Cozy Calendar Celebration!

As you may know, Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet has a new calendar for 2016.

The fat quarter shop is hosting a blog 'tour' of little cottage quilts

 and pillows made from the calico cottage pattern found in the calendar.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colors that Lori uses in all her quilts.

They are happy fabrics. I possess hundreds of 'happy' fabrics.

But....

there's always a but, I wanted to make a cottage that reflects the color palette of my home. My husband likes dark wood, taupe and so forth, hence the main colors of my walls and wood work.

Granted there is some off white trim however, the main theme is more green taupe brown.

That is the inspiration I used for my fabric pull.

 I began sewing my cottage at the Thimble and Threads retreat in Draper, Utah last weekend.

It was technically a Farmgirl Vintage Retreat but Thimble and Threads, to our surprise, gave each of us our own calendar to use during our open sewing evening on Friday night.

This is Lori and I. 

I have met Lori at quilt market

 but it was fun to hang out and just sew at the retreat.

There are a few of her quilts.

Okay back to my cottage.....

Here it is in progress....

I wanted to make the pillow from the 8" block so that we can use it on our dark brown leather couch...yes... dark brown.

The block went together a whole lot easier than I imagined. Seams fit perfectly.

I actually want to try the 4" size now - well in brighter happier colors.

You can find the calendars on sale on the Fat Quarter Shop site.

Here are some of the inside images of the calendar.

So pretty.

So my pillow isn't finished yet. 

Which is actually a story for a WHOLE other blog post.

Thanks for reading today!

p.s. 20% off my entire etsy site including pre-orders through November 18, 2015