Moda Blockheads Morning Star

Moda Blockheads Day! Time to catch up on a few things.

First off, color studies for this week's block, Morning Star from Barbara Groves of Me & My Sister Designs. Are you a supergraphic 70's star outline lover? Or prefer a row of flying geese arrows? Blocky sides? Arrow points towards center with different color corners? Such fun to play with this block and the outline that surrounds the star. This is an awesome block to play with. Thanks so much Barbara.

This is my block that I made this week in Winterly fabrics. I decided to make those outlines in the corners the Seafoam color to bring in more of the cool tones in the tree prints in the corners. I liked having a darker green in the center star points in contrast with the Chartreuse sides. 

Back in the first group, when I showed my block, I sewed it up in Winterly fabrics and I knew I wanted to make a Christmas quilt, but didn't have a plan. I have numerous Christmas quilts but none done from a sampler or from a sew along. It took awhile to think about it but now I have a plan.

​For the past 2 Moda Blockheads quilts, I've made very structured medallion and linear quilts. I wanted a quilt for this one that felt a little more free-flowing but organized. The star blocks seem like the perfect opportunity for a holiday quilt. You can see my first block I made, my "Community Star" block (group 1, block 8) on my previous blog post.

Most of my Christmas quilts have a lot of red color so I wanted this to be more green-focused, using more of the tree/landscape/greenery/bird prints from Winterly.

The quilt will use a mix of 6" and 12” green blocks, in a flowing arrangement, with a band of red blocks running as a band through the center. I will also intersperse 6" squares of fabrics from Winterly to show off those fabric design, coordinate with the blocks, and fill in any needed spaces. 

The Thatched colors that I am using along with the Winterly prints are Thatched Cream 36, Crimson 43, Pine 44, Ocean 144 or Dewdrop143, Seafoam 125, Spring 54 and Chartreuse 75. There is a larger group of greens to go with the larger percentage of the quilt and add interest by mixing the warm (Chartreuse) and cool (Seafoam) greens. 

Now that I have decided on my plan, I have some catching up to do! According to this layout, I need about 10 of the 12" blocks and I worked on 4 of those. The blocks above are Morning Star, Super Scrappy Star, Bright Star and Shimmer Star. As I do blocks, I keep track of my progress by filling in my layout image. Since I do color studies, I make up these blocks in Adobe Illustrator and can easily swap in my Winterly fabrics for my layout. This helps me see what I am missing and how to keep the balance of color and light and dark. 

I was a bit late in figuring out my plan and now have LOTS of catching up to do (and I'm sure no one else is in that predicament, right??). I'll share past color studies that I posted in the facebook group along with blocks as I make them here on the blog. This week I made the 4 blocks. The first color study for this week is at the top for Morning Star. 

The very first block of group 1 was from Betsy Chutchian, called Bright Star. 

Well, I could have played with this block all day long since there are potentially so many things I could try. I loved the little ribbon like corners and honestly, I think this block is a little busy and I should have limited the number of fabrics and colors I was using. But that is okay since I can balance this out with other, simpler blocks or just the Winterly squares around this.

I've also made Super Scrappy Star from Corey Yoder. This was from group 1, block 4. I liked the last of the color studies a lot with the lighter center star and two corners trailing off to darker shades. 

On a block like this, I am using Thatched fabric and also flipping it to the back side to get that lighter shade of the color (the more chambray-looking ones). I just noticed in the photo that my lower left seams are not matching up so well. Hmmmm. To fix or not to fix? I'll probably end up fixing it...

This is last week's color study for Shimmer Star from April Rosenthal. Arrows, checkerboards, ribbons and pinwheels! And yes, stars.

My actual block based on the top row, far right, color study image. I like how Thatched Seafoam (backside) and Spring go with that Pine stripe from Winterly. 

I don't think I'll be getting around the the paper piecing on this block, so I'll post the color study now. This was group 1, block 3 from Brigitte Heitland of Zen Chic, called Stellar Elegance. It sure is elegant! And I love how it can be a split day/night image.

For my next round of blocks, I think I will focus on some of the smaller sizes. This shows the scale change between the 12" and 6" block sizes (and this is one of my Community Star blocks).

Now that I finally have it all planned out, I get to do the fun part and SEW! Well, the color studies are also a fun part for me as well. I am often surprised by what pops out as I play on the computer. But there is such a  satisfaction of seeing those happy fabric blocks evolving when sewing and feeling and working with cloth and thread.

Keep up with my progress and share your own projects through my Facebook group "Robin Pickens Sew Happy Community" where you can also ask questions and be in community with other quilters. Hope to see you there! You can also find me on Instagram and Pinterest @robinpickens as well as on youtube.

Happy sewing in the new year!