Hey, Blockheads, welcome back! If you’re anywhere near the cold snap we’re experiencing in WI this week, I hope you’re staying inside where it’s safe and warm, because dang – it’s cold out there!!! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful bluebird day, but a sunny day like this in the middle of January usually means it’s also colder than… out there. All the new snow is definitely tempting but my skis will have to wait just a little longer for it to warm up about 25° from where we’re currently sitting – hopefully by next week. For now I’m happy to look at the sunny day from my cozy sewing room window, which I’m sure many of you are doing just the same.

Conveniently enough, today just so happens to be a great one to be cozied up and looking for something to do, because we just so happen to have a fresh new Blockheads 5 release to play with. This week’s contribution comes from fellow Moda sister and first-time Blockheads designer, April Rosenthal of Prairie Grass Patterns. Her beautiful star design “Shimmering Star” pays tribute to the way stars seem to shimmer, twinkle, and twirl in the night sky. The block is made up of a variety of units including variations of 4-patches, log cabins, and half-square triangles which make it a fun and interesting block to put together. Ready to give it a whirl? Grab the pattern download and April’s take on her block by clicking the download button below!

Overall, the block should go together fairly quickly for you. I will say that I did make a few changes to the instructions as I went along because I prefer to avoid bias edges when I can, considering they result in unwanted additional stretch in the fabric. By cutting units “D” and “E” twice rather than once as the instructions suggest, I am able to skip any bias edges all together.

As most of you know, for my blocks I’m using Bella Solid Silver (9900 183) for the background of my quilt, and Bella Solid American Blue (9900 174) consistently throughout the entire thing. For any additional colors I’m using a combination of the soft, muted collection of Bella Solids that we put together for this project called “Sundown,” along with a new playful and vibrant Bella Solids collection called “Cozy.” Both collections are available for purchase on our website by clicking the buttons below!

Talk about eye candy! As if I needed another stack of fabric to drool over, but hey – I’m really not complaining. I’ve found several uses for this new line already, so it’s not like it’s going to be sitting around collecting dust. Let’s get real here… It’s not like you can ever have too much fabric in your stash! Anyway, If you have any questions regarding these blocks, or anything else for that matter, please feel free to leave me a comment here on the blog! You can also visit the Blockheads 5 Main Page for more information on Moda Blockheads 5 and how it all works by clicking HERE. I also recommend hooking up with the virtual Blockheads community for even more support by checking out their Official Moda Blockheads Facebook Group.

Just a reminder, we’re back to our regular LIVE and CommentSold schedules which means I’ll be going LIVE on my STITCH with Lisa Bongean YouTube Channel tomorrow – Thursday at 1:00 p.m. CST. After that, around 2:15 p.m. CST we’ll hop over to the CommentSold studio for an hour of Valentines Day goodies. Do you have just the right gift lined up for your Valentine? If not, you might just want to tune in for this one… Until then, have a great day and I will see you all tomorrow! ~Lisa