Cottage Quilt Designs

Patti Oakley from Batiks by Design sent me a picture of her new quilt using the traditional batik fabrics she imports from Indonesia.

She used my design, Wild Goose Log Cabin, which she sells on her site. She combined rich red fabrics and fussy cut a motif for the center of the wild goose blocks. Beautiful! The picture is below. The link to her site is: http://www.batiksbydesign.com/

I also heard from a happy customer here in my area in Michigan. She bought the pattern some time ago and made the queen size out of rich red, white prints and black fabrics. She donated the quilt to a school in Saginaw, MI for an auction to raise money for the school. She told me that it brought in $800-the highest amount paid that day.

 It’s so exciting to hear what you all are doing with the patterns on my site. The pattern is unusual because it uses paper pieceing for the two blocks. It’s designed that way so that all the blocks end up the same size. Then sewing the center together is easy to do. Jill-if you are reading this-please call me. My emails to you are bouncing back!

 In August we are participating in the FabShop Blowout Sale. From the 18th to the 22nd I will have selected patterns on sale for 30% off. Come on back-I may have a pattern that fits your stash or be a treat for you!

We hope those of you in United States had a great Fourth of July holiday! Ours was spent quietly at home. My husband had four days off but I had to work two of them at the quilt store I work part time.

Two blogs back (two weeks ago) I took you with us on a bike ride on the rail trails we have in our town. That ride took the trails going north and ended at the Saginaw Bay at our state park named Bay City State Park.

In years past my husband and I have ridden the rail trial that winds from the east side of Bay City and over the Saginaw river which cuts Bay City in half. The trail continues on the west side and doubles back across one of our three bridges to head home. We usually do that on the morning of the 4th at 6:30 am when the traffic is dead. But today we decided to take a ride after church. This time we took some of the rail trail that leads south out of town since it was after 10 am and the streets had become much busier.

Here is a photo of the rail trail that crosses Center Avenue-the main street on the east side. This street has many mansions built by the lumber barons that lived and worked in Bay City in the 1800’s. The picture is looking north from which we have just rode our bikes from Essexville (the small bedroom community where we live).

After crossing that busy street we headed down the trail south that led past homes, apartment houses, our main hospital and on to country fields.

We then took two more sections that lead south and then east to the southend of Bay City. This picture shows the rail trail sign that is on M-15 south of Bay City.

The trails were busy today with walkers and bikers. It’s only in the 70’s so it was a beautiful time to get some exercise.

Have a great week!

Rochelle