Farmer's Wife Mini Quilt

I've been cleaning and organizing my sewing room and I came across a few blocks that I made a while ago attempting to make the Farmer's Wife Quilt Sampler. Since the beginning this project has been kind of a love/hate relationship. I would love to one day make the whole quilt maybe in another color palette and try to hand piece the blocks. But for now I picked my favorite blocks  that I had made and turned them into a mini quilt to decorate my sewing room. I hand-quilted the blocks and the negative space I machine quilted it. I really like how it turned out and it looks lovely hanging on the wall in my sewing room.

I hope you have a wonderful week!


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

XX
Martha.

A Picture... A Moment

A dried sunflower we left out for the birds to eat the seeds. Just a little reminder that there is beauty everywhere. 

Wishing you a happy weekend!

XX

Martha.

Broken Glass Cushion

I've been trying to organize my fabric and fabric scraps in an attempt to make use of them. I have decided not to buy any more fabric for a while and use what I already have. While I admire quilters who have an enormous collection of fabrics and sometimes I dream about having a large stash like them, in reality that just doesn't work for me.  Mainly because I don't have enough storage. And the lack of storage leads to me feeling overwhelmed because of the lack of organization and fabric piled up waiting to be used.

So this is my first project in my quest to trim down my fabric stash. The scraps are the leftover pieces from my Summer Kaleidoscope Quilt. The leftover pieces were mostly half triangles so I pieced them with pieces of Kona Snow in a random pattern. And to complement with the overall improv look I quilted it with  random straight lines all over. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. And it makes me think that my little experiment will work out. 

Wish me luck as I resist the temptation of buying more fabric and try to be resourceful with what I  already have.

XX

Martha.

Summer Moments

There are many things that I love about summer but my favorite part is the time we spend in the garden. Our doggies love exploring each corner of the garden and even "help" pick the vegetables. 

How about you, are you enjoying you summer?

Happy weekend!

XX

Martha

Back to Basics: Cross Quilt

I've been in a creative mode lately. This weekend I finished a new quilt. I wanted something simple  and understated to gift to someone special who is having a birthday this week. So, I settled on a basic cross quilt. The piecing was a breeze. I think this is the quickest I've ever  finished a quilt. I quilted it with straight lines on one direction to complement the simplicity of the design and I'm so pleased with with the way it tuner out. Another of my favorite things about this quilt is the herringbone pattern of the backing fabric; which I happened to find on sale at my local fabric store. I just love when I find a good deals on large cuts of fabric, with no project in mind, and they end up working perfectly.

I really enjoyed working on this quilt and love the way it turned out. I just hope that the recipient likes it too.

Quilt Stats:

Measures: 60X60 Inches

Fabric: Kona Cotton

Have a happy week!

XX

Martha.

Knitting Finish: The Age of Brass Shawl

Happy Monday! I hope you had a lovely weekend. I'm having a bit of celebration going on here;  I finally finished my Age of Brass Shawl! After about four months of hauling around my knitting bag everywhere I went (I rarely knit at home, I do most of my knitting in the car when my husband drives), it is finally finished. Yay!

The pattern is very easy to follow and such a fun project. It is available for free on Raverly. The instructions on the pattern are for a small shawl or kerchief but I added a few more sections to make it into a shawl to cover my back. It gets chilly at the office so I thought it would be nice to wear a shawl once in a while instead of my usual cardigan.  I absolutely love the way it turned out. The yarn is Galileo from Knit Picks; a blend of Merino wool and Bamboo.  It has a beautiful drape and it feels so soft and luxurious. The color is so yummy it reminds me of raspberry jam.

I'm slowly growing my collection of handmade knit wears and it makes so happy. Plus with each project and learning new techniques to improve my knitting skills.

Now I'm off to browse Raverly in search of my next knitting project.

Have a wonderful week!

XX

Martha.

A Picture... A Moment

Picking tomatoes from our little garden.

XX

Martha.

Quilt Finish: Summer Kaleidoscope

Happy Monday! It has been a while since I posted here (or visited your blogs). Sometimes it is a bit hard to balance work, life and all the other little things in between.  But after some crazy weeks I think I'm finally finding my balance again and finding time to create. Last Saturday I finally finished this quilt that I have been working on and off since last month. Back in June when I started this quilt I had no idea of the direction I was going to go with it. I started by cutting the fabric in long strips  and sewing them together. I had just gotten a new triangle ruler so I thought I would maybe do some scrappy triangles alternating with solid ones. But after playing with the triangles on the design wall I settled on arraying the triangles to form hexagons and use Kona Snow as a background. I really like how the triangles look arranged as hexagons they remind me of the patterns you see through a Kaleidoscope. When it came to quilting it I decided to try something new: thus I settled on concentric circles. I've never done circular quilting before and I absolutely love the result. It did take a bit of time turning and turning the quilt and pushing it through the small harp space of my machine but it was totally worth it. I backed the quilt with flannel that I had in my stash which luckily coordinated really well with the top. 

I love this quilt so much. It has quickly become a favorite. Additionally the fabric was a  birthday gift from my mother-in-law. She doesn't sew so I think it is very sweet that she took the time to go fabric shopping for me so that make this quilt extra special. 

Thank you for stopping by!

*Linking up to Let's Bee Social at

Sew Fresh Quilts

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XX

Martha