Modern Cottage Creations

Flying Geese are a very common quilt block, but some people can be intimidated by triangles.  I'm here to help!  Flying geese look great in north woods quilts (like this one) as well as modern quilts.  It's a great block that you should add to your quilting tool box. So, let's get started!  Flying geese are comprised of two prints: one print for the goose (the large triangle) and one print for the sky (the two small triangles).  First, you need to decide what size you want our flying geese to finish at.  The width of the flying geese should be two times the height of the flying geese.  For example: 2" by 4" or  3" by 6".  The flying geese that I am making will finish at 3" by 6".  Now that you know what size you want your geese to finish at, you can determine how big to cut our pieces.  To determine the cutting measurements for the goose (the large rectangle) add 1/2" to the height and width of the finished rectangle.  For exa

I made some more progress on my north woods quilt today!   The quilt top is completely done!  Just a sneak peak of the corner with the borders here.  I'm planning on getting some better pictures tomorrow. These are kind of drab as I took them inside with some poor lighting. :(   And I did a pieced backing for this quilt, too.  I added two rows of 10" blocks to the top and bottom of my left over border print.  The brown seen on the front and back will also be repeated in the binding.  I think it's coming together quite nicely.  I'm happy to have it ready to be laid out tomorrow, then on to free motion quilting!!   Stay quilty my friends!

Whew!  What a busy week it has been here! I had a lot of fun, and also got a lot of work accomplished.  I went quilt shopping, hiking at two different state parks, mini golfing with my sister, her niece, and some friends, and ate a lot of delicious food!  It was almost like a vacation! I kicked off my week with a trip to a couple north woods quilt shops with a quilty friend of mine.  We bought some great fabrics and I am excited to get started on them.    We picked up an old Holly Taylor line on clearance at one shop.  We both bought the same selection and she's going to teach me how to put together one of her favorite quilt patterns.  I think these blues and north woods prints are going to turn out very nicely.  I will probably toss in some stash fabrics for a bit more tonal variety as these are printed busy prints.      At our second shop I ran across the new True Luck collection and absolutely had to have it!  I picked up all the grey and aqua prints she had to o

I set up a new page today with lots of links to great sites for FREE quilt patterns. I refer to these pages often, so having them in one convenient location is going to be great for me.   But, I don’t want to hog the resources, so please feel free to bookmark my  Free Quilt Pattern Links page for your convenience as well!   Fabric designers sometimes put out a free pattern offering to accompany a new fabric line.   I find that these are the most inspirational for me.   I get to swoon over the beautiful new fabric, see the fun way the designer wanted to showcase their fabric, and then get to imagine what I would do with it.   All for FREE!   There are so many free quilt patterns out there that you are sure to find something to inspire you!   So, please enjoy the new page, and find your quilty inspiration my friends!

I want to post some updates of the Flannel Hopscotch quilt that I finished this week.  It turned out great and I'm really happy with my new queen sized bed quilt.  I was able to finish hand sewing my binding during our down time this week.  The striped binding adds a lot of character to the edge of the quilt.  The quilt is very heavy and super warm!  I will definitely be using this on those cold nights this winter!  Now that this quilt has been completed and stored away, I've already brought out my next project half done to get wrapped up. I brought the start of an up north themed lap quilt to the local quilt shop and purchased some fabric for borders and binding.    I want the top to be bigger, but not a full bed quilt like the flannel hopscotch quilt. This quilt top I started with a panel and two charm packs.  Very simple design, but the colors and up north theme will compliment my home very well.   I am still trying to decide how

I like to think I'm a pretty organized gal.  But with a busy life and lots of work, my mental best laid plans for blogging are quickly falling through the cracks. I ran across this great blog planner through Pinterest and I'm getting ready to give it a whirl!  The printables that Lamberts Lately  developed here are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to put them to use! Another awesome Pinterest find was this great tutorial from Just A Beautiful Life on to-do's and best practices for creating your own blogging binder. Between the great advice from both of these sites, I've got a start on my own blogging binder. I did a little office supply shopping (honestly, I love shopping for office supplies!) and picked up a cute colorful binder, some tab dividers, sheet protectors, loose leaf lined paper, and post it notes to put together with my freshly printed blog planning sheets. I have a three hole punch and nice markers at home to use already.  It was su

I've been trying to be a good girl lately and work on my PHD.  My Projects Half Done that is! I started this queen sized flannel quilt almost four years ago.  I just fell in love with the border print and knew I had to make something with that beautiful flannel!  Blue, brown, cream, and green are just a color combination that I can't resist.  So natural and peaceful.  You'll notice I do a lot of projects in some combination of those colors. I picked out the Hopscotch pattern for my flannels so that it would showcase the larger print well.  Also, I feel like flannel can be a bit tricky to piece accurately so it's better suited to larger patterns.  Four years ago, I managed to make it all the way to the completion of the quilt top and I even prepped the binding!  I had the backing there and ready to go, but somehow I just never took the leap to lay it out. Well, thank goodness I took the time to get that done.  My task today was to sit down with my cup of coffee