Amy Wright Boyer has been a quilter since before she can remember. She firmly believes her quilting love stems from genetics since her great-grand mother Laura was quilting in the early 1900s. Although her great-grandmother died when Amy was just five weeks old, her first recollection of loving quilts was when she used to read to her little sisters in bed under the comfort of great-grandma’s Double Wedding Ring quilt. She and her sisters would spend hours mesmerized by the many patterns they found in the quilts, surprised at the variety of materials their great-grandmother used, probably from scraps from old dresses, aprons, and other pieces of clothing from raising six sons and a daughter on a farm in Idaho.
The many nights of reading and looking over the quilt instilled in Amy a love of quilts, especially after her mother gave her a little Lone Star baby quilt that great-grandmother Laura had made her when she was born—quite possibly the last quilt she made before she passed away. Amy reminisces, “I still have it and treasure it.”
When Amy was a young mother with babies, she would spend just a day or two with her mother. She recalled those incredible times with her mother: “We could both leave behind a few cares of our busy families and enjoy this special time together, sewing, quilting, and talking.”
About 10 years ago, Amy learned about a quilt retreat house just a few hours from where she was living. Eight members of the family and friends gathered at the quilt retreat house and had, according to Amy, “…such a wonderful time that it has become a tradition ever since.”
From her experiences growing up and having five children of her own, Amy knows that it is a challenge to find sufficient time in one’s day to work on hobbies. She jokes she has been quilting for 35 years but “took off 25 years to raise children.” She knows that quilters who are busy are challenged with space and then setting up and taking down quilting equipment.
Amy lamented that she had to finagle time to quilt: “I found that unless I had some time set aside and could get away for a couple of days, quilts just weren’t getting done very quickly. None of the homes or apartments that I lived in had a designated sewing room or even a place I could leave my equipment set up, so getting it all out was just too much work and took too much time to set it up very often, and baby’s nap times were never long enough.”
Thus, the concept for Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat stewed for many years, especially during the time Amy and her friends participated in quilting retreats over the past several years. When her mother passed away six years ago, she thought about those wonderful times around card tables and quilting until wee hours in the morning, not caring about anything except taking pieces of cloth and creating magical quilts, full of memories, stitch by stitch. She decided that she was going to do something about it.
But something always seemed to stand in her way of making her dream become reality. Part of the challenge of establishing a quilting retreat was her situation. She was divorced, living in an extremely rural area in Wyoming, managing a business, and trying to balance all of the associated responsibilities. Then, something magical happened.
She attended her high school reunion, met one of her former classmates, married this wonderful man who was willing to help her with her entrepreneurial ideas, and moved to Utah. At that point, Amy said, “Everything aligned and was the right time, place and season of life to create this quilting retreat.” One of the things that spurred her on was the thought that “Any time you can combine a passion you have with a business, it’s a great recipe for success.” Then, she added this caveat: “I hope so, anyway.”
Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat was born in a beautifully renovated home, located in a fairly secluded area near the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon and in the shadows of Maple Mountain. It is extremely convenient to restaurants and shops in Spanish Fork. Plus, if you want to walk or just take a break, a beautiful walking trail, just outside the front door, follows the river and the golf course across the street.
Additionally, there are large design walls to build your projects on for your convenience. Plus, you will have adjustable height cutting tables with large cutting mats and long rulers provided. Two ironing boards with large toppers and irons stand ready for your convenience in the workroom.
Guests will bring their own machines, notions, rotary cutters, and fabrics needed to create the project of their choice. If travel prohibits bringing your own sewing machine or if there is a sewing machine emergency (we hope that doesn’t happen, but we know that things happen!), Amy has a couple sewing machines available to rent.
One of her great epiphanies came when naming each of the bedrooms, mostly from her quilting experiences. When she attended a quilting retreat with her friends, she decided to make a difficult quilt for a twin-sized bed. The challenge came when she discovered the pattern for this quilt had been accidently packed in a moving truck on its way to her new home in Utah. Not wanting to sit around for five days worrying about the pattern in the moving truck, she opted to develop a whole new view of the quilt with new pieces of material.
As she began this exciting, yet arduous task of creating a quilt with a new pattern, she thought to herself: “Quilters are crazy! Why do we do this? We cut up beautiful, perfectly good pieces of fabric and sew them back together again.” At that precise moment, she decided that when she started a quilt retreat, her theme for the first room would be “Quilters are Crazy.”
All of the other rooms also have stories and follow similar themes from her many and varied experiences with family and traveling.
"Grandma’s Attic” originated from the love Amy has for her great-grandmother’s quilts, which used 1930s era fabrics, and from her own collection of the ‘30s replica fabrics, which she used to make a sampler quilt for the bed in the room.
"The Cabin” is the theme for the largest room because of her love of cabins. Her grandparents had one, and many of the quilt patterns have a frontier feeling.
"Sweet Amish Dreams” became the theme of another room because of Amy’s love of Amish quilts.
"Land That I Love” came to her because patriotism runs deep within Amy. “Besides,” she said, “I am a history nerd and who doesn’t love patriotic quilts?” Who can argue with that?
Because of her love for star quilts she really wanted a star-themed room, based on Van Gogh’s “Starry, Starry Night” painting. Even the closet knobs in the “Starry, Starry Night” room are stars.
Everyone will be pleasantly surprised that even the bathrooms have themes and are adorned with quilt-related art.
So, if you love to work on quilts in a quilting-theme retreat all day while enjoying chatting, eating, laughing, and having a great time without having to worry about work and home, then Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat is the perfect place for you.
Amy is sure you will be enlightened when you come because of the hours and years of preparation and its personalized touch. She said, “It’s been a really great creative outlet for me in preparing Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat, furnishing it, and making all of the quilts. I pay close attention to detail and love to add special unique touches to every room.”
Come join us at the Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat. As Amy would say, “Women (and lots of men) also love to get together and talk, laugh, eat and have fun. THIS is the reason for a quilt retreat. Taking home a beautiful creation is just a bonus.”
Of course, though, the Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat can be used for so many other retreats—crafts, stamping, watercolor or other art classes, scrapbooking, leadership, family history, family reunions, golfing, or just getting away for a few days.
For more information about the Maple Mountain Quilt Retreat, go to this website: https://maplemountainquiltretreat.com/.
See you soon!
