Marcelle Medallion: My Christmas Quilt

I hope you had a lovely holiday season. My Christmas was wonderful: busy, lots of good food and  amazing company (that's the best part of the holiday season, I think). But between gift making and cooking I was able to finish my Marcelle Medallion Quilt. Ever since I began working on this back in April I wanted it to be our Christmas Quilt for this year... Last year I started a tradition of making a new quilt for Christmas to snuggle under during our movie watching marathon, you can read more about it here. I've been so busy lately that there were times that I thought I wasn't going to finish on time: the quilting took a long time. I did concentric circles which create a wonderful texture and accentuate the medallion. However; there were so many thread tails to bury (I got to remember that next time I think about concentric circles for quilting). But at the end I finished it even with time to spare. Last Sunday my husband took me to explore a new (to me) hiking trail and as any quilter would do I took my new quilt finish to photograph. I love how the colors of the quilt pop against the lush green in the forest.  I absolutely love how festive this quilt turned out (not my usual color combo) and it made our Christmas feel even cozier. 

Have a beautiful week and thank you for visiting my little blog and leaving me your lovely comments throughout the year. I truly appreciate them. 

XO

Martha

WIP: Marcelle Medallion

It has been several months that I've been working on and off on my Marcelle Medallion Quilt. There were times that I thought I was never going to finish it, but this weekend I finally finished quilting it, yay! Just need to attach the binding and it will be done. Can't to see it all finished.

Wishing you a happy week!

XX
Martha

Coming Soon... Sew The Library

I have some very exciting news to share with you. I have teamed up with my friend Heidi from Fabric Mutt and Jodi from Tickle & Hide to start a new monthly link-up for 2015. We all have a collection of of sewing books and magazines (big or small) that sometimes we neglect to give them the attention that they deserve. So why not start start sewing from our libraries and share our makes in a monthly Link-up?

You can link up the project(s) that you made in the month from a sewing book or magazine. The link-up starting on the 20th of each month and it closes at the end of the month.  So lets put our treasured sewing books to use and start sewing! Sew the Library kicks off at Fabric Mutt in January, then it is my turn to host in February followed by Jodi in March. We hope you can join us and sew along with us. 

XX

Martha

Scrap Challenge: Dottie Constellation

Happy Sunday! I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. I'm so happy to share with you my latest finish.  It all started a few weeks ago when I won the Lark Scrap Challenge contest held by Rachel at Stitched in Color and generously sponsored by Heather at Lark Cottons. The challenge was to create a project using the dottie fabrics in the fat sixteenth bundle that I received. 

I love polka dots and from the first time a saw this rainbow of dottie prints wonky stars came to mind.   I wanted to have a whole constellation of starts and the variety of colors gave me the opportunity to create a set of unique star blocks.  Big, small and in between each block has its own personality. I used Kona cotton in Snow as the background for my starts; I think it is the perfect complement and allows the stars to really shine. I found the fabric that I used for the backing and the binding at my local fabric store and it was such a lucky find. I still can't believe how perfectly the color and dots match the stars; that doesn't happen to me very often.

I didn't plan on the size of this quilt before hand. I simply went where the fabric scraps took me and amazingly I ended up with a 60X65 inches quilt. Wow! I just did't expect that. I absolutely love how it turned out.

Thank you to Rachel and Heather for this challenge. I really enjoyed working with all of these yummy scraps. Please head over to Stitched in Color to see the creations of the other challengers.

Have a wonderful week!

Martha 

Veronica Bag

I finished my new bag (finally!). It is so nice to have a new finish. It feels like it has been forever since I finished a project. As you might remember I started cutting all the pieces two weekends ago and it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to finish it. But the wait was totally worth it. I love how it turned out; specially the pleats in the front of the bag.  Right now this is my absolute favorite bag. It is super roomy, totally perfect to carry all my stuff around. And let me tell you,  I carry a lot of stuff!
I used essex linen for the body of the  bag and one of my most treasured prints of the Flea Market Fancy collection for the handles. I have been hoarding that Denyse Schmidt print for the longest time.  I don't usually hold on to many fabrics but this one I just couldn't bring myself to cut into it. I just think it is so pretty; thus, I wanted to wait for the perfect project to use it. And I'm so glad I did. I just can't can't get over how well it looks with the linen.  To keep things organized I added two pockets to the interior: one with a zipper to help things stay in place.

Pattern from the book Bags: The Modern Classics.

Wishing you a beautiful week!

*Linking Up to Let's Be Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and Sew Cute Tuesday at Blossom Heart Quilts*

XX
Martha.

Lately...

I wish there were more hours in the day. Oh my goodness! I have so many things to do and so little time. Do you ever feel that way? As if the day is not long enough? I do most of the time, specially when I want to fit in more sewing time in my day. Having another project in the works I really didn't need to start a new one. I usually work on just one project from start to finish before moving on to the next one. But I thought for a change I'll do a bit of 'multi-tasking' and see how it works for my creative process. Making a new everyday bag has been in my to do list for a while since I really need to retire my current one.  So I'm very happy that I'm finally going to be crossing that off my list. I'm using the pattern for the Veronica Bag from the book Bags: The Modern Classics. The book is absolutely lovely. Every single pattern is modern and very chic. This is the second bag that I make from the book and I think I'm going to love this bag as much as the first one. 

I hope to show you the finished one very soon.

Have a wonderful week!

XX
Martha

Travel Sewing Wallet

I love Noodlehead's patterns. Anna is so talented and everything she creates is so stylish and beautiful (probably your already knew that). A few months ago she published a free pattern for a manicure wallet, which quickly caught my eye and immediately added it to my ever-growing list of things I wish to make. Yesterday I had some time and decided to finally make on of these little wallets. Although, I had  a  different purpose for it in mind. I want to use it as a travel sewing kit. The size is perfect to accommodate my tools and some notions. I totally adore the way it turned out and would love to make a few more. I had a bit of hard time installing the snap closures as I had never done it before. But I think it will go a lot better with the next one. 

Have a  wonderful week!

XX

Martha

Glimpses of Fall

Fall is starting to make its appearance in my garden. Love the change of seasons.

Wishing you a happy week!

XX
Martha

On My Table...

Happy Sunday everyone! Did you have a good weekend? I didn't get to do as much sewing as I had planned but I managed to sneak a few moments on my new quilting project. I'm super excited   about this one: a Granny Square Quilt.  It has been in my wish list for such a long time and finally I'll be making one.  I used the tutorial by Blue Elephant Stitches and after making a few blocks I can't stop! They are so much fun to make.  The only difference is that my blocks are going to be slightly smaller since my squares are 2 inches instead of the 2.5 that the tutorial calls for. I had some 2 inches fabric strips already cut up that I wanted to use up and they seem to be working out great. 

I'm really looking forward to making more progress on this little project.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

XX

Martha.

It's All About The Little Things...

Sometimes the smallest things can bring you so much joy... Last weekend I was playing with some fabric scraps and decided to make a spool block, which has been in my mind for some time. I used the instructions from the book Liberty Love. Though I made a little mistake and ended up making it narrower, but I still liked my block very much that I made it into this itty bitty quilt. It is so tiny! (it only measures 6X5 inches). However, I think that what it lacks in size it makes up in personality. I think it is super cute. It now hangs in my sewing room and it makes my heart sing every time I look at it. So it got me thinking... this is exactly what life is all about: always appreciate the little things and love what you do. 

I hope you are having a lovely week!

*Linking up to Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts*

XX

Martha

Wishing for Autumn and A New Shawl

Happy Saturday! I hope you are having a lovely weekend. I'm having a great weekend so far. Enjoying what it seems to be the last days of summer (I hope). While summer has been fun, I find myself wishing for cooler weather. I started to notice a few glimpses of autumn here and there: it is getting darker in the evenings a lot sooner and some trees have already started turning colors.  

I feel like autumn weather is the perfect knitting weather so in anticipation of its arrival I began knitting a new shawl.  The pattern is Nae available on Raverly.  It is a beautiful pattern and what I find most interesting is that is knitted from side to side rather than from the center.  It is truly an enjoyable project and it is growing really fast! 

*Linking up to Wool Sundays at Rainbow Hare Quilts and Yarn Along at Small Things*

Wishing you a happy weekend!

XX

Martha

Plus Quilt

For the past few weeks I've been planning on making a quilt for my sister. Her birthday is coming up and I wanted to give her a quilt. But I couldn't settle on a design. I wanted something young and fresh and I just couldn't make up my mind.  Then suddenly one day the light bulb in my head went on: a plus quilt! The design is simple yet modern for a young lady...There is something so special about simple patchwork that I'm always drawn to it. I don't think I can ever get tired of it. The piecing was fast and easy (maybe that is the reason I like patchwork so much) and I used only fabrics from my stash. 

For the quilting I did a meandering design that blends in well with the fabrics but gives it a nice texture. 

One of my favorite parts about this quilt is the backing. I found the fabric at my local fabric store and I bought it because it reminded me of Charlie Brown's t-shirt, don't you agree?

I hope my sister likes her present as much as I enjoyed making it for her. 

Wishing you a beautiful week.

XX

Martha.