We’re so excited to bring back Blockheads for a fifth installment! Are you ready to get sewing? The wait is over!

You can find this week’s pattern here: BH5 - Bonus - Autograph Star by Barbara Groves of Me & My Sister Designs

Follow along with Barb!
Instagram: @meandmysisterdesigns
https://www.meandmysisterdesigns.com/

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 65,000 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.

(Looking for a little more information about Blockheads? You can check out previous posts HERE, HERE, and HERE.

It’s the most exciting challenge to find new ways to inspire a community of quilters – and that’s always our goal with Blockheads. For Blockheads 5, we’ve tweaked the format a bit, breaking the series into two groups to give everyone a bit of a break over the holidays and also giving you the option to finish a smaller project with the first group of blocks. Of course, that’s just an option – you are welcome to combine all the blocks into one large quilt, or make several smaller quilts, or make a tote bag, or…whatever you’re inspired to do!

We’ve also planned Blockheads 5 with a theme – stars! Our designers have all created star blocks for you to stitch up. It has been so fun to see how our designers have risen to the challenge of designing a themed block, and we can’t wait to see how you bring those designs to life with your fabric choices and placement.

Speaking of designers, you all are in for a treat, because we have more designers participating this year than ever before! An incredible roster of 34 designers have contributed block designs for Blockheads 5, including a handful of new designers! From traditional to modern, there’s a block for every style and every skill level.

Today, we’re kicking off the first group with a bonus block. It might seem strange to start with a bonus, but I’ve got a really good reason!

Tell me…are you diligent about labeling your quilts? It’s ok – you can be honest! This is a judgement-free blog, and besides, no one will hear your answer. I confess that I am the worst at labeling my quilts! I always say I’m going to put on a label, but I never do. This is especially embarrassing because I actually paid for a bunch of custom sew-in labels with the justification that if I spent money on custom labels, then I’d surely always sew one on my finished quilts. Nope.

So when Barb of Me & My Sister Designs sent us this Autograph Star block with the suggestion that it would make a great label, we were over the moon! And since it’s so common to forget a quilt label because it gets put off ‘til the last, what better way to make sure that we don’t put it off than to START with the label?

I’ve added a few scripty labeling options on the pattern PDF that you can trace onto your block and embroider – or just trace it with a permanent fabric pen!

Barb’s blocks are made with Reindeer Games, currently available in quilt shops.

Lissa’s using a Nantucket Summer fat quarter bundle as her primary fabrics for her blocks. Her fabric pull includes background prints from Bunny Hill Designs, Jen Kingwell, and 3 Sisters.

Tammy has pulled prints from some of her favorite Betsy Chutchian collections for her blocks. She’s planning to use a red, blue, and cream or neutral print in every block!

And I’m using a scrappy mix of pink, red, green, and cream/low volume prints from Brenda Riddle, Fig Tree, Bunny Hill Designs, 3 Sisters, and more. I call it a “cottage Christmas” look. (As you can see, I've only traced the lettering onto my smaller block -- I'm still deciding whether to embroider or use a permanent fabric pen!)

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)!