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BH5 – Group 2, Block 2 – Lisa Bongean

BH5 – Group 2, Block 2 – Lisa Bongean

Written by: 
Anna Dineen

 

Happy Blockheads Wednesday! We’ve had lots of folks join our Blockheads sew-along since the new year kicked off, so if you’re new here, welcome to your new favorite day of the week! Keep reading for important information and links to help you get up to speed on Blockheads.

Last Saturday, January 6, we had the pleasure of joining Corey Yoder, Sherri McConnell, Joanna Figueroa, Robin Pickens, and Heather Briggs for a Blockheads-themed Saturday Sewcial YouTube hop! We all posted videos that morning with lots of great Blockheads quilts and inspiration. The Moda video also included a bonus demo of the Festive Blockheads Bunting pattern from the Blockheads 5 – Group 1 settings. If you missed that video, you can find it here: Saturday Sewcial -- Moda Blockheads Trunk Show

Be sure to check it out and see some of the quilts from members of our Blockheads Facebook group! We also linked to the other Saturday Sewcial channels in the video description, so you can easily get to the videos from Corey, Sherry, Joanna, Robin, and Heather.

Ready for this week’s block?

You can find this week’s pattern here: BH5 – Group 2, Block 2 – All Stars by Lisa Bongean

Follow along with Lisa!
Instagram: @lisabongean
https://lisabongean.com/blog/

https://www.youtube.com/@StitchwithLisaBongean

If you’re new to Blockheads, here are a couple of quick things to know:

  • This is a free quilt-along. No sign-ups are required. Just download the pattern and you’re ready to sew!
  • The PDF patterns will be posted on the Moda blog and in the official Facebook group every Wednesday by 8:00 AM CDT.
  • You can also bookmark this page: Blockheads 5 main page to find a convenient list of all the patterns as they are released.
  • If you’d like to sign up for our blog newsletter to get blog posts delivered to your inbox, you can sign up here: Blog Newsletter Sign-Up
  • If you want to sew along with a virtual Blockheads community, head over to Facebook and join our official Moda Blockheads Facebook group. Our group is an active and vibrant community of 71,000 quilters and counting! It’s a great place to be inspired and share pictures of your Blockheads progress.
  • If Instagram is where you prefer to hang out, be sure to follow us (@modafabrics) and the hashtags #modablockheads and #modablockheads5 to see the latest blocks from our designers and other Blockheads.
  • Be sure to get your official Blockheads t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, water bottles, and more from our pop-up shop HERE.

(Looking for a little more information about Blockheads? You can check out the Blockheads 5 archive HERE.)

Be sure to head over to Lisa’s blog as soon as you’ve downloaded the pattern! Lisa is sharing her tips and tricks for fabric placement and construction options for All Stars. She has so much great information in her post – you don’t want to miss out on that! You can find Lisa’s blog post here: Lisa's All Stars blog post

Something new we’re planning for this round of Blockheads is a weekly video. You can follow along with me as I sew the block of the week and share my tips and tricks and talk about different construction techniques. I’ll post the videos on YouTube and share them here on the blog. You can watch this week’s video below:

You’ll notice that I make my HSTs a little differently – I cut the squares in half diagonally first, then I stitch the triangles together. I do this instead of the method outlined in our patterns, which has you draw a line from corner to corner on the back of one of the squares, stitch a scant 1/4” seam on either side of that line, and then cut the unit apart on that line to yield two HSTs.

I do this because I heavily starch my fabrics before pressing and cutting them, so I don’t worry too much about sewing on that bias edge. I also find that it makes chain piecing so much faster for me. But that is definitely a personal preference!

Another option for making perfectly precise HSTs is to use triangle papers. Lisa is sharing more information about those in her blog post, so be sure to check that out. You can purchase Primitive Gatherings triangle papers directly from Lisa in her online shop.

Are you ready to see our blocks?

Lissa is using Nantucket Summer for her blocks. She posted a sneak peek of her Blockheads quilt setting on her blog, so head over there and check it out! Modalissa blog: Blockheads Update

Alison is making a fall/Halloween version in 12” blocks and a patriotic version in 6” blocks. I just love the fabrics she chose for her blocks this week!

And I am making a traditional/repro scrappy fall version and a sweet/cottage-y Americana version in 6” blocks, but this week, I only had time to make one block…womp womp. I’ll post my Americana version later this week in our Facebook group!

Now…off you go to press, cut, and sew! And don’t forget to share your blocks with us in our Facebook group or on Instagram (#modablockheads5)!