New On My Bookshelf

I received a very special package in the mail today: a copy of the amazing book Sunday Morning Quilts. Vicky @ Vicky K Creating hosted a giveaway of the book a few weeks ago and I was the lucky winner (I have been very lucky lately, I hope is doesn't stop). The book is signed by one of the authors! I'm a book hoarder collector and this is my first book signed by the author. This is my new little treasure. Vicky was so kind to also include in her package a pattern for a log cabin quilt, such a lovely surprise... I have to say, I spent a few hours today drooling over the beautiful projects in the book. I can't wait to start making something from it.

**Thank you Vicky for your lovely presents.**

Martha.

Slow Bloggers Linky Party

 

I'm very excited to be hosting this month's linky party for the Slow Bloggers organized by the very talented Catherine @ Knotted Cotton.

Do you sometimes feel like the demands of your job, household chores or life in general keep you from sewing those beautiful creations you had envisioned? Juggling everyday life maintains you so occupied that you don't post in your blog as often as you would like? You are not alone, like us there are other bloggers out there that feel the same way. Come and join us on our Slow Bloggers movement and share with us what you have been up to this month. Weather you were very productive and you want to share all of your accomplishments or just want to tell us what has been keeping you away from your sewing machine, we'd love to hear.

This is what has been happening this month during my Weekend Doings: I finished a quilt (the pattern is call Jacob's Ladder), I finished the quilt top of the blue patchwork quilt that I wish to give to my dad for Christmas, tried my hand at English Paper Piecing (and loved it), and published my first tutorial. 

So for this month's Slow Bloggers meeting, link up your post telling us what your have been up to. Please include the Slow Bloggers button on your post, you can find it here, support others Slow Bloggers by leaving them a comment. The linky stays open for a week. 

Have a great week everyone!

Martha.

The Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop

Today is my stop on The Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop organized by Laura from Quokka Quilts and Katy from The Littlest Thistle. Laura and Katy are on a road trip around Arizona, Utah and Nevada and  they are getting inspiration from the beautiful scenery they get to experience on their trip to do some stitching along the way. And that is exactly the idea behind this blog hop: to use color from a photograph as inspiration to create an English Paper Pieced block.

The inspiration for my block is this picture I took last spring at the beach. I love the light and subtle blues and grays. I have never used a palette builder before so I decided to give it a try (I have to say: it is quite fun). I used the palette generator from Play Crafts and these are the results that I got:

Then I moved  on to the fun part: choosing the fabrics. I found in my fabric stash these fabrics that matched the color palette very well (or close enough) and as a bonus they have a nautical theme.  Perfect!

The design of my block is a variation of this star rose block. I started drawing the template with a star rose in mind, but halfway through I realized the pentagons in the center were larger than the original star rose I had seen, so I decided to keep going and call my design a happy accident.I haven't done much paper piecing before (a few months ago I haven't even heard of it) but I find this technique super fun. I'm already planning a large project involving paper piecing.

And this is my finished block. I guess I'm going to call it a star, it is going to become a pillow. I already appliqued it to a piece of natural linen and began  the quilting.  I will share it you once I finished it.

You can find more details about The Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop here, including the schedule with all the blogs participating, the sponsors, a Flickr group and information about a linky party a the end of November.

Please take some time to check out Monday's post from Beth @ Plum and June and Wednesday's turn is Nannette @ YeahImadethat (sorry the link on the schedule is broken, maybe when she sees this she will fix it so we can stop by her blog).

Thank you so much for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

*Update: You can see the finished pillow using the star block here.*

Martha.

Lately

Today I got up early to see the sun rise. I wanted to savor my Sunday as much as possible. I mostly spent the day at home hanging out with my husband and our dogs (Mini and Mona). I picked lavender  from the garden, worked on some sewing projects and an English Paper Piecing project for the Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop; my stop is this upcoming Tuesday.
(As I'm writing this a small earthquake just rattled us. Oh that is the 'beauty' of living in California! an earthquake can sneak up on you at any time!)
 

Did you have a nice weekend?

I wish you have a lovely week!

Martha

My New Fabric

I have been trying to build my fabric stash. As you know, it takes time to build a good collection of fabrics. But this week I was very lucky and my collection grew a little bit. My wonderful husband suggested I should go to Jo-Ann. we were running errands near the store and he said -You haven't been at Jo-Ann in a while, do you want to stop by?- ( It had only been less than a week, but that is a long time for me).Well, that is an offer I can't  resist! I ended up buying these beautiful fabrics in  the green and brown tones. Then a package arrived in the mail... more fabric. Last week I won a giveaway hosted by Beth from Plum and June and sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop. I was so excited when Beth e-mailed me that I had won the gift card, but then I couldn't decide what to get... I ordered these charm packs of fabrics that had been on my wish list for a while. The are so beautiful, I love how they look all the pieces of fabric neatly stacked together.

Thank you Beth (Plum and June), the Fat Quarter Shop and of course to my wonderful husband, you made me very happy this week.

Martha.

So, This Was My Weekend

Oh! the weekend is over... it went by so fast. I wish weekends were longer. Well if I'm wishing for stuff, I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. But enough complaining. This weekend was really great. I got a lot of sewing done. I finished the top for my blue patchwork quilt. 

In between sewing the quilt top I made a fabric pumpkin to decorate for Halloween and a new pincushion to match my fabric covered tin can I made a few days ago. I added a loop on top of the pincushion so I can hang it by my sewing machine. I used the same Alexander Henry fabric I used for my tin can; I think it is so whimsical.

This afternoon I took a little break from sewing to make a bread pudding. I had a stale loaf of french bread and I decided to put it to good use. I flavored the custard for the pudding with spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves) and while it was baking the perfume of the spices filled the whole house... I find bread pudding to be such a comforting food.

I hope you had a lovely weekend as well.

Note: I'm linking up to Freshly Pieced
 

Martha.

Work In Progress

As I mentioned on my last post, I started a new quilt. It is going to be a patchwork quilt for my dad. Blue is his favorite color and I want to surprise him this Christmas with a handmade gift. I have been on the look for blue fabrics for a few weeks and I finally completed a good selection: enough for the quilt top. Over the weekend I cut up the fabric and began piecing. I hope to make some more progress in the next few days and hopefully finish the quilt top next weekend. 

Have a lovely week!

Martha.

Saturday At Home

Today I spend a lovely day at home. It had been raining here in California for the past three days; we even got thunderstorms and hail two days ago, which is a bit unusual for this area. So it was such a nice surprise to see the sun shine again today. Beautiful light was coming through my window, I  couldn't resist taking a picture to share with you. Also, I went to the market and picked up some guavas. I don't even know it if  it is guava season right now, but they smelled so good I just had to take some home.

Then, I worked on organizing my new embroidery floss that I bought the other day. The colors are so pretty, don't you think? And I started a new quilt, but I will tell you more about later...

I hope you are having a nice weekend.

Martha.