Sew The Library: Patchwork Pot Holder

For our first Sew The Library link up I decided to make something from one of my favorite books: Zakka Style. I think it is one of the first craft books I ever bought and I love every single project in it.  It is hard to pick just one. But I decided to choose the most practical at the moment. My pot holders were in such disrepair, so I went ahead and made a couple to replace my old ones. I really like their round shape, scrappiness and the linen (my favorite fabric). I absolutely love the way they turned out that now I'm afraid to put them to use and get them dirty.  Or maybe I should just make a few more so I have a good supply of pretty pot holders to use and adorn my kitchen. 

This month's link up is hosted by Heidi @ Fabric Mutt.

I hope you would join us sharing your projects that you made from a book or a magazine. The link up will remain open until the end of the month. 

Have a wonderful week!

XO

Martha.

A Picture... A Moment

My favorite part of winter... having these beauties on my table. Cymbidium orchids from my little garden.

I hope you are having a lovely week.

XO

Martha.

Envelope Bag

Happy New Year! I hope 2015 brings you peace, love and lots of crafting adventures. 

I decided to start the year being a bit more organized so I made me this bag to keep my date book and stationary handy. It is a very simple envelope construction and it came together very quickly. Basically after I quilted a long piece of fabric I joined the sides together with the bias tape and added a magnetic closure. Sometimes simple finishes are so satisfying and so far it is helping me to keep my days organized. 

Wishing you a wonderful week!

XO

Martha

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.