And sometimes I keep my promises...

I bet you thought I was gonna keep that Halloween post up until Christmas, eh? Well, I fooled you. I've plunged back into full work mode after a few days of r&r following the madness of Quilt Market. Full work mode around here pretty much means very little sleep and infrequent blogging, tweeting or talking. I work late into the night, am crabby every morning until I have my caffeine infusion then I work, work, work till the kiddos come home... and then I work some more. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

But what prompted that silly title up there is all these post-market little flip cam videos of me that keep popping up here & there. I always cringe when these come up because, 1. I hate the way I sound on tape and 2. I never know what kind of crazy things I said or promised on video because it's usually all a blur for me.

Case in point, last Spring Market, Ms. Sandi did a quick little flip cam interview of me in which I apparently promised I would do a pattern or a tutorial or something on that lollipop quilt I had hanging up on my booth. Well, as you all probably know, that never happened. Between designing a new fabric line, a whole new slew of patterns, doing a little remodeling, and taking care of household duties it just got pushed aside. And to be perfectly honest, the pattern needed some major tweaking. I did those pinwheel shapes in a hurry and fudged with them until they were right (on fabric, not on paper) but I never really sat down to polish up the pattern and make it sew up right... so that's that.

So, as you can imagine, when this new flip cam video showed up on Boutique Cafe (shot by the lovely Bari J.) I watched with trepidation to see what kind of crazy things I promised this time. Well, I was so pleasantly surprised when I realized I am actually following through on all these promises!!! Yay me!

Check it out... I mentioned doing a pattern for the Hummingbird Quilt (DONE) and a pattern for a Pillow Trio (DONE) and even a pattern for the Mini-Ava (DONE, and more on that later!) All of these patterns and more are part of my January 2010 release. Most are on the way to the testers this week and I couldn't be more ecstatic!

So, see... sometimes I do keep my promises! ;)



Oh, I have so many new things to share with you! We've added a couple of new members to the MODKID team and I will be doing proper introductions here in the next couple of weeks. We've also added a whole new slew of pattern testers that are eager, willing and able (haha). Things are shaping up great for 2010!

And since I'm here now and don't know when I'll get another break to blog again, I thought I'd share some awesome findings from my MODKID Flickr Pool.

I spotted this adorable Nina set yesterday and the sewist, who happens to live in Malaysia, even blogged about it!



Loving these Frida and Sydney sets from Creative Works By Ann:







I seriously gasped when I saw this breathtaking version of my Kyoko pattern by NanaKidBoutique in Abu Dhabi! Add a ruffle here & there and... VOILA!





Mary Abreu of Flourishes posted this fun, colorful version of the Sydney Hooded Tunic modeled by the sweet Miss L.



And last, but certainly not least, check out this super fun Kyoko made by Melanie of Above All Fabric. LOVE IT!! Check out the pattern review she posted on her blog on this Kyoko and on her Sophie 3-Way Pants.



And there are tons and tons more where these came from. Check them out! And please post your own if you want to share with us. :)

Happy Halloween!

Sophie had a very specific request. She not only wanted to be a WITCH but she came to me with a design in hand and said (her words) "No ruffles. No sparkles. No frills!" She explained that she didn't want any pretty details or fancy fabrics... that she just wanted a plain ol' witch.



I headed out to our local fabric store to find the plainest black jersey I could find and resisted my urges to embellish. After all, this was her Halloween costume and I had to respect her wishes. She was really happy with the outcome... and so am I! :)



These are from the Halloween party at her school yesterday...



And the costume parade. Happy Sophie = Success!



When I approached Sydney about her Halloween costume, it was a totally different story. She said she wanted to be Tinkerbell. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Do you want ruffles?"
Sydney: "YES!"
Me: "Do you want sparkles?"
Sydney: "YESSS!"
Me: "Do you want frills?"
Sydney: "Uhm. What are frills?"
Me: "Well, ya know, like lots of extra special things to make the costume extra pretty..."
Sydney: "YESSSSSSS!"

So here's what I came up with: (excuse the dead flowers... although right now they kinda fit the Haunted House mood! haha)



Sydney is thrilled with her costume! (SUCCESS x 2!)



And before you ask, nope, I didn't make the wings (although I have made some before). These are old wings I bought at Gymbo several years back.



Sparkly fairy shoes from Target...



Now off to get ready for trick-or-treating. I'll probably post more pics tomorrow. But I'll definitely be blog-surfing to see what you all are doing! Feel free to post a link in the comments section if you have something extra special you'd like to share! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Addendum...
Feeling a tad lazy and sugar-logged on this Sunday afternoon so rather than writing a whole new blog post, I'll just add the trick-or-treating pics down here...



LOVE this one!



After a couple of houses, I lost my precious natural light so this is the only good one I got of the actual trick-or-treating action...



Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween!!!

Yup. It's definitely Autumn.



My favorite season of the year and it completely snuck up on me. I chaperoned a field trip for Sydney's pre-school class this morning to a local family-owned pumpkin farm. We all had a great time, despite the frustrating start of my day. If you follow me on Twitter you know that my SUV's keyless entry system decided to fail on me at the last minute and the car pretty much went on shut down mode. The alarm started blaring and all doors locked up. No matter what button I pushed, they would not open up. Finally it occurred to me to check the back/trunk door and it opened for me but that meant that I had to crawl through the back of the car while the alarm blared away in the parking lot of Sydney's school just to get to the ignition... good times!

After the field trip was over, I decided to drive straight to Jon's work to see if he could figure out what was the deal with this darn car but of course the car was at its best behavior in front of Jon. ARGH! Made me even more angry! Those of you who have ever worked in the corporate world will sympathize with me when I say that it was just like when your computer starts acting up and you call tech support but it acts perfectly fine when they show up. They always look at you like you're either dumb or crazy and mutter something under their breath like "user error"... blech!

But I digress, the field trip was such a wonderful experience for the kids. They got to watch a movie and munch on some popcorn...



We took a hay ride and saw a corn maze and a pumpkin field...



It cracks me up that every time I point the camera at Sydney she strikes a pose (I have her well trained, eh?!)





But actually my favorite pictures of her were the more candid ones...





They saw farm animals...



Played on the hay stacks...



And in the soy bean mounds...



Took a [very wind-blown] class picture...



And even got to take a pumpkin home... hmmm... which one should I choose?!



OK. This one!



Next up will be Halloween pictures. YIPPEE!! This year, after a very frustrating and unsuccessful trip to our local costume store where all we found was a bunch of poorly-made over-priced CRAP, I decided to make their costumes from scratch. Both girls had very specific and detailed requests (hmmm, I wonder who they get that from?) Sophie will be going as a witch and Sydney will be Tinkerbell. I didn't have time to make myself anything new so I'll just grab an old costume from the closet. Check back in a couple of days for pics!

What are you and/or your kids dressing up as this year?

When the cat's away...

... the mice (and their grandma) will play! Check out these adorable Halloween crafts my mom made with the kids while Jon and I were down in Houston for Quilt Market!



SPIDER PUMPKIN

Materials:
1 medium-size pumpkin
1 can of gloss black spray paint
1 package of pipe cleaners (extra fuzzy black pipe cleaners found at Hobby Lobby)
2 large googly eyes (also found at Hobby Lobby)
Small piece of red cardboard, felt or fabric for mouth

Spray your pumpkin black and let it dry overnight. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to poke 4 little holes on each side of the pumpkin near the bottom. Insert one end of a pipe cleaner in each hole and shape the "legs," as seen in the picture. Dab a little glue on the back of each googly eye and place on the pumpkin. Cut out a funny mouth shape and glue to the pumpkin. Let eyes and mouth dry overnight.



WITCHY PUMPKIN

Materials:
1 medium-size pumpkin
1 can of gloss green spray paint
Black yarn
1 mini witch hat (found at Hobby Lobby in the craft department)
2 large googly eyes (also found at Hobby Lobby)
Black sharpie marker or black tempera paint
Pumpkin carving knife

Spray your pumpkin green and let it dry overnight. Dab a line of glue on top of the pumpkin and lay the black yarn over the pumpkin's top. Shape and trim "hair" around face. Place mini-witch's hat over hair and glue in place. Dab a little glue on the back of each googly eye and place on the pumpkin. Using a pumpkin carving knife, carve out a funny mouth shape and fill in the negative space with a black marker or paint. Let eyes, hair and hat dry overnight.

And my personal favorite...



GHOST TRIO

Materials:
3 latex balloons
3 plastic cups
1 package white cheesecloth
White glue
Water
6 large googly eyes (found at Hobby Lobby)

Blow up your 3 balloons in different sizes. Place each balloon on top of a plastic cup for added height. Layer the cheesecloth over the balloons and trim to size at the bottom. You'll need at least 6 layers of cheesecloth for each ghost. Prepare a mixture of half white glue and half water in a large bowl (it should look like skim milk). Dip each layer of cheesecloth in the glue mixture, squeeze out excess liquid and drape over your balloon, shaping as needed. Repeat for each layer of cheesecloth. Alternate sides, as seen in the picture, so that the corners of the cheesecloth cover the bottom of the ghost. After all ghosts are draped, dab a little white glue to the back of your googly eyes and place on the face. Let ghosts dry overnight. The balloon will peel off easily the next day and the cheesecloth will be stiff enough for your ghosts to stand on their own!

For an added spooky effect, use clear fishing wire to hang the ghosts from light fixtures around the house. :)

ENJOY! And... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

(pssst... in case you're interested, my mom just listed some Flora & Fauna goodies in her Etsy shop!)

We're Up!

Our website has been updated with all the new Flora & Fauna information and graphics...



And we've also loaded up our 4 newest sewing patterns in the Patterns page:



I strongly encourage you to support your favorite independent online retailer and purchase your Ava, Isabel, Julia and Nina from them. There is a full list of retailers at the bottom of this page. Lots of them already have the new patterns in stock or will have them very, very soon... based on the looks of this:


(pssst... this is only a small fraction of what we boxed up this weekend!)

RETAILERS: you can now place wholesale orders for the new sewing patterns right on our website. If you prefer to purchase through a distributor, please email us at info@modkidboutique.com for a list of US and International distributors. If your store link is not at the bottom of this page, please email us and we'll get you up there right away!

Thank you all for your support!

(stay tuned for some fun Halloween crafts a la "grandma" coming up in a couple of days...)

Market Report -
Fall International Quilt Market 2009
Houston, TX

We're baaaaack! We drove (actually, Jon drove) a total of 1,700 miles round trip, which translated into 17 hours there and 17 hours back in a rented cargo van filled to the brim with booth walls, furniture, patterns and sewn goodies. Those of you who follow me on Twitter, already know that I got a bit car sick on the way down, almost ended up with eight Mochas at a Starbucks in Texarkana, and miraculously got rid of my headache the minute I saw signs for downtown Houston. The following pictures illustrate what our next 5 days were like...

On Thursday, we set up the booth. It was a long, arduous day but we had lots of help from some dear, dear friends!



On Friday, I presented a Schoolhouse Session sponsored by one of our U.S. distributors, Brewer Sewing & Quilting. I was so nervous in the hours and minutes leading up to my speech that I almost threw up, but once I got up there and saw so many smiling, familiar faces in the audience all the tension just fluttered away and I felt like I was just talking to a group of friends. Thank you to all who attended!



I don't know what I was doing here, but it must've caused a few of you to break out the cameras... hahaha



More booth set-up followed on Friday, but by the end of the day we were ready to par-tay and what better place that the Fabric 2.0 Lite, sponsored by the ever so lively Caroline Devoy, of J. Caroline Creative fame.

I got to visit with some of my favorite girls... Here I am with Caroline:



Traci Butler, of Hip Fabric, who made me and Jon the awesome Flora & Fauna badge holders for the show...



Anna Garner, of Sweet Dreams Designs:



Melanie Thornton, of Above All Fabric:



Mary Abreu, of Flourishes and InTown Quilters



Jenean Morrison, of Free Spirit



Jill Mead of BH&G's Quilts And More:



(boy, I just realized what a lush I look like... I have a Mojito in every picture!)

And of course, the notorious Jay McCarroll:



Jay actually convinced Jon to go with him to Sample Spree... an event that I had sworn never to attend again, after I nearly suffocated to death the first time I went! So, believe it or not, I tagged along (mainly because I didn't want to be left behind without a ride!) Here is a "Jon's-eye-view" photo of Sample Spree:



Fighting the crowds was definitely worth it once I spotted my pals at Fat Quarter Shop and got to spend some QT with them:



The next day was the first day of Quilt Market. Here are a few shots of my booth... not too shabby, eh?







Adding to this here, because so many have asked, YES, there will be a pattern for this hummingbird quilt! YAY! The actual quilt is currently en route to Australia with our distributor, Mac's Crafts, but it shall return in mid-November (hopefully with lots of stories to tell!) Pattern should be available in January if all goes well. Thank you all!!







Standing in one spot for 9 hours isn't so bad when I get great visitors at my booth. Here I am with Kathy Miller:



Tira Schulteis of Brewer Sewing:



Kay Whitt, of Serendipity Studios, wore a skirt made from Flora & Fauna! She was so cute & tiny I could've just picked her up and put her up on display with the other mannequins!



Patricia Bravo of Art Gallery Fabrics:



The Michael Miller Fabrics booth was soooo cool! They made it up like the most awesome and whimsical campground...



Complete with life-size gnomes...



This gnome was Patty-sized!



Cynthia, of Fabric Worm, was more than happy to spin the wheel to see what she won...



And the best part... Camp Michael Miller won the Creativity Award!!!



And as if that wasn't cool enough, my pal Sandi Henderson, won the Merchandising Award. WOOOHOO!



Here she is in her adorable dress she made from her new fabric collection, Meadowsweet:



Sunday night, Michael Miller Fabrics celebrated their 10-Year-Anniversary in style with a rocking party on the top floor of the Hilton hotel...



Michael & Kathy cutting the cake...



No detail was spared... not even the life-sized K&M bobbleheads...



We had an amazing time... well, some of us more than others.



And again, I got to spend some great QT with the Fat Quarter Shop team... I just adore these guys!



Here I am with our Australian distributor, John Clegg of Mac's Crafts...



And with an amazing art quilter, Rob Appell



And I want to end up with this photo of two of my favorite people... Jean & Tom Meacham. Jean is Kathy Miller's sister and these two are about the most hardworking, dedicated and selfless duo I have ever met. Tom helped us out so much that I ended up giving him Jon's famous bee tie as a thank you gift (he had been ogling it the whole time we were there!) We'll miss you!



OK, that's it, folks! Thanks for staying with me. Now on to prepare for the next one...

Golden Birthday!

My baby is 5... FIVE!!! Well, not technically yet. Her actual birthday is in a couple of days but Jon and I will be in Houston then, so we celebrated her golden birthday at the American Girl Store in Chicago this past weekend. A great time was had by all!

This post will be short on words but big on pictures... my brain is mush right now from all the market prep, so I'm not feeling too chatty right now, but I wanted to get these up before we left. :)

























Happy Birthday, my sweet, sweet baby girl!!! I still can't believe how fast you've grown. I love you so much!

Winners, dates, times and other important stuff...

We only have a couple of days to go before we pack up the vehicle and head South to Houston for the Fall International Quilt Market, so you can imagine the craziness around here. Oh, and I may have forgotten to mention that one of those two days will be spent in Chicago (here) celebrating Sydney's 5th birthday, since we will be in Houston on the day of her actual b-day... yah, insane!

Anyway... thank you all SO MUCH for the amazing comments regarding Flora & Fauna. I am blown away by the love! Wish I could reward each & every one of you, but alas we could only pick 2 winners and since that job was much more pressure than I could handle right now, I left it up to the trusty ol' randomizer. There were 445 comments when we closed the contest and the winners are...

**********************
#6
yahaira said...
I fell in love when you posted these on flickr! those bees!!! it's hard to pick a favorite colorway, but stone is definitely up there. I want to make scrappy quilts and little bags out of this line
10:10 AM

#429
princess*picasso said...
Patty, I think I am in love! Your new prints are absolutely gorgeous!!!!! You are amazing. Amie
11:25 AM
**********************

Congratulations, ladies! Please contact me at info@modkidboutique.com at your earliest convenience to claim your prize! :)

OK... now on to some important Quilt Market info...

**********************

FIND ME AT BOOTH # 925

**********************

You are cordially invited to attend a schoolhouse presentation by yours truly, sponsored by Brewer Quilting and Sewing Supplies...

**********************

SCHOOLHOUSE!!!
Topic: MODKID Patterns and Your Next-Gen Sewist
Description: Textile & pattern designer Patty Young will discuss how Modkid Sewing Patterns will increase fabric and pattern sales to the younger sewist. Take advantage of the rising popularity of the garment sewing and hand made movement.
Where: Room #382A
Date & Time: Friday, October 9, 10:40 a.m. - 11:10- a.m.

**********************

Hope to see you all there!!

And since I seem to be physically incapable of posting to my blog without some sort of visual, I leave you with a few more Flora & Fauna sneak peeks. These are some of the items my mom brought with her from Florida... more to show at Quilt Market!

ahhhhh....



mmm....



eeeee....



But what really made me squeal with delight as soon as she pulled it out of her suitcase was this amazing laptop bag that fits my 17" MacBook Pro like a glove and has pockets galore for all my cables & stuff!!!



And it is a perfect match to this adorable selvedge notebook that my friend Val made for me last week (I can't even put into words how happy this makes me!)...



heeeheee... I'm gonna be so matchy-matchy with Jon (and it wasn't even planned!) OH THOSE BEES! Ooops, I'd better hurry up and make something else with those dandelions & luna moths so they don't feel slighted again!

Signing off until Quilt Market! If you follow me on Twitter, you'd better believe I will be tweeting all the way there & back. :)

There's more to life than the birds and the bees!

HA! Made you look! Sooooo.... this past weekend I was having a conversation with my new fabrics (yes, we talk) and it was brought to my attention that in the big Flora & Fauna reveal post, I went on and on about the super cool bees and the gorgeous hummingbirds, and of course, the ever so versatile double border daisies, but I made virtually no mention of some of the other -- just as cool -- designs in the collection. Some feelings were hurt and it was not my intention at all. So, since I'm an equal opportunity fabric lover, I wanted to make it right.

A very important component of Flora & Fauna is this series of Dandelion prints, which, as a matter of fact were the building blocks for the collection, since they were the first drawings I made. We loved them so much that we decided to offer them in a spectrum of colors that can work all the way from nursery layette to women's wear.



Then, as I was doing my research for the winged creatures I wanted to feature in my new collection, I came across the Luna Moth and was completely inspired by it. I loved its interesting shape and vivid color and had such a fun time drawing it and adding my little mod-ish touches to the drawings. I consider my Luna Moth the most "sophisticated" and "grown up" of all my designs and cannot wait to see it in purses, women's tops, flirty skirts and the like.



Then there's the Blossoms. Oh, where do I even begin? These adorable little bunches of flowers were plucked right out of my Hummingbird print and turned out so fun and whimsical that we decided to make them in just about every color combination we could dream up. Just check out my blog background! I am using these everywhere... you'll see!



So, now that you all probably think I've lost my mind (talking to fabric & all) let me just add that I feel so mushy inside just seeing how my family and friends have come together to help make the Flora & Fauna debut our best yet. Seriously, folks, just look at these amazing pieces...

Kristen made the sweetest Frida dress, using fabrics from my Turquoise and Raspberry palettes, and shipped it to me in a flash. Hop on over to her blog where she has promised to give away some fabric if you leave a comment...



Then theres, Val, my little sewing bee friend. She is such a hard worker, she actually makes me look lazy, if you can believe it. She made this Sydney hoodie out of my mustard palette...



Then she made this Ava Halter set from my turquoise palette...



And even surprised me with a mini-version of Ava. Yes, folks, mini-me will be traveling with us to Quilt Market next week. I simply cannot wait to show her off!!!



Heather made a whole new slew of jingle cloth balls. I cannot even pick a favorite! They are all so precious!!!



And my mom has been super hard at work down in Florida on some items that apparently are so amazing she can't even show me a sneak peek. Seriously! I've begged but she wants me to see everything in person... 2 more days! She flies in this Thursday evening. The suspense is KILLING ME!!!

Oh, but don't you even think for one moment that I've been sitting on my butt while I let all these nice ladies do all my work. I've pretty much become one with my sewing machine & serger these past few days.

I made a Kyoko...



And an Isabel. Oh, remember the Double Border Daisies? Well, they also come as all-over daisies just in case you love the design but don't need it as a border. :)



And a Julia, which Sydney was more than happy to test drive for me...



or should I say "test twirl"?



And... drum roll please... I went out of my comfort zone (AGAIN) and made a men's tie for Jon to wear to Quilt Market. Nope, I didn't make it up. I used this tutorial and even though it required more hand-stitching than I'm comfortable with (especially while being so pressed for time) I think it went together without a hitch and turned out FANTASTIC! What do you think?



So, I know you're all wondering who won the contest. I promise to announce the winners this week. My goal is to get these little bundles of goodness out to the lucky winners BEFORE we leave so you all can be the first to have them in hand. When I announce the winners I'll also tell you some important Quilt Market info, like where my booth is located and when my schoolhouse session for Brewer is (yes, freaking out here... more on that soon!)

Introducing ... Flora & Fauna

It's finally here and I'm so friggin' excited about this new collection of mine that I squeal every time I see it!

A couple of months ago I did an interview with True Up in which I shared a bit of a background story on my concept of Flora & Fauna. I said (and I quote) "for this collection I had to go completely out of my comfort zone. I deviated from the structured, linear feel that I am so accustomed to and went with a more free-flowing, organic set of designs. This was my way of proving to myself that I could do something completely different while still staying true to my style."

So here it is, in it's full glory. It was a labor of love... I hope you like it!!











I just LOVE how the four color stories play so harmoniously together just like elements in nature!

I'm sure you all want to see some sewn items, don't you? Of course, I had to do pillows first! I always do pillows first.



Check out the back of my pillows! I used the selvedges as the edges of my envelope backing. Heehee. Oh, I crack myself up so!



I tweeted the other day when I was making these sweet little hexes. Oh, GOSH, I love these bees so much it hurts!!!



My dear friend, Valerie, sewed up this Nina pattern for me in record speed. Doesn't Sydney look so "Mod" and "cosmopolitan" in her Flora & Fauna ensemble? This sweet little 2-piece set will be on display at my booth at Quilt Market and after the show, it will become a store display at Sew Much More.



OH, and I almost forgot! The collection comes with a bonus "double border" design. I am so in love with these! Oh, the possibilities... skirts, dresses, curtains, quilts, pillows. I cannot wait to see what you all make with them. The Double Border Daisies come in all 4 colorways.



So, what do you think of Flora & Fauna? I am so excited that I want to share the wealth. I have a small stack of fat quarters sitting here in my studio just begging for a new loving home. Leave me a comment and I'll pick 2 winners to take these home. It'll be a small assortment of prints, but OH so sweet! Let me know if you have a favorite print or a favorite colorway. Tell me how the collection inspires you, or anything at all. I just want to hear what you think! :)