Hey blockheads, welcome back! I’m sure you noticed that I wasn’t able to make post on last week’s block release, and I apologize for that. Between kicking off my latest quilt-along O’ Say Can You Sew 2, and about a bazillion other things pulling me in a thousand different directions, I simply never found the time to sit down and write about it. I’m pretty sure you can all relate! So now just like that, a week has gone by and it’s Blockheads time all over again… Time sure does fly! No worries though, today you get a twofer!

Starting with Block #5 of Group Two, “Glimmer” was designed by Janet Clare – a fellow Moda fabric designer known for her colorful and lively designs that combine unique jointed appliqué templates with motion machine drawing techniques. Janet’s block contribution is inspired by her love for everyone’s favorite – flying geese. She sees them as “simple to piece, but very striking to use” because “if you’re clever with your use of colors and tones, you will be able to effortlessly create a glimmering star of your very own.” Well said, Janet! As you can see, Glimmer is made up of flying geese, solid squares, and a square in a square center. Nothing too crazy or complicated, yet the design allows for ton of fabric and color placement choices with stunning results.

Overall, Glimmer 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 trimming. By cutting units exactly the size I need them to be rather than oversized as the instructions suggest, I am able to skip trimming all together. The changes I made are shown below. You can grab the pattern for Glimmer from the Blockheads 5 Main Page by clicking the button above.

If you’re not a fan of flying geese, don’t panic. As I mentioned last week, Moda has been providing a weekly video tutorial for each block in Group Two of the series. You can follow along with quilting blogger Anna Dineen as she takes you through Glimmer (and ALL of the Group Two MBH5 blocks) step-by-step by clicking HERE!

Moving on to this week’s assignment, we have Block #6 of Group Two, “Favorite Vintage Star” by Melody Miller of Ruby Star Society who is new to Blockheads. Her modern twist on the vintage star was fun to make for a few reasons. Number one is that it looks like a complicated block to sew, but it’s SEW not (heh)! Despite the fact that at first glance you might think Favorite Vintage Star is paper pieced, look again. It’s actually all traditionally pieced! Let your friends think you spent a lot of time on this little gem – I won’t tell! It will look like you did, so who needs to know the truth?!? Ready to try it for yourself? Download the pattern from the Blockheads 5 Main Page by clicking the button below! P.S. – I did not make any changes to the instructions for Favorite Vintage Star.

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!

Don’t you just love those colors?!? As if I needed another stack of fabric taking up space in my studio, but hey – who’s counting??? I’ve found several uses for this new line already, so it’s not like it’s going to go to waste. Take it from me… You can never 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.

Ok, stitchers… Time to hang it up for another day! I hope you’ll join us tomorrow for my LIVE show at 1:00 p.m. CST. Just when you thought we were moving on from winter to spring, we’re taking a few steps back toward winter so I can tell you all about my new fabric line, Snowman Gatherings IV, coming this summer! I know, I know, snowmen in summer… but you know how it goes! It’s never a bad thing to be ahead of the game so you can get started on winter projects with enough time to finish them before Old Man Winter decides to head back this way! Tune in by visiting my STITCH with Lisa Bongean channel on YouTube, or by clicking the STITCH icon below. After that we’ll get our Thursday does of CommentSold with Jess and Heidi at around 2:15 p.m. Watch us via the Primitive Gatherings CommentSold App, or by visiting the LIVE videos area of either our Primitive Gatherings Facebook page, or through the STITCH with Lisa Bongean group page once the broadcast has started (it will not show up in the list prior to air). Until then, have a wonderful evening and rest up that shopping finger… You’re gonna need it! Take care! ~Lisa