Snapshots QAL - Let Them Eat Cake

Yippee, today is the first day of the Snapshots QAL!!!   And up first, block 1 . . . Let Them Eat Cake!!  Isn't it just so fun.  Seriously, I will admit, I really wanted a piece of cake to eat by the time I was done making this block.  It looks so yummy :)

Not only was this block a picture of cake, but it was also a piece of cake to put together ;)  No joke, I timed myself.  It took 30 minutes to sew this block together!!  Yup I spent more time pressing the fabric and cutting the pieces then sewing it together.  So fun and so fast!!  

So, do you want to make a yummy cake block too??  You can download the pattern right here and then don't forget to donate the $5.00 for the pattern to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital ;)  This is such an amazing cause and it is so fabulous that Fat Quarter Shop and Moda will be matching our donations up to $10.000.00!!  

Kimberly also made putting this block together even easier with this fabulous You Tube video.  Bonnie and Camille start it off with some special Cake Memories  as well ;)  So cute!!!

Be sure to  share all of your Snapshots progress on social media with #fqssnapshots and check out these fabulous bloggers for some Let Them Eat Cake inspiration :)  

Camille Roskelley of Thimble Blossoms
Bonnie Olaveson of Cotton Way
Pat Sloan of The Voice of Quilting
Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet

Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life

Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting

Thelma Childers of Cupcakes N' Daisies

Pam Viera-McGinnis of Pam Kitty Morning

Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs
Stephanie Kendron of The Modern Sewciety

Natalia Bonner of Piece N Quilt
Greg Jones of Grey Dogwood Studios
Jessie Fincham of Messy Jesse

Thanks for popping in today ;)  Have a Happy Quilting (and maybe some cake eating) Day!!!

Blocks, Blocks, Blocks

So being sick last week kind of threw off everything I had planned and now it is all spilling into this week ;)  You know how it goes sometimes ;)  So even though the first thing I wanted to do when I started feeling better was to sew, I figured it was probably best to put away Christmas first!!!  Yippee for crossing that WIP off the list!!

Then, there was no guild in sewing together blocks, and blocks, and more blocks.  Yup, I have had some serious fun the last few days ;)

I finished up the nine 12" blocks for my Modern Building Blocks quilt ;)  I tell you what, after making all of those little 6" guys, these were cake ;)  They went together so fast and I am getting so excited to see this one all done.  Only 9 more blocks to sew :)

Edit - I have been asked where to buy Modern Building Block Kits.  There are several shops that sell them . . . Of my sponsors,  you can buy them from Fat Quarter Shop or Green Fairy Quilts.  Hope this helps ;)

Then it was time to start another little secret project.   This one I won't have to keep secret long, so I promise to share more soon.   It was so nice to cut up this beautiful rainbow of Riley Blake solids.   It just made me smile ;)  Gotta love a pretty rainbow to brighten a snow filled day ;)

And now, I have a new block to get sewing today!!!   The first block in the Snapshots Quilt Along that is.  It's called Let Them Eat Cake and I am pretty sure that as soon as I start sewing it together I am going to be craving a piece of cake ;)   The video for this block just went up, so you can check it out here ;)  I will be sharing more tomorrow  ;)
 

So that's been my last few days . . . What about you . . . What are you working on??

Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Day

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

First, we need to announce the winner from last weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway!!   The winner of the Bella Solids White Jelly Roll and Layer Cake from Green Fairy Quilts  is . . .   Number 192. . . Congrats LoveSewHard!!   I have emailed you :)

    

    

    

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Shabby Fabrics!!   Along with hosting the giveaway, Shabby Fabrics is giving all of my readers a coupon code for 15% off their entire order!!!   Just use the code TTGD15 at checkout and save.  Thanks Shabby Fabrics ;)    The code will be valid until 01/20.

And the Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is for a Bloom Modern Basics Square Pack by Michael Miller Fabrics!!!   That's 45 squares of polka-dot and houndstooth goodness in pink, red, and purple!!!  Love it!!!

  

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 something you have with polka-dots on it.    For me, I have a favorite Navy and White Polka-Dot dress :)  

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Shabby Fabrics love. You can follow them on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Pinterest, or Instagram.  You can Sign up for the Shabby Fabrics Newsletter (top right hand corner) or Follow their Blog,  or you can Visit the Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Shabby Fabric Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, January 20th, when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Around the World Blog Hop

First off, I have to say a Huge THANK YOU to each of you for all of your sweet comments on my new book!!  I can't begin to explain how much that meant to me.   I know I say it all the time, but you guys really are the greatest!!!

Okay, onto the Hop ;)

So last week I was tagged by my good friend Melissa (great name :) Mortenson in the Around the World Blog hop ;)  You can see her post to see where this all started and where it has gone.   The purpose of this blog post is to get a peek into some amazingly creative minds and lives of the awesome people in this industry.  So let's get to it.

I'm Melissa Corry.  I had my mom teach me the basics of quilting in 2003 as a hobby to keep me busy at night when my husband was studying for school.   I enjoyed quilting and would put the occasional blanket together for friends and family when they were expecting new little bundles of joy.

In 2010 I started my blog Happy Quilting and what was a hobby quickly turned into a passion.   I love this industry and am so grateful for all of the creative opportunities it has brought me that I never  would have thought possible.  I have been published in many magazines, 5 compilation books, and have my own little pattern line.   And probably my biggest new opportunity was that of writting a book!!!   I just posted on Friday that after a year of keeping it secret, I can now say I wrote a book!!!

 I am often asked how I come up with my designs and tutorials.   The answer is through everything!!!   I truly do find inspiration all around me.   Whether it is in a hotel lobby carpet, a lamp design, a buildings architecture, or in nature.   I almost always carry a graph pad or at least a scratch piece of paper and can be found doodling the ceiling of a restaurant or a door frame design.  That top images is the lobby floor from Quilt Market, I so want to make a quilt like this some day!!  Just look around you and you can't help but be inspired ;)

 I love this amazing industry and the constant creative nature of it.   I love that I get to play with beautiful fabrics, and color, and line, and honestly, I love the math of it too ;)  I was an accountant before I became a mom so the structure and numbers of quilting just seem natural to me.   And speaking of being a mom,( I have 5 kids ages 12-3)  that is probably the most common question I get.  How Do You Do it All??

Like I said, first off, the whole accountant in me wants to have everything organized, so life in the Corry household is pretty routine.  I think having a set schedule really helps me to be able to make time for my creative endeavors and having everything organized when I do sit down to sew saves me lots of time.   I went into more details on our daily ins and outs and how it all works with sewing in this post,  and you can see the details behind this picture ;)

But it must be working.   Because now that I have announced the book, I can make another little fun (and a bit crazy) announcement.   With the quilts I made for the book and other quilts for tutorials and such and a few more secret projects I made 52 quilts, (baby size or larger) last year!!!  Ya, That's like 1 a week.  

So indeed, I think I can safely say I love Quilting!!!  I can't wait to see what new inspiration, opportunities, and creativity 2015 will hold.  I am so excited for a new year, although I think the quantity might be a little less in 2015 ;)   Alright, enough about me . . . . Let's get quilting!!!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my little corner of this amazing industry.   For the next stop, I am tagging Christa of Christa Quilts.   Christa is an amazing quilter and shop owner and soon to be author as well!!  Christa and I have gotten together several times and I always love chatting with her.  She even came to my house once to visit ;)  So fun!!!  So be sure to pop in next week to check out her post ;)

I Wrote A Book!!!!!

EEEkkk!!!   I still can't believe I am writing this!!!  I Wrote a Book!!!!

You all know that I love the Irish Chain design, so when I decided to write a book, I knew right away that I wanted to take that classic design and give it a twist. Writing a book has been such an amazing experience.   The whole process has been crazy insane, crazy fun, and crazy unbelievable and all at the same time.

You see . . .  Last year about this same time, I was busily working on quilts, quilts and more quilts.   And the hard part was that I never got to show a lot of what I was working on, gotta love Secret Sewing.  This was my working triangle for 4 months ;)  Cut, Sew, Press, Repeat ;)  I made 15 quilts for the book amid quilts that I was making for other deadlines and quilts for the blog, because, ya know,  I didn't want to leave ya all just wondering where I went for 4 months ;)  Did you notice??

After a quilt was pieced it was time to quilt it and write it up.  Each morning, I got up early to write and write before it got to noisy, then at nap time I quilted and quilted and Barbara hand bound and hand bound (Thank You Mom!!!) and the stack of quilts grew and grew.  And then one day in late April there was nothing left to piece, nothing left to write and nothing left to quilt.  I was done!!!   Yippee!!!  The stack of quilts and my manuscript were packed up in boxes and sent off to Martingale, my publisher. (Who did an amazing job, thank you ladies!!)    You know I did a Happy Dance in the UPS store :)  And then, they were off and life went back to usual.  It was out of my hands, sans some editing, but once again, it just didn't seem quite real.

That is, until the day this showed up on Amazon.   Wow, wow, and Triple Wow!!!  Like seriously, that is my book with my name as Author on Amazon!!!!   Yeah, I totally called up my mom and made her look it up too.  And suddenly it was real.  I wrote a book!!!!

And now I get to share it with all of you which makes it incredibly real and I am so excited!!!  (and a little scared :)    I could go on and on but I promise to share more in the coming weeks ;)  I have some fun things planned, for instance . . . You have been asking for another Quilt-A-Long and now it's time!!!   I am going to be hosting an Irish Chain Quilts Quilt-A-Long leading up to the releases date and it is going to be so fun!!!   It will lead right up to the book release date and then we will have an Irish Chain Quilts Blog Hop at the book release!!   More details on these events coming soon!!!   

Irish Chain Quilts: Contemporary Twists on a Classic Design  will be released on April 14th, 2015.     It will be available in Local Quilt Shops, Online Quilt Shops  (I know several of my sponsors are carrying it, Thank You Ladies!!), at Martingale, and wherever Quilt Books are sold.    Wow, that still sounds crazy unbelievable, seriously can someone pinch me please ;)

If you would like a personalized and signed copy you can pre-order Irish Chain Quilts from my little Book Shop right here ;)    I have even listed it on Sale because well, this is just a happy day!!!!   Pre-ordered copies of Irish Chain Quilts will ship just as soon as I have them. (mid-April)


And before I sign off for the weekend . . . I just want to say a huge Thank You to you all!!  I would have never even thought this possible without all of the daily support and encouragement that I get from each of you.   You guys are the best!!!  Thank you for helping me make this dream come true :)

Linking up my biggest finish ever to Sarah's and Amanda's and Quilt Story  ;)