Go Hornfrogs!!

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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A Piece of Cake Blog Hop

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August 28, 2017

Today is my day on the A PIECE OF CAKE blog hop. I have known Peta for quite a while and I am so proud and excited that she has shared her creativity with us.

Thank you, Peta for asking me to participate.

There are 14 different projects in this book and many of them are on my must make list, but

when it came time to

decide which quilt to make I knew I needed to make the LOVE quilt. I have perfect person for this quilt, my {little} grandson, Jacob.

His mama loves the graphic fabrics from the Savannah by Ginger line, so I dove right in.

This quilt was fun and easy to make.

A quick quilt just perfect for gift giving.

There are two sizes of the LOVE quilt. I went with the 45″ x 60″ version. The quilt is big and chunky and has plenty of room so that I can add some big stitching with Aurifil threads.

Let me introduce you to one of my grandsons, Jacob Ryan Alexander, Cub for short.

He is a whooping 6 months old and is just as cuddly as he looks.

Jacob kindly modeled to show off his new quilt. Don’t you just want to pinch those little legs?
He completely understands that it still needs to be quilted.

A few of the squares from the animal panel fit perfectly inside the big heart. Speaking of big hearts, isn’t this kid the cutest thing ever?

A little bit of stitching, a pieced binding and some quilting will finish off this project.

Thank you for stopping by and to celebrate I will be giving away a copy of this book. Leave a comment telling me what is your favorite Moda precut and I will pick a winner at random, Thursday evening. I will post the winner here Friday morning.

Be sure and stop by all the people participating in the blog hop, listed below

14 Aug Sedef – Down Grapevine Lane

15 Aug Jemima – Tied with a Ribbon

16 Aug Samantha – Aqua Paisley Studio

17 Aug Andy – A Bright Corner

18 Aug Kirsty – Bonjour Quilts

19 Aug Lisa – A Spoonful of Sugar Designs

20 Aug Alison – Cotton Factory

21 Aug Carrie – Moda Fabrics

22 Aug Nadra – Ellis and Higgs

23 Aug Angie – Gnome Angel

24 Aug Tara – Tara Sews

25 Aug Jules – The Creative Retreat

26 Aug Kristyne – Pretty by Hand

27 Aug Kimberly – Fat Quarter Shop

28 Aug Lissa – Moda Lissa

29 Aug Amy – Diary of a Quilter

30 Aug Kerry – Kid Giddy & Cat – Hello from Cat on Instagram

31 Aug Jane – Modern Makers Retreat

1 Sept Kate – Never Enough Hours

2 Sept Jodie – Vintage Ric Rac

3 Sept Sharon – Patches Indooroopilly (in store & online!)

4 Sept Amanda – Material Girl Quilts

5 Sept Amber – A Little Bit Biased

6 Sept Xanthe – Wife Made

7 Sept Rachel – Family Ever After

8 Sept Jenny – Martingale

9 Sept Amy – Nana Company

10 Sept Peta – She Quilts A Lot

Karen McMahon, You are the winner of A Piece of Cake book. I have sent you an email and will get the book to you ASAP.

My drawing is CLOSED but keep following along the remaining people on the hop.

-modalissa

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A Piece of Cake Book Tour

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August 8, 2017

Mark your calendar for a book tour full of wonderful quilters sharing tidbits from Peta Peace’s new book, A Piece of Cake.

14 Aug Sedef – Down Grapevine Lane

15 Aug Jemima – Tied with a Ribbon

16 Aug Samantha – Aqua Paisley Studio

17 Aug Andy – A Bright Corner

18 Aug Kirsty – Bonjour Quilts

19 Aug Lisa – A Spoonful of Sugar Designs

20 Aug Alison – Cotton Factory

21 Aug Carrie – Moda Fabrics

22 Aug Nadra – Ellis and Higgs

23 Aug Angie – Gnome Angel

24 Aug Tara – Tara Sews

25 Aug Jules – The Creative Retreat

26 Aug Kristyne – Pretty by Hand

27 Aug Kimberly – Fat Quarter Shop

28 Aug Lissa – Moda Lissa

29 Aug Amy – Diary of a Quilter

30 Aug Kerry – Kid Giddy & Cat – Hello from Cat on Instagram

31 Aug Jane – Modern Makers Retreat

1 Sept Kate – Never Enough Hours

2 Sept Jodie – Vintage Ric Rac

3 Sept Sharon – Patches Indooroopilly (in store & online!)

4 Sept Amanda – Material Girl Quilts

5 Sept Amber – A Little Bit Biased

6 Sept Xanthe – Wife Made

7 Sept Rachel – Family Ever After

8 Sept Jenny – Martingale

9 Sept Amy – Nana Company

10 Sept Peta – She Quilts A Lot

Ask for this book at your favorite quilt shop.

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Friendship Swoon

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August 4, 2017

We recently completed a fun little group project at work.

Everyone that I work with sews, quilts, crochets or crafts except for one gal in the sample room.

So we decided the best way for her to fall in love with quilts was to give her one. We know she already loves fabric. She touches fabric everyday of the week since her job is to cut and assemble the capsets that our salesmen use to introduce new lines of fabric. Each new fabric season, we all talk about our favorite fabric and all the things we want to make. Aida’s favorite fabric was Manderely by Franny and Jane. Mariza picked out a couple of pieces that Aida would like.

We used the light aqua shown in the block above as our main piece.

Everyone picked out their own fabric choice based on the aqua piece.

We then decided that the Swoon pattern by Thimbleblossoms was the perfect design to make a scrappy quilt.

This is my very favorite picture of Aida.

She was so surprised as we handed her a pillowcase. She did not even know what was inside yet.

But then I decided this was my absolutely undeniably my favorite picture.

Just like a kid in a candy store or

possibly the joy of Christmas morning was quite evident on her face.

The joy of giving is what quilting is all about.

Here is one last picture of Aida “swooning” over her new Swoon quilt.

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lotus touts

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July 1, 2017

If you have an email address, you have probably received all kinds of email forwards that promise good luck and to pass along the email for continued blessings. This is one of those emails I have recieved and I am glad to say that after receiving in 2013, I am still alive and kicking. I have not won the lottery yet, but this list is almost as good as winning any jackpot so I thought I would share it here.

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE. Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR. When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.

FIVE. When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye.

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.

NINE… Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.

TEN.. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN. Don’t judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN. When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer, smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN. Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice

TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone.

Good words for all of us!!

-modalissa

what can you make with…?

5 Comments

June 22, 2017

What can you make with a Moda Charm pack, a moda candy and a few yards of bella solids?

I am pulling this blog post out of my draft section because I share a free little pattern download at the bottom of the post but also wanted to share the incredible quilting.

A charm pack (42-5″ squares) and a mini charm pack (42-2 1/2″ squares) So easy. Start sewing with the precuts to make a quick project during balancing all the summer schedules. Plenty of room for autographs for a family reunion project.

WOWSER! Feathers Galore!

Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer.

Here in Texas the heat and humidity has hit us.

If you want the pattern, click here for a free download.

Pattern includes a larger version that uses 2 charm packs and 2 mini charms.

I would love to see what you make. Share your pic on FB or IG and tag me, @modalissa.

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The Splendid Day

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April 13, 2017

my how time flies!! Seems like yesterday that I sat down with Jane Davidson and Pat Sloan as they were dreaming up this little project. we talked about the logistics of getting fabrics in all of the designers hands, how we would create the website, who was going to do what and when it was all going to happen. We talked about all the things that have to happen in the background to make this all work. AMAZING!!

This LITTLE project does not even begin to describe how the community of Splendid Sampler has grown. Designers from all over the world have created blocks and shared a little about themselves, then quilter’s from all over the world joined in. The splendid sampler bug spread like a virus that there is no cure for. Here are just a few of the blocks available.

YEAH! That is my block!!

To celebrate the SPLENDID SAMPLER book, there is a fantastic giveaway!!

Click here for more information about the book and the giveaway.

Enjoy!!

-modalissa

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March 14, 2017

I recently had the pleasure of attending the
Knit and Stitch show in London, England.

Yes, glamorous job, but someone has to do it.

One of the Moda designers, Janet Clare had a booth filled with patterns, kits, stitcheries and all kinds of goodies.
Janet was wearing her iconic Artisian Apron.

I love it… wear your creativity!
Read more about Janet here.

Right down the aisle from Janet was Harriett Riddell, a performance textile artist. Yes, a performance textile artist.

I was drawn in by her eclectic table covering made from vintage linens, hankies and art. I knew there had to be a good story here.

While I did not officially meet her, I did stand and watch her work for quite a while. Harriett uses thread and a sewing machine much
like an artist uses paper and pencil to create characters.

Here is a bit of info about Harriett from her bio page.

Harriet Riddell was born in 1990 and grew up in Oxfordshire, England. Harriet is a mixed media performance artist, specializing in observational drawings using a sewing machine. Her artwork responds to and interprets the transient world on to a permanent canvas. Harriet encourages interaction by working in unusual locations and experimenting with the subjects the she chooses to stitch.

(photos used with permission of Harriett Riddell.)

At one of the fairs she “performed” while her subject pedaled a bicycle to generate power for her sewing machine.

I know I would be in better shape if I had to ride a bike to create power for my machine, but I would make a lot fewer quilts.

Thank you to Janet and Harriett for sharing your creativity with us.

-modalissa

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Lucky Charm Quilts

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March 7, 2017

Are you ready for a giveaway?
Martingale is celebrating the release of the Lucky Charm Quilts book by Moda All Stars.

Mark your calendar for MARCH 22nd and hop over to Martingale’s blog. http://blog.shopmartingale.com/

I wanted to show off some of the adorable quilts from the book. There is a variety of quilts using 1 charm pack, 2 charm packs or even go big with 3 charm packs.