Calico Cottages on Steroids

 Hello Everyone,

In between making pumpkins, I've been working on a large Calico Cottage quilt which has been on my design wall for a few weeks now.

Originally used a dark teal for the posts.

I went back and forth between plaid posts and teal posts.  Then I decided to audition a strip of plaid in the border between the red setting triangle and another border.  The plaid posts won.  When I looked at the overall look with the teal posts, all I saw was teal popping out at me.  The plaid is muted, and it tied the quilt together when I added a touch of it in the border.

All of the sudden the quilt transformed from a brighter quilt to an old-fashioned look and feel.....which I love.  My houses are all made, and most of the sashings, so it's time to stitch the rows together.  I will have to wait for my large fabric order of Hearthstone to arrive from Marcus Fabrics before I can put on the border.  Hopefully, my bolts and bolts will arrive by the end of July.  As soon as get the borders in place, I'm going to fill them with plate feathers. 

This is an example of the plate feathers that I quilted on Country Sunshine.  I LOVE these feathers; however, it requires my brain to really THINK while I'm quilting.  My long arm has a stitch regulator, but it is not computerized, so I have to drive it around the quilt to create this pattern. Sometimes when I drive, I end up in the gutter!

I can't wait to finish this quilt and put it on our log bed at the cabin.  That touch of plaid just tugs at my heartstrings.

Here is a picture of the house blocks that I was working on at the retreat in Lake Tahoe.  

By slowing pecking away at this quilt every day, it is now all coming together.  I prepare everything in the late afternoon that I want to work on the following day.  When I get up, I can go straight to my machine and get a few hours of quilting done before Mr. Joe starts to stir.  I get more done in those hours than I do for the rest of the day.

Breakdown those big projects into daily, doable amounts and before you know it, you have a quilt.

Soon,

Lynn