Hello GoodBye!

Hello 2009... Goodbye 2008! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas.... no one was sick... kids were good... all went well. Luckily, Matthew got over his ear infection and pink eye just in the nick of time for all our Christmas festivities. You can see how much fun they had with all their cousins pictured. BUT... there is always a but... now both kids are sick and running fevers. Paige and Matthew both came down with a cold late Sunday. Took them to the doctor yesterday and Paige now has an ear infection too. We are keeping a VERY close watch on Paige to make sure her asthma does not interfere. SOOO... I decided to make a list of Hello's and Goodbye's to help ring in the new year...

Hello... healthy kids

Goodbye... sick kids

Hello... sending actual cards out for all occasions (more personal)

Goodbye... electronic cards

Hello... to eating healthier

Goodbye... junk food (except for Chocolate and Dr. Peppers... they are another food group all to their own)

Hello... handmade goodies (BTW... Christmas was fun making stuff for most everyone)

Goodbye... storebought stuff

Hello... okay I could probably go on forever thinking up of stuff to say hello to and Goodbye to, but I will spare you the long post.

Hello... to another great year

Goodbye... to a great year

My dad told me this once and I have always lived by it and thought I would share with you all...

It is not "How is life treating you?".... It is "How are you treating Life?"

Life is what you make of it. How will you treat your life this year?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Make the best of it!

The Good and the Bad...

Okay, first the bad, or should I say sad news... Last night I took Matthew into A-Cute Kids Urgent Care because his eyes started to water really bad and was beginning to turn pink. He has been running fever off and on the last two days and just not feeling good at all. Well... my poor little man contracted Pink Eye on both eyes and to top it all off... an ear infection. :( ... and this is my healthy kid. Paige is normally the one getting sick. Poor guy.

The good news is... Richie (hubby) brought me home a very cool and wonderful Christmas gift Wednesday night. I must say I was quite surprised and EXCITED! I have been wanting a new camera for a little while now and this is what I got.... A Nikon D60... I have a REAL camera now! I have taken LOTS of fun new pictures learning how to use this. I was actually a bit intimidated by it at first... I have never had a camera with so many options. I am really going to have to do some studying on this little gem.

Much different from my old friend...

She will stick around though... it is always good to have a small camera that you can take just about anywhere.

Oh My Dog! GIVEAWAY

If you have not yet been over to Holly's new blog... then you need to go over and check it out! She is doing a GIVEAWAY and a way to help little doggies in need. So go on over and help her support AKC and in return you could win some fabric from the Oh My Dog! collection by Lori Gardner for Moda Fabrics.

Moda Fabricmatcher Update!

First, I must announce our winners for the November Moda Fabricmatcher contest...

Congratulations to our Grand Prize winner.... Amanda Stepanian (avashmava)! She will be receiving a Holiday Basket filled with our favorite things just for playing with Moda Fabric! Wish it were you... huh? All you have to do is participate in our monthly contests and YOU could win MODA fabric!

Well... like it wasn't enough... we decided to send 4 more members a special little package as well for being our runner-ups. Check them out...
michelle hollis
lana
Cdnquilter
peganhouse
You all did a FABULOUS JOB!

Every month it is getting harder and harder to pick just one winner.


We have had a lot of great participants over the year of 2008 and wanted to recognize and reward a devoted member.

Congratulations, to Megumi Koga (meg99) for being our Moda Fabricmatcher Designer of the Year!

She has consistently submitted numerous entries every month for our contests and created several projects of her own.

We appreciate your support and interest in our Product. Thank You!


If you would like to participate in one of our contests, simply check out our Win a Quilt Kit page on our Moda Fabricmatcher website every month and follow the rules to enter.

The rules for the Fabricmatcher contest for December 2008 are as follows:

1 – Post one the our Moda Fabricmatcher banner images to your blog and/or website and link it to http://moda.fabricmatcher.com/.
Click here to download our banner images.

2 – Write a post on your blog and/or website about our Moda Fabricmatcher website. This can be anything about the Moda Fabricmatcher website... a project you created... informative... what ever you would like to share.

3 – Email marketing@unitednotions.com and give us a link back to your blog and/or website so we know you are participating in this contest.

The Moda judges will select and announce the winners the first week of January 2009. We will select two winners for this contest... one by Random drawing and the other that sent us the top referrals to our Moda Fabricmatcher website. Each winner of this contest will receive a Baker's Dozen Basket filled with a variety of our favorite things and your website and/or blog will be posted on our Moda Fabricmatcher website.

Enjoy!

10 days left...

10 days left until Christmas and I was able to complete a few more projects the past two weekends. First I completed this Mr. Bedbug's Ditty Bag by Amy Butler. This is an older pattern but I have noticed there are some stores that are still selling this. Just do a search online for Amy Butler Ditty Bag. This bag was actually easier than I expected and I think it turned out really cute. I used a western toile and a bandana print for the exterior.

Canvas for the lining...

A faux leather for the bottom and handle...

These instructions were very well written. There are no raw edges anywhere once completed.... love that kind of pattern! I don't know... there is something about raw edges showing on a project once it is completed... just doesn't say quality to me. Amy Butler has quality patterns!

This is another project that I completed... actually completed it last weekend. Couldn't get my kids to stay still long enough to get a picture of them wearing them so I had to do it without them. I was inspired by the 5 Funky Monkey's fabric collection by Erin Michael for Moda and sock monkeys and decided to come up with an applique for the kids shirts. I wanted it to have an authentic sock monkey feel, so I used the socks that are actually used for sock monkeys. I created a girl and boy version... one for Paige and the other for Matthew.

I have thought about posting a tutorial that includes the templates to make these adorable monkey appliques that you can really put on just about anything... shirts, bags, blankets/quilts, etc. What do you think? Would you want a tutorial with templates?

GIVE-AWAY DAY WINNER!!!!

WOW that was a very difficult decision picking 1 winner for my Give-Away Day! I read every single one and was crying I was laughing so hard at some of these. Everyone did a fantastic job and finally decided on this Moda fan...

angela said...
Tune of "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

I want a Moda fabric pack for Christmas
Only Moda treats will do
Don't want a yard, of thin quilting cotton
I hope it's a Moda Charm Pack, that my husband's gotten.

I want a Moda fabric pack for Christmas
I don't think H. Mark Dunn will mind, do you?
There's Bonnie & Cammile and Fig Tree Quilts, too
Just the best collections, that's the Moda thing to do

I can see me now on Chistmas morning, planning my new quilt
Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes
To see the Twiggy fat quarters waiting there!

Thanks, That was fun!
Angela N.


CONGRATULATIONS, Angela! I actually had the song playing in the background and singing the new lyrics with it and it works so well with the song! You got the words perfect with the timing of the song... way to go! Angela... please email me so I can get your information to send you your package!

UPDATE: GUESS WHAT! I really wanted to give my 3 runner-ups something as well so I will be sending them a small package, too! Just a little something, but I felt they deserved it...

Loralynn said:

Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the home,
not needle was stitching
through the rooms I did roam.

I stopped at the mantel
and did gaze with my eyes all alight,
at my quilted snowman hanging
from Moda's "Merry & Bright."

I paused by the tree
and felt such a resonance,
I knew all would be happy
with their "Christmas Presence."

I stepped on the stair
to go snuggle in bed,
in "Funky Monkey" pj's
when I heard a sound in my head.

Santa walked behind me
and whispered quite clear
"Cranberry Wishes" to all
and to all a Moda year!


Holee said:

To Frosty the Snowman:

Mama the quilter was stitching everyday,
With her Moda prints & jelly rolls,
She'll be stitching until May!

Down to the quilt shop.
with her Moda list in hand,
Running here & there & everywhere,
Grabbing everything she can!

There musta been some magic in her hidden Moda Stash,
Cause all her Moda quilts she sold,
Brought in some real cash!

Mama the quilter has to hurry on her way,
Theres a Moda sale right down the road,
That she cannot miss today!


Sinta said:

Raindrops on windows and winters with Moda,
Bright colored ric rack and warm cozy flannels,
Stacks of fat quarters all tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored backgrounds and crisp folded cottons
Doorbells, sleigh bells and packages from United (Notions)
Patterns to play with from Moda’s disginers
These are a few of my favorite things

A sewing room filled with fabrics, jelly rolls & charms
Threads that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the stores close
When the needle breaks
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad



Thanks to everyone who participated and loves Moda Fabrics!

More projects...

Every night this week I have been staying up literally until the next day (12-1 am) working on Christmas gifts and other little projects I just want to get done. I am telling you... sewing for me has become a serious stress reliever. Even when I am not stressed, it just makes me feel relaxed and have that feeling that I have accomplished something outside of my daily tasks. So, everyday at 5pm, I stop working (I had to set a schedule for myself so I am not working all night... easy to do when you work from home.) and start on a project for about an hour. Then I stop and fix dinner and spend some time with the family. When they go to bed around 9ish, then I start working on my projects again until I am at a good stopping point or finished. I am actually really enjoying this new schedule I set for myself. Something about the humm of the sewing machine just calms me. Believe it or not, I have even had a more restful sleep lately going to bed at 12 and waking up around 7... strange.

Anyway... here are a couple of the projects I accomplished this week in my night hours.

You know in school they teach you how to "follow the directions". Apparently I never followed the directions very well because for some reason I am always trying to alter the directions. Not on purpose, just happens... it's like a sickness I have. Why can't I just make something exactly like it shows? Well, I bought this skirt pattern, the Girly Stripwork Skirt by Pink Fig. I think it is sooo cute with all the stripwork.

I decided to make a Christmas-y skirt for Paige with this pattern and wanted to use a Jelly Roll of the "mother" colorway of Cotton Blossoms by Bonnie and Camille for Moda Fabrics. I thought it would be perfect to use on this skirt since it had the colors that remind me of Christmas. As you know the Jelly Rolls are 2.5" wide strips. This particular pattern called for 5 1/2" strips.... so here goes the start of my altering. I did the math and figured up the total finished length with the 5 1/2" strips, then divided that by 2 since that would be the finished width of each strip once sewn. At least my math skills paid off from school, because this skirt turned out ADORABLE!

I used a coordinating brown silk for the waist band and skirt hem and added a little bit of crochet trim just along the bottom seam.

If you look really close at Paige's legs, you can see a faint red color... yep... that would be a sharpie marker once again. She had the marker all up her legs... luckily the skirt covers most of it. She has taken 3 baths scrubbing her legs and you can still see how much fun she had.

After several pictures, she started to get a bit silly on me. Gotta love her.

This one is just for fun... had to squeeze my little man in here.
Tonight, I finished up a Bistro Wrap from the pattern Hip Wraps by Vanilla House. Very cute pattern. This wrap I made as a Birthday present for a good friend of mine. She is working on starting up her own business and thought this might help out when she is working her booth. I used a dark denim and an ivory damask print called Lost Horizon from the Shangri La fabric collection by 3 Sisters. I also decided to personalize it a bit by adding her first initial on the attached pocket. The letter applique is just a flocked iron-on by s-e-i I got at Hobby Lobby.

I will be giving her this apron on Sunday and sure hope she likes it.

GIVE-AWAY DAY!!!!

WOO HOO!!! How exciting is this... it is a GIVE-AWAY DAY on so many blogs! And guess what!? I am participating in it too! So here it is..... I will be giving away a Moda Sampler Pack. Need I say more? Basically it will be an assortment of different items produced by Moda.

All YOU have to do is come up with a Christmas themed song/poem about Moda. It can be anything to do with our products, the Moda name, etc. Simply type the lyrics in your comment to me and tell me what Christmas song/poem it goes with. It does not have to be the whole song or poem, just a portion will do. You better hurry... the Contest ends at Midnight December 3rd.

UPDATE: Okay... you guys are seriously making me cry I am laughing so hard at some of these songs... they are GREAT!!!! Keep them coming! This is truly going to be a tough decision.

Another UPDATE: There are so many fun and exciting entries! I will announce the winner on Monday, December 8th. Good Luck!

Happy Monday!

Happy CYBER DAY! Hope everyone had a wonderful and Thankful Thanksgiving! I know I had a great time seeing all of the Yosten's (Richie has a BIG family). The food was YUMMY and now I think I need to lose 10 pounds....hmmm. Anyway... we got a lot done over our holiday weekend and I am feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world... okay not really, but it sounded good, right?

The day after Thanksgiving, I moved my home office to another location in the house. Richie used to work from home a lot like I do and now he is actually going into the office now that he has a workspace there of his own. SOOO... we decided it was time the kids get a playroom and I move my office into the study where Richie's office used to be. I am really digging my new room. Lots more desk space and I can now have my sewing machine and my computer all on the desk.

Saturday, we put up our Christmas decorations and it looks like Christmas in our house now... I love Christmas time. All the joy and happiness that surrounds this time of year is just so refreshing!

I also got a blast from the past today. I finally received this toy sewing machine that I won on Ebay. My sister and I had a sewing machine just like this when we were little and really wanted Paige to be able to learn on one like this as well. I was so excited when I finally found it on Ebay and quickly put in my bid for it and WON! It uses yarn and punches through foam pads so there are no needles to worry about. I can't wait until Paige gets it on Christmas morning! I think I may be more excited about it than she will be.

Red and Green Fabricmatcher Challenge

Only 5 days left to be able to participate in our Red and Green Moda Fabricmatcher challenge! See below for the contest rules.

Also, check out our October 2008 Fabricmatcher winner for the "Fun with Figs" contest! Amber has a very cute blog you will have to check out! Go on over and say HI!

The rules for the contest are as follows:

1 – You must only use Red and Green fabrics.You can easily find fabrics that are Red and Green by using the Color Matching Tool under Find Fabrics, then click on the Color Matcher tab. Select a Red and/or Green and search away!

2 – You can use any pattern available on our Moda Fabricmatcher website under Find Patterns.

3 – Your project must be named “Holiday Bliss“ in order to be eligible. You may enter as many projects as you wish, however they must have “Holiday Bliss“ as the project name. Simply number them with a 1, 2, 3, etc. after the name.

4 – The “Holiday Bliss” Contest will end on November 30, 2008 at midnight.

REMEMBER: You must have your Stash including your Projects available for the Public to view. You can make your stash public by following the instructions under the heading "How to enter" on the Win a Quilt Kit page under the Show & Tell tab.

The Moda judges will select and announce the winning project the first week of December 2008. The winner of this contest will win a Holiday Basket filled with our favorite things and your project will be posted on our Moda Fabricmatcher website.

Enjoy!

New blog alert... Holly's Street

Hey everyone... you need to check Holly's new blog! Holly is a very talented coworker in the Moda marketing dept. and one of the URBAN CHIKS designers for Moda Fabrics! Go on over and give her a GREAT BIG blog world welcome.

Banana Fabulous!

I was able to sneak a few pics of this skirt before my hubby left with the camera again. Honestly... How cute is this skirt?!?! I am going gaga over it! I am so proud of myself for making this... it turned out so beautifully! Paige has been wanting to wear this skirt everyday.

This skirt pattern was designed by the very talented Jess Goldman of Bananafana. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Quilt Market this past month and she is so sweet and adorable! She truly has some magnificent designs and I want to make them all!

This particular pattern called for 10 strips of fabric sewn together side by side to create the top of the skirt. I wanted to create a more patchwork look on this skirt (also because I had a designer roll I wanted to use), so I divided the measurements up by four (adding extra for all the seam allowances) and stitched it all up so it equalled the same length and height that the pattern recommended for the size necessary. I made the 4T-5T size. Sorry, no spilling any instructions or measurements here.... you must purchase the pattern by Bananafana.

I used the Sonnet Collection by April Cornell for Moda Fabrics for the fabric and crochet trims and then found a dark brown dottie grosgrain ribbon and amber colored crystal buttons for the other accents on the skirt.

A layer of bronze colored tulle...

More of the April Cornell trims with flowers for the middle of the waistband to finish it off.
This skirt, as it looks difficult, is actually fairly simple to make. Just lots of layers.... lots of wonderful layers! If you too want to make this beautiful skirt, just purchase the Once Upon a Time pattern by Bananafana.

Now, I just need to get all her other patterns to make...

Fun Stuff...

Have you ever searched all over your craft room looking for just one piece of graph paper to sketch out a new design of a quilt or project? Look no more! Just hop online and go to http://www.modafabrics.com/, rollover Fun Stuff and click on Graph Paper, Print and vwala... instant graph paper! How about that older Moda Fabric collection that you want to design a quilt or project with in EQ6 or Moda Fabricmatcher and you need some images to upload? Well, thanks to the wonderful suggestion from Bloom, we have added a Moda Fabric Archive to our website so you can download the JPG images of older fabric collections. Simply go to http://www.modafabrics.com/ and rollover the Fabrics title, then click on What's New. Under the What's New for Moda Fabrics title is a link to the Moda Fabrics Archive. Just click and searching!

I also want to thank everyone that posted a comment and/or suggestion about Moda and our websites on my Giveaway. Bloom's suggestion was so great we decided to implement it on our Moda website. In this Giveaway, everyone was a winner to me, so I sent everyone a Moda hanky and tissue holder, except for Bloom that is. Bloom received an additional special gift since her suggestion was actually posted. Congratulations to everyone and Thank you! Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated!

OH!... I also received a special little Annie yesterday in the mail that I ordered through Nicole at http://www.raggedyoldannies.com/.

Meet Santa Tiny Annie... she is our newest addition to our household. Paige has recently adopted Edna Annie out of my office and Santa Annie and carries them all over the house. Nicole does such wonderful work making these annies look vintage and stylish. She is sooo adorable and so tiny!

Also, stay tuned... I made a Banafana skirt this past weekend for Paige to wear on Thanksgiving ...and the day after that... and day after that... and so on.... and so on... and so on. IT IS TOOO CUTE! Can't wait to show it off, but my hubby has the camera so I have to wait for him to bring it home.

Win one of three quilts...

If you haven't heard yet, Old Red Barn Co. is giving away three quilts! That means three winners! You need to go over and check this out... they are adorable I think my favorite is this one...

Ahhh... done!

This past weekend I decided not to get on the computer and to spend some time playing with my kiddos and completing some existing projects that some... well, lets just say it's been a while since I have worked them. I finally got around to take some pictures tonight to post. It feels so great to have them finally completed so I can now move on to some new projects.

Project #1 - I started this quilt 2 years ago for my dad. My dad is a big collector of the antique Snoopy Flying Ace as he is a pilot (not commercial). He has been flying since he was 13 years old and absolutely loves it! So... my bright idea was to make him this quilt 2 years ago for Christmas.... and as you can see it just got finished. YEAH!!!! I used 2" Quilt Fuse and applied various blue fabric squares for the sky and various red fabric squares for the dog house. I then drew out snoopy applique pieces on fabric to create what you see in the picture. To finish it off, I stitched a very tight zig zag around each piece to give it an embroidered look.

Project #2 - I bought some solid Geranimal shirts for the kids from Wal-mart and then bought several types of Grosgrain ribbon to emblish them with. This is the first shirt I did. Paige actually helped me decide how we were going to embelish the shirts. We did this purple one and also a light pink shirt. They really turned out very cute!

Project #3 - Remember our little maltese dog, Abby? Well, we did find her a great new home back in September and she now has a playmate, MacKenzie. Well... I had a Moda Pampered Pooch charm pack and decided to make Abby and MacKenzie a small doggie quilt for Christmas. I was able to make two small quilts out of one charm pack. I just split the colors up for a boy quilt and a girl quilt. These work great as doll quilts, too! Fast and easy... just my kind of quilt!

Project #4 - Last, I finished a vintage airplane quilted napsack for Matthew. I used the Moda Home Vintage Airplanes fabric and various other Moda fabrics for this napsack.

I had some people ask what to use for the closures on a boy napsack, so here is what I do. On this particular one I used natural twill tape and added snaps to keep it rolled up. I have also used velcro in the past on a boyish grosgrain ribbon. I went with the snaps this time to give it that more utilitarian look.

Someone else also asked how I attached the pillow on my quilted napsacks. It is actually very easy. I just add an additional inch on the top flange so I can stitch it to the top of the napsack before binding. Just make sure to use no more than 1/4" seam allowance so when you bind it, the binding will cover the stitching.

On to more projects...