The Sister's Retreat

No, I am not talking about the city of Sisters in Oregon, I am talking about the Willis Sister's aka, Barbara's fabulous Sisters and Sister's-In-Law.  Two weeks ago, they came together  in little Cedar City from across Utah, California, Oregon, and even Washington D.C. to have a Sister's Quilting Retreat and my oh my, did we have a great time!!!!

Most of these sister's are beginners when it comes to quilting so Barbara and I decided it would be just perfect for everyone to make a little project from the Farm Girl Vintage collection by Lori Holt.   Our main goal was for everyone to take a completed project home ;)  So, before everyone arrived, we made adorable little "block kits" that they could choose from to make their project.

 We spent the first day piecing the blocks together. (which I totally forgot to take pictures of.)   It was so fun to watch this click with everyone and see how excited they got as their block came together.   The next day, we moved on to making their block into a project.   Wall Hangings, Trivets and Table Centers, here we come!!!   For many of these sister's this was the first time they had played with a quilt sandwich and they did awesome!!!!   Aunt Judy even tried her hand at some Free Motion Quilting!!!!

We sewed and laughed and sewed and laughed and I was so blessed to be a little part of this amazing sister relationship!!

I have to say, I was so impressed with Barbara's Sisters and Sister-In-Laws!!!  They really stepped outside their comfort zones to make these.  They all quilted and even did the binding on their projects!!!  They were all fabulous students and just soaked up Barbara and I's teachings so quickly.

And before you knew it, the day came to a close and we had filled up the wall with adorable Vintage Farm Girl finishes!!!!   Aren't the just so adorable!!!!

And here is everyone with their individual finishes!!!   Several of the ladies took another Block Kit home to make an second project so I think it is safe to say that the retreat was a fabulous success and that we made a few more quilters in the world ;)  Yippee!!!!

I just feel so blessed to be able to share this passion I have for quilting with loved ones around me.

I think this is something that we will have to for sure do again!!!

The Quilt House

So a little backstory first ;)   I might have mentioned this before, but when we moved to Cedar City 4 years ago, we happened to fall in love and buy the house that is two doors away from the house my husband grew up in and the house my wonderful In Laws, Bob and Barbara, live in.
      We love living so close to them!!!  The kids burn up the sidewalk visiting Grandpa and Grandma each day and have so much fun going to sew at Grandma's.  But with the addition of the Long-Arm in their house and trying to teach multiple kids at a time in her sewing room, things were starting to get a bit cramped.
       So when the house that is between our houses came up for sale last year, Bob and Barbara bought it!!!!  So now we are like a fun trio of houses all together, and I love it!!!!  They rent the upstairs, we took out the fences in the backyard so there is a huge play place for the kids and then the basement has been a work in progress for the last year.   But finally, it's ready to be shared.   And somewhere along the way of working on and in it, it was dubbed the name . . .  The Quilt House!!!!!  And I am so excited to share it with you this morning.

So this is the Long-Arm room.   I can't begin to explain how much easier it is to work on this with room to move around it!!!  I just love how open it is!!   And there is a little room of this where the kids can play when I am busy stitching ;)  So nice!!!

And behind the long-arm is this fun built in.   One side is used to store all of the thread for the Long-Arm.  My FIL built all of those shelves and they are so fantastic.  It makes it so easy to see all of the thread colors ;)  The other side of the build in is for all of the kids to keep their project boxes in.  Each of them have their own box or bucket to keep all the pieces of whatever they are working on.   They love it!!!

And in the adjoining room, my FIL has built these super cute tables that are the perfect height for the grandkids to be able to work at.   Multiple heights so no matter what age, you can see to sew.   And ya, just a few machines to sew on ;)

And in the back corner, there is another little sewing station where Barbara does a lot of her sewing.  And yes, right behind her is . . .

an awesome design wall that takes up the entire wall!!!!   Isn't that so fun!!!  Barbara put all of her orphan blocks on here so she can see what she has to work with for the "reunion quilts".   And then right in front of the design wall is a fabulous counter just the right height for a cutting counter.   Love it!!!

And last but not least by any means  . . . the Fabric Room ;)   This room is just off the long-arm room and Bob did built in shelving for all of Barbara's Fabric!!!  This side of the room is the Cotton!!!  Yummy, yummy fabric goodness!!!

And the other side of the room is all of her other fabrics that she uses for pj's for the grandkids and amazing hat making!!   Yup, I can spend considerable amounts of time in here just petting all of that fabric goodness ;)

And that is the Quilt House!!!   We have been having so much fun sewing together and I just love watching my children fall in love with quilting while they learn from their grandma!!!!   I can not begin to express my love and appreciation for Barbara and her willingness to share this amazing blessing with me and my children ;)    Be sure to pop back in tomorrow as I will be sharing about our first little "retreat" at the Quilt House.  So fun!!!!!

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 Custom Apple Pie and Soda Pop Fat Quarter Bundle  from  The Intrepid Thread is . . .   Number #49 . . . Congrats Crystal!!!   I have emailed you :) 

    

     

    

And on to today's

Today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway is being sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop.   Fat Quarter Shop has everything you could ever want including a Birthday!!!   Fat Quarter Shop is currently celebrating the 1 Year Birthday of Fat Quarter Style and they are doing it with a bang!!!!  Each day they are sharing new quilts from Fat Quarter Style made by their amazing crew!!!  Check out  their blog to see more!!  So many beautiful quilts!!!!

And for today's Terrific Tuesday Giveaway we are sticking with the Birthday Celebration.  Fat Quarter Shop is giving one lucky winner of Trifecta of books!!!!   One lucky person will win Fat Quarter Style, Quilted Living, and Winter Wonderland!!!  3 amazing books!!!  I have all 3 and love them and I know that you are sure to enjoy hours and hours of sewing with each one!!! 

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 which month you celebrate your birthday in.  I am an August girl and have my own little celebration coming up soon, lots of birthday fun around here :)  

 ENTRY 2 - Show your Fat Quarter Shop love.   You can follow them on   Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, You Tube or at their Blog.  You can Sign up for their Newsletter which will ensure you catch all of their amazing sales, or you can visit The Shop and then share a favorite item ;)   Just be sure to leave a comment of how you showed your Fat Quarter Shop Love!!!

And that's it ;)  The giveaway will be open until next Tuesday, August  11th when I will announce a winner at the beginning of next weeks Terrific Tuesday Giveaway Post :)

Good Luck and Have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Reunion Quilts

Every year in July, all the Corry's go up the mountain for the Annual Corry Family Reunion.  And each year, Barbara (that's my fabulous Mother In Law if you are new around here) brings up fabric squares that she has ironed on fun coloring designs.   And the siblings, and cousins, and second cousins, and so on, all get together and color, and color, and then color some more.  From Toddlers to Teenagers, everyone has a little color time while up the mountain.   Here are some of my little ones blocks from previous years.

So whenever these blocks start to stack up a bit, Barbara starts making quilts.  And in the last month she has made 5 of them!!!  Aren't they just so fun!!!  Everyone is special and individual.  Some use orphan blocks and some are sashed, and everyone is so cute and so fantastic!!  So let's check out the latest 5 :)

First up, this adorable Play Ball QUilt.   All of the color blocks are fun sport themed balls and Barbara found a bunch of fun novelty sports prints in her stash to offset the colored blocks.  So fun!!

Next are these adorable Wonky 9 Patch blocks offsetting all of the fun flower coloring blocks.   I love all the calming blues and greens in this quilt, so calming ;)

And this was a super fun quilt to figure out how to layout.  All of the bears had been ironed on point so they had to be sewn in on point not to make them sitting on their heads :)  I love how Barbara figured it out.   So fun!!!

And this one is just fun, fun, fun!!!  All of these were leftovers from several strip quilts and Barbara put them together with some simple sashing so the blocks didn't get lost.   Yup, this is some super wild fun!!

And finally, some adorable Granny Squares offsetting colored blocks ;)   Barbara made a granny square for a bee block in January and loved it so much she just kept making more.  Don't they look so fun in the quilt!!!  And I love the subtle rainbow layout, adorable!!

Barbara donates these to local charities and I know they are going to be so well loved!!!  I just think it is so amazing that she finds a way to involve so many of her posterity in these quilts!!!  What a treasure and what a wonderful way to teach her grandchildren the joy of doing things for others.  I am already looking forward to seeing next years batch of coloring blocks ;)   

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, sometimes the adults even get in on the coloring fun ;)

I hope you have a Happy Quilting Day!!!

Unraveled - The Cottage Garden Edition

And it's finished, and just in the nick of time ;)   First, some back story . . .   When I first heard that the Modern Quilt Guild Challenge sponsored by Riley Blake was using Amanda Herring aka the Quilted Fish's The Cottage Garden line I was so excited!!!  I used this line once before for this quilt tutorial and loved it, and I was so excited to return to it once again.  I just love the colors and the beautiful designs!!!   And then, as I explained in this post, inspiration hit and I knew that this fabric line would be just perfect for my Unraveled quilt design from my new book,  Irish Chain Quilts.  And here it is!!!!  Unraveled . . . The Cottage Garden Edition :)

This quilt was so much fun to make once again.  And I just love the way the chain just comes "unraveled" and disappears into the negative space of the quilt.  Such a fun way to add that Modern Twist to a beautiful traditional chain.   And don't you just love those colors of fabric, they just pop off of that beautiful white background so nicely ;)

I really wanted to do something fun and detailed in the quilting as I had so much negative space to work with.   So I decided to incorporate some of my favorite designs and mix them all up to create a beautiful flow or lines.   So there are Swirls, Echoed Paisley's, Pebbles, and Curly Q's.

And then I played with the scale of those designs.   In the bottom left corner they start out small, and then midway through the quilt they move to more large, and where the chain starts to unravel the design gets large and fills in all that beautiful space.   It is kind of hard to see, but I also quilted in the missing chains with the same double arches as the chains.  I love how they blend in so you don't notice it right off, but then you see it and it's like, Yes, the Chain does finish ;)

And look at all of that super yummy quilt texture ;)   Oh that just makes me smile ;)

Unraveled measures 63" x 75" making it perfect to snuggle up with on the couch with a good book.  And since I just started a new book, I just might do that this afternoon ;)

And that is Unraveled - The Cottage Garden Edition.   I hope you love it as much as I do.   And if you make this or any of the quilts from my Irish Chain Quilts book I would love to see them!!!  You can email me a picture at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com or use the #irishchainquilts in social media and I will find it ;)

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

Linking up this finish to Amanda's and Sarah's ;)