Village Quilt Pattern

Have you seen the Village quilt pattern by Miss Rosie & Co?

It's really cute!  I think it has 132 houses in the village!  I posted a link above, it is now a free pattern to download at Fat Quarter Shop. This quilt has been on my wish list for a long time. My friend alerted me that the Rusted Silo Studio on Instagram was having a block swap. The exciting part was that you could only use Heather Ross fabric. What???? I adore Heather Ross fabric and have a small collection that I've been hoarding, saving! I made 10 blocks of 10 houses for the swap which were 100 houses. I got my houses back and immediately put them on my design wall. They are all so cuuuuuute!!!!!!

I'm going to sew these little houses together and create a village.  Each door has a fussy cut which I love! I didn't take any close ups of my houses, but these are my friend's blocks. Aren't they the cutest?

Here's a link to a former post about the Village Quilt pattern, and my blocks.

Soon I'll be able to show you the finished quilt ❤️

Thanks for following my quilt journey ❤️

Village quilt pattern

 I joined a swap group using these little houses in Heather Ross fabric.  I have a small collection of her fabric that I've had for quite a few years, so I was very excited to join! 

Rusted Silo Studio on Instagram, is hosting the swap if you would like to join too! The deadline is March 31 which leaves lots of time for busy people! This "Village" pattern has been on my wish list for a while, so win win! If I remember correctly, there are 134 houses in this village. 

I'm so excited about this, it's right up my alley! Aren't these fabrics cute together?  I forgot to mention that the doors need to be fussy cut fabrics which I'm so happy about.

I'm fussy cutting the adorable little bees in this yellow fabric and using the rest for houses.

I only had a fat quarter of this little ballerina fabric and was able to get about 33 little ballerinas from it.

My friend told me about this swap and she makes the cutest quilts.  We are also swapping some of our house blocks with each other. I can hardly wait to show you my finished quilt which won't be complete until May at the earliest. 

Let me know if you join the swap :)

Love & Stitches quilt along

 I just finished week 3 of this quilt along.

I'm finding it easy to keep up, the hearts are big and are fun to sew!

I think the pattern is so cheery and modern.

Megan Collins has the cutest rainbow quilt that I'm going to make,

you can find it on Etsy here.

I completed all my curved piecing, it was not difficult at all!

Now I won't be shy to try other patterns with curved piecing.

I followed this great tutorial 

by Jackie Kunkel of Canton Village Works.

I had to trim each piece down to size.

I'm making a throw size, so I need 20 hearts, 40 pieced curves.

I got my hearts all sewn together!

By the way, my background is Kona Snow and I had exactly enough in my stash to cut all the pieces,

 leaving only a few scraps that I threw away.

This is the order that I like my hearts.

Do you think I should make any changes?

Oops, I just saw 2 navy hearts on the same row!

I had to place each piece on the floor with a "reacher", a tool that is very handy for people who can't bend over, lol!

I'll see you again next week :)

Instagram Farm Girl Vintage Retreat

About 2 years ago, a chat group originated on Instagram between five ladies who had quilting in common, mainly quilty fun ideas from Lori Holt.

Since that time, two other ladies have joined the group to make seven.

Last summer, we planned a quilt retreat, and Lori Holt was so kind to design a Farm Girl Vintage quilt for us and teach us and give us lots of her quilty fun tips.

Three of the ladies had met last summer at one of Lori's retreats, but the rest of us hadn't.

We all gave each other nicknames too!

Cathy (Tazzie) traveled all the way from Australia to meet us, and was thrilled to also meet our Queen Bee, Lori :)

Kristie (Krusty Oats) traveled from southeastern Utah, Joanna (Jojo) traveled from Oklahoma, Vanessa (Nessa) traveled

 from Wyoming, Lynette (Dimples) traveled from Idaho, and I (Cindy Lou) traveled from Northern California.  Leanne (Lizzie) wasn't able to make it this time, from Australia.
We missed you Leanne :(

Lori brought her quilty peeps and some other IG friends were invited.

Celeste and Kayse traveled from Houston :)

The day before our quilt retreat, those of us who could, met at Gardner Village for lunch.

This is my IG Bestie group, minus Lynette.

Me, Kristie, Vanessa, Joanna and Cathy (from Australia).

It was incredible to finally meet them!!!

We were like long, lost friends :)

The next morning, we went on a fast walk with my daughter Lindsay and her friend Kara, and looked at all the pretty houses in Daybreak along the way.
Lynette, Cathy, me, Vanessa and Joanna :)

Retreat day, at last!
We stayed at Thimbles and Threads, a quilt shop and retreat lodge in Draper, Utah.
This is the room I shared with Joanna and Vanessa.
Each bed came with a robe, the room was so comfortable, and so was the bed!
I had the best sleeps, but it was also because I stayed up so late and was exhausted.

Every room was named after a quilter, her portrait and a quilt block were framed with a story about her quilt journey :)
All the rooms were decorated the same way, but with different color schemes.

My roommates, Joanna and Vanessa :)

This was my sewing spot, next to Joanna and Lynette, across from Vanessa and Kristie and down the lane from Cathy :)

My friend Beth, and one of Lori's quilty peeps, made everyone an instagram block with their IG name embroidered on it.
How cute!!!

Everyone was so generous in their gift giving....
I had never been to a retreat before, so I didn't know what to expect.
The next time, I'm making quilty gifts for everyone.
I'm going to feature all the individual handmade gifts in another post.

 We were constantly taking photos!
Anette, Kristie, Cathy, Celeste, Kayse, Betty, Juli, Joanna and me!
We are all quilty besties now :)

This is the lovely gift that Thimbles and Threads gave us.
A Lori Holt design board, fat quarter, name tag and ruler.

These are Lori's quilty peeps, they go on two retreats a year together, and have sew day once a month or more!
These sweet ladies also help Lori with a lot of her quilts and know how to keep quilty secrets really well :)
Each of the women told some memorable stories about Lori, we laughed a lot!
Suzann, Betty, Juli, Beth, Rosanna, Shanna and Judy.

We were entertained with a trunk show from Farm Girl Vintage.
I love this quilt with the houses and the trees.
It's the same layout as the next one with the pigs, but different blocks were used and it looks totally different!

This is one of my favorites, with the red tractor and all the dancing pinwheels.

I love all these mason jars, this quilt is just another on my long list!

This Farm Girl quilt is darling, and Anette made hers into a Hallowe'en quilt with a witch.
Lori always tells us to make our quilt our own!

Lori says that this vintage apron quilt is her best selling pattern.
Everyone has a memory of their mom or grandmother in the kitchen wearing an apron like this :)

This is the quilt that Lori designed for our retreat.
She told us to bring specific yardage of tan and off white for a background, and reds, greens, blues, pinks, oranges and yellows.
I'm working really hard on my quilt, I hope to be able to show it to you soon.
My tan color is much lighter than Lori's, it's hard to choose a color or shade when you don't what the quilt looks like!
I was also limited to what fabric was available.

A package arrived from England from lucky_shake on Instagram.
She made us each these adorable pear pincushions!

This is a cute photo of Lori with her beautiful green featherweight.

I have wanted to meet Rae Ann for years!
She said the same thing about me!
She's just as sweet in person as she looks in her photos :)

I hardly ever drink soda, let alone soda with caffeine.
I had a caffeinated soda everyday, because we stayed up so late and didn't get much sleep :)
We were getting dirty diet cokes (coke with coconut syrup and fresh squeezed lime) at Swig, and a mouth watering sugar cookie with pink frosting, while in my convertible.

When we returned to the retreat from dinner and snacking, we were really giddy.
We teased our hair all up as if it was windblown from the drive in the convertible, and walked into the retreat.
We got a bunch of laughs!!!

I saw this on someone's car!
A serial quilter!!!

Lori and me, don't you love her quilty glasses?

This is a photo of all the ladies at our IG Farm Girl Vintage retreat.

Do you notice our cute bags?
Vanessa made one for each of us and we're modeling them :)
She chose the fabric to match our favorite color schemes.

It was Cathy's dream come true to meet Lori in person!

 Joanna took this photo of me, we sewed, talked, laughed, ate, ate, ate, and posted and looked at Instagram.
Lori designed the Farm Fresh quilt for us last summer and gave the pattern to her quilty peeps to sew at a retreat.
They were under security lock down, not to say a word!
They had to wait an entire year, lol!

I haven't laughed so hard or stayed up so late, or eaten so much chocolate and frosted sugar cookies, in a long time!!!
I'm making a photo book to cherish these memories, and show my grandchildren what a fun time their Grammy has when she's with her IG Besties :)

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A Trip to the Doll Shop

I love to visit Gardner Village in West Jordan, Utah, and my grand daughter Kennedy loves to accompany me. I love being with her, so it's a win/win situation :). Kennedy is 6 years old and she loves dolls, their clothes and accessories. She has a particular love for paper dolls!

There is a gorgeous store at Gardner Village called the Georgell Doll Shop.

Come inside with us for a visit......

These clothes are all for 18" dolls, like American Girl dolls.

Hats, wedding dresses, princess dresses, and so much more!

There is doll candy everywhere you look! Kennedy is in doll heaven...

A rack of "groovy girls", Kennedy has a few of those!

Whenever we come to this shop, she chooses one who looks like her mom, one who looks like her dad (yes, they are some boy groovy dolls), one who looks like her big brother Bridger, one who looks like her little sister Charlotte, and one who looks like herself. She even chooses one who looks like me :)

It's really cute to see the different ones she chooses!

Look at the pretty chandeliers, they have dragon flies dangling from them.

Ooh la la!!!

I love the hardwood floor.

One last look before we leave the store....

Kennedy thinks it's a treat just to go inside this doll shop, she never even asks me to buy her anything :)

Kennedy is a little doll herself!!!

She always likes to dress fancy.

When I come to visit, she loves to choose my clothes for the day.

First she lays out the undergarments, in the shape of a body on the floor.

Then she lays the clothes on top, in order.

On top of that, she puts the jewelry she wants me to wear.

Kennedy makes me feel really special, and I love her to the moon and back!