Tips for Multiple Block Sewing and Blockhead Four

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the weekly quilting update. I have mostly been sewing and trying to catch up on the Moda Blockheads 4 sew along. I made good progress this week and even finished a block into a mug rug.

I copied my Instagram friend, @hildybretzeder‘s idea to turn block 11, Block-berry by Sweetfire Road into a strawberry block. I took Hildy’s block and added an extra color unit on the top row to round out the top a little more than she had. I love how it turned out. I made the 9″ block (Hildy made the 4.5″ block) and made a sweet summer mug rug.

I used some Lori Holt fabrics from Riley Blake Designs for the block and used a Wilmington check from the Berry Sweet line for the binding and backing. The berry quilting is done with my walking foot and then I switched to the free motion foot to quilt the swirls. I used Aurifil 50 wt 2415, a light pink thread. I will use it either by my stitching spot or computer.

I cut out all the Blockhead blocks that I was behind on early in the week and clipped the pieces together. Now they were ready to go when I was ready to sew. You can find all the Moda Blockhead 4 archives here.

I have a couple of tips for working with different blocks (and projects) at a time.

• I work with only three blocks at a time. This helps keep the flow going from sewing, pressing and trimming without spending too much time on each step.
• I try to have another alternate quilt going to use as leaders and enders between each block. This helps separate each block. I’ll sew a unit for the alternate quilt in between each block.
• Start your block construction with the half square triangles, flying geese and folded corner units. Sew all that you can before pressing and trimming each unit.
• Keep them organized by laying them out on separate design boards or next to your machine in separate groups.

As I was making the units for these three blocks, I kept each one on its own smaller design board so the fabrics wouldn’t get mixed up. When I start sewing these again, I’ll sew the flying geese together for the top right block, then start sewing the blocks together in rows. I use this technique all the time for sewing different projects. I get comments on how much I get done and this is one of the reasons why.

I have the newest Blockhead block from Wednesday to cut out, then I’ll add it to the two I have left to sew. When the above three are finished, I’ll start on the next three.

These are the alternate units I made while sewing the Blockhead units together.

I took a break from sewing the blockhead blocks in order to sew some of the Jellyroll Sizzle blocks together, the free pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. The blocks went together very quickly and I’m using Diagonal Seam Tape by Cluck Cluck Sew instead of marking the corner squares on the sew and flip corners.

I am looking forward to a day trip my quilt group is taking on Wednesday. We are going to Burkholder Fabrics in Lancaster, PA, then going to The Old Country Store and Zooks Fabrics in Intercourse, PA. It’s going to be long day, but I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t been in that part of Pennsylvania before.

I hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

PS: Don’t forget about my 15% off sale in my Etsy shop until the end of June. Use code SUMMER15.