fun Christmas quilt! You can visit the Quilt Emporium website if you are interested in their bundles.   I hope you are having as much fun making blocks with Moda Blockheads as I am! If you are interested in more color explorations, I am going to be at the Quilter's Gathering in Berlin, Ohio this August, doing 2 half day workshops "playing with color" and it should be a fun time to explore color together!
Happy (colorful) sewing!! Are you ready for Evening Delight? This lovely block is from Debbie Maddy of Tiori Designs and can be found at her blog: Quarter-square Triangles make up the North, South, East, West parts of the block. If the background color continues from the center into the sides of the QST, like on the right image below, then it gets more of an oval center by visually expanding the middle vertically.  These rainbow colors would need a little change in construction. after making the first half square triangles, you would normally place two, right sides together, and sew 1/4" to each side from the diagonal center. Then you would cut them apart. With the top tow rainbow images before you would make the initial half square triangles, CUT them in half on the diagonal, THEN pair them into the new groups and sew together to make the quarter square triangles. The cutting stage is earlier so you can pair them up with different pieces.  I like how adding colors into corners makes a different feel with the block. If you are making a couple quarter square triangle units with some corner colors, you can also rotate them so the background blends in to the shape to again extend the shape. I think of these as the retro space stars. Blending the corner background colors into the sides of the quarter square triangles makes this a visually more horizontal.  I have done a small block for my orange row but wanted to bring in a little of the pinks as accent and ties it into the bigger pink blocks and a little yellow to tie into the center blocks.  Summer colors of warmth and energy and fun! Have a lovely time with a little summer Evening Delight!  This week's block comes to us from Deb Strain and is called "Friendship Star." I've known Deb longer than I've been with Moda because we knew each other prior from art licensing and attending shows like the Atlanta Gift Show and Surtex. She makes the loveliest artwork that warms your heart and she is just as warm and welcoming herself. A block named with "friendship" feels perfect coming from Deb! I believe this week's block might be posted at the Moda blog as well as on the Facebook page. I hope you will also follow Deb Strain's work on instagram. This simple star with arms like a pinwheel changes shape with corners filled in with color. Treat the rows separately with colors to emphasize shapes. When the color from the corners is the same as the angles like the lower left, it is like an aperture of a camera and the last one reminds me of shadow and light beaming out as a sweeping beam from a lighthouse.  Here is my small 4.5" block with a sunshine center. Thatched colors with Abby Rose sweeping lines and a Solana flower.  Here is the progress so far. I hope to have the leave/berry corners instructions up in the next week or two. Happy sewing!   TOTAL CUTENESS this week! Ahhhhh! Jackie MacDonald of Sweetfire Road has given us the most adorable block! It is Moda Block-Berry (even the name is oh so cute!) and reminds me of a big giant raspberry or boysenberry. Take a stroll over to Jackie's blog to get this week's free Moda Blockheads4 block pattern: You can also see more of Jackie's work by following her on instagram @sweetfireroad The little patchwork blocks that make up the berry would be sweet in pinks for raspberry or purples for boysenberries or even darker for blackberries. You can play with the squares to get a feeling for light and dark in shadow to emphasize the rounded shape or treat the whole berry as a checkerboard. Background as light or dark? On the first one, I varied the darkness of the bands in the background. When I made the berry in yellows to reds to purple, it reminded me of golden, red and maroon beets or radishes. I've alternated between two colors in each row of the graduating color for that gold to purple one. Along with a golden beet, it could almost reference a peach in the warm light palette at the very bottom. One of the last images shows those background pieces as colors within the fruit or veggie shape too and then it reminds me of a plaid pumpkin! Make the outer border the same color as the background for the leaves and it drops away so the corners float.  When I see this block, I think of pie and summer and jam. All good things. With so many little patchwork squares, I wanted to make this one in the 9" size and put it in my pink border. I've used pinks from Thatched, Abby Rose, Tulip Tango, Painted Meadow and Sweet Pea & Lily.  This block makes me smile and puts me in that summer mood for sweet fruit treats. I was thinking this would be so cute as a pillow too! I just might have to make a smaller one as well since I bet it would be precious in the little size.  One question I've been asked is about how I go about mixing my colors and get them to work together. When I start, I pick a color palette of a range of colors, usually from my Thatched basics in some light, medium and darker shades of a couple color families. As I make my blocks I try to mix some of those Thatched colors into the blocks so the scrappy fabrics I use are paired with the cohesive Thatched colors. They act as a bridge to make the blocks look more uniform in a color sense. Since I'll be using this fuchsia color in my corner berries, I try to bring it into the blocks with the other warmer lighter pinks to add some pop and tie them together. Even though my other pinks might be warmer or lighter, it gives some saturated excitement to the palette.   Thank you so much for this super adorable block this week Jackie!!
Chelsi Stratton brings us block #10 for Moda Blockheads4 called "Autumnal." This free block pattern can be found through Chelsi's blog (click gray bar to be taken there). You can also follow Chelsi on Instagram @chelsistratton There are not too many color studies this week since I this block just looks so good as a leaf. Although it is fun to deconstruct the block and just see it as shapes, I prefer the leaf for my own quilt in simple greens to go with my pink, orange, yellow and green quilt. However, I'd love to see this block made up in a quilt with fall gradations like the top row with parts of the leaf being golden yellows and parts being the deep reds of fall beauties. I also gradated the background grays to black to emphasize the lighter and darker parts of the leaf.  It is fun to play with the shapes and see how we can pull out an arrow, just treat it like HST color play or an angled bowtie. Looking at the shapes this way suggests more directional movement vs an object. For my quilt, this green leaf will live in a corner of the orange small row. I was hoping to have some reference to the bigger corner leaves by repeating the green for leaves within the inner smaller row. I've used fabrics from Carolina Lilies for both the greens and for the tonal cream background.   Nice to have another green block in the group! I think my bonus block of greens was feeling a little lonely and needed a friend. How fun to find it in a lovely green leaf! Thanks Chelsi for this sweet block!  Week #9 in Moda Blockheads is brought to us from Brigette Heitland of Zen Chic. The block, "Cross My Mind" can be found on Brigitte's blog through clicking the bar below. I am doing a small orange block so my color play starts there. I like how the thinner sashing strips can be evenly spaced light and dark or ramp up and down in light and dark versions of a color, like steps. You can play with different colors or white and darks in the corner squares or treat them like horizontal color bands.  Black, gray and white with a pop of red in those side bars make a graphic abstract block where the negative space is just as important as the sashings. The color spectrum version plays with the subtle difference of white extending from center to outreaching arms or a darker center that creates a center like a receding window.  My orange block in 4.5" size uses Tangerine and Apricot Thatched with prints from Abby Rose.  I also caught up with a couple of the bonus blocks, Star Turn and Zipper, which happen to also be in cheery oranges!   Here is how my grid is potentially looking so far! And the group of blocks all together in yellow, orange, pink and green colors.    Thanks Brigitte for this week's block!
Free Quilt Block Pattern "Wild Geese" from Kate Spain for Moda Blockheads and Color Studies5/11/2022 Kate Spain brings us this week's block in Moda Blockheads 4, called WILD GEESE. Visit Kate's blog for the free quilt block pattern. You can also see lots of Kate's wonderful work on instagram @katespain.  You could make these units as flying geese blocks and join them together, but the pattern shows them as individual half square triangles. I like that so I can play with multiple fabrics or shades of a color within the shapes. The center can be one solid color or a mix of colors or hues. Are the inside triangles different than the outside triangles? I flipped around some of the background white triangles in placement for image number 2- doesn't that look lively! Or spit the background white and black in sections or to divide the block. The lower left image makes an orange square surrounding the center with long and short rays. Next to it, the two tones of orange make me think of a motion trail with blades of a fan. This is such a nice block to experiment with!  My block is the 4.5" size and I used a mixture of oranges from Thatched and Abby Rose. I liked a yellow center because it made me think of a sun or center of a flower. I am thinking of summer and bright days with this one. Happy sewing!
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About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals and Thatched basics for Moda Fabrics . Modern to transitional quilt designer, cross stitch designer, sewist, crafter. I am proud to be a designer for Moda Fabrics!
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