Knitting Finish: Honey Cowl

I'm so excited to have finished my Honey Cowl. My first finish of the year, yay! You might remember that I started knitting it back in November. I'm totally surprised at how 'fast' it came together. I'm not a fast knitter and  I only knit a little bit everyday; usually in the car (when my husband is driving) or few rows in the evening while watching TV. But it goes super fast. It is not wonder why the Honey Cowl is so popular; the pattern is fantastic and such a joy to knit.  I'm sure this won't be the only one I make. I'm already planning my next one :)

For this one I used Cotton Ease by Lion Brand Yarn. The yarn is very soft and light weight perfect for the winter weather here in California. I think I will be wearing it all week. 

Have a lovely week!

*Linking up to Wool on Sundays at  Rainbow Hare Quilts*

XX

Martha

Feathers And Patchwork: My Christmas Quilt

Happy Sunday, I hope you are enjoying the holidays. I had a wonderful Christmas. As it is our tradition we spend Christmas Eve with our extended family. Then my husband and I spend Christmas day at home watching movies and relaxing. And this year was not the exception; we watched all the movies we had been 'saving up',  and ate way too much popcorn and candy. But this year I added something new to our tradition: a new quilt to snuggle under while watching our movies. As you might remember I started working on my Christmas quilt at the beginning of December (you can read more about it 

here

). I wasn't sure I was going to able to finish it. The piecing is very simple and the quilt top came together in no time, but the quilting is another story. I decided to quilt it with straight lines about 3/4" apart. The quilting was slowly progressing when my machine decided to act up (now I need to take it in for service). Luckily I have another machine: a

vintage Kenmore

that a friend gave a while back and I had never used. Well, the little machine came through: it sews beautifully and I finished my quilt in time. 

I'm so happy with how this quilt turned up. I love the random patchwork. If feels very homemade and the flannel backing feels so warm and cozy. It has quickly become a family favorite.

Have a wonderful week and see you next year!

XX

Martha.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for all your support and lovely comments throughout the year. I wish you the best this holiday season.

XX

Martha 

Hello Feather

With all the things I have to do this month I decided to add one more to my list. I decided to start a new quilt. I've been admiring Ana Maria Horner's Feather Quilt for quite some time. It is aboslutely fabulous. However, as much as I love the original design I'm not going to do a whole feather quilt. I'm  just making a few blocks to use as accents for a simple patchwork quilt. The plan is to have it finished for Christmas. We have a tradition of spending Christmas Day watching movies all day and I thought it would be nice to have a new quilt to snuggle under. Maybe this will be the start of a new tradition: A new quilt for Christmas every year...
I hope you are having a lovely week!

XX
Martha. 

Getting Ready For The Holidays

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend. And for all of you in the US happy belated Thanksgiving.  Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to start getting ready  for Christmas.

Last week I finished this table runner. I actually started it last year hopping to finish it in time for the holidays. But sadly that didn't happen so I put it away and forgot about it for most of this year. Until last month. I picked it up again and decided to finally finish it and put it to use. Now I'm glad I 'waited' to finish it. Last year I had planned to leave all  the negative space around the stars un-quilted, except for the hand quilting around the stars. However, that turned out to be a bit of a problem. It looked puffy as if the layers needed to be secured better. So I decided to quilt all that negative space with a pebble pattern; something I would never had tried last year (I was terrified of free motion quilting).  It feels really good to finally check this project of my list.

Have a great week!

XX

Martha.

Yay! Started a Honey Cowl

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I had such a busy weekend, but I made some time to work on a couple of projects I've been meaning to finish for a while. But more on that later... let me tell you about the new knitting project I started. For a while I had been admiring the very popular Honey Cowl, and I finally started one. I'm really enjoying working on this project. I have to confess though, it took me a while to understand how to make the stitch. I must to have read the stitch instructions about twenty times trying to figure it out until it finally clicked in my head :) The stitch is lovely I just love how "puffy" it looks and now that I understand how it works it is actually very easy to knit. I'm really looking forward to finishing this one.

*Linking up to Wool Sundays at Rainbow Hare Quilts and New to Me in 2013 at Celtic Thistle Stitches*

XX

Martha.

Improv Little Stars

I started this quilt a few weeks ago. I had no plan of pattern in mind; I just wanted to sew something. So I pulled some fabrics from my stash and began cutting and piecing. I love the freedom of improv piecing. You never know where it is going to take you. It feels like a little surprise every time you add one more piece to the puzzle. And this time improv piecing didn't disappoint: I'm so in love with how this quilt turned out. It is on the smaller side as it only measures about 30 inches by 40 inches. But even though it is small, I think it the randomness of the piecing gives it so much character. I decided to quilt it with simple loops all over to complement the random piecing. The backing is a cozy super soft flannel I found a my local Jo-Ann. Oh there is something about polka dots... I just can get enough of them 

Now on to start making some Christmas presents. How about you, are you planning a handmade Christmas?

Have a lovely week!

XX

Martha. 

Lately

My knitting craze continues... I finished another beanie for my husband. It is very similar to the one I finished for him two weeks ago (you can see the other one here). However I used a different technique for shaping the crown; I followed this pattern from the Purl Bee. Which results on a cross pattern on the crown instead of swirl. Although, I still can't decide which one I like best...

The yarn is Dark Gray from Lion Brand, it almost looks black but it has these gray speckles that give it a very nice shine and it feels very warm and fussy. 

I've been having a lot of fun knitting, but I've missed quilting too. Today I worked on a little quilt I started a few weeks ago. It is almost finished and I can't wait to show it to you.

I hope you have a lovely week!

XX

Martha.