Sew Sweet Moda Blog Hop Day 5

Welcome to Day 5 of the Sew Sweet Moda Blog Hop.

Today you will travel to Iowa, then on to New Jersey and South Carolina to visit Lauren and Jesse Jung, and finish up in California to visit Joanna of Fig Tree.

As you probably have already figured out, this blog hop is about our home town. Bruce and I are both originally from Minnesota. He a city boy from Jackson and me a farm girl, raised on a farm south of Jackson. A job brought Bruce to Algona, Iowa in 1971.

I moved here in 1973 after we were married.

We have lived here all of our married life.

Algona was founded in 1854 by two brothers, Ambrose and Asa Call, who named the city after the native word for "Algonquin waters".

Population: 5,560.

I won't bore you with any more history - if you need to know more - Google it.

We were asked the question does anyone famous live in your town?

Algona's claim to fame does not reside in a person but in a thing.

The world's largest Cheeto resides in Algona Iowa.

Yep that’s right I said Cheeto. Weighing in at 1/6 of and ounce and the size of a small lemon.

How did we come to have the largest Cheeto.

Long story short:

A navy petty officer, Mike Evens, based in Pearl Harbor bought a bag of Cheetos for his 3 year old son.

This Cheeto (or as I see it - a blob that looked more like a chicken McNugget.)-was found in the bag.

He decided to auction the Cheeto on Ebay.

Bryce Wilson our radio station disc jockey at the time headed up a campaign to buy the Cheeto and bring it to Algona. He was able to bid $180.00 with the plan to enshrine the Cheeto and put in on display as a tourist attraction.

However Ebay cancelled the auction as prices reached millions of dollars.

Evans liked what Algona wanted to do with the Cheeto.

He said they could have the Cheeto if we donated the $180.00 along with a $1000.00 donation from Frito-Lay to a food bank. We did so.

The Cheeto arrived by mail on March 10th. 2003.

It was shellacked and placed on a velvet cushion encased in Plexiglas.

David Letterman wanted to do a show featuring the Cheeto but Algona had to turn him down as they had already struck a deal with Jimmy Kimmel.

The Cheeto is on display at Emerald's Restaurant at 1515 N. McCoy Street in Algona. And like many of us know… with age comes shrinkage - I think it is now smaller than a small lemon.

And that is how the Big Cheeto came to Algona.

When you come to see the Cheeto - because I know you are all booking your flights now - be sure to take time to have lunch or dinner at Emerald's Restaurant. It is owned and operated by Chad and Molly Berte and the food is WONDERFUL! Tell them Sandy sent you. (FYI they do not serve anything with Cheeto as an ingredient!)

Now onto what this blog is really all about.

Moda's new pre-cut call Candy. Forty-two little 2 1/2" squares of sweetness.

Each designer was asked to make a project using the candy squares. We then did a show and tell with these projects at the Moda School house at Spring Quilt Market. Well some of us did. The day of school house I woke up with one of my migraine headaches. I have pills, but it usually take me a good 8 hour sleep after taking the pills before I am feeling "normal". So I tried to fight it off with extra strength Tylenol. That did not work so at 12:00 I gave in and took one of my miracle pills. School house was at 4:00. My headache was gone but needless to say I was still "loopy".

As we were all heading up to school house it dawned on me I needed to take some of my new quilts to show along with my candy project. I set my candy project down to pick up some quilts… yep you guessed it… and walked away without my candy project. For me school house was a blur.

You know the warning on the pill bottle...do not operated heavy equipment after taking these pills. They need to add or do a Moda School House!

This is the little pillow that no one has seen until now.

It is made with a my line Everlastings.

You can download the instructions here.

And there is more FREE to be had.

Leave a comment - anything - who is famous in your town, what is famous in your town, do you like Cheetos, do you not like Cheetos, and you could win one of these four Everlasting pre-cuts. Each of the 4 winners will also win a bag of Cheetos along with some other "Algona Goodies". We will announce the winners on Sept. 15.

Make sure you stop by to visit Joanna, Lauren and Jesse today too.

Good luck to all. I'm glad that you stopped by to learn a little bit about Algona.

I hope you will come to visit Algona sometime.

Beside the Cheeto we have:

Two quilt shops - Seams to Me and Heartland Quilt Shop. And many in the surrounding area.

The Chocolate Season. Yummy!

The Perky Parrot. Coffee shop by day martini bar by night.

The Pet Kingdom. Everything your pet could possibly want.

Three antique shops. Home Store Antique, The Vintage Shoppe and the Vintage Shoppe Too.

Phoenix. A gift shop with a lot of repurposed items.

The Market. Another great gift shop.

POW Museum.

The Grotto of Redemption. Located in West Bend, IA. - just 20 minutes from here.

Three golf courses. Algona Country Club, River Road and Spring Valley. (I had to have something for the men.)

Tomorrow we will visit Lily Ashbury, French General and Primitive Gatherings.

Happy hopping.

From my heart,

Sandy