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...

Thimble Blossoms GIVEAWAY!!!!

Camille with Thimble Blossoms is doing a GIVEAWAY on her blog!

You must check this out... she is giving away a finished quilt made out of your favorite Thimble Blossoms pattern! There are several ways to earn extra points and you have to tell your strangest compliment you have ever received. How fun! It was really hard for me to choose just one favorite pattern as there are so many great patterns designed by her. She has a really great blog, too! Just tell her Moda, Home, Mom sent you!

Moda Fabricmatcher Contest Winners!!!!

Hey all you Moda Fabricmatcher fans... we have winners for the October 2008 Contest, Fun with Figs. Yes, I said Winners... as in more than one! Joanna with Fig Tree Quilts had such a difficult time choosing just one winner, so we decided to have a Grand Prize winner and then 6 Runner-up winners.


Congratulations to our Grand Prize winner, adctd2qultng!
UPDATE: This pattern is called Fresh Squeezed, a Moda University Pattern, stock #MU41.

and... Congratulations to our runner-ups: michelle hollis, meg99, juzz, 100rozen, avashmava, and eamylove! You can take a look at all their stashes on our Moda Fabricmatcher website.

If you would like to participate in a Moda Fabricmatcher Contest, we are holding yet another contest for November! The Fabricmatcher contest for November 2008 will be a Color Challenge. 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!

Moda Update

It is that time again for monthly Moda Product Updates!

We have a new Behind the Scenes slideshow on our Moda website! This slideshow is from this past Quilt Market in Houston. Check it out!

Moda Fabrics

New fabric lines out this month in a store near you...

Dreaming in Color Batiks by Laundry Basket Quilts

Funny Babies by Amy Bradley

Kashmir III by Sentimental Studios

Sleepytime by Lori Gardener

The Udder Cowboy by Sew Treasured
Timber Creek Flannels by Holly Taylor

Tranquility by Sandy Gervais
Urban Couture by BasicGrey

Check out all these collections plus some new future groups coming in January!

Also, Luna... quilt batting by Moda has come out with some new batting options!

I love these new battings they are all soooo soft and durable! The new additions to the Luna family... Loft and Soy Soft. I just used the Kyoto bamboo blend in a recent project and it was wonderful! I really liked how the fabric just clung to the batting which made sewing with it much easier... no shifting!

Moda Home
Don't miss out on the new A Merry Christmas Collection plus all the other great Christmas items available by Moda Home!

Also, check out a slideshow of all the fun, new Moda Home items coming out in 2009!!

Better late than never...

Happy Halloween! Ha ha... oh wait... what's today? Just kidding. I know I am a little late on posting my kiddos halloween pics and better yet my little boys' 2 year birthday, but it's better late than never, right? I especially like how Joanna phrased it as a Post Post. Ha... I thought that was pretty good myself, Joanna. So, now I shall Post a Post, Post Halloween and Birthday post. hee hee. Sorry, please excuse me, I think I am just a bit dilerious. Lack of sleep and lots of Dr. Peppers can do that to you.

Halloween was good. Matthew was a dragon....

and Paige was a princess....

Every princess must have her hair done before the big night... These are great for little kids. They are the sponge rollers we all grew up with. Put them in while their hair is still wet from their bath and let them sit all day until completely dry. I was so shocked she kept them in all day... I think it was the whole "every princess must have pretty curls" pep talk.

But go trick-or-treating... you must be crazy! Paige just wanted to dress up and play with her cousins toys. Which, I must admit, I was perfectly fine with. We are still keeping a close watch on her asthma so I was sort of relieved that she didn't want to go running around door to door and possibly risk getting worse.

Matthew, on the other hand fought to wear his dragon costume and just wanted to go inside everyones house when Richie took him trick-or-treating... mind you... in his jeans and a black t-shirt. No matter... the neighbors thought he was cute just the way he was and gave him candy anyhow.

The next day was Matthew's 2 year birthday, Nov. 1. Happy Birthday... my handsome man!

We actually celebrated his birthday on Nov. 2. Matthew is really big into cars so for his party theme I went with all things that have to do with cars.

The invitations for his party, I made to look like a traffic citation. These were so easy to create. I just used Microsoft Excel and formatted it to hold all the information needed for the party. I also added a custom family seal in place of the Texas State seal for authenticity. Two citations fit on one letter size sheet of paper and used light yellow paper like a carbon copy would look like.

For his party, I purchased some black and white checkered pennant banners from Oriental Trading to hang around the house and used car related products as decorations, such as a small gas can (brand new... without the fumes) as a weight for the balloons and a car wash bucket to hold the drinks with ice. For the cake I wanted to go with something easy like cupcakes, but boys with cars don't have cupcakes, so I went with something a little more boy like... donuts. I just took a truck decoration from his room and filled the back end with chocolate covered donuts as if they were tires.

When all the kids arrived, I took them to the backyard and had them make their cars so they could race them later. Each kid got a car fashioned out of a copy box with the bottom cut out of it and Richie painted over the labels in white and cut out handles on either side of the box so they could hold onto it when racing. The kids were then able to paint their box how ever they wished and add foam decals to it if they wished. We had some large circles to create headlights on the front of their cars.

Paige and my niece, Claire, actually decided to decorate my dad as well... ah... how cute!

As the cars were drying, we had cake and ice cream and opened presents... boy did he get a load of new cars to play with!

When we were done we took the kids back outside where Richie had setup a small race track out of cones and the kids drove their cars through the track over and over and over again! They had a blast!

For party favors, I purchased the 97 cent Hot Wheels and each kid got a Hot Wheels car and their new fashionable box car to take home with them. I have to say, this party turned out to be a big success!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!