Charming Baby Quilts Cover!!!

Monday was the photo shoot for my new Charming Baby Quilts book :)  It was so fun to have the images for the book texted to me throughout the day.  (Thanks so much It's Sew Emma for that!!!) And the picture that was just so exciting . . . the cover image!!!!    And I am so excited to get to share it this morning!!!  Isn't that just precious!!! 

The photo shoot took place at an adorable children's store in Texas and the gals at It's Sew Emma did such an amazing job!!!  They just captured the nature and feel of this book so perfectly!!!   I mean, how adorable is this!!!!

And of course, I will have lots and lots more pictures to share over the next few month's as it get's closer to the release of Charming Baby Quilts.   It's so fun to get to share peeks of these quilts!!!   And it makes me realize it is going to be so hard to wait for March :) 

And here is the back cover!!!   Isn't that stack of Charming Baby Quilts just so fun!!!  It is so great seeing them all together :)   And I just love that each quilt is made with  with one, two, or three charm packs!!   Because let's be honest, we all have a stack of charm packs that we just want to create with :)  And Charming Baby Quilts is perfect for just that!!!! 

 And just as a reminder . . . Charming Baby Quilts will be released in March of 2020 and it is available for pre-order!!!  You can pre-order a copy of Charming Baby Quilts directly from It's Sew Emma, or from Fat Quarter Shop (with a pre-order discount) , or if you would like to pre-order a signed copy directly from me, that is an option as well ;)   All pre-ordered books will ship out in March 2020   

Oh, and I just found out  . . . Kimberly shared all of the quilts from Charming Baby Quilts on her Behind the Seams Chat today.  So fun, and she even shared the Quilt Along we will be doing with the book so now I can share it here as well!!!    So excited for this QAL!!!

What a fun day of sharing!!!!   Thanks for all popping in today and being a part of this super exciting project ;)   I can't wait to share more with you all!!!

I hope you all have a very Happy Quilting Weekend!!!!

Tutorial Throwback Thursday - Classic Christmas!!!

Well it's Thursday, and so it is time for another Christmas throwbackbut today we are not going back to far.  Just a year and a half to my Classic Christmas Quilt!!! I love that this quilt is truly a classic!!  Red, Green, White with Simple Patchwork and Stars, it just doesn't get more Classic Christmas than that ;)

The inspiration for this quilt goes a ways back.  My husband and I were married in December and my now Sister In Law, gave us a Christmas quilt for our wedding.  It was a tied quilt with a Classic Christmas Cheater print full of stars in red and green.  I loved that quilt, and after it was "over-loved" by our sweet children, I set out to recreate a new family Classic Christmas quilt . . . and here it is.    

Classic Christmas is made using my favorite No Waste Flying Geese method.  And they chain stitch  in no time which means this quilt goes together a lot faster than it looks.   It really is a fun quilt to make and allows you to use wonderful reds and greens in the simple patchwork and then highlight some favorite low volume Christmas prints in the star points!!!  

And I quilted it with all over swirls to add lots of yummy texture.  Classic Christmas finishes at 71" x 71" so it is a great size to be able to cuddle up with in front of a fire with a mug of hot chocolate ;)   And I just love to snuggle under it and think back on all of the many wonderful Christmases we have shared and look forward to many more to come!!! 

And that is my Classic Christmas quilt.  I hope you have enjoyed today's Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!!    To make your own Classic Christmas quilt  just click on any of the quilt name links for the free step by step tutorial.    And when you are done, I would love to see your quilt!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your Classic Christmas quilts!!!

Thanks for popping in today and each day.    I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day and are looking forward to a very Merry Christmas (in less than a week!!)  

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day!!!

It's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day so let's have some fun :)

First, we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway :)

The winner of the Granny Chic 2 1/2" Rolie Polie from Fat Quarter Shop is . . .  Number #203. . .   Congrats Carol - Beads and Birds!!!   I have emailed you :)    

    

           

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by  Lou Lou's Fabric Shop .    Did you know that Jamie makes a new Lou Lou Bundle every Tuesday . . . here is the latest called Deck the Halls, isn't it just so festive!!!  Along with hosting the giveaway, Jamie is also offering all Happy Quilting readers has a special discount of  20% off  All Fat Quarter Bundles with the code happyquilting good until Friday (excludes Lou Lou Bundles) !!!  Oh, so much fun shopping!!!

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is for some shopping goodness!!  Lou Lou's Fabric Shop is offering one lucky reader a $25.00 Gift Certificate perfect to use on anything in the store, including the awesome Lou Lou Bundle pictured above!!  Just perfect!!!!

You have two entry chances, the second being optional, and please leave a separate comment for each.  All Entries are welcome, including International Entries.   Please just be sure to leave an email address if you are a no-reply blogger ;)  

ENTRY 1 - Simply leave a comment that tells me a Favorite Christmas Memory???  

 ENTRY 2 - Lets show Lou Lou's Fabric Shop some Love!!!!   You can follow them on   Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram.  Or you can follow their blog or  visit The Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Lou Lou's Fabric Shop Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until Tuesday, January 7th  when I will announce a winner at the beginning of the next  Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :) 

Note -  I will not be doing a Terrific Tuesday Giveaway on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve as I want to spend those days with my family :)  So TTGD will see you in 2020!!!! 

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Bloom-topia Charity Quilt for 2020 - It's Coming!!!!

Each year, I donate a quilt to be auctioned off to the Festival of Trees in honor of my sweet little nephew David (who is doing so great!!!)  And for the last few years 4 years I have donated my annual Fat Quarter Shop Charity Quilt :)  I love that this allows so much good to be tied up into one quilt ;)   So of course, I am so super excited that Fat Quarter Shop  has announced their Charity Quilt for 2020 benefiting Make a Wish, and this year, it is Bloom-topia !!!!

Isn't this just a beautiful quilt!!!!   I can't wait to get started on this wonderful sampler!!!  I love that it will teach a lot of great new techniques and I will have fun trying new things.  But I also love that  most of these blocks are historical blocks with amazing traditional goodness tied up in them ;)  That just adds so much richness to the quilt!!!!

The Bloom-topia Quilt Along block piecing starts on February 1st, but the cool thing is, Fat Quarter Shop has already released the Fabric Requirements!!!    Bloom-topia features Summer Sweet Fabric by Sherri and Chelsi for Moda Fabrics and I got to use this fabric for one of the quilts in my new book, and let me tell you, it is so great!!!    Summer Sweet Fabric releases in January, but you can reserve an exclusive Bloom-topia Quilt Kit and Backing Set now,  (And isn't that quilt back just so fun!!!!)    Fat Quarter Shop also has lots of cute Bloom-topia extra's, like key chains and needle minders, and thread sets :)    Oh, and Fat Quarter Shop is currently hosting their Countdown to Christmas Daily Sales so you can save on it all up to Christmas !!!  

  

After a lot of debate, I decided I am going in a different fabric direction, and my plan is to use a Breeze Fat Quarter Bundle by Zen Chic for Moda Fabrics and for the background I am going to use my favorite Gris Grunge!!!  I love the wonderful colors and prints of this line and I think they are just going to be so pretty on that great grey!!!   

And you all know, I always have to change things around a bit when it comes to the layout ;)    I love this fun modern layout, but with so many wonderful traditional and historical blocks, I decided to go with a more traditional and historical layout.   So this is my plan and it will be queen size, so its going to finish big ;)    I know, crazy different right.  It means I will be changing up just a few things along the way, but I am super excited because I just love, love, love the look of this and can't wait to see it all come together!!! Now I just have to wait for the 2020!!!

**EDIT - I have had several of you amazing quilters email and ask if I will be sharing this layout :)   And I am absolutely happy to do that.  I will plan on sharing the block adjustments I make each time I post my blocks.   And then, I will share my finishing instructions when we get to that week in the QAL ;)    As far as Fabric Requirements for my version - I will be using a FQB that has 32 Fat Quarters, and I know that will be enough for my blocks, I would assume 25-30 Fat Quarters will be great ;)  The more Fat Quarters the more variety.   This layout will also need 7 yards of background fabric and 1 yard for binding.  Hope that helps!!!  So excited to quilt along with you all!!!

So do you want to join in and quilt along for a great cause??  Download the Fabric Requirements, have fun shopping, and then mark your calendar for January 15th, the Offical Bloom-topia Kick-off!!!    It's going to be so much fun!!! You can pop on over to the Bloom-topia Quilt Along page for all the details and easy access links for the pattern releases :)  

Happy Quilting!!!!

Tutorial Throwback Thursday - O Christmas Trees!!!

Well it's Thursday,  and sorry this Tutorial Throwback is coming a little late, but better late than never right ;)    Of course, today's throwback is going to be a Christmas one and I decided to go back 6 years to my O Christmas Trees quilt!!!  I love that this quilt started as an inspiration, that evolved into a new block tutorial, that eventually morphed into a new quilt tutorial.  It's always fun to see how projects just evolve like that ;) 

So like I said, O Christmas Trees originally was inspired by a Quilt Along that was hosted by Christa Quilts.  I loved her idea of tree blocks, and so I asked my bee mates to make me up tree blocks for my month,  but I changed them to an improvisational block that is made crazy patchwork style, and then you use a paper pieced pattern to do the tree shape.  And of course, they needed a block tutorial to make them from ;)     So fun, and such a wonderful way to use up lots and lots of Christmas fabric scraps.   (And I know, we all have a ton of them, right!!!)   

And then after I got all of my blocks back, I made a few extra and decided I wanted to make the same Christmas Tree Shape in my quilt, only make it a lot bigger.   Ya know, I had a lot of Improv Tree blocks to use up ;)  So ya, then there was a tutorial needed for turning the blocks into a quilt :)       And hence the O Christmas Trees Quilt and Block Tutorial!!! 

And I love, love, love the way it all turned out!!!  This is still one of my favorite Christmas quilts to pull out and throw on my couch for the month of December.  It just makes me smile, especially because so many wonderful friends had a hand in helping me make each of those O Christmas Trees unique and special!!! 

And when I quilted it, I really stepped out of my comfort zone.   The long arm was still fairly new to me at the time, so attempting this "snow flurry" was a little crazy, but it really was oh so much fun!!!   I just get "drifting" :)  

And then I did pebbles, and pebbles, and more pebbles.  I love the way doing this between the trees made the overall tree shape stand out more.    Oh, and do you see the cute little decorations on the tree??  This was one of the first times I used more than one color thread on a quilt.   So fun!!!

And that is my O Christmas Trees Quilt and I might just go snuggle up in it as soon as I am done typing this post ;)   

I hope you have enjoyed today's Tutorial Throwback Thursday!!!    To make your own O Christmas Tress Quilt quilt  just click on any of the quilt name links for the free step by step tutorial.    And when you are done, I would love to see your quilt!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com, post it to social media with #happyquiltingwithmc  or or add it to my flickr group here ;)  I can't wait to see your O Christmas Trees quilts!!!

Thanks for popping in today and each day.    I hope you have a very Happy Quilting Day!!