Cottage Quilt Designs

 Today I have a picture for you that I took from our garden this morning after we got home from church. This is my time to write to you and I was wondering what to say. I had been thinking of color in fabrics and nature and took a step outside to our little cottage garden. Here is an example of what I was thinking of!

In this little patch there are five shades of green in the leaves plus all the shapes the leaves make too. I find the Lord God so amazing. He is our master Creator and it’s awesome how He planned and made living, breathing works of art in nature!

I also find it thought provoking that He can jumble up bright light green, reddish, clear greens and blue greens and have it look perfect. In the color schemes I make and in helping quilters pick out colors at the quilt store we often use only one shade or tone of green. The exception to that is a scrappy quilt, of course.

Here’s another picture I want to share with you! It’s a shot of Ginger, our cat. On that day I was packing patterns of the Calla Lily Day Dream to send to my wholesale distributor, Pattern Peddlers. She loves boxes and curled up to take a nap!

She didn’t stay very long because I made her move to a better place to take her nap.

Rochelle

It’s such a beautiful day today that I decided to show you some scenes from the rail trail a short distance from our home. My husband and I took a bike ride this afternoon on some of the trails that have been cleared and paved from old railroad beds. The section of the trail we took leads up to the state park in Bay City which is at the bottom of the Saginaw Bay in Lake Huron which is the east side of Michigan.

This is one of the sections I like best and on the way back a small fawn daintly stepped across the trail and disappeared into the brush.

Here we have arrived at the Bay City State Park. This is a pond which is connected to a marsh and empties out in the bay. There is a white swan family off in the distance. The swans are not native to our area and the naturalists say that they distroy some of the natural habitat. There is a nice board walk which extends a bit into the pond and families like to fish from there. Behind the line of trees is the Saginaw Bay.

Here is the shore at the park. When I was a child and into my early 20’s there was no growth on the beach. A section has been cleared for swimmers. The environmentalists have been fighting with the people and beach front owners over cleaning up the beach or letting the foliage stay. We have fertilizer run off into the bay so that has caused the weeds to grow. Our state park has beautiful trails to hike or ride bikes and there is alot of boating in the bay. We have a wonderful museum, play center and a place for rv’s and trailers to park at the state park camping area.

On our ride back we stopped at a drive-in called Mussel Beach and each had a waffle ice cream cone. The drive-in is on the edge of the state park and beside the rail trail which is a perfect location to sit and rest! We had a very nice ride-the first one for me this year.

Rochelle

 Happy Father’s Day! Weather-wise, here in Michigan, it’s a great day to spend with Dads and families. We are planning on spending time out doors ripping out over-sized bushes! Two bushes are really bugging my husband and he has declared today is the day to do something about it!

Our hearts go out to those of you in Iowa and the states hit hard by tornadoes. Our prayers are with you as you rebuild your homes, churches, schools and businesses.

Have you clicked our new button yet on the home page? It’s a link to our free pattern page. It’s a bright tablerunner that has half square triangles in two sizes. Add a few fusible appliquéd daisies and you have a cute table topper! There is also a link on the page that takes you to a site that has thousands of free patterns.

Are you taking part in the AniLee Mystery Quilt Treasure Hunt? We’ve had a great response so far and it’s only the middle of the month. Jump in with the others and see what clues you can find and prizes you will win. In July there will be a FabShop Bunny Hop here. Each shop gives out $10 gift certificates for prizes.

Have a great week-Rochelle

This month a new shopping mall has opened called The Olde Country Peddler. It has 18 mini shops in it so far and Cottage Quilt Designs has a mini shop there too! Click on this link to visit and look around  http://www.oldecountrypeddler.com/ 

You can find quilt patterns for all kinds of projects, punch needle patterns, specialty yarns and fibers, doll patterns, counted cross stitch patterns, wood items and more!

I’ve made progress in my scrappy quilt! It is called Cottage Flowers and can be made using 5″ charm squares, your stash or fat quarters. It can be made with beginner skills and will make a dent in your stash or scrap collection. I hope to have a picture up later this week on the blog.

Are you taking part of the Anilee Mystery Tour this month? It’s alot of fun collecting the clues in each shop. Try it this month if you haven’t yet!

quote from Norman Vincent Peal: