the winner is…

4 Comments
I didn’t get everything accomplished that I thought I would.
 No surprise there.
 My intention of creatively styling and photographing each of the quilts as I returned them to their places was quickly dampened as the phrase,
the in-laws are coming was announced in my household.

.
The piles of quilts were quickly put away in any available closet or other empty space,
the house  lightly (and I mean lightly) tided up and the weekend began.
First, I have to explain the context of the phrase in-laws. My oldest son’s in laws came to town for a weekend full of home improvements and demolition on Grant and Misty’s new house.
Rhonda is a quilter, so she didn’t mind the mess, or at least she didn’t say anything about the piles.
I can take pictures anytime, instead we all got to enjoy a wonderful weekend hanging out together.
I hope the kids need a lot more help on their house so
Bert, Rhonda and Little Bear can come visit us again.
Now for the reason you are really here…
I have an official count as my kids helped me put some of the quilts neatly back in place.

Some quilts were piled in a cabinet because I still plan on  photographing and documenting each quilt, so why should they be neatly organized, Right?
And some still need tending to.
 The bad news is no one guessed the exact number so the winners are the people that guessed the closest with out going over. 
There were 89 quilts/quilt tops in the stack.

 I will be sending Kathie- Make it Sew Modern by Vanessa Christenson
Kathie said…
my guess is 88
Kathie

I will be sending Quiltjane Sunday Morning Quilts by Amanda jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arksion.
Quiltjane said…
87 is my wild guess
March 23, 2012 7:48 PM

and of course there was a tie so I have a surprise
I will be sending Alison a brand new book by Kathy Schmitz

Alison said…
my guess 87
March 24, 2012 9:49 PM

I will let you know when I clean the other rooms and show you those stacks as well. I hope to share the stories behind many of the quilts I have made in the past. It is amazing how styles and colors change.

Have a great weekend.

Quilts, quilts, how many quilts?

82 Comments
In Celebration of National Quilting Day, I thought I would play a game similar to guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar. Instead  of jelly beans, it will be how many quilts are piled on my sewing room floor?
The contest is to see who can guess how many quilts/quilt tops are stacked in the pictures below.
First, let me tell you why my treasures are in such piles and the pictures are such bad quality.
I was leaving town when I found out that there was going to be someone working
 at the house
 in the room
where all these quilts were
displayed/stacked/stored.
 I quickly moved them all into my sewing room.

Stacks and rolls.. These are just some of the quilts I have made over the years. The ones that I do not want  to be used are rolled on a dowel rod or cardboard tube. These tubes are so handy to display in the corners of your home whether nothing else really “fits.”
 If I did this when the kids were younger, they probably would have used these “tubes” as
battering rams or some sort of weapon, but I think the quilts are safe now.

Some antique ones in this stack. I use to have a bunch of antique ones but I started getting rid of those to make room for the ones I made and to have money to buy fabric.

Some oldies but goodies including the Ohio Star that was on my 29 year old sons’ bed when he was little. The quilt was actually hand quilted and is very well loved.
There was a matching one on his brothers bed also. Who knows where that one is.
I don’t even know how many quilts/quilt tops are here, but go ahead and guess. I will celebrate National Quilting Day by counting the quilts, refolding them and finding a new resting place for each of them. 
I am going to choose two winners at random that guessed the correct qty of quilts.
Prize 1
Prize 2
I will announce the winners March 30th. Please make sure I have a way of contacting you.

APQ Radio show with Pat Sloan

1 Comment

I am getting quite nervous but also super pumped. Angela Yosten and myself have been asked to be a guest on American Patchwork and Quilting’s radio show on Monday afternoon.  We will be on the fourth segment of the show. Listen in on the 19th.
You can listen on the computer, subscribe by itunes (search American Patchwork and Quilting), or download to a player.
Angela had storms and power outages in her area so she was not able to join us.
I turned the table on Pat a little and asked her about her new line of fabrics with moda debuting at Spring Quilt Market. The show is available to listen to now. http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/radio/index.html

schnibbles quilt along

5 Comments
Are you doing the schnibbles quilt along  that Sherri and Sinta are hosting?
I decided to jump on in and add one more thing to my plate. I want to make all of the schnibbles anyhow, so why not. I am good with deadlines so here goes.
I have a bliss and a vintage modern charm pack that I am going to combine for March’s project.
(vintage charm will be in stores May 2012)
Hope to see you all at the Schnibbles parade that Sherri and Sinta host on their blogs.
-modalissa

An AWESOME app

4 Comments
Today in the Wall street Journal,there was a story about another app.
This one looks like a winner.
… it is by far one of the most full-powered camera apps I’ve used, and it marks an exciting advance for smartphone cameras.  – The Wall Street Journal
Camera Awesome is SmugMug’s new iPhone app.
What a name, right? Who doesn’t want something named Awesome.
I am no photographer but pretend like I am, so if there is an app that helps me in any way, I get it.
This one is pretty fun and makes it easy to post pictures to many of the social network platforms.
Pictures can also be stored on Smugrug as high res images. Smugrug is a photo storing site with unlimited storage for a monthly fee.
i played with this pic so much I couldn’t tell you what all i did to it.
Before you even take a picture the Awesomness begins.
There is a timer that lets you take pictures at intervals.
Fast Burst- Slow Burst
It even has image stabilization for those shaking hands taking pics with your iphone.
Now….
Take a picture.
and play with some of the features:
Awesomize- adjust the sharpness, temperature,vibrancy and contrast by moving each slider up or down.
Transform- easy to choose sizing settings including cropping the picture to an 8″ x 10″ or rotating it 90 degrees.
This is pretty cool.
Presets- (filters) has all kinds of filters for your pictures. If you like Instagram, you will love these options like Roman Holiday, Lone Star,Road Trip, More Cowbell, More Wang and more.
There are portrait presets, including B&W presets.
pics from smugrug’s site
Filters- If the preset filters are not enough… continue adjusting your picture with over 20 more choices.
 The app has 297 presets, filters, textures and frames.
This app is free with 36 of the effects, but as you start playing with the features there is a cost for the additional features. This one looks like something that will be well worth the .99.
No more poor quality shots taken from a smartphone.
Wait, there’s more.
The app also has a video recording feature.
AWESOME
The app is designed to take pictures as quick as possible so your phone will not freeze up.
AWESOME, AWESOME
When you have effects you like, the process can be applied to multiple pics.
AWESOMENESS
Gotta go, play with some pictures and add more cowbell.

Black Bean Soup

4 Comments
My oldest son and his wife are living with us until their house is finished. We have had such great fun
and fabulous food. Grant loves to cook and he is an organic nut.
 I found something to make that he actually ranted about.
photo courtesy of whole foods
Grant even does the grocery shopping, so when I “text” him the list of ingredients, my
 version of this recipe did change a bit. See below for the changes.
SIMPLE BLACK BEAN SOUP
Serves 8
Cooking dried beans is low maintenance and a great value. Make sure to plan ahead and allow time for soaking the beans. Serve with hot sauce or salsa, if you like.
Ingredients
1 pound dried black beans (about 2 1/2 cups), rinsed
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 ripe avocado, chopped
Method
Soak the beans overnight or 6 to 8 hours prior to cooking. Drain and rinse.
In a large pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell pepper and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in cumin and chipotle and cook 1 minute, stirring. Add drained beans and 10 cups water. Bring soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until beans are tender. Remove 4 cups soup and carefully purée in a blender. Return purée to pot and stir in cilantro, nutritional yeast and lime juice. Spoon into bowls for serving and garnish with avocado.
MY VARIATION:
I asked for black beans not even thinking about the dried version or the canned version. I got canned black beans (organic) so I skipped the soaking. Followed the recipe, omitting the yeast and threw it all in the crock pot to warm. I tried the puree step also but it didnt work for me, so this was a cross between a soup and an a salsa. Delicious and good for you. The leftovers were great with my eggs this morning also.
 (Yes the egss that Grant cooked for me.)
Man, I am going to miss them when they move.
Thank goodness their home will be close to my work.
Maybe I can swing by on my way home and they can leave a doggy bag on the front porch.

show n tell

9 Comments
I had a few baby quilts I wanted to get pictures of before I sent them off.
 So I corralled 3 of my 5 kids out to the backyard for a quick picture.
The day was quite windy and i just needed everyone to stand still.
 Of course, no one wanted their face in the picture so they could stand up very
straight and still duck behind the quilt.
 The wind is dying down, I promise, just a few more seconds.
 Blue, brown and white zig zag quilt from Bunny Hill Collection.
(I hope one of my pics will make it onto Happy Zombie’s pinterest board, The Walking Quilted.)
You may think that the look on Jarrod’s face was per disdain for my process, however it really was that his sister was hiding behind the smallest quilt.  This is the best picture of this quilt so I will tell you about it. I found a vintage Florida scarf. I added a border and embroidered a heart around the town where the baby was born. I love how it turned out.
My baby, Bo hates having his picture taken so I was able to sneak one close up.
 
This one never minds having his picture taken, because he is always up to no good.

apps, apps, apps

2 Comments
One of my new favorite apps is TeuxDeux. or as we Texans say, TOO DOO.
The apple store describes it as this:
TeuxDeux is a simple, designy, to-do app. If you like making to-do lists, you will love TeuxDeux. Use the free browser-based TeuxDeux (www.teuxdeux.com) at work/home and then take your to-do’s on the road with the iPhone app.
My friend, Outlaw told me about it and she saw it on Pioneer Woman. Today, I saw it on
Carrie Nelsons blog. If that doesn’t prove how great this app is.
 These are 3 of the hardest working women, so you know if they recommend it,
then it has to be good.
I can now get rid of the never ending paper list and the yellow highlighter.
Once I ran out of room on the page, then I would copy all the undone tasks to the next page.
TeuxDeux does this for you.
Anything that you did not complete is automatically moved to the next day.
 My poor son, Travis is still waiting on me to get his passport picture,
 but have to no fear,
 I see it on my TeuxDeux list everyday.
Now for my next, newest favorite app. (is that really a sentence?)
by Sherwin Williams
Turn any online picture into a palette of over 1500 Sherwin Williams paint colors.
Do you have a quilt you are making and want to match paint colors?
Hey ya go!
It is so easy. Just install the chipit tool to your
favorites bar, open a picture and CHIPIT.
Chipit also allows you to create your own sets of chip boards to keep all your paint swatches in order.
I love this quilt from American Jane, so I wondered what color
I would paint a room….. if I owned this quilt.
screen shot from letschipit.com
Wait, there is more.
 Of course what kind of app would this be if you couldn’t also
Facebook it,
Tweet it and
You can share your fun with all your friends. Maybe they will come over and help you paint.

 

Here is another example of one I did from Lily Ashbury’s blog.
AMAZING.
I guess there are no excuses.
I now have the paint colors from ChipIt.
I have the ideas and designs from Pinterest.
( of course, I have moda fabric)
Now, I just need to go add my plans to TeuxDeux.
Over and out,
Modalissa

book lovin’

3 Comments
 On Wednesdays during lunch we have “Book Club”. It is not as big as Oprah’s book club yet, but I do think some quilt books should be on the NY times best seller list. 
Outlaw, the book and pattern buyer shares any new titles during lunch. I was able to sneak a few pics of the new titles from Kansas City Star.

I am a big fan of Red, White and Blue, so of course American Summer quickly caught my eye. Well of course it would, it is from Polly Minick, the queen of red white and blue. The book covers Polly’s love of wool and the rugs that she makes. 
American Summer
Seaside-Inspired Rugs & Quilts
The photography alone makes this a showpiece.
As I flipped through the pages I was thrilled to see there are also some quilt designs from Polly’s sister,
 Laurie Simpson.

Polly and Laurie are both huge supporters of Semper Fi.
I was surprised to see a page in the book about a charity event that
Polly and Moda did a few years back with wool kits. The picture has a few of my
favorite people from work.
Thank you Polly and Laurie for all you do to support the troops.
other books shown in picture above are:
 A Bountiful Life by Karen Mowery
Story Time by Kim Gaddy
A Year of Cozy Comforts by Dawn Heese