Color Me Super Excited

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

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In works

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

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Friday Funny

I know with 6 million hits on Youtube that you probably have 

already seen this 

but 

it doesn't hurt to have a another laugh.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.

--modalissa

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my Newest Favorite thing

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.

Frameographer UI Walkthrough from Studio Neat on Vimeo.

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

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Bloggers girls quilt along

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!

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