The last time I posted about my Moda Blockheads 3 Quilt Along, I posted this photo of all of my blocks thus far.

That was the layout I was following from Brigette Heitland. I thought it looked like a hot mess. Just way too much busy-ness. Heavy sigh. I took a temporary leave of absence from the Moda Blockheads 3 quilt a long. Thought I’d wait a few weeks and then get back at it after my brain got over all that riot of color and confusion.

And then I couldn’t get up those 14 steps into my sewing room. Finally, last week, I asked Terry to bring down my sewing machine and some of my projects and started turning my dining room into my temporary sewing corner.

I started back at it with block 23, “Lucky Penny” from Vanessa Goertzen. Because there are so many pieces in this block, I went with the 12″ size. I chose 16 different happy colors for my 16 pennies and used white for the corners. (Sixty-four 1 1/4″ squares for those corners–the 6″ version called for 7/8″ squares. Yikes!) After I was about half way through attaching the corners, I remembered that I really don’t like the “stitch and flip” method. No matter how careful I am, those blocks just are not precise.

But it turned out okay and it’s really pretty! And happy!

Next up was block 24, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” by Stacy Iest Hsu. It looked relatively easy–not too many parts–so I went with 6″ finished size. My home is blue with a white door and a gray metal roof so that was the first color scheme I used. Then I wanted the rest of the houses to be in cheerful colors like I had just used for block 23. (Unfortunately, none of the houses in my neighborhood are these colors. But it would be very cool if they were!) I wanted all the houses to have cool gray metal roofs and I used the “no waste” method of making four flying geese from the Inquiring Quilter. I’ve used this way before but I really messed it up. Fortunately I was able to fix the errors and still use the roofs. I also somehow measured the house parts and doors wrong. They should have finished at 3 1/2″. Nope, 3 3/4″. I just cut them down. Another happy block!

After doing those two cheery blocks with fun colors, I decided that was what I’m doing with the rest of the quilt blocks. I love Brigette Heitland’s quilt layout, blocks and fabric, but it is not working for me on this quilt so rather than overthinking each block, I’m using whatever bits and pieces I have in any color combo I throw together. When I have all 56 blocks finished, I’ll decide what I will do with them. Whether one or two quilts or several pillows or other quilty projects or stuck in a box in the back of the closet, I’ll make that decision later!

So with my new mindset, I moved onto block 25 which didn’t have too many pieces so I thought I’d make it in 6″, too. This one is “Corner Garden” by Robin Pickens. I can’t get out to see my flowers but I can have flowers on a quilt block!

There are 8 Half Square Triangles in the block so I used “Make Eight HST at a Time” method from Beechtree Lane Handmade. That’s when I realized that there really were a LOT OF PIECES in this block and I changed over to the 12″ size. Good decision on my part! I don’t think I would have been able to do all those tiny pieces in the 6″ size. I love the colors I used. Bright flowers and leaves.

I thought I’d get more blocks done for today but I’m easily distracted and started a new sewing project or two. Block 30 came out yesterday so I’m now five blocks behind. Back at it next week!

If you want to start this quilt along, you can get all the blocks here at Moda Block Heads 3 archives.