Last weekend, a group of quilters from our local longarm association did another retreat, this time in northeastern Tennessee. We went to a recently opened retreat house called Febuary Hill, owned by the same lady that owns Tennessee Quilts in Jonesborough. No, it isn’t spelled February like the month, it is Febuary, the way one of the early owners spelled their name.
The house was originally built in 1832, and since then has been remodeled and had a few additions. I took some of these pictures on our last day, as we got there on an overcast day, dodging the snow.
The side porch is huge, and has lovely wrought iron tables for outdoor dining when the weather is warmer. The door on the left leads to the dining room, and the one on the right goes into the kitchen.
I liked the dark green shutters on the white trim and red brick. A bright outdoor rug is cheery, and looks like an appliqued quilt.
This picture was taken on Friday, we got there between two snows for the day. Both were just light snowfalls, leaving the roads clear. The back garden area has a lovely walkway, chairs for enjoying the views, and a garden off to the right with an arbor that will be lovely in spring.
Just inside the front door, a living room / library had comfy chairs, books and magazines to read, along with bolts of fabric on built in shelves. Shelves filled the opposite wall as well. Tall windows with delicate lace curtains let in a lot of light.
In this room, a history of the house was displayed as well.
From the foyer, the front staircase led to two second floor bedrooms. Lovely wood floors were throughout the house.
Large quilts are displayed on walls above the chandelier along the staircase.
The cozy and feminine loft separated two bedrooms.
The bedrooms were all painted in different colors, most having two twin beds with quilts. Before you ask, yes there was a train track about a half-mile from the house, LOL!! I asked about that before we got there. We did hear a few train whistles, but much lower in volume and none after about 11:30 at night. So we all slept well.
The peach color in this bedroom was a nice background for the pretty quilts displayed. Each bedroom had its own color scheme.
In a hallway downstairs, more quilts with gorgeous quilting decorate the walls.
The dining room was painted a soft sage green. The second staircase leads to two more bedrooms with soft colors (one yellow and one blue) and beautiful quilts. The heart of pine floors in the upstairs hallway had that squeaky old-house sound when you walked on them, which made it impossible to quietly sneak downstairs to start the coffee in the early morning. I was staying in the yellow room up this set of stairs.
In the window, this lovely painted glass art piece caught the morning light.
A huge kitchen turned out fabulous meals from our quilters. Tall built in cabinets and a beautiful fireplace gave the kitchen a vintage look. We had a spiral sliced ham on Friday night with homemade mac-and-cheese and salad. The ham bone was turned into ham and bean soup for a hot lunch on a cold Saturday, along with sandwiches, pasta salad and snacks. Fabulous homemade chocolate chip cookies were nibbled on all weekend. Saturday night was Fiesta night, with two kinds of tacos, an amazing butternut squash and black bean casserole, lots of fixin’s and margaritas plus key lime pie. Sunday we ate leftovers, and still took a lot of food back home. Our members are really good cooks!
The house had been remodeled at some point, to add on the back hallway and enclose a sitting room. It is charming to have windows in interior walls.
The sitting room was soft sage green, with comfy chairs perfect for early morning coffee and reading. Just look at the spectacular architectural detail in the door moldings. At the end of the hall was the largest bedroom.
Beautiful quilts were over the three twin beds, two on this wall and the third on the opposite wall. Lovely chairs face the ornate original fireplace. Soft neutral colors accented with black made this room my favorite of all the color schemes.
Outside on Saturday, the snow front came through plunging the temperatures colder in the afternoon. Fat fluffy flakes kept falling until there was about 2-3 inches covering the ground and trees.
I took a photo when it started, but got busy sewing so I didn’t get one of the winter wonderland it became. It was beautiful! By Sunday it was all gone, so driving home was in sunshine on dry roads.
At the other end of the back hallway, a door led to an immense sewing space, formerly a four car garage. Generous six foot tables and comfortable chairs made sewing a pleasure.
Lovely quilts decorated the space.
The pastoral view from the front on Sunday shows no snow left. The property is four acres, so it was nice and quiet.
Once again, I got an amazing amount of work done between chatting and eating. Friday, I took squares to make nine-patches, and more star blocks sent in, and made a To The Nines top using the Speed Assembly method for both the blocks and the whole quilt. Saturday was spent doing more blocks for the Vintage Christmas Quilt Along. On Sunday, I took the leftover charm squares and jelly roll strips from another project and began a charity quilt. I’ll have those projects in other posts soon.
Have you been on a quilting retreat? Did you do any sewing this weekend?
Plus see what’s on today’s Flash Sale at Fat Quarter Shop.
From My Carolina Home 
this looks like a lovely place – I have never gone to a quilt retreat – but then I don’t have a group of quilting friends that would make it fun and I wouldn’t want to go to one by myself I’m too much of an introvert
This place looks like heaven!!!! And the snow is the cherry on top! So glad you had a great time!!!
What a beautiful home and area. Thank you for sharing. Can you share the butternut squash black bean casserole recipe? I’d love to try it.
Thank you. I don’t have the recipe for that casserole, it was brought by another quilter. I’m not sure we could reproduce it, as she used her own canned squash and beans. She is an amazing gardener too. But, I’ll ask her.
Beautiful looking retreat. All the quilts on the walls makes it “homey” looking😀. Loved the moulding over the door.
So many points on so many quilts. Beautiful. The place looks awesome as well.
Good morning Carole, and thank you so much for taking all those beautiful pictures so we could all enjoy the beauty of such a fabulous home, which is now only open for quilt retreats. I was just wondering if there is enough of a demand, year round, to make it profitable for the owners. They have gone out of their way to offer facilities that any quilter would love to have to, not only quilt, but to enjoy each other’s company. Great post.
Good morning, thank you for sharing photos of this beautiful home-turned retreat Just gorgeous
So beautiful! I am going to my annual retreat at the end of the month, but it is held in a very rustic place… lovely pastoral views, but basic basic everything. That’s okay… all we do is sew and quilt!
So glad you enjoyed yourself. Such a beautiful retreat spot. It should be even more beautiful, if that’s possible, in the spring. Thank you for sharing.
What a beautiful retreat location. Lovely inside and out. I have retreated at Cosby, TN a couple of times. It is a nice older home with a log cabin quilt shop next door, located near the foothills of the smokey mountains.
What a wonderful post! That retreat house is beautiful. The owner has done a stunning job decorating each corner of the home.
This is a considerable step up from where we retreat…….but there are 10 of us so finding someplace that accommodate everyone is an issue.
Hi Carole! WOWEE! What a fabulous place for a retreat. Just the home itself is worth a visit. All the common areas look so inviting as do the bedrooms. I don’t even have to ask as I am 100% certain that you had a good time, and that you got a lot accomplished as well. Woot woot. ~smile~ Roseanne
Your descriptions made me feel like I was right there. So beautiful. Every corner a new detail. I could spend a month there! So glad you had such a good time. In to think only 7 owners in over 200 years! Thanks again for sharing, your descriptions and photos are so lovely and welcoming.
Hello Carole, What a marvelous time you must have had from reading your post and seeing all the fantastic photos! I am thrilled that you and your group of longarm friends were able to do this retreat and wow you did get a lot done. No, I have never been to a retreat. It is always fun to read about another quilters experiences. I also have not seemed to have achieved much sewing time at all. Out of nowhere, I decided it was time to start doing Spring cleaning. LOL. There is much more left to do. Thank you for sharing you wonderful time with us. I really enjoyed reading your post and seeing all of the photos you shared. Have a fabulous day!
Oh my, what a wonderful place to stay for a quilt retreat. Such a great stitching area, and all those wonderful quilts hanging up, no wonder you were in heaven! I used to go to the occasional weekend retreat some years ago, so know they can be great fun, and very productive.
What a spectacular venue for working and playing! I bet you didn’t want the weekend to end!
Ooohhh, looks so nice! You do deserve a get away. Constantly doing and going. Hope you had time to relax and recharge.
Wow!! What a beautiful building, the decorations are lovely, that sewing room is huge!! It was interesting to read the history of the house too. I am lucky to be able to go on three retreats a year with some local ladies and one interstate. They are wonderful times.
Beautiful pictures! I have been in Jonesboro for the International Storytelling Festival 2 years ago and several years ago when we stayed at a wonderful B&B there. Love the area and love that quilt shop–that was my first stop both times!
Your retreat looked like a heavenly place to hang with friends and quilt! I feel very lucky to have several friends who like going to retreats and we meet about twice a year for 3-4 days. Our venue is a Holiday Inn and there are about 110 quilters plus the quilt shop personnel that run the retreat. When we aren’t going to retreats, several of us meet at our senior center and sew together 1 afternoon a week. Quilters become “sisters” in a hurry! 🙂
What a beautiful setting! I’m going on retreat next week to a new-to-me center. So looking forward to it.
Thank you for sharing the history of the house and all the photos! It looks like a great place to have a retreat! Quilters seem to know all the “best recipes” for feeding hungry people! This residence reminds me a lot of the one that Bonnie Hunter is setting up in Southern Virginia in a historic old home. I hope you had a wonderful time! My next retreat is a “quilting cruise” in August.
Am I the only one of your faithful readers who is a perfectly leafy shade of green right now? Yep…totally green with envy….but I’m truly glad you had a great time…and how thoughtful you are to share your experiences with us. Your photos are just wonderful….I think you must have been a professional photographer in another life….( as well as chef, horticulturalist, artist, decorator….etc….you’ve had LOTS of lives…) Blessings from windy West Virginia….
Well kattails – maybe if we ask very nicely and bring something yummy, they’ll invite us next time. How far are you? We’re about a 6 hour drive from Chicago. 7 with “stops”. My husband always make me a Quilt Shop Hop on road trips to keep me happy and awake!
What a stunning house to use as a quilt retreat. The rooms are all a delight. How lovely to see so many quilts on display and in use.
Truly a lovely place. We go to a retreat at Lake Junaluska in March and the mountains are so lovely. And your blog is wonderful! I love reading it. Do you have the information about the house for renting for a retreat?
Happy Valentine’s Day! And where is the popover recipe?
Hope to meet you someday.
Mary Ed Williams
Links are provided within the posts, anytime the words are in red instead of black, it is a link.
Looks like a wonderful location for a quilt retreat. I go on 3 retreats a year, each at a different venue. One, sponsored by a quilt shop, is held at a Christian summer camp with pretty basic accommodations, but a nice big room for the quilters to work. There can be up to 40 people at that one. The other two are just our own smaller group and usually about 15 attend. One is at a different Christian summer camp and the other at a Catholic retreat facility. Meals are provided at all 3 facilities, so it nice to get away and not have to do anything but quilt and eat!
I knew they were working on that, but didn’t realize it was already up and running. How lovely to have your tour! Thank you. Anything Tennessee Quilts does, they do well.
Looks like a beautiful venue!
Beautiful house and location! My question is there an elevator for accessing the bedrooms?