Happy Monday!! Welcome back to Moda Mondays, a super fun series designed to showcase a stunning lineup of thread collections by our treasured Moda Designers. Check in here every Monday to learn more!
Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill’s Sugar Plum Christmas for Moda is a sweet new Christmas collection featuring fabric colors like Candy Cane Red, Sugar Plum Pink, Icicle White, Gingerbread Brown, Gumdrop Green and Mouse Grey. It is shipping to stores now, giving us time to plan out our holiday sewing for this year! Anne’s coordinating thread kit is a small, 10-spool collection of Aurifil’s new 80wt + 3 spools of Aurifloss embroidery thread for perfect hand-stitched details.
THREAD COLLECTION DETAILS
Sugar Plum Christmas
10 Small Spools, 100% Aurifil Cotton
2021 – 2250 – 2372 – 2423 – 2600 – 2870 – 2880 (80wt, 300yds/spool)
2630 – 2360 – 2250 (Floss, 18yds/spool)
THE INTERVIEW
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you first got started in the world of sewing and quilting?
I grew up loving to craft and sew and for many years, I made all of my own clothes. But when I walked into my first quilt store, I fell in love with everything in the shop and I was hooked. I became a quilter!
Do you remember the process of making your first quilt and how you felt once it was complete?
I remember it like it was yesterday! I made a sampler quilt with pieced blocks and an appliqué heart. It was the applique heart that took me the longest to complete, but I was so excited when I finished.
Who or what has been your greatest creative inspiration?
Bunnies of course! I’ve never owned a real bunny, but there was one that frequented our bird feeder almost every day. He became the inspiration for my business name, and you’ll find him on many of my quilts. Who can resist a bunny?
How did you first connect with Moda and what do you love most about working with them?
Kimberly at Fat Quarter Shop helped me connect with Moda. I’d dreamed of designing for Moda for years, and Kimberly kept encouraging me to approach them. Then one market I was on the phone with her and she said to me “I’m not hanging up until you go talk to them” so I did it! I’m so glad I did.
Working for Moda guarantees quality fabric and a support team like no other. It’s a family filled with people who love what they do and it shows. They are just the best.
What did you love most about putting your latest collection, Sugar Plum Christmas, together for them? What inspired the collection?
A little mouse was the inspiration for this collection. You won’t find her in any of the prints, but you’ll find a Mouse Grey Christmas dot and a Mouse Grey Twinkle Stars fabric. I designed The Christmas Mouse quilt first and then designed the collection around the quilt.
Do you have a favorite project made with the collection?
I’m in love with Maya Mouse! I had fun drafting this pattern but it took 4 attempts to get her right. On my fourth try I added her nose and then her eyes. She came to life and I knew she was a mouse to love.
What is your favorite thing to make?
I love to applique and if I had my way I’d never do anything else.
When did you first discover Aurifil threads and what do you love most about them?
I saw the Aurifil 50wt thread display at our local quilt store. The colors were so beautiful I was automatically drawn to them and the thread is so yummy you can’t help but fall in love.
I use the 50wt for piecing, but I’m really enjoying using Aurifil 12wt for embroidery. I love how my stitches look in this heavier thread, and I love how easy it is to embroider with. I bought the Aurifil collection of the small 12wt threads from Moda, but I’d love for them to also carry the small spools individually.
Do you have a favorite color/weight and why?
Aurifil 50wt 2000 is my go to color and you’ll find it on my machine almost all the time. It blends with almost every fabric I use.
How did you go about selecting threads for your latest Aurifil collection?
I started with the Aurifil Color Card and laid my fabrics next to it. Then I prayed they would have the colors I selected in the new 80wt thread. Of course, Aurifil did such a good job of selecting colors for this new thread, I didn’t have to worry. There was a color for every fabric in the line! You’ll also find three spools of Aurifloss in my collection. I used it for the embroidery in The Christmas Mouse.
What top thread tip would you want to share with our readers?
Always thread your applique needle with the end of thread that comes off the spool. If you start with the other end it will tangle more. If your thread keeps tangling as you applique, you’ve probably started with the wrong end of the thread. Tie it off and start again with the opposite end of the thread.
Where can we find you this year?
I’ll be in Houston in October for Quilt Market, but I’m staying close to home this year. You can probably find me in my studio. It’s my favorite place to be!
FREE PATTERN
We first launched Sugar Plum Christmas along with Anne and Moda Fabrics back at Fall Quilt Market 2016 in Houston. Anne was kind enough to share a free pattern with us for giveaway at our schoolhouse! We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share it with you here.
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CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ‘A Merry Little Christmas’
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THE GIVEAWAY
To enter-to-win 1 Small Sugar Plum Christmas Thread Collection and one Jelly Roll of Sugar Plum Christmas by Anne Sutton for Moda, click here to head to the Rafflecopter entry page, or simply click on the image above. You do not have to complete all the options to be entered but the more options you choose, the more entries you have! Entries will be accepted from now through 11:59pm Eastern Time on Sunday, May 7! Winner will be randomly selected and announced here on Monday, May 8. Good luck!
UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner, Karen McMahon!
ABOUT ANNE
Website — Blog — Facebook — Instagram — Pinterest — Twitter
Anne Sutton is the owner of and designer for Bunny Hill Designs. She has always loved sewing and crafts and has tried so many she can barely count them all! That said, when she found appliqué, she knew that she’d found her passion. For her, the process is pure joy. That process often informs the design direction for her fabric collections with Moda Fabrics.
Anne lives with her husband in Northern California surrounded by pets; a few cats and two wonderful dogs. She is always busy rearranging their home, adding flea market finds, and bargains she can’t resist. She loves cottage style decorating mixed with a simplified shabby chic, a style that influences many of her designs. She combines vintage with new, dark woods with whites, velvet with chenille.
ABOUT MODA
Website — Blog — Moda Bakeshop — Facebook — Instagram — Twitter — YouTube — Pinterest
United Notions, Moda Fabrics and Moda Home is a multi-line fabric, notions and finished product manufacturer and distributor selling to the trade. They offer a wide range of fabrics, notions, patterns, books, quilting supplies and finished product in their Dallas warehouse. They have been in the quilting and fabric industry since 1975 and are constantly striving to bring the latest and greatest in both their fabrics and other quilting and home products. Moda currently has independent designers as well as an in-house design staff bringing some of the hottest new lines of fabrics and home product available in the industry.
Just love Anne and her Bunnies!
Beautiful….can’t wait to try the new 80 wt
Having lived in university towns for the last 49 years we have had the tradition of including many International students and friends in our holidays and joining them in theirs.
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas morning just with our immediate family…we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and read the Christmas story and open stockings and gifts and eat breakfast together…It is low key but so enjoyable. I love everything about it.
My favorite tradition is to bring out the glass Nativity display that my oldest son bought me over 30 years ago & place it under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after all the kids have come over to go to church together.
My favorite Christmas tradition is simply spending time with loved ones. I love this Christmas collection and the thread!!
I don’t have a specific tradition. It’s just nice to get together with everyone! And I get to make the dessert … every year, where I love to try out new recipes
We enjoy getting together with the grandkids before the holidays and do some Christmas baking.
I love having the Christmas tree decorated with ornaments the kids made when they were young. Brings back wonderful memories.
A great interview, and such wonderful fabrics, threads, and inspiration!
Thank you!
(I’m returning to more and more appliqué and hand work… so this comes at a perfect time!)
My favorite Christmas tradition is having my grown children and their families all together for a week or two…!! (Even though they live far apart, my children were always close growing up, and remain best friends!!!… It warms a mother’s heart!!)
Pat T.
Kids are grown with their own families so things are a bit different now. Just getting together with the whole family and eating all the yummy foods is tradition for me!
Being separated by some distance from any of my family, my greatest tradition now for Christmas is the prime rib dinner I share with some friends of Christmas day, along with the turkey feast shared with them on Thanksgiving! I do love to think of Christmas, though.
My favorite Christmas tradition is hanging and filling the Christmas stockings. Second favorite is making Christmas cookies. Love Bunny Hill designs and Aurifil threads.
Love the fun Christmas
scenes and the bunnies!
Fave tradition was when
we were children, we would
go to church on Christmas
Eve and after the sermon,
we would try to make it to
the car with our candle lit.
Was a lot of fun.
Carla from Utah
I have been a fun of Bunnyhill Designs for a long time now!! Love her stuff!
A “fan” of Bunnyhill Designs!!
one of my favorite Christmas traditions is reading the night before Christmas to the youngest child, this year that will be my new grandson j.p. born last year on 12/23.
I love opening stockings on Christmas morning followed by breakfast of stuffed French toast.
I LOVE this collection!!!!!
Nice
My favorite Christmas tradition is having family and friends over on Christmas Eve for Chinese noodles (average is 15 people and no, I am not chinese). this is something my mother did, I continued, and my daughters continue for their family and friends. I have several lifelong friends who have carried on the tradition as well. It’s a long story about why my Mother did this, suffice it to say, we always had a very large gathering at our house on christmas – upwards of 40+ for christmas dinner. The night before had to be kept simple.
Hello,My favorite Christmas tradition is spending time with loved ones celebrating Jesus Birth! This is a really neat Christmas fabric collection>so fond of it! Thanks Anne+Aurifil too!
Thanks for the very interesting interview. A favorite tradition is new PJ’s given on Christmas eve.
My holiday tradition is to leave fresh shelled pecans and fresh bread and fruit in my backyard for the birds and squirrels. The numbers that show up keep increasing. I have a 6ft privacy fence around my back yard, but there are dips under some areas where the bunnies, turtles and possums can get in whenever they want to. I even had someone’s small dog get stuck under the gate trying to get in my backyard. It’s turning into a playground for wildlife.
Our favorite Christmas tradition is reading the Night Before Christmas together on Christmas Eve
My uncle always ran outside and rand these bells that my PaPa brought over from Turkey from when he worked over there as an engineer when my daddy was little. They would ring them and say HoHoHo and i thought Santa was at our house. I would run to the door and Santa had left gifts for me there! I got those bells when my PaPa passed away, and dud the same for my children, and now continue the tradition with my grandchildren. They are so excited to hear thr bells and run to see if they can see him but find he left them notes and the gifts they asked for in their letters we wrote. This year will be the first time for my newest grandbaby. Ots a fun tradition and i have fond memories of my own childhood when i hear the bells. The are pretty too.
My favorite Holiday traditions are being with family and friends.
cork at pa.rr.com
My favorite Christmas tradition is to be with my family !
My favorite holiday tradition is Christmas Eve at my parents with the whole family. We don’t exchange presents, just enjoy each other’s company.
Love your bunnies! The Christmas fabric is so pretty! Now that my kids are all grown up. I make a special Christmas ornament for them and my brothers & sisters-a different one every year!
I always loved how my parents would let everyone open just ONE present on Christmas Eve! It was usually Christmas jammies!
Me too, my mother started that with my children and they always received their new Christmas PJ’s that were great for pictures the next morning! Now my children expect me to keep up the tradition with my Grandkids, love it!
My favorite Christmas tradition is the time spent making special gifts for people on my list. Absolutely love your designs. Made one of my favorite baby quilts with your fabric six years ago and she is loving it to pieces. 😃 If I don’t win this then I’ll be trolling the stores for it! 😆
My favorite holiday tradition is making Christmas cookies with the children.
My favorite tradition is being able to be with family, particularly my three grandkids. When my heart is disappointed that we can’t be together, I stop and reflect that my parents understood when we didn’t get to spend Christmas with them. Thanks for a great interview and the free pattern!
my favorite Christmas tradition is getting together with family& friends. Also making gifts during the year for them.
Saving the stockings until last and then having a large breakfast of Belgian waffles and eggs.
Favorite Christmas tradition is getting together with all the kids and grandchildren; and later going to church for the Christmas Eve service.
We love to take out our ornaments and reminisce about the many places they represent.
It’s not Christmas for us without our baking our favorite cookies.
We started celebrating Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. That makes it so much nicer on Christmas day so we don’t have to rush from one place to the other. We also play games which is always fun!
My favorite tradition is hanging all the handmade ornaments made by myself, mother and grandmothers on the tree.
I just love Bunny Hill Designs! Thanks for the cute mini! I’d say my most beloved holiday tradition is doing stockings. I still do them even though my kids are grown.
The fabrics are so sweet
I just love spending time with family and friends. Wrapping presents and decorating the tree is fun. We always go out to the forest to get our tree.
Anne’s Sugar Plum Fairy is the most adorable Christmas collection! I love reading her blog.
Having my kids photos with Santa every year!
Singing carols and attending Christmas Eve services with my family is my favorite tradition!
I love all things Bunny Hill! My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree. I just love the lights and seeing all the homemade ornaments again.
Quilting gifts and baking.
Many faves for Christmas Traditions round our house…but know the kids would tell you, it’s gettinnew Jamma’s every Christmas, made by me! lol They are grown now..& I still make them Jamma’s..and also for the Grankiddo’s as well!! 🙂 When Kiddo’s were small tho..we always decorated tree together & then had hot chocolate& cookies with just the tree lit.
Thank you for chance to win this Awesome give-a-way too! 😀
I love this collection! Christmas quilts are my favorite! Thank you for the free pattern and a
chance to win this wonderful give away!
My favorite holiday tradition is early Christmas morning with my kids, even though they are getting older. I still love it! Loving Sugar Plum Chrostmas fabrics, can’t wait for my kit! Thanks for the giveaway!
My favorite tradition is getting an ornament to signify something big for the year, for example a car ornament for getting my driver’s license. I still collect ornaments, now I get them from travels, etc. Love all your cute fabrics and projects! 🐭 🐭 🐭
Our favorite tradition is decorating the tree with ornaments we have collected over the years from traveling and from family and friends. Anne does such wonderful fabrics and patterns, I enjoyed the interview!
My favourite tradition is letting my son choose what we have for dinner on Christmas Eve. He loves being “in charge” of the dinner.
For the Christmas holiday I always enjoy the Candlelight service at church and then coming home with all of our kids and grandkids and spending the evening together.
Sadly most of our Christmas traditions are disappearing as kids get older and move away and older relatives past on. I guess our continued tradition is enjoying the family time we do have together.
Our favorite tradition is having soup night on Christmas Eve. We missed last year because family was out of town, but usually we can all be together on Christmas Eve and then the grown kids can have their own Christmas traditions on Christmas Day.
My favorite tradition is having the bulk of our celebration on Christmas Eve and then going out for Chinese food and a movie on Christmas Day.
My favorite tradition is Christmas dinner with my family…kids and grandkids!
Thank you.
My favorite tradition is watching Miracle on 34th Street every year with my sister. Some years we watch the original black and white movie and some years we watch the remake colorized movie.
I love baking cookies with my children and my grandchildren. So much fun. We make dozens and dozens.
Christmas morning is with my sons and my husband. Just the five of us.
And the Saturday after Christmas at my parents’ house. With my siblings and their spouses and children. It’s always loud and busy and FUN!
baking is probably my only real tradition
I love baking and celebrating with family, making gifts, and decorating. It’s all fun! Thanks for the chance to win.
My favourite holiday tradition is to make foods that the family love, it ramps ups those warm fuzzy feelings
my favourite family tradition is making mince pies and sausage rolls with my (now grown up) daughter listening to Christmas songs and anticipating all the friends and family who will visit to eat them
My favorite tradition is making and eating cookies:-)
I love spending time with family while eating Christmas cookies.
Anne is such a beautiful, inspiring lady and has become Mrs. Christmas with her stunning, magical designs. My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating every room in my home to create the warmth and magic of Christmas for my family and friends. It is wonderful now to be able to bring out what are now heirloom pieces to me and my family inspired by Anne.
To cut out paperstars with the whole familiy and decorate the windows in our flat with them!
Thanks so much for the lovely free pattern!
My favorite Christmas tradition is having the kids open presents of Christmas pjs and a new book on Christmas Eve. Did this every year with my kids and now with my grandson’s too.
So cute! I especially like the stockings. When my son was young we used to hide clues for him to find some of his gifts. Such fun!
Chelsea looks lovely in pink thread. Maya Mouse is the cutest mouse I’ve ever seen, and the fabrics and threads are fabulous for Christmas.
Trying to figure out what the wrapped gift is before opening it.
My favourite tradition is putting out my handmade Christmas decorations. I would love to have a sugar plum quilt to put out this year!
My favorite Christmas tradition is cooking with family. I love when we are all together.
I love this collection. I enjoy working with my hands and doing embroidery. It makes me feel accomplished.
I love Anne’s fabrics and patterns…applique is my favorite too as it’s portable and relaxing and keeps me very much in the moment! I’m working on Merry, Merry Snowmen… and am planning to make Glitter Houses and the Christmas Mouse quilts too. It’s always hard to choose…so I often have more than one in progress!
Oops! As for Christmas traditions…my husband always reads The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve in front of the fire with hot chocolate…we started when our daughter was a baby and now we get to share it with our three grandsons and their parents!
My favorite tradition is getting together with my siblings!
One of my favorite traditions is to fold German paper stars to decorate the
Christmas tree.
I love stocking stuffers most of all. Giving and receiving. My family puts a lot of thought into what goes into stockings. Much laughter and love comes out of it. Such fun.
The timing of this is perfect! I just got confirmation that my Sugar Plum Christmas kit shipped yesterday! Thanks for the opportunity and the fun interview.
I am so in love with the Sugar Plum Fabric line! It is perfect! My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating for Christmas! Decorating my Christmas Tree and putting up my Department 56 Christmas Village! My other favorite is making lots and lots of Christmas cookies to hand out to friends!
Decorating the tree with the ornaments the kids made over the years and spending the day all together. Love this mini~ thank you!!
When I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of extra money to spend on the Holidays. My mother would always make Merry Christmas Popcorn, which has dry tomato soup and chili type spices sprinkled over popcorn to flavor it. I made this treat every Christmas for my children when they were growing up as well. Now, that my children are grown up, they still say that it isn’t Christmas until they have some Merry Christmas Popcorn. Thanks!
Adorable – love the pink Christmas fabrics that seem so hard to find. Beautiful line!
Love the colors!
Finding the perfect ornament (or crafting one by quilting it) for each one of my son’s personality.
Both are funny guys!
Of course family cooking together , dining together and cleaning up together. Lots of good conversation going on!
Thank you Anne for this adorable fabric collection and the pattern download. I’ll be anxiously awaiting for the fabric to ship:)
All ten of our immediate family share Christmas Eve dinner, followed by opening gifts. Our evening ends at Midnight Christmas Eve service. As an adult, I miss the candy cane cookies Mom made every year!
My favorite was started when my niece was little and believed in Santa. We always had a big dinner on Christmas Eve for family and any friends that wanted to come. After dinner we opened our gifts and somehow seemed to always have the exact gift for any friends. After everyone who was leaving had made their way home we all went to sleep. Santa always showed up and left more gifts for the children to open Christmas Morning. As the years went on the Santa gifts began to include all of us and anyone that stayed over. No one ever catches Santa and no one can figure our how those presents wrapped in different gift wrap get under the tree without him being caught. Even the stockings are filled.
Love how the simple act of opening gifts on Christmas morning morphed into this tradition but we all love it and my niece is planning on carrying it on when she adds a child or two to her family.
Making a gingerbread house each year. Decorating with family or friends is such fun!
I love making at least a few of the gifts I give each year. My nuts and bolts party mix is an often requested gift from friends and family members.
Now that my husband and I are empty nesters we started new traditions. We go to my daughter ‘s for a breakfast and open stockings. Then I go home to make pies to bring to my sister ‘s and we do a Christmas puzzle.
My most beloved holiday tradition is the hand created sewn and quilted stockings hanging in the dining room and that wonderful, delicious Christmas lunch meal with family, and I ALWAYS make a red velvet cake!
We don’t really do much anymore; kids are grown…
My favorite tradition is waking up early on Christmas morning and baking fresh scones for my family.
I love your beautiful quilt.
I have always received a new pair of jammies at Christmas, now I always give my daughters a new pair of jammies! Love Bunny Hills Designs, Moda AND Aurifil. The colors in this collection are adorable!
Being with family on Christmas Day. It also happens to be my husbands birthday!
My favourite tradition is watching movies with my family. Especially How the Grinch stole Christmas
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies with my grandchildren. So much fun!
Beautiful fabrics, beautiful designs.
Baking all kinds of goodies and being with family
My favorite part was gathering together, all my extended family on Christmas Eve, getting to see everyone I hadn’t seen in a long time
Decorating the Christmas tree is my most cherished holiday tradition. Each ornament holds a tender memory.
I collect Christmas tree ornaments so decorating the tree is a special time for me. I love to see my favorite ornaments come out of the tissue paper and then go up in a special place on the tree!
Every Christmas Eve the children gather around the eldest male family member who reads them “The Night Before Christmas”. This is a tradition that goes back to my childhood and my father, what wonderful memories!
I am making new traditions with my children and one of the new favorites is getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve.
My favorite tradition is to make cookies with my sons.
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is that we have 2 family “pollyannas”-one for the kids and one for the adults. The kids are my 7 grandbabies (current ages 7-19) and they each have to make something for their “pollyanna”. We’ve been doing this for 5 years now and they all still love it; and I so enjoy the creative ideas they each come up with – usually it’s something specific to the person they’re giving to – so I know it’s been well thought out.
My favorite Christmas Tradition is our annual Gingerbread house party. I sponsor it at my house. It is for all of our family members and there kids and grandkids. Some bring decorating stuff . I buy lots of those little prefab gingerbread house kits. I assemble them all before everyone arrives. Than I set out tons of different colored icings, lots of candies’ and things to decorate with. Big houses little houses big people little people. A house and plenty of decorating stuff for all regardless of age or skill. Lots of fun by all. And not to mention we have Christmas cookies and drink and pizza to snack on all day as we work on these beauties. Just tons of fun.
Christmas is my favorite holiday. I live in a small New England Cape style home and enjoy decorating my window boxes with greenery. It lasts all through the harsh winter and is so pleasing to the eye. I also enjoy decorating inside as well, especially the tree with old Christmas ornaments that I often find at yard sales. However my most favorite thing to do is bake Christmas cut out sugar cookies,frost with butter cream frosting and decorate with sprinkles and sugars. They are a big hit in my family and everyone has their favorite shape that they like to eat.
Any time I can get together with family, I consider I have had a good holiday!
My favorite holiday tradition is our handmade advent calendar that my children have been using since they were toddlers.
My favorite Christmas tradition is the placing of the candles on our tree. There are 3 metal candles that my kids use to see who can get their the highest on the tree. It turns out to be quite funny and even more funny now that they are all grown up and still do this!
Favorite Christmas tradition: candlelight service at midnight, Christmas Eve-Morning.
Getting together with extended family and eating tons of Christmas cookies!
Many of our “traditions” have changed over the years but always include an orange in your stocking. Thanks for the generous giveaway, in plenty of time to begin holiday preparations.
Hanging the 29 Christmas stockings that I have made for my parents who now celebrate Christmas in Heaven, my husband and I and our 4 children and their spouses, our 11 grandchildren and 2 great-grand children, along with a cousin who is usually with us. The stockings cover 3 walls of our home. Love, love seeing them up and this year we will be hanging another for a baby grandaughter due in August. My daughter and I would love to make the new quilt. I have made several other Bunny Hill quilts and just love them
They are beautiful.