Welcome to Blockheads Wednesday and another exciting star block for your Blockheads 5 collection! This week, we have a returning designer, Sarah Thomas of SARIDITTY, and she has designed a fantastic foundation-paper-pieced 5-point star for us! Center Star is Sarah’s block design, and this is a fun one to stitch up. We’re getting lots of practice with our foundation paper piecing – it’s a great technique to learn because it opens up a whole new world of amazing block patterns!

You can find this week’s pattern here: BH5 – Group 2, Block 19 – Center Star by Sarah Thomas

Follow along with Sarah!
Instagram: @sariditty
sariditty.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 73,000 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.)

 

Something new we’re doing 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:

 

I didn’t take any video at my sewing machine for this week’s block, so if you’re looking for a little bit more of a visual guide on the actual stitching of the template, you can check out my video tutorial for Brigitte’s FPP block from Group 1 of Blockheads 5:

 

If you just need a quick refresher, here are some general FPP tips to keep in mind:

General FPP tips

1. Print or copy the pattern PDF and templates at 100% or “Actual size” to ensure accuracy. The template pages will have a 1” square gauge on every page; be sure to measure that square after printing to confirm that it is exactly 1”. The seam allowances for each template must also measure exactly 1/4”. Confirm all measurements before sewing.
2. Cut out the unit templates from the template pages before sewing, leaving about 1/8”-1/4” excess around the dotted seam allowance line.
3. When cutting your fabrics, make sure each piece of fabric extends about 1/2” beyond the section it’s meant to cover. For example, when cutting fabric for A1, make sure the fabric extends 1/2” past the solid outline of A1 and into the neighboring sections and/or the seam allowance, if the section is adjacent to the seam allowance.
4. Complete the individual foundation paper units in order numerically and alphabetically.
5. For best results, shorten your stitch length and snip threads after each section for a neat finish.
6. Backstitch at the beginning and end of each seam to secure it.
7. Remember that on FPP templates, you will stitch on the solid line and trim the completed unit on the dotted line.
8. When trimming each paper pieced unit, be sure that the fabric extends to the edge of the paper to secure your block with a 1/4” seam.

 

I want to call out a few notions from this week’s video.

• First, I have to give a shout-out to my absolute favorite fabric snips. The Sewline 5 1/2” Snippet scissors are hands-down my favorite snips. They are super sharp and very comfortable in my hand. They’re available in this handy Sewline Quilter Starter Kit, which comes with the Snippet scissors, several fabric marking tools, and fabric glue. It’s a great set and I use something from that set almost every time I sew.
• Speaking of fabric glue, I love the Sewline Water Soluble Glue Pen for adhering my first piece of fabric onto my paper template. The pen is refillable, which really comes in handy!
• When trimming the seam allowances on my FPP templates, I like to use a smaller rotary cutter – this Fiskars 28mm rotary cutter is just the right size.  

 

Are you ready to see our blocks?

Alison made a 6" block patriotic version.

And I made a traditional/repro scrappy fall version and a sweet/cottage-y Americana version in 6” blocks.

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)!