our weekend was spent:

baking chocolate chip cookies - good ol' nestle toll house classic

is still my favorite. chewy in the middle and golden brown on the bottom.

finishing up some knitting projects.

the pattern for my springtime bandit 

can be found at kelbourne woolens - 

a great collection of patterns (a lot of them free)and beautiful yarns. 

i especially like the acadia line of yarn in blackberry, granite, and asparagus.

how was your weekend spent?

just a reminder that things are starting to get busy around here. i will be back on wednesday with a new block for my 'starry skies' sampler quilt. if you want to see all of the posts about my new sampler quilt just click here and you can start your starry sewing, too! i will also be writing the first post in another new series here at the homestead on friday featuring a quick and fun project for your home. hint: it involves minimal sewing, string, and you can hang it anywhere! see you on wednesday.

starry skies sampler :: block no. 1

and here we go! with the first starry skies block pieced and pressed, sitting pretty on my sewing room table, i can feel the sampler excitement starting. i have chosen to use julia rothman's collection miscellany by cloud9 fabrics as my main focus - i am hoping that such a strong common thread between all of the stars will lead to a quilt that i feel is cohesive and not muddled. 

(if you didn't already know my enthusiasm for this fabric, see here and here.)

i found the tutorial for this 'sunshine star' from my fabric obsession and felt pretty confident that it would be easy enough to execute while still being something fresh and new to me. this is after a few failed attempts at scaling up a block from farmer's wife. psst, have you seen this awesome quilt along hosted by amanda and angela? i especially like this color scheme, these blocks, this and this and especially this.

i digress:

since this would be my first star on a long list of others, i chose to cut into my two favorite prints: 'petal pusher', a delicate pink and blue print, and 'nethercote' which turns out to be a dream for fussy-cutting! i added to that a dark grey solid from my stash (i honestly have no idea where that grey came from as i am its 'second home') and a solid white remnant from a sheet. cutting and piecing all of those little triangles turned out to be an easier task than i first thought it might be.

and now i have my first block of 'starry skies' completed! i'll be excited to see how this star looks accompanied with the other, sometimes bolder prints that are also part of this collection. 

and a note on blocks coming together, so to speak: i plan on making stars in various sizes. for instance, this star measures 12.5", but i will be making some stars from farmer's wife that only measure 6". i am hoping to find a way to make different size blocks work together - this is my challenge to myself.

see you next wednesday for block no. 2 - in the mean time, go make a sunrise star!

starry skies sampler quilt

i am making myself an on-going list of goals for this year - i started shortly after new years with a list of basics. now, i would like to add a goal no. 5:

add more projects, ideas and inspiration to this space. 

join (and potentially host?) one or two sew-alongs, 

feature a project for the home or babes weekly, 

share a variety of projects in all most of their coming-together-stages.

i have plans ladies and gents, plans i tell you. and i fully intend to come through for you, but also for myself. this will be the year that i prove to myself that i've got it. what that 'it' is, i haven't figured out, but when i get closer to figuring that out in 2012, i'll be sure to let you in on what i find.

and so in keeping with goal no. 5, i'll start a new feature today!

i figure i better start this out with a bang, what with creating a new fixture for the blog being one of the primary plans for my newest goal. so here goes: i have a confession to make. i have never been a fan of sampler quilts. i usually find them a bit stuffy, a bit country, a bit traditional for my taste. but lately i have seen quilt-alongs, sewing bees, and tutorials that add a bit more of a modern twist to the idea of a sampler. so i guess you can easily say that they're growing on me, slowly but surely.

and in keeping with the theme of challenging myself, i've decided to feature a new 'starry sky' quilt block every week. these quilt blocks will eventually come together to form a sampler of some sort - what that means i haven't quite decided, but maybe we can decide together! i won't be posting tutorials on how to make the blocks (for now) - instead i will write about my inspiration, my process, and the sources that helped me put together each block.

it is not my intention for this to be a structured sew-along, although please feel free to follow along if you like! i am hoping that this little series will serve as an inspiration source for you, as well as a resource of sorts for all kinds of star quilt blocks. so grab a button for your blog and sew away with me!

<center><a href="http://heartbreakhomestead.blogspot.com/search/label/starry%20skies%20sampler" target="_blank"><img alt="starry skies sampler quilt" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7027/6772281907_19a1530448_m.jpg" /></a></center>

...

and just a little sneak-peak of the block i'll be posting about tomorrow:

she's a beauty, huh?

our weekend was spent: 

getting and getting over sniffly, stuffy noses - collecting and sorting eggs - pounding on the piano that has lived in our new house for a long time - reaping the benefits of a rooster who lived a happy life but was not meant to have neighbors - sewing black and white, green, and blue triangles into stars for a certain baby boy - enjoying our first dusting of snow back in maine - knitting and knitting and knitting some more.

since i'm a little late for the 2011 recap and farewell (oops, christmas and a big move across states will do that to you), i thought i might start this new year off with some goals instead. but just for the sake of a little reminiscing, why not share a few polaroids from last year - a year full of new beginnings, exciting family news, struggle and triumph.

goal one is fairly obvious: take time to write in this space more often. share new projects of both the fabric and knitting variety. share gardening experiences as well as family goings on.

goal two is to branch out. begin (and finish) new projects. write more. challenge myself.

goal three could be to keep a clean house, cook a well rounded dinner every night, don't sneak any chocolate, blah-di-blah...instead i will make a goal to adventure. if showing frankie something exciting and new means leaving the dishes in the sink, well, i am just fine with that. if i don't get around to it today, it will still be waiting for me tomorrow, but that quilting inspiration might fly out the window. embrace and adventure.

and now some pictures from the new year - from a new house that is full of light and life, from our very favorite state in the union where we will prepare to grow and flourish in 2012.