Blender Rows

January 21, 2016

If you are a follower of all things Moda, by now you are following along on the Moda All Stars, All in a Row blog hop. There are all kinds of fun things planned. If you are just joining, all the details are listed here.

Today I wanted to share with you a little bit about my rows in the book. I made some little basic filler rows that can be used to add to the main featured rows. Sometimes we all just need a little space and I thought this was true with row quilts. Each of the designs are super cool on their own, but slap another row right next to it and it can begin to feel a little squashed. Right? just like in real life. These filler rows can be used for all kinds of additional design options. The quilt shown above has the flying geese rows added as a border. There are also two filler rows used in the quilt. I especially like the layout and design of this quilt. Only 3 rows were used with a center applique row in the middle and two additional rows mirror each other to create a nicely balanced design. Made by Mellissa Corey

I made a quilt for the book that is nothing but the filler rows. I struggled when choosing fabrics. These were supposed to be filler rows and I need the colors of the rows to “fill” in with. It is a fun and funky quilt and in the right fabrics could be an interesting quilt all on its own.

This book is just the beginning of a series of Moda All Stars books. And of course I am a border-line stalker of the designers and I was honored to have a small “filler” part in the project. Any project like this has so many moving pieces, so you can only imagine how thrilled I was to receive this book autographed by the people that made it happen. Thank you!

More behind the scenes All -Stars are some of the people that are not afraid to answer my call when I say,

Hey, you want to………………?
or
What about………?

Just one all star is Susan Ache. She pieced some of the Gallery quilts. If you know Susan then you know she is quite prolific. Not only did she make one gallery quilt but she also thought we needed one in all reds, so she made it!

Susan Ache, Sarah Huechteman, Janet Hill, Chelair Etter, Maggi Honeyman and Melissa Corey played a part in making it all happen. So far, they are all still answering my phone calls. Thank you for that!

Tomorrow, join me as I showcase the actual Beauty of a Pageant.

-modalissa

All in a Row Blog Hop

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January 18, 2016

It is 18 days into the new year and I thought we could all use a little help with our new years resolutions.

What does this have to do with a Blog Hop. you may ask.

Hop! Exercise! Get it?

Now I wouldn’t want any os us to over-do-it so for the next 11 days, HOP over to 2 different designers blogs to see how they are taking one of the rows from the All in a Row book and making it in their style of fabrics. Get up and do a little HOP before moving to the next blog post. Then start quilting along from Feb. 1st through March 15th. Now this is where the real exercise comes into play as you jump up and down when you become the winner of some great prizes! Okay, it is not the Publisher’s Clearinghouse or the Powerball, but who wouldn’t want to win books and patterns!! (prize details below)

Here is the schedule of the hop: Get ready Start Hopping!

January 18: Brenda Riddle & Carrie Nelson

January 19: Corey Yoder & Janet Clare

January 20: Me & My Sister & Barbara Brackman

January 21: Pat Sloan & Edyta Sitar

January 22: Camille Roskelley & Kathy Schmitz

January 23: Sweetwater & Blackbird Designs

January 24: Anne Sutton & Laurie Simpson

January 25: Lisa Bongean & Joanna Figueroa

January 26: Betsy Chutchian & Jen Kingwell

January 27: Kate Spain & Sandy Gervais

January 28: Kaari Meng & Kansas Troubles

Martingale & Moda have a super contest that will start as soon as this blog hop ends! Here’s a bit of info to peak your interest!

It’s a Beauty of a Contest

#allinarowquiltalong

Contest entries will begin February 1 and runs for 6 weeks. Contest ends March 15

Participants will need to do the following

1. Buy the ‘Moda All-Stars All In A Row’ book.

2. Make your favorite row(s)

One row = one entry

Two rows = two entries, etc.

3. Join the Facebook group #AllInARowQuiltAlong

and post a picture with your quilt top of rows joined together.

Your Facebook name is the name that will be entered into the contest. (open only to US entrants)

For every row in your entry – you get an entry in to the It’s a Beauty of a Book Contest. There will be 5 prizes – like the five finalists in a pageant—plus weekly random drawings for related “beauty” prizes. All will be drawn from entries from above.

Now for the PRIZES!!

All In A Row Quilt-Along Queen (first prize) – FQ pack every month for 9 months (April to December 2016) + two new release books of the month for 9 months (April to December 2016) from Martingale. Company to determine which fabric/book, but May book will be Moda All-Stars Scraps Made Simple for anyone winning that month’s prize!

All In A Row Beauty Book first runner up (second prize) F8 pack every month for 6 months (April to August 2016) + two new release books of the month for 6 months (April to August 2016) from Martingale. Company to determine which fabric/book.

All In A Row Beauty Book second runner up (third prize) Layer Cake every month for 4 months (April to July 2016) + one new release book of the month for 4 months (April to July 2016) from Martingale. Company to determine which fabric/book.

All In A Row Beauty Book third runner up (fourth prize) Layer Cake each month for 2 months (April and May 2016) + one new release book of the month for 2 months (April and May 2016) from Martingale. Company to determine which fabric/book.

All In A Row Beauty Book fourth runner up (fifth prize) one Layer Cake pack (April 2016) + one new release book of the month for April 2016 from Martingale. Company to determine which fabric/book.

THERE WILL ALSO BE SOME OTHER PRIZES! –

Weekly Drawings from weeks 2-3-4-5:

Miss Congeniality: (wait for it) 2 Charm Packs and 1 Book

Talent Winner (hidden or otherwise): 2 books and 2 Mini-Charms

Stash Accumulation Award: 1 Mini Charm, 1 Charm Pack, 1 Layer Cake + 3 books

Social Media Butterfly Award: Carrie Nelson’s House Row See!! This is gonna be a lot of fun!

I am so thrilled to have been a part of this book for so many reasons. But just wanted to tell you how special these designers are. All of their proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated to No Kid Hungry, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America. You can find more info about them here: https://www.nokidhungry.org

Thank you to Jennifer Keltner, Karen Burns and all the creative people from Martingale to make all this happen.

I will be back on Thursday to share with you my little project from the book as well.

Lazy Honghorn

5 Comments

December 15, 2015

I love the name of Kerra Job of Live.Love.Sew‘s pattern, Lazy Longhorn. She is a cattle rancher’s wife, so she knows a bit about Longhorns. However, my dad was a Texas Aggie through and through. He always said we could go to any college that we wanted except…..University of Texas. Fast forward many years later, my son is there and my brother lives in Austin, Texas and has really no other choice but to be a fan of UT.

So when I saw this pattern, I knew I had to make it. My dad would get a kick out of it being called Lazy, but at least I didn’t use traditional UT colors.

I wanted to something a bit more funky, so I choose a floral from Lella’s Boutique’s newest fabric line, Little Miss Sunshine. It is a yummy coral color. From there, I choose a variety of oranges to pinks.

This is the part I love about quilting, mixing all those cool fabrics. Choosing just 10 fabrics was a bit difficult for me, I usually like at least 50different combinations.

Who would have thought but I ended up with a range of fabrics from Lella Boutique to Zen Chic to Chloe’s Closet to Amy Ellis to Jen Kingwell.

Usually I lay the finished blocks on the floor and re arrange them, stretching and turning as if I were playing a game of TWISTER all by myself. Then I have to sew them all together. If I leave the blocks on the floor they are an open invitation for the dogs to make themselves right at home.

I don’t know why I haven’t thought about this before, but I used one of each of the fabrics to decide in what order I would put the blocks. I played around with the balance of color, value and design. I didn’t want all the oranges to be together. I couldn’t put the busy or geometric prints all together.

I rearranged a few times until it was pleasing to my eye. No great right or wrong way to do it, only a matter of my own personal preference. Once I decided on my favorite, I only have to keep the small swatches in order to use as my guide when I am ready to join the blocks.

Do you have a favorite placement of the fabrics?
Here are 3 options side by side.

Version 1, 2 or 3 ?

Much like playing the game of twister, color is all about balance. Do your eyes hurt yet?

This is much like going to the eye doctor… Tell me which one can you see better… 1 or 2, 1 or 2?
I always have to have him do it over again and again just so I can make sure.

Here is another option. Look at the fabrics in Grey scale. Is the version you picked in the picture above, the same here? By taking all the color out of the picture, it lets your eyes concentrate more on the value (dark and light) of the fabrics. 9 times out of 10, if you are happy with the value placement, you will be happy with the balance of color. In quilting as in life, I guess the key is to finding the right balance.

I’ve got to get back to sewing these lazy longhorns, they are not going to sew themselves.

Peaks- the quilt

3 Comments

November 18, 2015

I recently posted a picture of this quilt on my Instagram because I love it.
I love the colors.
I love the pattern.
I love the quilting.

I love, love, love it.

Someone asked me about the pattern and colors so I thought I would share it here. When I went to hunt down

the good pics, I remembered it was featured in the April May 2013 QUILT magazine.

So here are their nice styled, color corrected pictures from 2013.

And here are the details if you want to make your own version using Bella solids.

9900-51- Buttercup,

9900-81 Goldenrod,

9900-83 Grey,

9900-125 Betty’s Brown,

9900-147 Coral,

9900-162 Amelia Apricot,

9900-171 Etchings Charcoal,

9900-185 Zen Grey

9900-209 Clementine,

9900-210 Strawberry,

9900-213 Mustard,

9900-244 Harvest Gold.

A fat quarter of each.

The background could be anything but I used 9900-182 Porcelain (4 1/4 yds.)

I refer to this type of quilt as a 12 pack, not a 6- pack that is something completely different. Pick your favorite 12 colors, add background of your choice

and the possibilities are endless.

Choose all shades of greens and browns for trees,

blues and greens with a little white on top for snow capped mountains,

30’s prints for a retro quilt

or just a combination of all your funky favorite fabrics as a scrap buster!

I shot a pic of the quilt with my Iphone as I zipped by the quilt laying on an unmade bed at my sons house.
The quilt looked even better washed and used. I love it when a quilt has been put to good use.

Tag me if you make a version of this quilt. I would love to see it.
Here is the pattern for your use.
Enjoy!!

-modalissa

for the mayors

5 Comments

September 19, 2015

This summer I enjoyed a vacation with my best friend and her crew. She has 3 children and I have 5. We went every where together for many years dragging all 8 kids in tow, including many trips each summer to the beach. Traveling is different now. The kids are grown and many of them have kids. Fun, right?

This is Kay’s second child, first son and his precious family. I wanted to give each of the families a quilt that I had made and I knew this one was perfect for the Mayor family.

I love the big graphic feel of this quilt but the symbolism was also perfect since it is 4 monkey wrench blocks nestled inside each other. Bubba and Miranda have 3 girls but at the time were expecting their 4 child, a boy!!
I thought Bubba could use a little blue in his life with all those girls around.

This design is from a quilt-along with Jane Davidson, of quiltjane.com.

While on vaca, I wanted a picture of the family with the quilt. Mom was so cute and did not want to get the quilt dirty or sandy. I told her my quilts are made to use, build forts, and drag on picnics.

But the very best thing is to take brand new baby pictures on them.

As Granny Kay says, my cup runneth over.

Little baby Wyatt is here and all those girls are going to spoil him rotten.

Congratulations!

-modalissa

Dementia Darnings

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September 17, 2015

Festival of Quilts, Part II

The most moving exhibit had to be the Dementia Darnings by Jenni Dutton

This project developed over time as Jenni was the care giver for her mother. Encouraging her mother to remember the past, they explored family photo albums together. Using some of the photos, the large portraits, constructed using threads sewn through netting that was stretched over canvas, became a way for Jenni to explore the concept of aging and her mother’s gradual loss of memory.

This is a closeup of the process. INCREDIBLE!

I continue to be amazed at the expressions of love through the art of needle and thread. To read more about the Dementia Darnings, visit Jenni http://www.jennidutton.com/dementiadarnings.html or follow Jenni’s blog. http://jennidutton.blogspot.co.uk/

Festival of Quilts

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September 15, 2015

I recently returned from Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. We had such a delightful time. This is England’s largest trade show and I can certainly see why. The show was a buzz full of energy and excitement. One of Moda’s International Distributors, Winbourne Fabrics had a booth to meet and greet quilters and sewists from several countries.

Some of the sales team along with the President of Moda, Mark Dunn were present as they demonstrated Moda Precuts.

They even had a few sewing competitions showing some free patterns from the Moda Bake Shop.

Janet Clare stopped by to share her designing process and the place went crazy.

We got to meet store owners that were passionate about their craft and also had a wonderful selection of moda everywhere. It was so much fun!

The show was full of charity quilts. I believe they called them aid quilts. There were quilts made by all kinds of groups either raising awareness for a cause, raffling quilts to raise money for an organization or to commemorate a milestone.

This quilt immediately drew me in. Isn’t that what a quilt at a show is supposed to do? Was it the classic blue and white? Was it the variance of texture? Was it the simple repetitive shape of the hexagon? I would say YES to all of the above. It was not until I made my way through the crowd that I was able to actually appreciate the true charm of this quilt.

The quilt was made to document the history of a hospital. An aid society had taken pieces of cloth from the hospital and combined it with notes from patients, memorabilia, embroidery and so much more. Each piece was a small piece of the history and told so many different stories.

A few other of my favorite pics from the show.

A car full of brightly colored sewing machines! Who wouldn’t have wanted to drive off with that baby?

A music inspired mini quilt challenge. Black, white and red!

Luke Haynes was there!

No trip to England would be complete without a stop over at Cath Kidston for a little souvenir shopping.

And a visit to see the Queen!

You have got to love a country that has Nibbles & Sharers.

I have the greatest job ever.

-modalissa

Smitten, Smitten, Smitten

8 Comments

September 11, 2015

Have a I rambled enough about how much I love this quilt design? I took it to the rose garden in my neighborhood and thought I would snap a few creative pictures. Not a good idea! The quilt top with exposed seams got caught on every little thorn!

So I “artistically” threw it over a bench and loved how the quilt top looked. I was so busy looking at the quilt that I didn’t even realize how cool the brick was until I was about to crop it out of the picture. I had to keep those tessellating Texas shaped bricks in the picture!

I am pleased to say that Smitten is complete and off to the quilter.
YEAH! YIPPEE! HURRAY!

The quilt top has been complete for a little while but I wanted to use my leftover bits and pieces to add to my quilt back. Funny story: I showed the back to a friend of mine and she loved it. I said wait until you see the front. Her only comment was I like the back better. Ouch, right? The front is nothing but set in seams! So for that reason I am not showing you the back until it is back from the quilter. Don’t get me wrong, it is cool in a funky, minimalist, modern kind of way!

Thanks for stopping by.

-Modalissa

Pre cut Primer winner

1 Comment

September 10, 2015

Thank you so much for sharing your memories of your favorite teacher. I enjoyed reading each of them.

The winner of the Varsity Layer Cake is Sandy in St. Louis. Please send me your mailing information.

Thank you for following along.

-modalissa

Pre-cut Primer Blog Hop

91 Comments

September 9, 2015

Hello, If you are following along on the Precut Primer blog hop, then congratulations you have made it to the 12th grade!!

This book is chalk full of projects using Moda precuts. It does not take an MBA or a PHD to be able to make one for your favorite scholar. You will learn something new throughout beginning with page 5, full of tips from Barb and Mary of Me and My Sister Designs.

Did you know? Hold a white piece of paper behind your needle as you thread it. The paper makes it easier to see the needle.

Quilt made by Sarah Huechteman.

Close up of quilting.

That is me, center row of EVERY group picture ever taken. Thank goodness Lori Chrisman and Leah Pender were always there with me!
I had a massive crush on the second guy on the first row, Kent Ferguson, which probably explains my height issues.

When asked if I would be a part of this hop, I knew just what I would do. Number 2 son is a high school teacher and coach, so I knew this would be a great opportunity to make a quilt for his school. School colors are green and gold, so the Varsity collection from Sweetwater was perfect. He has always been passionate about working with kids and will be a wonderful influence on the kids he comes in contact with.

Excuse me for a minute, while I reminiscence about a few of my teachers.

Mrs. Barney, my second grade teacher, was the first person on my doorstep when my father passed away. I was grown and married, but she found where I lived and came to visit me so many years later.

Mrs. Pasierb, my third grade teacher, was a brunette walking barbie. All the boys drooled as she walked by. This by no means is an insult. She was beautiful, smart and sweet.

Miss Resenta, my fourth grade teacher, whom I probably tested the most. Yes, I was a little hellion that year. She got married during the holiday break and became Mrs. Williams. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. She had to be one of my favorite for many reasons, including that she had a wonderful deep laugh that brighten the room.

Mrs. PIttman, fifth grade as shown above, had the coolest collection of polyester jumpsuits!

The list goes on and on!

My kids went to the same elementary, junior high and high schools that I did. Many of my teachers were their teachers, so I know first hand how much a teacher can influence your life for many years to come.

I am formally apologizing to all my teachers for any headaches I may have caused or my children may have caused.

The Giveaway : Enter to win a layer cake of Varsity by leaving a comment on this post, telling me your favorite teacher and why.

Winner will be announced September 10, 2015 I will wait until late in the evening to pick a winner.

Details: Pattern – Precut Primer – 12th Grade by Me & My Sister Designs

Fabric – Varsity by Sweetwater & Bella Solid Bleached White 9900-200
I am doubling up on just the greens and gold fabrics and throwing in a few other basics.

Size – 3 across and 4 down for a throw size.

Good luck!

Hop on over to Melissa Corey. She is also a 12th grader, just like me!

Below are the links to all of the other posts. Check them out. It is not to late to enter some other giveaways.

This is Me and My Sister’s latest book – Pre-cut Primer.

September 2nd – Pat Sloan & April Rosenthal

September 3rd – Corey Yoder

September 4th – Amy Ellis

September 7th – Jane Davidson & Heidi Grohs

September 8th – Sherri McConnell

September 9th – Melissa Corry & Lissa Alexander

Enjoy

-Modalissa