4 Year Blogiversary Winners!!!

First off, I want to say a Huge Thank You to all of you that helped me celebrate my 4 Year Blogiversary!!!  Thank you for all of your wonderful feedback, it really helped!!  I look forward to continuing to make Happy Quilting a place you want to visit each day :)  

So now, let's get to some winners!!!

Our first giveaway was for an Emmy Grace Fat Quarter Bundle sponsored by  Fat Quarter Shop

And the winner is . . . .   #66  Who happens to be . . .   *Tyler*   Congrats!!!!

Our second giveaway was for a $25.00 Gift Certificate to  Southern Fabric who is sponsoring this giveaway

And the winner is . . . .   #267  Who happens to be . . .   Lori   Congrats!!!!

 Our third giveaway was for a Fat Eighth bundle of Pine Fresh by Sandy Gervais sponsored by Green Fairy Quilts

And the winner is . . . .   #394  Who happens to be . . .   Patty D from NC   Congrats!!!!

 

Our fourth giveaway was for a $25.00 Gift Certificate to Cotton Bliss who is sponsoring this giveaway

And the winner is . . . .   #54  Who happens to be . . .   Pierro   (or Rosemary B)   Congrats!!!!

Our fifth giveaway was for a custom bundle sponsored by  The Intrepid Thread 

And the winner is . . . .   #250  Who happens to be . . .   Heidi (Banks of Frog Creek)   Congrats!!!!

Our sixth giveaway was for a Waterfront Park Domino Dot Fat Quarters bundle sponsored by The Scarlet Thread Quilt Co. 

And the winner is . . . .   #374  Who happens to be . . .   scottylover  (Sandy A)   Congrats!!!!

The winners have been notified.  Thanks again for celebrating my 4 Year Blogiversary with me.  It was oh so much fun and here is to another 4 years of Happy Quilting :)

Starburst - Finished!!!!

Note - If you are looking for my Blogiversary Giveaways, you'll find them here :)  Day 1,  Day 2,  Day 3 

Happy 4th of July!!!!   And what better way to celebrate the 4th than with a star quilt!!!  This queen size quilt top was pieced as part of the Starburst Quilt-A-Long clear back in Feb of 2013.  And over the month of June (like as in a year and a half later) it finally got quilted.   And today, I get to share it, Yippee!!!  So here she is in all of her quilted glory, the Queen Starburst!!!

This quilt is big!!!  Like big as in 40" blocks and a 95" x 95" finished quilt top.  And can I just say, I love those giant blocks!!!  They were so much fun to piece and quilting them was such a blast!!

The fabrics are a custom bundle made by Julie from The Intrepid Thread specifically for this quilt-a-long.  Aren't they just fabulous!!  I love the combo of raspberry, orange, and black.  Julie has such an amazing eye for color.  This is quickly becoming one of my new favorite groupings of color.  (but if you are wondering, this bundle is no longer available as it is a year and a half old ;)

For the backing, I grabbed some 1 yard cuts in raspberry, orange, and black from the stash and made a giant 9 patch.   I have to say, this is one of my favorite backs I have made in a while.  It really did come out cute and I love 9 patches :)

And now, how about some pictures of the quilting.  Warning, I might just go a little overboard here.  I really pushed myself with the quilting of this one and I feel like by the end of it, I had moved to another level with my long-arm quilting skills and I am so super excited about that.

So for starters, I tried something new in the background.  A feathered swirl.   Eeekk,  I just love these!!!  I was super scared after the first row, because goodness, these are feathers right.   But by midway through, I was totally loving it!!!  I am sure you will see these popping up a whole lot more ;)

And a few detail shots.   I loved making a few baby ones to fill up gaps.  They are so cute!!!

And a full circled feather.   My oh my, these are so much fun to make!!!

And finally, a half circle feather.  I loved playing with the amount of feathers on each swirl.  It really mixed it up and give the quilt so much variety ;)

Moving outward.  I quilted each of the "bursts" with some straight line ruler work.   There was a lot of starting and stopping here.  Not my favorite thing to do but the look is totally worth it ;)

I repeated the same look on the stars.  Lots and lots of ruler work ;)

And then between the stars and the bursts I did some pebbling.   I just love to pebble.  It is so incredibly relaxing and really, quite fun ;)  Isn't the whole star together just so fun!!!   Eeekk, and double Eeekk!!

And I saved my favorite for last ;)  Where the stars meet together in the center of the quilt, I marked and recreated a star with the same quilting design as the four print stars.   And it came out Amazing!!!  (if I do say so myself :)    I love, love, love it!!!!   And my 3 year old thinks it is a Frozen quilt now so that is a bonus ;)

While we were taking pictures,  my daughter said we should put it under the tree and take a nap on it ;)  I compromised with putting it under the tree and taking a picture.  I had to break it to her that this isn't a "picnic quilt" :)

And that is my Queen Starburst!!!!   My goodness, I just love this quilt!!!!  Time to change out a bed quilt for sure ;)   If you want to make your own Starburst quilt, you can find the tutorial here and the quilt-a-long here and I also have a pattern available if you like your instructions that way ;)

Have a Happy Quilting Weekend!!!!

Linking this Starburst finish to Amanda's, Sarah's, and Fort Worth Fabric Studio ;)

Happy Blogiversary Day 3 & Giveaways!!!!

It's Day 3 of my 4 year Blogiversary Celebration!!  If you missed Day 1 or 2 and their giveaways you can find them here ;)  DAY 1   DAY 2

And now, let's celebrate for a final  Day 3!!!  So to finish up, I thought I would show you just a few more things around the blog and today we are focusing on a few parts from the right hand or the blog ;)   So let's run through them shall we ;)

First off, is the Sponsor Section.    These sponsors truly are Spectacular!!!   There is no way I could do what I do on the blog each day without them.  I am so grateful for their support of Happy Quilting and I know you all love perusing their shops ;)   They are filled will all things quilty!!!  You can click on any of the buttons to be taken directly to that particular shop :)

And right below the Sponsor buttons is the Sponsor Spotlight!!  This is where you can find a super quick reference of all of my Sponsors Sales, Events, and Giveaways.  It makes it super easy to never miss a good deal ;)  Each line is a link, so you can just click on whatever sounds good to you and it will take you right where you need to go ;)

Next down the way is my Patterns section.  I still can't believe I have made 12 patterns.  Pretty soon I am going to need to make some sore of rotating icon here.  Guess I should check into how to do that ;)   By clicking on any pattern, you will be taken directly to my Etsy Pattern Store where you can purchase and download these patterns instantly ;)   And I want to shout out a huge thank you to all of my readers for their support with my little pattern shop.  I so appreciate you wanting to make my patterns and love seeing your finished projects!!!

And continuing down the way we find the Published section.  This has a cover shot of the magazines and books that I have been published in.  It is kind of a fun little place to see them all together.  Also, if you click on any particular cover, you will be taken to a link that shows you a little more detail about the project I have in that particular issue ;)

And then there is a whole bunch of stuff, including my personal "blog roll"  (that gets added to about daily, I love reading about quilts!!) and some buttons of the things that are keeping me busy, including my Bees and Teaching Events and such ;)  But if surf all the way down to the bottom, you will find my Blog Archive and Search Box.  I point these out, because if you are ever trying to find something and you can't this is the place to go ;)  The Archive will highlight the titles of every post I have written, and you can click on them from here.  The Search box is like a mini search engine for just my blog ;)  It can be really helpful in finding specific topics ;)

And I think that just about wraps it up for a 3 day tour of the blog ;)  I hope you have enjoyed it ;)

And of course, we are going to finish this celebration with some more giveaways!!!!  Once again today, we have 2 giveaways to celebrate!!!   

First up for grabs is this adorable custom bundle that Julie made just for me.   My favorite color is Purple so she built this bundle around some of her favorite purple prints in her shop.  So cute!!!!!   Thank you to The Intrepid Thread for sponsoring this giveaway :)

And second up for grabs is collection of Waterfront Park Domino Dot Fat Quarters!!  Oh, what a perfect stash builder these are.   Thank you to The Scarlet Thread Quilt Co. for sponsoring this giveaway ;)

You have three chances to win these awesome prizes, and please leave a separate comment for each.  The comments enter you into both giveaways :)  

1 - For the first entry, I have so appreciated your feedback over the last 2 days, so lets make today super easy.   Just leave me a comment of something that makes you Happy ;)    

2 - And for a second entry, since The Intrepid Thread has been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love.  Follow The Intrepid Thread's Blog and then come back and leave a comment here that you did, or already do :) 

2 - And for a third entry, since The Scarlet Thread Quilt Co.  has also been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love too.   Julie is also new on Instagram and adding followers, so pop on over and Follow The Scarlet Thread on Instagram and then come back here and comment that you did so, or already do :)  

And that's it :) The giveaway will close on Sunday, July 6th at Midnight and I will announce the winners Monday morning.    Good Luck to everyone ;)

Today is the last day of the Celebration but you still have time to enter the giveaways.  And be sure to check back in tomorrow.  I have a Star Finish to share for the 4th ;)   And it has been waiting a long time to be shared ;)  So exciting!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Happy Blogiversary Day 2 & Giveaways!!!!

It's Day 2 of my 4 year Blogiversary Celebration!!  If you missed Day 1 and it's giveaways you can find them here ;)  DAY 1

And so now let's Celebrate with Day 2!!!  So for today's part of the celebration I said I would show you around some of the tabs on the blog :)  At the top of my blog you will see this little bar.  So let's run through them shall we ;)

Clicking on HOME will bring you back to the main page of the blog to my latest post.  So if you ever get lost, that's where you want to go ;)

Clicking on QUILT TUTORIALS will take you to a long picture list of every free quilt tutorial I have done.  Some will link to a page on Happy Quilting, and others will link you to Moda Bake Shop, or Riley Blake Designs, or Art Gallery Fabrics, ect for guest tutorials that I have done.  Just click on the picture you like and wherever the link takes you, it will take you to a full step-by step quilt tutorial.  They are listed in order that I have done them, so my first quilt tutorial at the top and my most recent at the bottom ;)  And there are currently 39 of them!!!!

Clicking on MORE TUTORIALS will take you to another picture list but this one is broken down a bit.  But once again, clicking on the picture is going to link you to a free step-by step tutorial.  This tab is broken down into a few sections.
                The first section is PROJECTS.  This is where you are going to find some fun fabric projects that range from ironing board covers, to aprons and from table runners to bags.  There is a little bit of everything in there :)

                The second section is BLOCKS.  This is where you are going to find tutorials that have step-by-step directions for a quilt block.  Sometimes they get turned into a quilt tutorial and sometimes they are just a block one ;)  There is a little bit of everything when it comes to what type of blocks.

                 The third section is TECHNIQUES.  This is where I show some of the tricks of the trade I have picked up along the way.  From No Waste Flying Geese to Custom Bindings and Layered Applique this is a great little resource for some of those little time saving methods :).

               And then there is a fourth smaller section of GUEST TUTORIALS.  I had this as part of my TNT project that is no more but I would love to pick up doing guest tutorials again.   Would that interest any of you???  


And now back to the tabs.   Clicking on the next tab, VIDEO TUTORIALS will take you to a listing of videos.  The first grouping of videos are on Finishing Your Quilt and have a 5-10 minute video each on Basting, Binding and Quilting.    The second grouping of videos are on Applique Basics.  The third grouping of videos are Free Motion Quilting Videos on your Domestic Machine.  All you have to do is click on the video (on the video tutorial page)  and you can watch it right there ;)

Moving on down the list of tabs we find next the QUILT-A-LONG tab.   This is where I keep all of the links for the Quilt-A-Longs I have done and will do on the blog.  So yes, that means if you miss joining us on the original quilt-a-long, or just want to make it again, you still can.  (just not with the prizes :)    The links will always be there, the weekly tutorials will always be there.  Just find the picture of the quilt you want to make, and then go through each link to get the next assignment ;)  And it is always fun to click on the end link and check out the amazing parade of finishes!!!

And now, the next tab is EVENTS/TEACHING.  This is where you can find a list of all the places and times I will be teaching in the future as well as links to any events, like blog hops I have hosted on the blog ;)

The 7th tab is my SPONSOR tab.  This is where you can find a bit more about the sponsors on my blog and their amazing shops and link to their shops from there as well.   I love my sponsors and am so very grateful for their continued support of Happy Quilting.  I could not do all I do on the blog without them!!

One more over you will find the PATTERNS tab.  This is a quick rundown on my patterns that include size options, skill level, and where to go to purchase them ;)  

And then my favorite tab to surf through is next.  That is my QUILT ARCHIVE tab.   This is a picture list with a bit of detail to all of the quilts I have ever made.  (I am still working on the detail on older quilts :) They have links to their original posts and links to any tutorials I did with that particular quilt.   This is kind of like my little quilting journal and I love to surf through it and see not only what I have made but how my quilting has grown over the years ;)  

And finally the last tab is a little ABOUT ME, which really should probably be updated, but it is what it is ;)  

So that is a quick run through of all of those little tabs up there.  Who knew there was so much quilty goodness in there ;)   I hope you enjoy browsing around them and find some things you like ;)  

And now, lets finish today's celebration with some more giveaways!!!!  Once again today, we have 2 giveaways to celebrate!!!   

First up for grabs is a super festive Fat Eighth bundle of Pine Fresh by Sandy Gervais.  Oh, I love Christmas fabric, I can never have enough Christmas quilts!!!  Thank you to Green Fairy Quilts  for sponsoring this giveaway :)

And second up for grabs is a $25.00 Gift Certificate to Cotton Bliss!!!  Yippee, for shopping spree's to get your favorite wishlist items!!!   Thank you to Cotton Bliss for sponsoring this giveaway ;)

You have three chances to win these awesome prizes, and please leave a separate comment for each.  The comments enter you into both giveaways :)  

1 - For the first entry, again, I am looking for some feedback to make Happy Quilting grow.  Leave a comment here of a topic that you would love to see covered on Happy Quilting.  You can be as specific or general as you like, and if there is a topic that I have covered but you just want more of it, you can say that too ;)    

2 - And for a second entry, since Green Fairy Quilts has been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love.  Sign up for the Green Fairy Quilts Newsletter and then come back and leave a comment here that you did so, or already do :) 

2 - And for a third entry, since Cotton Bliss has also been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love too.   Sign up for the Cotton Bliss Newsletter (at the bottom of the page) and then come back and leave a comment here that you did so, or already do :)  

And that's it :) The giveaway will close on Sunday, July 6th at Midnight and I will announce the winners Monday morning.    Good Luck to everyone ;)

See ya tomorrow with more Blogiversary Celebrating!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Happy Blogiversary Day 1 & Giveaways!!!!

Wow, Wow, and triple Wow!!   Happy Quilting turned 4 years old today!!!  I am so excited!!!  I continue to be amazed at the growth of this little corner of the virtual quilting world.  Why, just last week, Happy Quilting broke 5000 followers on Bloglovin.   5000!!!!!  I am humbled that so many of you check in each day on my daily quilting adventures. This wouldn't be possible without all of you, so Thank You!!!!!!

So now, we need to celebrate!!!   So that is what we are going to do for the next three days!!!  And I thought it would be fun, as part of the celebration, to show everyone around a bit.  You know, just in case you are new to the place or maybe have missed something.

First off, one of the biggest changes to see that happened just a few weeks ago was the address change!!  Did you all catch that??    You don't have to type in the blogspot anymore!!!!!   Yippee.   Now you can get to Happy Quilting by just typing www.happyquiltingmelissa.com   So fun!!!   Although, if you do type the blogspot, it's okay, it will just forward you over to here ;)

There are lots of ways to follow along with my daily adventures here at Happy Quilting.  See over to the right, there are a whole bunch of buttons that look just like these below.  Your have RSS feeds, Email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Flickr and my Pattern Shop ;)   All you have to do is click on the button (over on the right, not below) and it will take you right where you need to be to sign up to follow along in that particular social media ;)  It's so fun to see you and interact with you all in all of these different facets ;)

And as mentioned before, you can click on this Bloglovin button over on the right, and follow along with Bloglovin if that is your reader of choice ;)   Wouldn't it be exciting to break a new 1000 follower milestone ;)

 And we still have Google Friends Connect as an option as I hear that some people are still being able to follow along that way ;)  Good Times.

So that is a little about how to get here and how to find me on all of your favorite social media sites ;)  Tomorrow we will go through a few of those tabs up there on the top of the blog :)  There is a whole bunch of yummy quilting goodness in those ;)  

And now, what would a celebration be without some giveaways!!!!  We have 2 giveaways today to celebrate!!!   

First up for grabs is a fantastic Fat Quarter Bundle of the ever so adorable Emmy Grace!!!  I love, love, love these prints!!!  So cute!!!  Thank you to Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring this giveaway :)

And second up for grabs is a $25.00 Gift Certificate from Southern Fabric!!!  Yippee, for shopping spree's to get your favorite wishlist items!!!   Thank you to Southern Fabric for sponsoring this giveaway ;)

You have three chances to win these awesome prizes, and please leave a separate comment for each.  The comments enter you into both giveaways :)  

1 - For the first entry, I want to try to continue to make Happy Quilting a place you love to come and visit so I need some feedback.  Leave a comment here of one thing you love about coming to visit Happy Quilting.  

2 - And for a second entry, since Southern Fabric has been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love.  Southern Fabric is new (like me) on Instagram and so for this entry you need to Follow Southern Fabric on Instagram and then leave a comment here that you did so or already do ;)  

2 - And for a third entry, since Fat Quarter Shop has also been kind enough to sponsor this giveaway, how about we show them some love too.   Sign up for the Fat Quarter Shop Newsletter and then come back and leave a comment here that you did so, or already do :)  

And that's it :) The giveaway will close on Sunday, July 6th at Midnight and I will announce the winners Monday morning.    Good Luck to everyone ;)

See ya tomorrow with more Blogiversary Celebrating!!!

Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!