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what I want to be when I am older

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I had the most fun over the weekend.
A friend called me a few weeks ago. She was standing in Joann’s telling me how she had volunteered to make a quilt to raffle as their big charity fundraiser.  
The first thing I said was get your bu?? out of there and get over here.
 I will say she had no idea what she was doing but knowingKatie that would not stop her. 
We went through the process and created a game plan. She was armed and ready with a layer cake, fabric marker and a huge bundle of determination and patience. 
Oh I left out that this is a preschool class with 3-5 year olds.
 The theme of the project,
 What do I want to be when I get older? 
I love this theme, it wasn’t, what do I want to be when I grow up, because
  after all do any of us really ever grow up?

 First step- Quilt Blocks – Success
 We were able to sew in in an office meeting room with lots of room to spread out. Moms came and went throughout the day. Kids played in the next room and pizza was ordered for lunch. I guess this would be a modern version of the old time quilting bees.
 Katie also asked the kids to bring a piece of fabric or clothing that had some memories for them. The sashing fabric was from one of Nate’s birthday parties  so we quickly turned that into sashing.
This is Gus’s block. He wants to be a person that talks about old-timey football. We had fun trying to interpret the drawings. Supposedly the chair he is in is a recliner. Just wondering if Gus was influenced by a grandfather talking about old time football? Maybe he just wants to be comfortable and thinks everyone should be able to work from a recliner.
 Lucy- A princess with high heels. From what I gathered from the moms Lucy is very petite but has a huge heart and spirit. She is known to direct the entire class in spite of her small stature. Maybe that is why she needs the high heels.
 Stephen- A  Dallas Cowboy player. There was talk that Stephen’s dad has something to do with the Cowboys. Apparently Stephen is very influential  in the class because several little boys he plays with also wanted to be football players. Their moms were shocked when they say the quilt blocks.
 Yep, it must be Stephen is what one mom said.
 Audrey, Baby Doctor-Mermaid Princess. Audrey is my kind of girl. 
She likes to keep all of her options open.
 Grace- animal doctor
She is holding a frog/toad button that is wearing a crown. 
Who knows maybe her prince charming in waiting.
(disclaimer: moms did help embellish the blocks a bit.)
 Cyrus- A person who catches animals and cares about nature.
 Nate- A doctor that plays golf. 
This is the only little boy I knew  and at 5 years old he is already a fantastic golfer. 
Let’s just hope the doctor thing works out for him.
Sophia- want to be a veterinarian.  You can barely see that she drew herself 
holding a stethoscope listing to the heart of a dog. Precious! 
The additional pieces of clothing were incorporated into various quilt blocks
 and were also used to piece a great big heart.

Personally, 
What I want to be is still undecided. 
I am thinking a PRINCESS might be nice!
 Thank you to Katie and the other moms for letting me a part of such a wonderful project.
 The day certainly brought back great memories of when my kids were young and innocent. My oldest wanted to be a marine biologist because he loved Flipper. Good times!

Friendship quilt along starts today

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Have fun collection all these quilt blocks. 
For you overachievers there are 3 blocks a day!!
 
FEB 18th

Barbara Brackman
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/
Basic Grey
http://blog.basicgrey.com/

Blackbird Designs
http://blackbird-designs.blogspot.com/

FEB 19th

Bonnie- Cotton Way
http://cottonway.blogspot.com/

Brigitte- Zen Chic

www.farbstoff-bridge.blogspot.com

Anne- Bunny Hill
http://bunnyhillblog.com/
FEB 20th

Camille- Thimbleblossoms
http://www.camilleroskelley.typepad.com/

Deb Strain

Eric & Julie Comstock

http://cosmocricket.typepad.com/cosmo_cricket/

FEB 21st

Jan Patek
http://janpatek.blogspot.com/

Joanna-Fig Tree
http://figtreequilts.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Jenn Ski

                      http://jennskistudio.blogspot.com/


FEB 22nd
Kaari-French General
http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/
Lynne-Kansas Troubles
http://kansastroublesquilters-lynne.blogspot.com/
Kate Spain
http://katespaindesigns.blogspot.com/

 You have the weekend to rest or sew these blocks.
 We hope you are having fun collecting all these quilt blocks.

FEB 25th
Kathy Schmitz 
http://kathyschmitzstudio.blogspot.com/  
Edyta- Laundry Basket

Lauren & Jessi Jung 

http://laurenandjessiblog.com/

FEB 26th
Lisa- Primitive Gatherings

Malka Dubrawsky

Me & My Sister


FEB 27th

Minick and Simpson

Pat Sloan 

Sandy Gervais 

  
FEB 28th


Sweetwater

Stephanie Ryan

Vanessa Christenson

March 1st

Quilter’s Save our Stories

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Have you heard of Quilter’s SOS- Save Our Stories?

Quilter’s SOS is a part of the non- profit organization, 
Quilter’s Alliance. This is a snippet directly from their mission statement.

Quilt Alliance is a nonprofit 501c3 organization established in 1993
whose mission is to document, preserve, and share our American quilt
heritage by collecting the rich stories that historic and contemporary
quilts, and their makers, tell about our nation’s diverse peoples and
their communities. 

 Pretty powerful mission
statement.

 Mark Dunn, president of Moda fabrics is on the executive
board of this organization and it’s many causes are near and dear to all
of us here. Recently the board members were visiting the Dallas offices
of moda as they were training more board members to document stories of
quilters. 
Barbara Brackman and myself were the “guinea pigs”.
photo courtesy of Quilt Alliance
We were both asked to bring one thing that could tell our story. 
Do
you know how hard that is?
I finally decided to bring a quilt top that
was in 
the works. It was in the works for over 20 years. The 
quilt top
was part of a friendship swap that I had 
participated in 
many years ago
with my sister, 
Angie Tardy 
and 11 other friends. 
The quilt top/pieces was actually Angie’s 
and I had been working on finishing the quilt top 
for one of my sister’s kids. 
This quilt top was pretty iconic in my life 
because my sister passed away from melanoma 
in the late 1980’s. We were both married the same year as well as learned to quilt that same year. 
If we were not talking about family, we were planning 
what our next quilting project 
was going to be. 
The Alliance documented the full interview
 and you can read it here.

 The  quilt patten is a double Irish Chain and the only rule in the swap was we all had to use the same pink solid as the background. Each of us chose a different fabric to use as our setting fabric. As shown above, Angie choose a romantic floral by Concord fabrics. Those of you that have been quilting for over 25 years are sure to have owned a piece of this fabric.
Why did it take me so long to finish the quilt top? I would like to say that Angie’s boys were 6, 4 and 2 at the time so they probably were not interested in a pink floral quilt. Maybe it was to painful to work on, I don’t really know.

Kadence snuggling
Advance time 25 years later and my nephews are all grown and married, so now was the time to finish the quilt and have a little therapy. I gave the completed quilt to my nephew Kirk and his precious family. Kirk sent me this picture of his daughter, 
Kadence with the quilt. I think my sister would be thrilled
 to know that her granddaughter owned 
something she had made.

A few months later, Kirk sent me a picture he had found of Angie actually piecing this quilt top. Of course you can barely see the quilt pieces on that colorful bedspread.(so 80’s)  
I will treasure the picture as it completes the circle on my Quilter’s S.O.S.

If you are interested in the vision of the Quilt
Alliance—that quilts and quiltmakers are an important part of American history
and deserve to be documented, preserved and shared in a permanent archive—please
become an Alliance member. Membership information can be found on their
website: http://www.quiltalliance.org/support/.

Thank you to Quilt Alliance-Alliance of American Quilts for letting me permanently document my story for future generations.

thank you Kadence for being such a precious model

Blogger Girls Quilt Along 2

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Happy Friday to everyone! 
Today is month 2 of Monique’s Blogger Girls Quilt Along.

Here is my stack of fabrics that I am auditioning 
each month for my blocks. Monique has done such a great job 
with her block instructions that it is very easy 
to choose different fabrics for color placement 
making the blocks look completely different 
depending on fabric placement. 

I also wanted to show you the back of one of my blocks in progress. I consider myself fairly good at piecing since I have been practicing for 30 years. However using Monique’s rulers have  taken  precision sewing to a whole new level.

 Stop by and see the color options at the other blogger girls.

Monique From Open Gate Quilts – opengatequilts.blogspot.com/
Sherri from A Quilting Life – aquiltinglife.blogspot.com
Thelma from Cupcakes ‘n Daisies ~ cupcakesndaisies.blogspot.com
Lissa from Moda  Lissa  ~ ModaLissa.blogspot.com
Denise from Quilter’s  Window ~ Quilterswindow.com/blog/
Nicole from Sister’s Choice  ~  sisterschoice.typepad.com
Lisa from Stashmaster ~ The-Stashmaster.blogspot.com

Instructions for block 2 can be found at Open Gate.

Color Me Super Excited

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I am excited, 
honored, 
humbled,
 thrilled,
 and basically just flat out blown away
 to be a part of 
American Patchwork and Quilting’s 20th Anniversary Issue. 
April 2013
When I was told by the editor of APQ that my 
quilt was chosen for the cover, I literally cried. 
Not very many people have seen me speechless and crying at the same time. 
“Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2013
Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.”
Color Me Crochet 
is a followup quilt to…….. 
my Granny Square’s quilt 
from the October 2010 issue of APQ. 
SIDE NOTE: I would like to announce that since my granny square quilt, I have actually learned to crochet. I have made my fair share of  scarves, but I guess I just prefer fabric over yarn.
This quilt started out as a color exercise for me. I wanted to see if I could mix Kate Spain fabrics with Kansas Troubles fabrics. How would Barbara Brackman play with Me & My Sister? Can polka dots and reproduction fabrics peacefully co exist in the same quilt? What is the difference between modern and traditional? Could it be classic?
My only color rule was to make the center diagonal row of each block the darkest. This color choice was relative once I started putting the blocks together adding pops of texture and shading throughout the quilt. I sliced a piece from many layer cakes as a collected “scraps” for this quilt. It was so much fun. Many nights I didn’t want to stop sewing so I could see how the next block of colors would  stitch together.
Just imagine how many skeins of yarn I would have to buy to crochet something like this.
I hope you enjoy this quilt as much as I did making it.
Congratulations to the talented team at 
American Patchwork and Quilting as they celebrate their 20th Anniversary.
-modalissa 
this issue is available from your fav quilt shop
thanks to maggi honeyman for her super duper quilting

In works

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I wanted to post a picture of my cutting table with several projects in the works. What is it about the new year that makes me think I need to start a bunch of new projects?



The piles in no particular order are:
1. An opened back of chocolate drizzled kettle corn. I made it my personal mission over the holiday to sample every brand and flavor of kettle corn I could kind. My mission has lead me to an addiction for that sweet and salty stuff. (If any of my family members are in my sewing room while I am gone, please do me a favor and get rid of any remaining kettle corn in the house.)
2. A box of letters that my sister wrote in college some 28-30 years ago. I am working on scanning in all the letters and making them into books for her 3 sons. Many of these letters also talk about when she met and married their wonderful father. Letter writing is a lost art so theses glimpses into history are priceless to me and I know her sons will treasure them.
3. A pile of crap, I mean scraps in the corner.
4. Some small nine patch blocks ( just a few small ones right under the light) that will be part of a future post about strip piecing nine patches.
5. A nine patch quilt I am working on using Avalon by Fig Tree and a future line from Bonnie and Camille. I am loving the royal blue that is showing up in some lines now. If Pantone had contacted me I would have predicted some shade of royal blue to be the color of 2013. I guess I may be ahead of my time and Pantone will choose my choice for 2014. I certainly am buying any and all of royals that I can find. Love love love it.
6. My I spy hexagon quilt. It is a work in progress and will be a future post as well. QuiltJane makes the most adorable hexagons templates. I will be sharing more info with you. Don’t tell my kids but I think the first grand baby may get this quilt. Obviously no one is pregnant so there is no rush to finish it. Also a thanks to a few of my friends that have been sharing their small 2 1/2″ novelty prints for this project.
7. My blocks in progress for Open Gate’s quilt along BOM. Check back here on
Feb 1st to see the second set of blocks.

I am writing to you from my hotel room in Paris France. I know it sounds odd but we have zipped over here for a quick weekend to attend maison de objet show. I am traveling with moda’s designer director as she scours the globe for trends and colors. Maybe I will run into those Pantone people and mention by color pick for 2014.
I will give you an update on my trip and my cutting table projects next week.

Au revoir,
Modalissa

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rue des Ecoles,Paris,France

my Newest Favorite thing

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I wanted to share my newest obsession. It is another app, surprise, surprise!
It is called Frameographer.  
Watch the tutorial of how it works then see the video we made below.
One of my sons decided to completely redo his brothers old rotten deck while they were away for the holidays. Great idea and the family jumped in to help. Some of the family just supplied beverages while some did most of the heavy lifting. I am not going to name names.
http://youtu.be/6thcFo5g5wA
 This is day 2. 
We set the camera to take a picture every minute. 
The App then turned  about 10 hours of work into a 1 minute video. 
We added Grant’s favorite song to the video but it didn’t come across 
when I embedded the video.
Day 1’s movie contains a “mooning” scene that was not fit to post on my blog.
 That video is just shown at private family gatherings.
My next video will be 3 days of piecing a quilt top that will make it look 
like you can make a quilt in 3 minutes.
Thanks for letting me share my silly family and my first video.
-modalissa

Bloggers girls quilt along

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Happy New Year! 
I am happy to be starting the new year with a few friends.
Time to start on a 6 month BOM.
Are you ready?
On the first of each month, 
 we will be posting our “color options” as we participate with
 Monique from 
Open Gate Quilt’s  on her first quilt along. 

 Block 1- color version 1
 Block 1- color version 2
Look how different two of the same blocks can be just by fabric and color placement.
 The fun thing about this project is that it is all about color options
as well as fantastic precision piecing with the use of Monique’s rulers. 
It is 2013  so first thing you should do is 
go out and treat yourself 
to the
 FIT TO BE QUARTER 6.5 & companion ruler.
It changed my life and I am not being over dramatic. 
Accuracy and precision are a breeze with this. I always thought
 I was a pretty good “piecer”, 
but now I am a fantastic piecer!
 My signature piece of fabric is a piece from Edyta Sitar’s Paint Box Collection.  
Stock # 42101-13 color Coco. 
I will be using this as my
border and will also sprinkle it throughout some of my quilt blocks.
I seriously love this print!
This is a fabric that has so many wonderful colors that I could use it for almost any 
project. The possibilities of beautiful colors to coordinate are endless. 
Edyta has a way of doing this with each of her collections. 
I keep a swatch of this fabric pinned to my design wall so I can audition
 fabrics as I make each of the blocks.
For  yardage information, click here.  
Instructions for each block with be posted at Open Gate.
Make a cup of tea and visit each of the Blogger Girls on 
the BLOCK OF THE MONTH LINEUP:
Monique From Open Gate Quilts – opengatequilts.blogspot.com/
Sherri from A Quilting Life – aquiltinglife.blogspot.com
Thelma from Cupcakes ‘n Daisies ~ cupcakesndaisies.blogspot.com
Lissa from Moda  Lissa  ~ ModaLissa.blogspot.com
Denise from Quilter’s  Window ~ Quilterswindow.com/blog/
Nicole from Sister’s Choice  ~  sisterschoice.typepad.com
Lisa from Stashmaster ~ The-Stashmaster.blogspot.com
Follow each of us to see all the color options on the first of each month .
 I will also be posting some of the ways this ruler can help your day to day sewing.

 I hope you enjoy this project as much as  I have already enjoyed being a part of it.
Upload your block pictures on the Blogger Girls Flickr site.
I look forward to seeing your block progress.
 

Thanks Monique for inviting me!

What I learned on my Christmas break

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Each year on the first day of school I always had to write a paper titled “What I did on my summer vacation.”
This morning as the house is quite and thoughts of the new year are swirling around in my head, I started thinking about the things I learned on my Christmas vacation. The list does not include the obvious things about how thankful and blessed I am to have and be a part of a wonderful family.

Here is the list in no particular order.
1. If an early lunch with an old friend lasts all day, maybe we need to get together more often.
2. Picking out just 6 fabrics for a quilt is very hard.
3. No Internet is a very detoxing and therapeutic experience.
4. Baking soda facial helps close those nasty pores. Thank you Pinterest.
5. A simple Christmas meal is just as wonderful as one with all the hoopla.
6. No matter which family member is missing the holiday is not the same.
7. The pounds I have lost….. I have found and they brought friends.
8. Surprising someone with a handmade gift that brings tears to their eyes is so gratifying.
9. Snow in Texas on Christmas is beautiful.
10. My moms vegetable soup is just as good as I remember.
11. My happiness journal brought back great memories from 2012.
12. I am excited for 2013.

Hope each of you had a wonderful holiday and here’s to a blessed 2013.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad