Nostalgic Creativity

Family stocking that was lovingly created
by my Aunt Kelsie.

jill here....When our family was young and funds were tight, I had to be creative with holiday ornaments.  Sometimes, it was more about the time than the money: there wasn't a lot of either.  I did allow for one really nice "ornament" each year.  One that I hoped would be passed down like the stocking pictured above.

 These darling hand painted ornaments were discovered at a craft show.  I decided they were worth the splurge. I had to custom order them and make an Advent Calendar appropriately scaled to display them.

This is the calendar...self taught applique with numbered pockets
to house those cute little ornaments.

 There seems to be a few missing....the dog must have eaten Santa.  The question is which dog!

So when it came to making my Mom's holiday special (in a very small space) I decided to create a calendar with some of her costume jewelry.  There are bits and bobs from the past !  She can actually wear them on the appropriate day and then pin them to the tree.

Pins and necklaces...

Advent calendar created from a pre-printed panel .
Perfect little envelopes for all those jewels ...
or chocolate!

Hope your holidays are filled with the spirit of simple creativity.  'Till next Tuesday

Food photography meets quilt design

Marny here…couldn't resist.  And it will make a great thank you gift for a friend who has warmly shared hospitality throughout the year and who I recently discovered has gone gluten free. 

Small Plates & Sweet Treats by Aran Goyoaga is an absolutely beautiful cookbook with glorious photography.  Aran's blog is Cannelle et Vanille, food, life & photography.  Take a look and you'll see her artistry.  Her presentation draws you in and lets you experience the food.  

Page from Small Plates & Sweet Treats.  Look at the negative space,  asymmetry, simple shapes and I do believe that melting dark chocolate with a spoon for you and a spoon for me provides a focus to the photograph!  These are the same elements we keep in mind while designing quilts.

See you next week!

Lucky Star Market, Ames and Modern Quilt Relish

Marny here…

First real snowfall yesterday!  Brrrr today.  Even though we heard it was coming from all the forecasters, it still seems like a surprise!  Mostly a good surprise, but kind of worrisome if winter is starting this early.

But snow also indicates the holiday season is heading our way.  Modern Quilt Relish is excited to be participating in the first ever Lucky Star Holiday Market here in Ames.   

Screen shot from the Lucky Star Market Iowa website.

It will be held at the Prairie Moon Winery from 9am - 4pm on Saturday, December 7th.  The vendors are offering a wide range of items.  You can check out the Lucky Star blog for introductions to the vendors.  The vendor page of the website allows you to investigate each vendor for their products.  We hope you'll come check it all out!  Supporting local artists is so rewarding.

I digress now.  I was innocently checking out one of the vendor's, Kalli LeVasseur, facebook page just now and discovered this video.  It may have been around for awhile, but it is new to me.  Hope it works here in the blog.  Tears are flowing here, but it helps me celebrate more deeply this month to be grateful for the people in our lives.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Here is a link to Green Shoe Studio, if the video doesn't play from our blog.



Off to iTunes….you'll know why if you watched the video.
Till Tuesday…

Torte ....Market Schoolhouse

jill here...At our market schoolhouse in Houston we introduced our two newest patterns.  We centered our schoolhouse, delivered to mostly retailers, on strategies to use their shop inventories.  Our newest three patterns are fabricated in a variety of fabrics and combinations to help shops, and customers, visualize all their possibilities.  

Torte is fun and easy!  The pattern features a section on design / fabric  selection.  This will help the pattern maker understand choices in contrast and blending to achieve the desired outcome.

Torte Pattern cover, four sizes

Modern Quilt Relish's Torte Table Runner:
two neutrals with accents of silk
 and a fantastic backing to pull it all together.

This is the eye candy kit for the above runner!

These were some of the other ideas that were shown for fabric selection.  


The pinks and oranges (quilt shown below) were strips cut to help a shop locate the selected fabrics for the quilt (wouldn't have to kit, just have as a reference!).  

The pattern cover throw quilt of Torte's dark greens with gold were part of a collection from Malka Dubrawsky for Moda (4 from her first line, 2 from her second and then four lighter values to give a greater range).  Again, not a whole collection but selected fabrics and then "shop the store"! 
As a customer, you can also make this work!  It would be shop your shelves!

The cute little bundle of fat quarters is a novelty collection from Anthology's Lullaby Baby  (our cover baby sized)...just to illustrate you can easily work with a whole collection, utilizing the same amount from each bolt for easy cutting!

Modern Quilt Relish Torte Child size in pinks and oranges.

Hope this gets your quilting spirits moving!
'Till next Tuesday...