MODA BLOCKHEADS: WEEK #1

INTRODUCTION

For those of you who are new here [as I see many of you are]… welcome to the MODA Blockheads adventure. I am excited to see these quilts grow and evolve especially with some of our color combination suggestions!

For those of you who have participated with us before, you know the weekly fun of MODA BLOCKHEADS. Last year when we participated, we made a red and cream masterpiece that will go down in the books… that quilt was a lot of work and we loved every minute of it but we are ready for something a bit more straightforward this year [feel free to scroll back to some of last year’s posts if you want to see more about that quilt].

This year the program is a bit more subdued and a bit shorter [previous years have lasted the full year and included 50+ blocks] with 28 MODA designers participating, each contributing a single block and MODA adding in a few bonus blocks to round out the group for those of you who want to keep going for a bigger quilt. We are very excited to work on something that will finish up at the end of summer!

HOW THE PROGRAM WORKS IN GENERAL

If you want to learn more about how BLOCKHEADS works in general or how we are going to make ours here at FIG TREE, please go back one post and read about it all there.

As a quick reminder…

We have decided to just use 25 blocks which gives us a bit more flexibility in case we need to skip a week or a particular block doesn’t work with our setting. Our finished quilt will be app. 69″ square. We are working on our first 9″ block this week.

We will be making the entire program in a red, green, cream color scheme… with a twist. WE HAVE JUST ADDED MORE STARTER BUNDLES AFTER THE FIRST ONES SOLD OUT… to get you started or to augment your own scraps. I highly recommend using your stash or previous bundles for the bulk of your project. Each week the block will be different and it will be an opportunity to use a new group of coordinating prints and colors each week.

The starter bundles are HERE. When we run out, we will try to add some similar feeling ones back up next week so please check back. If you do not see this bundle in the shop page, that means it has run out

Whether or not you are going to follow our color scheme, I HIGHLY recommend that you chose a limited palette of some kind to work with. When you have a project like this, with 28 different designers, blocks and styles, a unifying color scheme will go a long way in helping all of the blocks feel cohesive and like they belong in the same quilt.

BLOCK #1: SQUARE WHEEL By Lynn Hagmeier

I was so excited when I saw that Lynn had chosen this as her block as it is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE blocks and I love her variation with the nine patch in the center.

If you want to see what another variation of this block looks like as a full quilt, take a look HERE. It would be so good in pretty much every season and palette if you ask me.

To get the block directions for this week from Lynn… GO HERE.

[if you click on the link and don’t see the block info yet, it just means she hasn’t quite posted it yet]

HOW WE DID OURS

Since we will be featuring red in all of our blocks with accents of green and cream, we chose a red dot for the main portion of the block, added in a favorite green print as the secondary color and a bit of a cream print for a little pop in the center.

The background of the block [and of our entire quilt] will be ivory solid… once in a while we might work in some soft cream prints into the block backgrounds for a little extra sparkle.

SOME MORE SETTING INFO

We have gotten a lot of questions about when we will have our setting directions up with cutting instructions so wanted to share with you guys that we won’t be doing that for at least a few weeks. We are going to work on getting at least several of the blocks done and laid out together and we will see how everything is coming together first.

We have FOR SURE decided on the blue chambray as our setting fabric. If you have decided to follow along with us and are using the same fabric [we have gotten some more in HERE], I recommend you either wash or at the very least spray starch the fabric well. Personally I would do both with this fabric. I am not really worried about the other fabrics and will lightly spray starch them before I work with them.

Normally I am not a washer of fabrics but with the chambray/crossweave fabrics I have done that sometimes to make sure I don’t get any bleeding down the road. Wash with color catchers to make sure the fabric is not bleeding. Also wash the fabric on the same temperature that you would potentially wash the quilt on.

We will see you guys next Wednesday with Block #2.

For now, be sure to follow us on INSTAGRAM and join us in our FACEBOOK GROUP for all kinds of Fig Tree fun!

See you soon, Joanna

---

Moda Blockheads 4

Introduction
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
(We Skipped Week 14!)
Week 15
Week 16

Week 17

Week 18

Week 19

Week 20

Week 22

Week 23

Week 24