Hi Blockheads,
This is going to be fun. This is my second year as a Blockheads block designer and also as a participant. I really enjoyed sharing my blocks and some information about how I use stripes, particularly large scale ones, in patchwork.
One of the best things, for me, about Blockheads, is learning so much from everyone involved. Not only do the designers have lots of tips and tricks, but everybody has something worthwhile to share.
As you may know by now, I have a particular affinity with stripes. I love them. They look classic and timeless and add some direction and often texture to your projects. Last year I used Moda Toweling for the stripes in my blocks and quilt. You can check out lots of information about that by scrolling back through my Blog posts. Because toweling has such large scale stripes, I really focused on direction and symmetry, because the stripes were bold. It really gave the blocks some directionality and I really enjoyed exploring the options available. You can see my finished quilt from Blockheads 4 below.
This is the right side of the quilt with the bigger blocks. I used a 60" wide Moda Toweling for the border.
This is the back of the quilt, with all the small blocks and one big one. I framed the blocks with Toweling, cut in half lengthways and then sewn between a textured 60" wide toweling.
I'm still deciding which side I prefer!
Between Blockheads 4 and Blockheads 5 I have released a couple of new fabric ranges.
The first one was Vista and featured colours from nature; greens, blues and rust. Of course, it was woven stripes.
If you missed it, here is a photo of the wovens.
There were also a range of 18" wide towelings that coordinated with the silky wovens. If you would like to see all the projects I designed with Vista, just have a little browse through the patterns on my website.
My second range of wovens is called Panache.
Here is the whole Panache line. It is extensive and has a huge amount of variety.
I have written a Blog about this line, explaining all the fabrics; wovens, 18" wide towelings, cotton slubs, printed and plain, 60" wide towelings and pre-pieced wovens. So please check that out if you want to learn more about it. Also follow me @piecestotreasure on Instagram for the all the latest.
I wanted to use Panache for Blockheads 5 but I was not able to show any of the fabric until September 28; I was in a bit of a quandary! So I thought I would just come into to Blockheads a little late and then catch up!
When I started deciding what fabrics to use, from Panache, I was thinking I would make a Christmas Project, with my finished blocks. Black, red, white and silver make great Christmas colours. In fact, I am finishing up a Christmas Book with Panache - more about that later.
But, a little part of me still wanted some green, for this project.
So I pulled some of the wovens from Vista and lo and behold I started to create my fabric selection.
The red and white checks and stripes are from my new line, Panache.
The green woven square dot and wide stripe are from Vista.
I then felt it need a red and green print to tie it all together. The print also adds some movement to the selection that is less geometric than the stripes and checks. I chose a green background and white background Christmas print from Christmas Morning by Vanessa of Lella Boutique, and then selected her multi dot print on white to work as a background for the blocks.
When choosing a selection of fabrics from different fabric ranges, I like to take a few photos with them arranged differently.
This way I can really see how they are working together.
I think I have a nice balance here of checks of different sizes, a narrow stripe and a wider stripe, a spot and two floral prints, plus the green which works like a plain.
There are also some dark fabrics, light fabrics and some that fit in the middle shades.
I cut 12" of each but 18" of the white spot because that will likely appear in most blocks.
I am planning a Christmas Project using the first 9 blocks in 6 ½" size from Blockheads 5. I will include the instructions for this project as a free download on my website, after the ninth block has been published.
Well, I hope you all have lots of happy sewing and let's see how this fabric selection pans out. I am excited to get sewing.
Happy sewing,
Jenelle
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