Month: November 2017

All in A Row Again Blog hop

November 24, 2017

Giveaway Closed

Donna Cutting- you are the winner of an All in a Row E-book. I have sent you an email.

My name may be on the cover but it what’s inside

that makes this book so special.

Talented designers including Corey Yoder, Betsy Chutchian, Jen Kingwell, Jo Morton, Lisa Bongean, Sherri McConnell, Karla Eisenach, Camille Roskelley, Kate Spain, Barb Groves, Mary Jacobsen, Brenda Riddle, Sandy Gervais, Sandy Klop, Kathy Schmitz, Deb Strain, Barb Adams, Alma Allen, Anne Sutton, Lynne Hagmeier, Stacy Iest Hsu, Laurie Simpson, Janet Clare, and Pat Sloan. Each of these designers have created a special row for you. Whether making a seasonal tablerunner or a fun whimsical quilt, there are so many options.

A few other people that need mentioning are Susan Ache, Maggi Honeyman, Alison Dale, Tamra Dumolt and Karen Burns.

Thank you for your sewing and quilting!

All the big awards shows have people that fill the empty seats when the stars are away getting ready for presentations, accepting awards or even taking a bathroom break. I wonder how you get the job to be a seat filler? I would sign up for that, sitting next to Keith Urban would be a dream come true.

Speaking of fillers, my contribution to this book is the filler rows for the Moda All Stars.

My 4″ filler rows to be used as borders, additional mini rows and spacers between the designers rows. The patterns are named Join Hands, Floral Frenzy, Stair Steps, Scallops, Criss Cross, Looking Glass, Twigs, Beans and Triangles. Shown above is a quilt made using combinations of all the fillers.

Along with Lisa Bongean, I am sharing my post on the last day of the blog hop which is also the day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is an American holiday that gives us the opportunity to gather with friends and family, enjoy food and fellowship and to reflect on what all we are thankful for.

I do not know if Martingale choose for me to go last but I am glad they did. I have so much to be thankful for and all of the people listed above are part of the reason why. I am blessed to work with people that I also call my friends.

People that share their talent, inspire and teach others and work hard every single day is what this industry is made of. This also includes all the additional people that work behind the scenes to actually produce a book. (as shown above)

Together, the designers are donating royalties from the book’s sales to benefit Give Kids the World Village . This charity helps children with life-threatening illnesses enjoy week long, cost-free vacations with their families.

I am giving away an E-book courtesy of Martingale publishing. To enter, leave a comment here and tell me if you were a seat filler at any awards show who would you like to sit next to. The winner will be announced Tuesday morning ( November 28th)

Just in case you missed any of the stops on the hop, I am sharing them here. You can also check out the Allinarowquiltalong Fb page for details.

Here’s the schedule …

November 13

Martingale: http://blog.shopmartingale.com/

Moda: http://blog.modafabrics.com/

November 14

Pat Sloan: http://blog.patsloan.com/

Janet Clare: http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/

Corey Yoder: http://littlemissshabby.com/

November 15

Laurie Simpson: http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/

Stacy lest Hsu: https://www.stacyiesthsu.com/blog/

November 16

Anne Sutton: http://bunnyhillblog.com/

Alma Allen: http://www.blackbird-designs.com/

November 17

Lynne Hagmeier: http://kansastroublesquilters-lynne.blogspot.com/

Betsy Chutchian: http://betsysbestquiltsandmore.blogspot.com/

November 18

Deb Strain: https://www.instagram.com/debstrain/

Kathy Schmitz: http://kathyschmitzstudio.blogspot.com/

November 19
Sandy Klop: https://www.instagram.com/sandyklop/

Sandy Gervais: http://piecesfrommyheart-sgervais.blogspot.com/

November 20

Brenda Riddle: http://brendariddle.blogspot.com/

Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson

November 21

Karla Eisenach: https://www.thesweetwaterco.com/the-sweetwater-blog/

Camille Roskelley: https://www.instagram.com/thimbleblossoms/

November 22

Sheri McConnell: http://www.aquiltinglife.com/

Kate Spain: http: https://www.instagram.com/katespain/

November 24

Lissa Alexander: https://modalissa.com/

Lisa Bongean: https://lisabongean.com/

Gratefully,

-modalissa

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Go Hornfrogs!!

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November 9, 2017

Every Quilt tells a story!!

(and I am trying to catch up on telling a few of my quilt stories)

My niece headed off to Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas this fall. I wanted to make her something “fun and funky” that would fit her personality.

I grabbed my inspiration from the TCU Hornfrog’s fight song which seems silly but has great history tied to it. I contacted the family to send me pieces of their clothing or some sort of message or keepsake so Kennedy would have a piece of each of us with her. I had no idea what the correct color of TCU was, so when I started receiving vintage t-shirts from her mom (also a TCU grad) in a big variety of purples, I knew I could do this.

Nolan’s favorite color is purple so he helped and I think he was sure this was for him. I promised him I would make him one for college! (excuse the laundry on the table- real life pic)

I apologize in advance for the cell phone pics, but I think you will get the concept.

When Kennedy was little she couldn’t say Lissa and she is the one that coined my nickname, IZZY.

I must be too lazy to do a quilt label, so I always have the quilter stitch my label in with the quilting stitches. ( thanks, Maggi Honeyman)

My brother sent me some text messages that he had kept. They were so sweet that I had to use them. I transferred them to fabric using an inkjet printer and Printed Treasures printable fabric. This is a picture of the back of the quilt. I used Purple Snuggles on the back so that this quilt could be dragged to football games on cold Texas winter nights. Okay, it is not that cold in Texas but I love the weight and feel of this fabric for quilt backs.

My mom probably kept every card, picture or note that Kennedy had ever sent her. My mom passed away last year and I knew pieces of Gammy needed to be included. Various notes and messages are used throughout.

Kennedy’s maternal grandmother passed away several years ago. Popsicle (grandad) sent me a box of clothes and as soon as I opened the box I could smell Mama Faye. Both Grandmothers are still a special part of Kennedy’s life and keeping a good eye on her.

In the left hand corner of the picture above is a copy of Kennedy’s baby blanket. I just took a picture of it and transferred to fabric.
Isn’t technology great? The printable fabric is washable and you can transfer almost anything to it.

I found a drawing of Kennedy and her mom. Had to use that!

Remember when people actually wrote letters? And kids always had to end with P.S. and P.S.S and
P.S.S.S. Thank you for my cleansing set.

It was a nightly ritual if you were with Gammy. You got to use all her fancy cleansers, cotton balls and
moisturizers no matter what your age.

My mom and Kennedy wrote letters back and forth quite often, but there was one small problem. Kennedy could not read cursive so my mom would write a letter, my brother would read it to her. But if there was anything “secret” that Gammy wanted to talk about such as boyfriends, etc., she would print it and put it in a special envelope labeled, FOR KENNEDY’S EYES ONLY.

My message to Kennedy was a piece of a T-shirt my brother gave me after I had brain surgery, What’s Your Superpower? I hope she thinks about all her many gifts / super powers that makes her such a special person.

Really I promise the quilt is cool, but cell phone pics from a dorm room probably don’t showcase it best.
Some of her mom’s t-shirts were cut up and used as pieced letters, but a few of them had such strong messages that they needed to be highlighted on their own. Make It Possible, Make It Happen, Make It Yours.

I don’t have a pic, but I also sewed part of a TCU T-shirt to the bottom, back middle of the quilt. I did this so that the quilt could fold up into a Quillow, a quilt turned into a pillow. The main reason I did this is when the quilt is in use, she could also slide her feet into the little pocket for extra added warmth. I think ever I may have to add a foot pocket to all my quilts in the in the future.

My sister in law really knows how to throw a graduation party so I had to include this pic of my

granddaughter, Imrie enjoying the yummy cookies.

Riff, Ram, Bah Zoo

Lickety, Lickety, Zoo, Zoo

Who, Wah, Wah, Who

Give “em Heck, TCU.

Over and out. Thanks for listening to my story.

-modalissa

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Remodeling

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November 3, 2017

Recently, or I guess it has now been a couple of years ago, I remodeled my childhood home. I moved into this house when I was in second grade, grew up here, married living close by. After my father passed away, my mom followed the tradition of don’t make any major decisions/changes for a year. When she was ready to move to a smaller place, I was still adjusting to loosing my dad and didn’t want to also part with the house I grew up in, so with a growing family I bought the house. Ironically we moved in when my oldest son was in second grade.

He came home from school and told me his P.E. teacher was a real old lady. Yes, you guessed it, she was the same P.E. teacher that I had and I didn’t think she looked a day older.

We raised our kids in this house. They all attended the same schools that my sister and brothers attended. The kids hunted Easter eggs in the same yard as I did, celebrated Christmas just as I did and now their kids are making new memories in this house.

Something as simple as playing hide and go seek wasn’t going to work for them. I knew all the hiding spots. Been there, done that!

So what does this story have to do with this quilt?

There is a builder that has been revitalizing our little town with wonderful new homes all throughout the community. He doesn’t do remodels!! I talked him into doing a little remodel and I had plenty of time for him to do the work in between his new builds. He tried and tried to talk me into leveling the house and building new, but I didn’t have the pocketbook for that. The remodel turned into a much bigger project with slab leaks, electric rewiring, in addition to what was already planned and budgeted for. Remember, he doesn’t do remodels!

So what does this story have to do with this quilt?

This builder happened to be one of my neighbors growing up. He was from a large family and all the neighborhood kids were always at his house. So maybe I guilt-ed him into doing the work, but I knew I could trust him and he knew the history of our house and family.

So I decided to make his family a quilt as a Thank You. They are big fans of the show Fixer Upper, so I went with greys and whites, grunges and crossweaves and any other texture type print I could find.

The triangles are all going upwards as symbolism of all the hard work his family has done in our community. I built each piece one by one.

There is half a row of triangles going in the opposite direction so he can remember, 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards when helping out an old childhood friend making her wish’s come true. Thanks Todd!!

Used Moda Snuggles on the back. All the flying geese shapes were made with Bloc Loc rulers, FG4 x 8 and FG2 x 4.

If you have not used any of the Bloc-Loc rulers yet, I highly recommend them.
They will be a basic in your quilting tool box.

-modalissa

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