LUSH Ribbon... and a few more sneaks!

First off... BIG CONGRATS to Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom for being the randomly-selected winner of our LUSH contest. Please email Emalee at egrambo@modkidboutique.com with your address so we can get your prize to you.

I'm heading to Houston tomorrow morning but before I leave I wanted to share the last LUSH-related surprise. Yes, folks, we will have ribbon too!!! This is literally fresh off the press... we got the samples in, rolled them up, took a picture and sent them off. We don't even have them up on our site yet so don't bother looking, but we promise to have them up soon.

There are 6 luscious designs to mix and match with your Lush fabrics...



The two designs on the far left are 1.5" wide and the other four designs are 7/8" wide.



The two on the far right are reversible.



Just like our Grand Bazaar ribbons, these are 100% polyester jacquard.

Emalee quickly whipped up a Megan purse to showcase the fabrics and ribbons. Yes, she is freaky fast like that!



How awesome is this?!?





She also made a Naomi and a Mini-Naomi for my booth, which will be coming in my suitcase with me (the garments, not the models, sadly).



Cuteness all around!!



OK, now I really do wish I could bring the model with me... sniff...



Last time before I leave, here is my Quilt Market info:

Booth #1653
Schoolhouse at 1:55 p.m. - 2:10 p.m. in room #361 D&E.
I will be giving away a wonderful surprise to every attendee!!!

The LUSH Quilts
(a.k.a. I *heart* The Central Illinois Modern Quilt Guild)

First of all I wanted to thank you all for the sweet comments regarding my Lush fabric line. We are beyond excited about it! There is still time to enter the giveaway so go on over there and leave us a comment.

I mentioned before that my booth would be quite empty if it wasn't for the kind hearts of the members of The Central Illinois Modern Quilt Guild. These ladies sacrificed their entire weekend to help us make some amazing quilted projects for our Quilt Market display, so I'd like to dedicate this post to Terry, Pat, Melissa, Arlene, Jean, Vicky, Mary and of course, Emalee. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!













Quilt #1 in progress...











And here are the finished products. Cool, eh?!? An extra special thanks to Ann Anderson and Mary Edwards who quilted the 2 bigger quilts in record time (literally in just hours!)



The large Stargazer Lilies that extend beyond on the side panels are appliquéd on...





There are 4 layers of quilt batting just under the "Lush" letters to give it that raised and poofy look...







We used the left-over fabric selvedge to hang this pennant-style quilt.



Come see these beauties in person this weekend at The International Quilt Market in Houston, TX, booth #1653.

Introducing... LUSH!



Lush is my 7th fabric collection for Michael Miller Fabrics. For this line, I drew inspiration from one of my favorite places on Earth, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, so it is filled with gorgeous, bright florals of all different sizes and shapes.

Lush’s 41 prints are divided into two colorways: Sunny, with its vibrant oranges, hot pinks and citrons...



... and Sweet, with its soft hues of aqua, lavender and green.



It also includes my very first range of coordinating solids, 6 luscious colors to mix and match with my prints.

So, how about some inspiration images, eh? The fabric arrived just last Thursday so we turned Modkid HQ into a sweat shop the past few days, sewing everything from quilts to pillows to garments. Luckily I had the help from the amazing women of the Central Illinois Modern Quilt Guild (stay tuned for a whole post about the sew-in!)

We designed this pillow weeks ago, when we only had strike-offs to play with...



And we loved the outcome so much that we turned it into a mini-pattern which includes a full-size applique template (no enlarging or taping together!) plus all the detailed instructions and diagrams for making this adorable applique pillow and patchwork piping.



We also made some garments. Here are Kyoko and Addison looking very Easter-ish. :)







And here is a little sneak peek of the two quilted projects the CIMQG made during their 2-day sew-in this past weekend (more photos and details to come!)





This one is a long skinny "pennant" style quilt, with a pointed end. I love it so much!!







I would LOVE to hear what you think of Lush. We are mighty proud of it here at the studio, but we're a bit biased. ;) Leave me a comment below and you'll be entered to win a copy of our new mini-pattern Modern Lotus Pillow, a large bag of LUSH fabric scraps (all Lush, nothing else!) and a half-yard of one of my solids... everything you'll need to complete this project!! We will choose a winner a week from today.



A week from now I'll be headed down to Houston to show off the collection and a few surprise goodies that I haven't even mentioned here (because they're not ready to show). So... if you are coming down to the International Quilt Market next week, please come see me in booth #1653. Also, if you are there on Friday, please come down to my schoolhouse at 1:55 p.m. - 2:10 p.m. in room #361 D&E. I will be giving away a wonderful surprise to every attendee!!!

Pink isn't just a color... it's an attitude!

Our baby girl turned 7 (SEVEN!) this weekend and we celebrated it the way any little princess would want to.... by having a Hollywood Diva party! Ohhhhh... it was so much fun, we didn't want it to ever end! Everything was pink and sparkly and glittery and girly! We turned Modkid HQ into party central and I want to share some of the highlights with you. Plus, I have included some FREE downloads at the end of this post so you too can give your girl a Hollywood Diva party!

We had super pink cupcakes with famous diva sayings on top...



There were famous quotes from classic divas, like Coco Chanel and Marilyn Monroe, and some more recent ones, like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga (of course!).





This was Sydney's personal cupcake...



I also used the same famous quotes to decorate the goodie boxes, which were hot pink Chinese take out containers filled with all the little items any diva should have, like lip gloss, glittery emery boards, funky pony tail holders, heart-shaped barrettes, faux diamonds and lots of bracelets!









We had some very pink finger foods...





Balanced out by others not-so-pink but still as yummy...





We even had "girlie-cocktails" for the little divas (Fruit punch + 7up + Maraschino cherries + little umbrellas + pink plastic champaign flutes from Hobby Lobby)



And, boy, were those the BIG HIT of the party!!! :)



The girls played dress-up and had their picture taken in our photo studio...







Then they strutted they stuff down the "pink carpet"...





We pulled up the white backdrop so they could have a dance party on our dance floor...



They made beaded jewelry (no pictures of that because I was helping the girls with their bracelets).

We sang Happy Birthday...



And opened presents...





Almost everything Sydney received was PINK! :) She is a happy girl right now! And mama scored big points for what she called "The best party EVER!" YAY!!! :)

I figured, there might be one or two or 3000 readers out there with little divas in their lives with birthdays coming up, so I wanted to share the graphic file for my cupcake-toppers and goodie-bag-labels. Click on the images below to be taken directly to my Flickr pool, then download the largest file available (original). These will print at 100% on your home printer on letter-size paper.

Print these cake-toppers on card stock if you can. They will be much sturdier that way. I bought my 90 lb. card stock at Office Max. Print two sheets so you can glue them back to back with a toothpick sandwiched in between. We used a hot glue gun for this.



Print the goodie-bag-labels onto full or half-sheet label paper (sticky-back), then cut them out with scissors and adhere to the front of your goodie boxes or bags. If you don't have adhesive paper, you can print them onto the same card stock as the cake toppers and just use spray adhesive, a glue stick or a hot glue gun.



Hope you can put these to good use! And please share if you do. I always love checking out other people's birthday parties. :)