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There is something so satisfying about finishing a quilt. But there is something REALLY REALLY satisfying about finishing the largest quilt you've made to date, in my case a king size quilt!  I am a designer for Moda but I didn't know about Moda Blockheads from the first round. I was a little newer to sewalongs and I had not participated in any on facebook, rather only on instagram. So when one of the sales folks invited me to join the facebook group and play along, I happily joined in.  I wanted to use my first lines of Poppy Mae, Blushing Peonies and Dear Mum for my fabrics, along with some solids mixed in. My colors focused on pinks, reds, greens and teal/turquoise colors. I find as I make my blocks each week, a few stand out as my favorites. I really love this pretty block with the peony in the center and then the one with the crowns and the little pineapple!   One of the big benefits of doing a sewalong like this is it really helps to build your skills. I did not know about triangle paper until I read Corey Yoder's blog post about it. And I learned a variety of other tips and tricks. But most importantly, the practice of making new blocks, week after week, makes you better at what you are doing.  Since I wanted to make my quilt for my kind sized bed, I made additonal borders on the right and left sides of the quilt. The half square triangles are 3 x 6" finished size and the square blocks were made with leftover pieces from my other blocks in the quilt top. The small HST in those are 1 1/2" finished with a 3" square center piece. Making two rows of repeating elements of these made the quilt wide enough for me mattress.  I saw another person post about their layout with blocks arranged into larger squares with sashing between those and I loved that! So I combined the smaller blocks into units and some of the sections were one of the largest blocks. I liked the structure of this and the balance. I longarm quilted this using the Whirlwind pantograph by Karen Farnsworth at Wildflower Quilting. And now, I am happily sleeping under my Moda Blockheads2 quilt! 
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 Lisa Bongean blocks usually have lots of options for what to do with those half square triangles. This week did not disappoint! I love to see how the larger half square triangles on the inner corners make an octagon shape or a chunky plus sign on point. You can treat the outer HST as a fringe or a bears paw entire unit. Play with the corners in different contrast of light and dark? And what a fun V shape in the centers of the perimeter on the last one! Visit Lisa's blog for this week's pattern:  Each week I take stock of where I have spaces left in my overall layout and look at balancing the more intricate blocks with the simpler blocks. This block will end close to middle/ middle dark on my gray row.  My print pattern block is using Sweet Pea & Lily grays. The Heather in Thatched is a cooler gray is works nicely with the stronger prints here. On the all-Thatched block, I am using slightly warmer grays. In both my blocks I have used triangle paper to make the half square triangles more efficient and reduce trimming time.  Enjoy this lovely block and happy sewing this week!
 This week is ROSES for Moda Blockheads. Jan Patek has a lovely applique design and I was going to do that, especially since I have done all the applique designed blocks this year. However, when I saw it was themed "roses" I felt inclined to deviate a little and still do applique BUT make it with my roses from Abby Rose. And just doing a big bloom and bud and leaves to blossom fully on the square. I used fusible raw edge applique, which is the same technique I used for the other applique blocks.  For my all- Thatched block I wanted to use a flower that Joanna Figueroa posted a number of weeks back. I used her tulip block in the second round of the blocks and saw this alternative on week 32. She calls it The Posie Bloom and you can see her blog post with directions here: Posie Bloom Block. It is such a nice compliment to the earlier pieced tulip she designed.  These blocks will fall right about in the center of my orange rows. But even after my first alternative block from Joanna was done, I saw an alternative just for this week. Stacy Iest Hsu made this super cute Roses Alternative block in a 12" size and it is just the cutest, chunkiest flower grouping!  This one will go towards the light end of my blue or green row. Since Stacy made it in 12" and all my blocks are 8" I made some adjustments on sizes of pieces. CUT SIZES: All my flower petals are 2 1/2" squares. The stitch and flip squares for around the petals and for the center of the flower are 1" squares. I made the leaves 2 3/8 wide x 2 1/2" tall. The stitch and flip on the leaves are from 1 1/4" squares. The stem is 7/8" wide x 4 1/2" tall. When I joined the top flower with the leaves, I just trimmed up the leaves as needed to match the 4 1/2" width for each flower unit and the 8 1/2" width for the overall block. Thank you Stacy for this cute flower pair!
I've got a regular garden going on here and I'm enjoying the lovely blooms! Happy sewing everyone and happy decorating for the holidays and festivities. Stay in, stay safe and stay creative.  In Moda Blockheads I am doing two versions, one scrappy and one all-Thatched. This is the progress on my scrappy version! I've used mostly fabrics from my collections with some additional fabrics from V&Co Ombre Confetti and a Little Red Riding Hood from Stacy Iest Hsu. I've mixed Thatched into these blocks to be a blender and make a link to the other version. For the rainbow bands I am debating adding some strips of color in between the blocks and I plan on having white sashing between the horizontal rows of color.
I'll be posting my blocks for this week on Friday so stay tuned!  Half square triangles in rows can be straight lines of direction or create more square formats within the space. Here are a few experiments in playing with different lights and darks on the half square triangle colors. When I squint my eyes, I can see things more as overall shape and not be influenced by the smaller pieces. Xs, bowties, circles...do you see them?  My blocks are for my brown row. I have Thatched browns but not many prints so Ombre Confetti is my go-to for brown blocks. I just love those metallic gold polka dots!  Visit Betsy Chutchian's blog for the pattern at athttp://betsysbestquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/  Did you know there are giveaways going this last round of patterns?? Yes! See Betsy for more details on this week's giveaway! Happy sewing!
 Another purple week for COLOR STUDIES! I really like Flying Geese blocks a lot and was really happy to see this lovely block by Sherri McConnell. I love the idea of just one arrow head being an accent color or a pop of lightness. I also like how 2 flying geese together can look like a V shape when you alternate the base and corner fabrics. You can play with different fabrics on your corners to emphasize the center fan blades or make more of a pinwheel. Thanks for this block Sherri! Check out her blog for the pattern and a fun giveaway this week (click the gray bar below).  Next week I'll show you what my print blocks look like spread out in their rows so far. As it has progressed to this point I have a better feel for what colors I need more of and it seems I am needing blocks in the medium to light value range.  I've done my block with warm and cool purple colors with one quadrant being about pink. Not light girly pink, but keep berry background and fuschia! The Sweet Pea & Lily prints have a sweet little pink branches and leaves print and I could use this for both the light pink arrow and the light purple arrows. I feel like the pinks give this an added energy.  The dark deep purple in the corners of the print block (lower left corner) is Moda Bella Solids Prune. This Prune color is so deep and rich! I love it! It is the same purple I used for the background on my original Showering Stars quilt.  This block looks great on point too! This past weekend I also spent a little time trying to catch up on a couple other blocks. I was able to get my "Fractured Rainbow" blocks done.  Log cabin blocks are so nice to work on. Every time I do some I think I NEED to do more log cabins. I've chosen to work with light gray alternating with white/cream for a more striped look.  The seedlings are from Dandi Annie and the gray strips and graphic motif are from Sweet Pea & Lily. We brought back the lines from that line in Cottage Bleu, which will be shipping in April 2021. The white on white lines in this print block is from the Cottage Bleu version. The all-Thatched grays use Gray 85 on the front and back sides.  Make sure to visit Sherri's blog for her giveaway info and have a great time sewing this week!
-Robin  What a fun block this week from Corey Yoder! I love the possibilities in this with the diamond shapes and squares. I didn't even realize it was Wednesday till I started to see blocks being posted so I didn't get a color study done this week. I'll be back to playing with colors on the computer for next week's block though.  On my all-Thatched version I wanted the lighter end of the spectrum for my layout. My quilt will be in rainbow bands of color and going from dark on the left to lighter on the right. One of the ways I get those lighter shades is by using Thatched on the back side. I love the soft look it has when I use it that way!  My print version uses Thatched with Sweet Pea & Lily for lacy branches and a graphic floral center. For both blocks I made my diamond stitch and flip blocks with half dark purple corners and half cream corners. I wanted to emphasize the star in the middle but I think it made more of a petal shape on this print version and I like it. The all -Thatched with the dark purple emphasizes a bigger diamond square in the center.  Visit Corey's blog for this week's Moda Blockheads pattern. Can you believe this is our fourth and final cycle of designer blocks in this sampler project? Woooo hooooo! Keep sewing!  Hi Everyone!! I'm so excited that this is my block week for Sewcialites! This is the first sewalong I've done with the Fat Quarter Shop and I am so impressed by how creative AND organized they are!  My block is DEVOTED and isn't that a good thing to reflect on? What do you feel devoted to? I am devoted to my family. My husband is a loyal and constant support and I couldn't ask for a better partner. And my kids are awesome! I often wonder what I did right to get them in my life. My family is a priority that I am devoted to and feel grateful for them every day.  I decided last week to make this block in my new SOLANA fabric since it is shipping to shops now! I'm so happy to see these sunflowers popping up on social media with those happy big blooms. The fabric has a tonal white on white of sunflower seeds and that is what I used for my background. I'm happy a little ladybug made it into one of my big half square triangles! I think this block would also look really nice set on point. The smaller HST give a balanced feel to the right and left sides.  I also decided to try the 6" block in the reverse with color and print to the inside. This block reminds me of puzzle pieces with arms to interlock into the right fit. You can get your pattern from Fat Quarter Shop for DEVOTED by following this link:  My original plan for Sewcialites was to make the 3" blocks for a wall quilt. I am doing some of the larger ones for fun in other prints and might do a smaller project like a table runner. For my small wall quilt that will include all the blocks, I'm using a subtle gray Heather, Pebble and Cream color palette with Thatched fabrics. I plan on making three of the blocks in little pops of color and I couldn't resist emphasizing sewing, love and flowers.  I'm debating using some low volume fabrics in the setting blocks to add a little print and additional texture.  If you want to check out more Thatched, check out this blog post. Plus I keep a color chart on the side panel of this blog and if you click it you will go to the larger image of the color chart. One thing I like to do with Thatched is also use it on the backside. It has a softer chambray look and gives me lighter shades.  I hope you will also check out Solana. Fat Quarter Shop carries both Solana and Thatched. Happy sewing and have a wonderful sewing week! - Robin   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 String quilts are such a great way to use up long pieces of fabric that wouldn't be wide enough for a lot of other quilt blocks. For those of us who just can't bear to throw out fabric, using up these strips in blocks is very satisfying.  This type of block feels improvisational and intuitive. And multiple ones can form wonderful blocks in new rows and star shapes, etc, by keeping the darks and lights on one side and arranging strategically. Get the pattern for the framework of the 4 quadrants and have fun with some strips of color, pattern goodness!  |
About ROBINDesigner of colorful florals for Moda fabrics. Modern to transitional quilt designer. Illustrator, sewist, crafter. 
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