Category: Quilts

The art of learning…

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I am so thrilled to be a very small piece of a great big community of people who love to share, share their passion, designs and talents with like-minded people. So I was even more thrilled to be asked by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson to be a part of project they are rolling out with 83 quilters, Martingale Publishing, Aurifil threads and Moda Fabrics. I continue to learn from these people and this project will help me do more of this.  I am not big on applique or embroidery. As soon as I sit down I fall asleep so that could possibly be the reason I am not a fan of hand work. Maybe it could be that I am impatient. The Splendid Sampler™ is going to allow be to bite off little bits of applique. And the blocks will be small so maybe my big stitches wont show up to badly. I will continue to learn. There are 100 different blocks so even if you don’t want to make all of them there are plenty of options for all. the-splendid-sampler-industry-banner-v1-1HERE are the details:
The Splendid Sampler™
It starts Feb. 14th.
Don’t you just {heart} that?
100 – 6″ quilt blocks from 83 designers/quilters.
Choose your fabrics, assemble your notions and get ready to learn and share.
If you want to read about how this little project got started, click here and sign up for updates, so you don’t have to remember to go looking.
Follow along on the blog,  for tips, tutorials as well as learning about what makes each of these people tick.
You’ll get two FREE mystery blocks per week for a total of 100 blocks throughout the year!
Join the Facebook group, Facebook.
I hereby officially challenge you to jump in.
I can’t wait to see what you make with these patterns.
Be sure and include #TheSplendidSampler when you post your pictures.
-modalissa

Vin DuJour Stars

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Vin DuJour Stars

Sounds like a peaceful evening under a sky full of twinkling lights drinking a few glasses of bubbly.

ya right
The name of the quilt does almost sound magical and yet it is just the description of one of my favorite quilts.
The fabric was named Vin DuJour by 3 sisters and duh, the blocks are stars, hence the name, Vin DuJour Stars.
The stars are BIG stars. Each block is almost 30″before trimming.

I am not a fan of purple, or I wasn’t a fan of purple until I made this quilt.
Come on, old ladies like purple.
I am not an old lady so why would I ever dream of liking purple?

Until now, I guess there all shades of purple and this deep grape won me over.
The name of the collection was Vin DuJour so the color names were Burgundy,
Champagne and Grape.
Excess research was done, if you know what I mean, to create these designs and colors.
The stars were made using 2 Vin DuJour Jelly Rolls so the strips were already cut at 2 1/2″ and i just started sewing.
Each of the stars were pieced with a different color placement, so they really do twinkle throughout.
If you are interested in this pattern, McCall’s does have a link to download the digital version of the Jan/Feb 2014 issue.
If a big quilt like this is a bit too much to bite off right now, they have also created a 1 block wallhanging option.
Download pattern here.
This would be dreamy made from a Christmas collection.
One more little thing about this quilt is my daughter absolutely loves it, begged for it and now owns it.
She is not old at all, actually she is pretty cool.
So purple is for cool people.
-modalissa
** this is a continuing series in my effort to document my quilts for history. Since what you put on the internet stays there forever,
I thought this would be as safe as a place as any.

 

 

Log Cabin Swap Fun

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Log Cabin Swap

 Several of you have asked about the Log Cabin Block swap

 so I thought I would share the details here.

 I found a few gull-able friends and decided to just put it out there to see if they wanted to make over-sized blocks, cut them into quarters and then swap. 

 Here is our my plan. It is pretty much the nuts and bolts type of information. You can disregard any of the swapping info.


 RULES:(you know I don’t like too many rules, I like to call them guidelines)
Colors? Think Minick & Simpson meets Bonnie & Camille
(fabrics are not limited to these designers- just want to convey the feel of fabrics to work with)
No Batiks
Denims, wovens and other textures okay except  no crazy stuff like chenille.
Blacks and Golds okay
Press away from center regardless of light fabrics.
Do I need to say quilt store quality fabrics? I hope not with this group.

Make 20” finished log cabins
– any size center(think big since it will be cut into quarters)  – any size strips except outer strips on all four sides must be a minimum of 2” finished.This will allow trimming and squaring up after swapping. – Basically make 16” scrappy blocks then add 2 1/2” cut strips on all four sides to have a 20″ block. – Cut each block into 4 even quarters measuring 10” square. Keep 1 and trade the other 3. Do not sew any of the quarter blocks back together. – Send the  blocks to me at this stage.

 

Once you receive the swapped blocks, trim and square up your blocks. Join 4 together in whatever setting/layout/or design you prefer.
Size will vary depending on how much you want to trim your swapped blocks. The layout below, I am estimating finished blocks will be approx. 18”

So that is our swap in a nutshell. There are a bunch of us doing these blocks with all different styles, tastes and fabric stashes. The variety of blocks will be the starting point to create some pretty cool finished quilts. We are a competitive/over achieving bunch, seeing what everyone creates will be the exciting part.

Here is the just beginning of my log Cabin strips. This was a great stash buster project. All those 1/8 of a yard pieces that were to big to go in the scrap bin but were constantly lost in the “fabric closet” quickly got sliced and diced into a variety of sizes. My fabric started out combining Bonnie and Camille with Minick and Simpson.(Acronym for that would be BCMS) 

Then I added Zen Chic, Sweetwater, Luci Summers, Tula Pink, a piece or two of Momo, Primitive Gatherings and 3 sisters! I am in heaven!!

Here are Susan Ache’s strips.  What a wonderful variety, 

mixing 30’s prints, Fig Tree

 and Sweetwater.

Yummy!

Oldies and Goodies!

 

Then in the blink of an eye, Susan already has a bunch of her blocks done. If you follow Susan on Instagram, https://instagram.com/yardgrl60/, you probably already know she is an incredible quilter. 

This pic is from Laurie Simpson’s instagram.

https://instagram.com/minickandsimpson/

Look at some of those tee-tiny pieces. Like I said, 

a good scrap buster.

Janet Hill has already been playing around with 

different settings. @janeth421

The best way to track the process as my posse 

continues making their blocks 

is to follow 

#locabinblockswap 

on Instagram. 

We will be swapping blocks end of July!

I hope to have my quilt ready for Labor Day.

 

I can’t wait to see what everyone creates!!

This quilt is so inspired by my friend AmandaJean Nyberg of crazymomquilts as well as all the Bento Box type of quilts happening all over the place.

I highly recommend anything Amanda does and her quilt is a bit more manageable than the way we are doing our swap. Our blocks are bigger to start with but end up making a smaller block overall. If you like the look but don’t want to deal with the swapping, get Sunday Morning Quilts. You will not regret having this book in your library.

-Modalissa

French General Irish Chain

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Pom Pom De Paris by French General

We have had a bit of sunshine for the first time in weeks. The deluge of
rain seems to have stopped so I thought it a perfect time to pull out
another quilt and document the specifics. I thought this Irish Chain
would be good to talk about since next week I will be taking part in
Melissa Corry’s Irish Chain blog hop.
 This old quilt is just the opposite of what I will be showing next week, but
more on that Monday. 

When I say old, spring 2011 was when this fabric was available in stores. Seems like eons ago. 
I love the look of  Blended Quilts that Marsha McCloskey and Sharon Yenter are known for. This fabric collection seemed like a perfect fit. 

So many of the prints were large scale and disappeared or blended into each other when cut smaller for the irish chain pieces. I guess that is the point of blended quilts, right?

 I love the muted butter yellow prints in this collection. The quilt has been washed a few times adding to it’s well loved look.

  I
did not let one scrap go to waste by adding the large prints, butter
yellows and woven textures along with any orphan blocks or pieces from
the quilt top to create a 2 sided quilt. 

 

 
A feathered wreath design was quilted in natural thread filling all of the natural area.
This is also the time for my public service announcement to document your quilts. I did not do that so I can remember who the quilter was. Maggi, was it you?
 I was lucky enough for this quilt to be featured in Quiltmania magazine 2012.
Thank you for reading along as I document my library of quilts and talk a step back into time!
Join me back here Monday for a fun blog hop featuring 

 -Modalissa

Log Cabin- circa 1982

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One of my previous posts mentioned that I was going to document a few of my quilts and share their stories. so in no particular order……

This is probably one of my best loved quilts, really I should say best USED quilts. It is also one of the first quilts that I had machine quilted in a wonderful all over snoopy loop design. At the time commercial machine quilting was fairly new. Machine quilting and the talented machine quilters have single handedly reinvented the art of quilting. Machine quilting has also helped facilitate making more quilts. Thank you for that!!

 The general poop about this quilt is as follows:
The strips are 1″ finished. The layout of these blocks is done in a big barn raising style. The border is a mission valley woven. Traditionally the center of log cabins were red or yellow representing love or warmth in the home. A friend of mine hung this quilt in her den for years. She needed something to cover the wall while decorating for a party and we both thought this quilt was just the thing. Since her home was like my second home the quilt stayed there for years until I pointed out to her that the corner of the quilt still needed the binding sewn down.

 
Since then this quilt has been on many a family picnic, fort building adventure and now resides as a play mat for my little grandson.
Another tidbit about this quilt is that I used all kinds of fabrics. In the 80’s I was a young mom and a fairly new quilter. There were not very many quilt stores around at this time. I would go to any fabric store and buy fabric by the inch. Can you believe that?
Right?
That would be insane now.

 I would go and buy a few inches of as many different fabrics as I could possible find. Since the selection was limited this also meant that not everything matched or maybe I was not yet very confident in my color choices or both.
I sent the quilt top to a machine quilter in another state. This was in the early eighties and keep in mind, the quilting resurgence started in 1975. There were not many quilt stores, and there certainly were not many home machine quilters. I found a company that quilted fabric for those big puffy bedspreads.
I convinced them to quilt my patchwork and NO, I did not want 3″ tall batting.
I am sure they thought, oh this poor young thing, she has no hope or sense of color.
Little did they know that I had a plan all along. I wet the entire quilt and threw it in my washing machine along with a little bit of tan rit dye. I thought what the heck, and loved the look of the quilt when I was done. Some how magically the tan dye made all those calicos “go-together.”

You could possibly say this was the beginning of my love of jelly rolls. And I do still love to experiment with bleaching and dyeing fabrics!!

enjoy,
modalissa

Confetti Forest

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Confetti Forest…
I love that name. 
I wish I was the one that thought of it, but I didn’t. It was the talented crew at McCall’s Quilting that named my quilt. I couldn’t have thought of a more perfect name for this quilt. Just the sound of it makes me think of fall and laying on a quilt, looking at the sky through the colorful leaves… Well scratch all that. That is what I think it should look like if I lived somewhere that actually had fall. We seem to go from Winter to Summer and not much in between. Yesterday it was 80 degrees, today it is 30.

I guess I can enjoy my “fall” quilt at the lake or snuggle under my “fall” quilt when the temperatures plunge. 
I combined two of my favorite lines, Persimmon by Basic Grey and Modern Neutral by Amy Ellis. But this is also a great scrap buster project.  The complete instructions and yardages can be found in the McCall’s Quilting January/February 2015 issue. To find out more information about this quilt, magazine and kit information please  visit http://www.mccallsquilting.com/mccallsquilting/articles/Confetti-Forest-Trendy-Triangles-Throw-Quilt-Pattern

Subscriptions- November 11th on New stands November 25th

On a side note if you want to see more about Persimmon by Basic Grey, Alison shares the fabric line and patterns available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsaiYNUTWEE

And here is Amy Ellis talking about Modern Neutral fabrics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CTEUKppzf0
. 

Quilt Fabric Giveaway

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The giveaway is closed and the winner has been notified.

  You know the old saying…..

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. – Marilyn Monroe

Well that is the truth,
 so let me tell you a story. 
I have desperately needed new floor in my sewing room. 
Let me just say high traffic area and 3 sets of puppies. 
I have been patiently waiting for the floor and 
 they called to tell me it was going to be installed on a 
Thursday and Friday. 
As luck would have it,
 this was the Thursday and Friday before I was to 
move child #5 to his college apartment. 
So not only was the apartment staging area happening
 in my living room but the
 entire sewing room had to be emptied by Wednesday night.
That is part 1 of the story. 
Part 2, the other day a friend of mine came to me and said, 
” This is going to be us.” 
She then showed me a picture of a quilter’s estate sale. 
Tables and tables full of fabric treasures. This quilter was a longtime quilt shop owner.
 She has acquired 3 yards of every fabric to be able to use when she retired.
 ( we have all said that, right?)
So the past week or so I have been trying to put my house back together.
 I vowed not to put anything back in my sewing room that there was not room for.
( I forgot to mention that the sewing room has also been the revolving bedroom for kids moving in and out and I had a stash of fabrics in another room)
So the another infamous saying is,
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. 
Prov. Something that one person considers worthless may be 
considered valuable by someone else.
I am going to be sharing my treasures with you. 
I don’t consider this worthless, actually
 I hope they will be priceless to the right person.
 My son kept me honest and didn’t let me sneak any
 more fabric into my sewing room. 
To celebrate National Sewing Month, 
I am going to have a Giveaway on my blog 
every WEEK DAY. 
It is going to be quick and simple. 
I will announce the winner and the next giveaway 
every morning at 6:00 am central time.
It will be a random drawing and  I will ship at the end of each week. 
I will consolidate shipments if you win more than once. 
I am only going to be able to ship in the contiguous 48 states 
and I must be able to contact you via e-mail.
SO EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.
And the reason is I don’t have any more room.
Today’s giveaway is an assortment of over
 50 layer cakes (10″ fabric squares)
Lots of reds in this collection of assorted layer cakes.
They are from assorted fabric groups.
None of them have been pre-washed.
They need a good home.
Leave a comment and let me know you can put these fabrics to good use. 
I will draw a name and post Day 2’s giveaway at 6:00 in the morning.

9-11 Peace Story Quilt

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Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of 9-11. We all remember exactly where we were when the first tower was hit. Barely time to catch our breath and the second tower was hit. We have all read the heart warming stories, dedications and remembrances for this solemn occasion. I came across an interesting story about an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, titled the 9-11 Peace Story Quilt. The exhibits runs from August 30th through January 22nd, 2012.
The 9-11 peace quilt was designed by Faith Ringhold, after receiving an e-mail from Grace Yun. Grace works with a nonprofit in New York helping children in under served neighborhoods. Grace and Faith met and went through all the posters drawn by children ages 11-19. The assignment was simple, create a poster for peace inspired by 9-11.

The 9/11 Peace Story Quilt contains three panels each measuring 72 by 50 inches. Some 50 NYC kids helped construct it with artist Faith Ringgold

No one knew how this simple project would soon take on a life of it’s own.
Here is an excerpt from an article written by Nicole Lyn Pesce for the NYDailyNews.com.

“They said to me, ‘Well, we went through the same thing, but that’s not really our story,” recalls Yun. So one afternoon in 2002, she handed out paper and markers to a roomful of kids ages 11 to 19, and asked them to create posters for peace inspired by 9/11.
Then they sat in a circle and shared their work.
“You could hear a feather drop,” Yun says. “Every one’s breath was held as you got to tell your story. Every story was different, yet every story was the same.”

To read the entire article, click here.
Faith put the art into a book. Book by Faith Ringhold, What will you do for Peace?

She pulled some of the images from the book to create 3 panels with 12 peace inspired quilt blocks. The children helped transfer the art on to cloth. Ringhold even invited many of the children to her home  and also meet at Lincoln Center to teach them to quilt.
“It is incredible to see these different stories motivated by one particular thing — in this case, peace — brought together forever in this work of art,” says Ringgold.

One of my sons birthday is on 9-11. He lives in New York. Maybe we can go see this exhibit together. Happy Birthday T-bone!

Hard to find a good model

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 Making the quilt is one thing, right?
Choosing fabrics, time to piece it, quilt it, tie it or pay someone to quilt
for you. (thanks, Maggi!)  Of course, if you are going to blog about it, you will need a picture.
You know the drill, timing is everything when taking a picture.

 I have been working on

many things but I cannot show them yet!! (MARKET!)
So while I was waiting for the new moda fabrics to arrive, I completed
many (a few) of my UFO’s.
This quilt is the first in a series of “giant blocks” quilts I am working on.
This pattern came from allpeoplequilt.com’s
website as one of the 2010 quarterly challenges.
 I really wanted some great place to photograph this quilt. The photography
is  the most intimidating part of having a blog.
Camille always encourages me! She never laughs at me when
I ask her a stupid question. Thanks, Camille!
It is so fun and it is made
from all Dots! Yes I am a moda-dot-alot. Give me alot of dots from moda!
  I solicited one of my sons (# 2 on the pecking order, but he says #1 in my heart)
 He had food in his mouth and wouldn’t stop eating long enough to “Model.”
 Then he started “bullfighting” with the dog.
Even Kobie the dog was bored and wandered off.
 
 Maybe his whimpy arm muscles would not hold up the “heavy” quilt.

And finally a quilt picture …..with legs!
A couple more of the other U.F.O.’s that I have finished.
The Owl quilt that Holly Hickman designed from Spring Market.
I put snuggles on the back. Love it! More about quilt backs in a future post.
 I finally finished this jelly roll quilt. All of us at work make this
pattern from almost every collection. It is our go to pattern. This quilt is
made using Botany by Lauren and Jessi Jung. 
They say in “sew business” that it is tough to work with kids and pets. 
Both my son and dog seemed bored with the whole event. Next time, maybe I will wait to feed them until after the “photo shoot.”
Off to sew another top-secret market project.
-modalissa 

New Years Resolution (Kinda)

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My first born “TYPE A” son decided his new year resolution was to completely
get off of FACEBOOK. Now this is a 20 something year old that is constantly wired in.
He explained that he was going to work on having more personal relationships in 2010.
Okay you know where this is going.
He has friends all over the country so keeping in touch without his social networking would be like trying to make him eat all his vegetables when he was four.
My second born who is quite the antagonist and knows his older sibling well,
posted this on the family’s social network board (formerly called a Chalkboard). Afterall if he posted it on facebook, Mr. A Type wouldn’t have seen it, Right?

<over under chalkboard Basically he started taking bets against his brother. Whoever bet 3 days…. won.

The reason I tell you this story…. I think his resolution was a GREAT ONE.
I am certainly not a 20 something but I do have my fair share of social networks including Facebook, Twitter, this blog, etc. I have my Flickr account, my variety of google and yahoo accts. (thank goodness they are pretty much all managed through one acct)
Through social networking, I have made so many friends all over the country, even world.
I have participated in swaps through the intranet. I have had a great time and
I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
Okay now go back 18 years when my youngest son was born. I was in a quilting group,
THE BLOCKHEADS. We actually got together once a month to visit and quilt. We talked on the phone instead of sending e-mails. Was e-mail even invented then? They made me a baby quilt when Bo was born. I cried, I was so surprised. That was the first quilt anyone ever made me. I had been quilting for over 10 years. Why would anyone have made me a quilt? That is a Great question. It wasn’t just the quilt but the friendships that were stitched throughout that I will always treasure. Thank you Susan, Jackie, Jane, Anne and you other blockheads.
(I think they have e-mail now)

Okay advance to now. The basic grey designer for Moda recently welcomed her first baby into the world. I was going to immediately make her a baby quilt. Then I remembered her mother is a fabulous quilter and I was feeling quite intimidated. What could I possibly make for her? This is when I thought of the Blockheads. If they would have thought like that, my poor Bo
would have not had a baby quilt.

So I thought, what the hay? I took pieces from all of the past Basic Grey groups. Selected the greens and aquas. Sewed the Jelly roll strips together. I added narrow strips of additional blues and greens from other moda designers. Sashed it with a great fabric called “Grunge” in the brown colorway. (I could buy a bolt of all the colors grunge comes in. Very cool ! Love it!) I was able to bind the quilt a Basic Grey Christmas 2010 print. This quilt has a piece of 5 different basic grey moda fabrics. Yeah!

Basic Grey baby quilt
Sent the quilt top to a very talented machine quilter along with the baby’s name, date of birth, etc. I love how it turned out. (I am mailing the quilt tomorrow- It is a surprise!)

Why I tell you all of this is there is no way that any type of social networking replaces the old time quilting bees, friendship groups or progressive dinners. So MY new years resolution is pretty much the same as my Son, Mr. Type A. No I am not going off Facebook or Twitter and yes I will try and blog more. But I am going to have more personal interaction with my friends. Now this may have to involve travel so I can see my friends all over the country.
Hey, A girl has go to do what a girl has got to do, Right?
Who knows I may even have to start another blockhead group, part 2.