Are you ready to celebrate Valentines Day and LOVE? Well, Brigitte Heitland's LOVE block is a perfect fun way to spread some cheery feeling.

​Here is the Thatched and Abby Rose version. Abby Rose will be shipping to shops at the beginning of March! Those roses are perfect for a love theme.

I am fortunate to have my mother visiting this week. Talk about LOVE. She has been my biggest cheerleader and is a wonderful example of love. Not only that, but she made this weeks blocks for me!! Yes, when Mom visits, she gets right into the mix of fabric fun and sews along. She is also sewing along in Blockheads this time to make a quilt.

Foundation paper piecing is a newer thing for me. I've done a few blocks with it and I know the tip to shorten the stitch length is very important. I know because I've forgotten to do that in the past and it is a lot harder to rip the paper out and not tear seams. With a shorter stitch length its SO much easier! I also like that I can mark the colors of the fabrics on the back paper so I can follow my plan as adding the pieces.

Just a thought...these L O V E pieces would look good added side by side into a rectangle as well as in the stacked square.

Jan Patek's BIRDHOUSE block this week for Moda Blockheads 3 is an appliqué design. Last year I did the pieced blocks instead of any appliqué but this year I thought I'd jump into the appliqué spirit! I'm really a patchwork piecing kind of person but it's good to stretch yourself.

I've tried to do needle turn appliqué but I'm not very good at it (I know, I know...I'd get better with practice). But fusible raw edge appliqué is a little more my speed. I'm still a bit rough at it but it IS fun to do something completely different and out of my norm. One thing I enjoy while doing this is getting out one of my other sewing machines. My daily machine is a straight stitch Juki so anytime I need to do decorative stitches, overlock, blanket stitch, zig zag, etc, I bring out my little Bernina or my Juki HZL computerized machine. 

For the first block, I did my ALL Thatched. But this birdie wanted a fancier house, something with birdhouse wallpaper and and a polka dot roof.

I like how Thatched still plays well as a background when other prints are showing off. Leaves, leaves and more leaves in this one. I guess I can call the birdhouse a GREENHOUSE BIRDHOUSE.

As for fusible appliqué tips, I've got two suggestions. One is to let that iron get really hot and really press your fusible or it sometimes peels unevenly. I often don't press it enough to get that good bond. The other tip is one I learned from Anna Maria Horner in a class I took from her. Take a pin and run it over the paper backing to score a little cut line in the paper before you tear it off. You can separate it more easily and peel from that cut line to remove the paper. I had been struggling with the edges of fusible on fabric to separate them and the pin line works much better than my fingernails to start it!

The other thing that always surprises me about appliqué...the mess on my desk! They are happy little cuttings and pieces though. 

Betsy Chutchian's block this week, Crown and Star, reminds me of arms reaching out with spread hands, bursting with joy. You can get it on her blog at http://betsysbestquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/. I've decided to make my center with a dark pine square, surrounded by white star points on peacock for more contrast. The outer perimeter uses the chartreuse and sprig colors, similar to last week's block HSTs. 

This is another one for the green row in my quilt top layout plan. This block falls on the darker range and uses more color and less white/cream. From the instructions, I deviated a tiny bit and made my flying geese units using a stitch and flip method, trimming off the corner after sewing, instead of cutting the side squares into triangles first. There is more waste with the fabric this way but the pieces are not that large so I don't feel bad throwing those cut pieces away. I'm making the 8" blocks, so my flying geese are made with 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" rectangles for the base and 1 1/2" squares for the geese triangle sides. 

My print/scrappier version of the block keeps the Sprig color as my background fabric but I'm using the Stem Plaid from Dandi Annie in green for the outer crowns. The teal color is from Dear Mum and the center is a mistletoe branch from Splendid. I like a little pop of red to tie in with some of the red blocks. 

In my overall scheme, I have three blocks made that make up two greens and one red in my rainbow grid. I'm looking forward to getting more filled in and working out the progression to more white or cream as the blocks progress to the right.

Happy sewing and share your progress on the facebook Moda Blockheads 3 page or tag your blocks on Instagram. Thanks Betsy for a wonderful block! Check out the other designers and their progress too:
​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/
Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/
Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog
Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

Week 2 with Moda Blockheads 3 and its a fun block from Sherri McConnell! This is SUNSHINE STAR and I'm continuing my all-Thatched and Thatched-scrappy prints blocks. Sherri will have the quilt block instructions at her blog: A Quilting Life - https://www.aquiltinglife.com/

This week I'm working with greens and teals. My Thatched colors are peacock, sprig, chartreuse and seafoam (seafoam is in Abby Rose). The pattern specifies cutting triangles and then joining them (one at a time HST method) but since I was making two blocks and keeping my colors the same through numerous pieces, I decided to use a 4-at-a-time method. I used 3 HST in a color in a quarter of the block then used the extra fourth HST in the second block, making my center a copy of the Thatched grouping from the other block.

For my block mixed with prints I've got a few from Abby Rose which ships to shops in March. The flowing lines in the background fabric, the little leaves on green and seafoam and the line drawings from the cabbage roses are all from this new collection. The teal graphic leaves are from Dear Mum and I like how the teal/aqua shades from that group work with Abby Rose.

Thanks to Sherri for such a cheery star block! I love star blocks. Next week we will have a block from Betsy Chutchian.

Thanks for stopping by! Check in with the other Moda Blockheads designers to see their versions of Sunshine Star:
​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/
Janet Clare - http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/
Jen Kingwell - www.jenkingwelldesigns.com/blog
Joanna Figueroa - https://blog.figtreeandcompany.com/

Lets get started with Moda Blockheads 3! Our first block is designed by Corey Yoder and is called "Star Chain." I mentioned in my posts before that I was going to use Thatched basics for making my blocks. This first block is using Crimson 43 for the background red. Outer center triangles are Rose 13. Dark pieces are Cranberry 118 and the light pink is the Thatched print that went with Dandi Annie. 

I'm trying to do my blocks in both Thatched-only and in Thatched mixed with prints from some of my collections. The first block I made was the purely Thatched one and I had a few stumbles along the way. For the second block with the prints I READ THE DIRECTIONS and was able to make a more accurate block.

I found it hard to know where to line up my triangles for the center point when adding them onto the diamond square. I have to admit I often like to take the short route and I don't pin much. My "guesses" on mid point when adding the second triangle sometimes left me with uneven pieces and sides for sewing seams.

Perhaps I could have found some tips by googling it or something, but I resolved my issue by finger pressing two sides of the square in half, and the long end of the triangle in half, before joining either. That way, once the first triangle was added, I already knew where the triangle and square center point was to line up the next piece accurately. AND since I ended up ironing out the finger presssed crease after attaching the first triangle, I decided making a pencil mark was a better way to mark the square.
This gave me a MUCH better result with even edges. 

With the second block I also followed Corey's arrows to show which direction to press the block pieces. The entire block lined up well when I finally followed those instructions! However, I still added one whole row to the top upside down and had to rip that out and flip it to the correct side. I figure I'll make all my errors on the first blocks, right? Somehow I have a feeling I will be friends with my seam ripper numerous times as I embark on this journey. But that also means I am learning and stretching my skill set to new  levels. I think it a universal understanding of quilters that mistakes, um, I mean "opportunities" help to make us better quilters. 

Check back next Wednesday for my Thatched and Thatched/scrappy blocks for week 2. If you want more info on my colors and my overall plan, check out yesterday's post My Plan for Moda Blockheads 3. And visit the other Blockheads 3 designers to see their blocks and progress too!

Moda Blockheads 3 has a variety of options for you. Options on the size of blocks you are making. Options on layouts for overall quilt. Of course, options of whatever fabric you decide to use for it. Sometimes I find giving myself boundaries and a plan will make it easier for me to move ahead on a project. With that in mind, I decided to make a plan for how I was going to approach the mystery blocks ahead. 

Since I am using THATCHED basics for my fabrics, I have a color palette mapped out. I could limit my choices down to a specific color family or a small group of colors, like blues and greens. But I want to have some fun color exploration with this whole rainbow of colors that Thatched provides. 

I am using 28 colors for my color map and I'll be including some of the colors that are in other collections, like Abby Rose with the seafoam blue and warmer light pink that are in the Thatched texture. I am hoping a few of those make it into the basics group that gets reprinted.

If we are doing 56 blocks, that divides nicely into rows of 8 blocks. Seven rows of 8 blocks each. I am making my rows by color families- purples, warm gold and orange, reds, grays, etc. I am planning on separating the rows horizontally with a white sashing strip so it really reads as a row of color. The image below shows a lot of white lines to the right. No, I'm not piecing a bunch of white strips in. But I am showing this to try to illustrate the idea I have in my head. I'd like to make the blocks go from dark to light by using dark to light colors in the block pieces. Once the blocks get halfway over, I plan on incorporating more white/cream background into the blocks to lighten them even more as they progress towards the right end of the row.  So the lines below represent blocks that have more white pieces with less color pieces.

I don't know if it will work the way I envision it in my mind, but that is the fun of blocks. You can always rearrange it later, as long as you haven't joined them together, block to block, yet. 

I will be making 8" blocks. I thought it was easiest for me to pick a size and work in just that size. I loved the look of the varied sizes last year, but since my plan is so based on rainbow lines, I thought a consistent size would be easier to organize. If I were to make the 12" blocks I'd have a nice bed sized quilt. With the 8" blocks I'll have a nice wall or lap quilt, approximately 64" wide and 62" tall (depending on how big those sashings are and if I add an outer border). I'm thinking this would be nice on my foyer wall and this seems like a good size.

One other thing in my plan...I am going to try to make two quilts as an exercise in the color study of Thatched. One will be completely Thatched. The other will follow the same color scheme but mix the Thatched as background fabric with some of the prints from my collections. That way I can have a better idea of how Thatched plays as a support for prints vs as a "solids" quilt.

That's it for the parameters I have given myself and what my method is. I hope this helps you to plan your own course of attack.

Its starting tomorrow! Are you ready to play with fabric in Moda Blockheads 3?!

Well, at least I'm hoping it is! We are a few days into 2020 and I am not a huge one for making resolutions but I am big on setting some goals when New Years time rolls around. It is a logical starting place for reviewing and resetting and planning what I want to accomplish in the coming year. Wait, that sounds kind of like a resolution, doesn't it? Ah, but for the reviewing...

When I look back at 2019, I've got to admit it was a good year for me. Perhaps one of the biggest things that happened is I had two surgeries to have hip replacements. One in January and one in June. I had no cartilage left at either hip, being bone-on-bone. I couldn't stand up straight and walking was getting unbearable. It is a gradual change, accompanied by a lot of denial, that happens with arthritis. It is hereditary for me so I was very familiar with seeing my mother and sister go through it. But it is still scary to face surgery and change yourself. 

See that hip with the bone smashed up against it? (pic on the left) That is the NO cartilage pic. There were lots of bone spurs. Ouch. And lots of arthritis. More ouch. The pic on the right shows my fabulous bionic hips now! It is hard to express exactly how life-altering or "giving my life back to me" this has been.

As a quilter, before the replacements, I couldn't stand much to even cut fabric at my cutting table. It was hard to manage a suitcase and getting through an airport to go to Quilt Market. My dear husband came to spring market to manage the bags and put up my quilts in my booth. I would not accept offers to travel to teach- it was just too painful. I didn't even want to walk through a grocery store. I had planned to go to Quiltcon as an attendee in February, thinking I'd be better after the first hip, but I had to cancel when I didn't have travel clearance from my doctor yet. After both surgeries and physical therapy, I was thrilled to go to Quilt Market in the fall and be able to STAND STRAIGHT and walk like a normal person. I even danced at the Moda Fabrics customer appreciation party! I feel so fortunate to live in a time where we have the knowledge, experience and ability to improve our lives through medicine and surgery this way. It is hard to fully express how much this has improved my life.

If 2019 was the year of me getting my hips (and life) back, then 2020 needs to be about continued learning about joints and what types of daily behaviors, diets, and practices can help to extend the life of the rest of the cartilage in my body. After eating WHATEVER I wanted, WHENEVER I wanted, over the holidays (which was everything, all the time) I'm back to more structure, eating better and moving/walking more.

2019 was also a fun year for fabric for me, with more blooming color in the house! Painted Meadow debuted at the Spring Market in Kansas City, Thatched was released over the summer, and Abby Rose was my fall Market colletion (for release in early 2020). I haven't shown much of Abby Rose here but will do it in the next couple of posts! I'm very excited for Thatched since I can blend the colors of the basics line into new collections or just go for quilts that are color studies based on the slightly textural solids. 

In 2019 I played along/sewed along in three online sew alongs- 100 Blocks 100 Days presented by Gnome Angel and Skyberries, Bowtie Flower Quilt with Quilters Candy, and Moda Blockheads 2. I attempted to do the Meadowland Quilt sew along from Then Came June but I didn't get too far. She's doing it again this year so maybe I can jump in and try to make some progress on that WIP.

Speaking of SEW ALONGS... in just 11 days MODA BLOCKHEADS 3 starts! Come join the facebook group and get a link on Wednesdays to the blog of the weekly designer, or check out the Moda Cutting Table blog at https://my.modafabrics.com/tags/blockheads on Fridays. One block a week, lots of community, lots of fun. I'm a designer contributing 3 block designs this year so I'm extra excited!

That's all the 2019 big stuff I can think of now. Stay tuned as I'm sure more will pop into my head! 
Happy 2020 and hoping you have lots of sewing fun in the year ahead.

Today I put the last border on my Bird Talk quilt and I was so happy since I've been doing it in little bits and pieces, here and there. One night I will think "okay, I can get all the bird legs done" and another night I assemble the cardinal. Chip away at some leaves...little by little. I had help too with Olivia, who came and calmly cut and pieced leaves and leaf stalks while I filled pattern orders and dealt with computer things. 

This has been a happy quilt to make. I don't know why, but birds are just so cheery. Maybe it is because I am named after the first bird of spring- Robins hopping along on the lawn with bits of snow still sticking but signaling that spring is indeed coming. Or maybe it is that I love to see the birds jump around and play with each other in a teasing way on the branches of the trees outside my studio window. Whatever the reason, birds just seem free, colorful, light and full of chatter.

I did start by making birds first. Then leaves. Then border. Then joining it all. The pattern itself is not overly difficult. It is made from patchwork simple piecing, half square triangles and some flying geese. You just have to pay attention to cutting a variety of sizes. I suggest labeling them with some post-it notes as you cut them out. If you want o make scrappier pieced sections of border, combine more smaller pieces into the larger size of block or rectangle for backgrounds. 

Wouldn't this be fun with all Blue Jays, or black birds with fall colored leaves? I think this will be really fun to play with pattern and color on other versions. This version was made with Thatched Basics by Moda Fabrics. Some of the differences in colors are subtle- for example, there is a light red, medium red and dark red. You could use all one red, but the differences in value help to define wings from underbelly from top of bird. This could be a great place to experiment with ombres too- Hmmmmmm, I'm wondering the effect I could get with those!

This quilt is a lap size, or a twin with the border. This is the first time I have done a decorative, pieced border and I am really liking how it works with this particular quilt. I wondered if the border would be too much, but now that it's done, I am quite smitten with the border and am looking forward to doing other versions with it. 

This quilt is easy to make with a combination of fat quarters, fat eighths and some yardage. I will be sizing it down to half scale for a wall quilt, hopefully by the start of quilt market. I had to make a decision on pattern sizes and the pattern itself is a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" booklet (the size of my other patterns) but its 14 pages of instructions to include what you need for cutting, piecing and borders. I could either make a larger pattern at twice the price and include two sizes, or do two patterns at specific sizes at my normal price (its too much info to put both sizes into the small format booklet). I figured most people would know the size they want to make and appreciate not spending more on the pattern, so two patterns it is. I appreciate knowing if this works for you or if you'd rather spend more and have both sizes together.

This bird family is off to the longarmer tomorrow. Stay tuned for the smaller one!!
Happy quilting! And for more Thatched fabric patterns, check out my shopify store!
​Robin

When I saw the Kinship Fusion Sampler created by Gnome Angel and Skyberries I knew I wanted to try it in Thatched fabric, my new basics line coming out with Moda Fabrics (shipping in November 2019). I was wanting a color-play exercise that used a limited palette and a select group of the fabrics. I like this line for fillers and backgrounds, but they deserve to hold their own in a quilt sew-along!

I love the modern feel of many of the blocks, playing with geometry in often asymmetrical layouts. I thought the woven illustration of Thatched would work well to add just a little depth to the blocks.

I actually jumped in about a week into the sew-along, which is typical for me. I WANTED to do the sew-along but I get distracted and think I don't have time to add ANOTHER project. But then I see people posting on instagram and I can't stand it anymore and jump in late.

My original plan was to make the quilt in mostly grays and white with a tiny pop of color. Maybe just the heart block in orange? I selected three grays from Thatched to use- the Gray 85, Pebble 24 and Shadow 117, giving me a light to dark range of grays. There are actually 5 grays in this first release of Thatched but I wanted to keep it simple. I've never made a black and white quilt before or a black, white and gray one, so this was a new exercise in restraint.

 fBut I guess at heart I am really a COLOR GIRL and I needed more than just one pop of color! I loved the idea of just orange with the quilt, but the addition of greens to the mix felt so much more appealing and fun. I really like how the combination of Chartreuse 75, Sprig 14, Peacock 77 and Turquoise 101 play together. It was a tough call to decide if I should add the dark green Pine 44 to the mix but I left it at the original four greens.

For the oranges I used Tangerine 82 and Apricot 103. Again, tempted to add more with Maize gold but I pared it back. Every time I use the oranges it feels like a jolt of orange juice waking me up!

Usually I keep the color story of greens or oranges within a block but once in awhile, one escapes and jumps in another color block! Quilt block 29 is an example of that with it's little orange square. And block 82 with one orange corner to liven up the group! (And yes, sometimes I go out of order and make some of the later squares in advance if I have the right pieces cut) 

When I got to day 25, I layed out what I had on the floor to get a feeling for them all together. For the planning of this sampler, I used the coloring sheet that Gnome Angel has on her blog at https://www.gnomeangel.com/100days100blocks2019-colouring-sheet/. It was tremendously helpful in planning and playing around with the colors. You need to purchase the pattern to get the coloring sheets and I am not posting my colored in one since that would be a violation of the pattern copyright.

Yes, my helper was involved and let me know she was bored of this whole thing.

There is one thing I wanted to mention about this particular pattern for a sampler. I really appreciate that the sizes of the blocks you cut are very consistent so it is efficient with fabric and makes it easy to precut pieces. For example, a lot of pieces might be 2 1/2" wide so you knew that by cutting that size strip, it would be utilized for a lot of smaller pieces. I could go through and count out how many pieces I would need at certain sizes or how many flying geese were needed at the same size and then make them in bulk. This really cuts down on time and makes it enjoyable to move through the blocks faster and with more efficiency and economy. I thought it was a very smartly planned out sampler that way!

I have been loving the blocks I've been seeing on instagram from other people sewing along. I particularly love seeing some of the fussy cutting and cute fabrics. It is a different feeling to do a sampler with a limited palette and limited fabrics and I like the new muscle that is flexing in my mind to explore the contrast and color relationships. I like how clean and modern this feels to me. But I can't lie, a part of me wants to just throw one of my big flowers into one of these blocks! 

I'm guessing the next time I share these blocks on the blog I'll be done or at least close to done. Follow me on instagram to see more progress with the Thatched blocks at @robinpickens. Follow along to see all the great blocks on instagram with the hashtag #kinshipfusionsampler or #100blocks100days2019 and thank you Angie @gnomeangel and Bec @skyberries for a great sewalong! (Also, I am dying over Bec's blocks made with Heather Ross fabrics- fantastic!!)

Now Thatched is ready to claim its place as a basics line and make its OWN color statement. Colors have been added to round out the palette to include browns, blues, oranges, burgundy and Berry. 30 prints of luscious colors.

Perhaps you keep Thatched as a subtle texture print to balance out your larger prints and be a background fabric or blender. Or you may decide to play with the combinations and relationships of color families and groupings in color studies with saturated splendor. ​

At my conference table (the kitchen table!) the ring of color commands presence in the space, singing out a rainbow of song.

Enjoy the blues of Navy, Marine, Sky and Royal. Dark to go with denim. Light to brighten like the sky. Blues blend into greens and teal shades. Moody, pretty blues. Grays that are warm and cool, speckled and subtle. Reds that are deep and dramatic or bright and cheery (and yes, the Crimson and Pine of Splendid are in the basics).

The ring of color is almost luminous under the light as night time falls. I will clear it tomorrow. For tonight I will sleep with rainbow dreams...