And the Winner Is...

The time has come to pick the winner of the book,

75 Fun Fat-Quarter Quilts!

Drum roll please!

Rat-a-tat-tat

or

since Christmas is 2 days away

Pah Rum Pum Pum Pum!

And the Winner is:

Bonnie!

Congratulations!

I will be contacting you by email to get

your mailing address.  Bonnie liked Big Red

and Garden Paths.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the

giveaway and even if you didn't win on the

blog tour I hope you will consider buying 

this book.

Also, I have a lecture and trunk show for this

book, so if your quilt group, guild or shop would 

like to see the quilts in person and see how easily

 I made them, with lots of tips and hints, then 

please contact me at:

ellen.americanhomestead@gmail.com

All the best,

Ellen

A New Book Project!

75 Fun Fat Quarter Quilts

An exciting new book has just been released.

It is called 75 Fun Fat Quarter Quilts and many

designers have written chapters and I am happy

to be one of them.  My chapter is called 

One Simple Block

because all the quilts are made from, yes, you 

guessed it, one simple block, The Contrary Wife.

The quilt shown above is called  Au Contraire.

This quilt started with this sweet fat quarter

bundle because remember, this book is about

quilts that can be made from fat quarters.  And

all the quilts in my chapter are so easy to make

because the blocks are made from 4 half square 

triangles and 5 squares and you sew them into

a simple 9-patch block.  What makes this chapter

so interesting is the eight quilts that I designed 

all look so different by changing the colors or

changing the way the block was placed in the

quilts.  And just to get you a bit more excited,

I'm going to give you a sneak peek at the quilts.

This is Falling Leaves, a great Fall themed quilt

but you could use the same idea with any fat 

quarter bundle that you may love and it would

 look beautiful.

This is Chain Link, a completely different look

using white, red and black fabric.  This color

grouping is the favorite of my daughter Katie

Rose so I have lots of these fabrics in my stash.

This is Big Red, those of you that know me know

I love stars in quilts, they are such a traditional,

iconic look.  But this quilt looks bold and modern

by using bright, bold colors.

This quilt is called Magnificent Valour, I thought 

it would be perfect for those of you that make all

of those wonderful Quilts of Valor.

This is Ups and Downs, as you can see, again, I

have lots of red, black and white in my stash.  I 

think this would also be great if you did each row

in a different color.

This is Garden Paths, it reminded me of a show

garden with lots of flower beds surrounded by

grassy paths that meet with a fountain at the 

intersections.

This is Candy Garland,  I thought of strings of

wrapped candies when I designed this one.  It 

would also be fun in Christmas fabrics.

And this is just one of many, many chapters from

all sorts of talented designers.  So there you have it, 

just a snippet of the chapter I wrote, after all, we want

 you to run out and buy the book so you can see the full 

designs for yourself.  And remember, this is all from

One Simple Block!

To win a free copy of this book* please leave a comment

on this blog post, let me know which of the quilts in my

chapter is your favorite or you can just say hi!

  Remember to include your email address with your 

comment so I can reach the lucky winner.  On Wednesday, 

December 23 I will select a winner using a random 

number generator. 

*If your address is  in the United States you will receive a 

hard copy of the book.  A winner from outside the US will 

receive a free e-book version.

So many people can get to know about this new book we

are having a blog tour.  Stop by these other sites to see

what some of the other designers have to say about their 

chapters.  There are still a few more days of the tour!

12/14 C&T Publishing blog

12/15 Jera Brandvig

12/16 Melissa Cory

12/17 Kate Colleran

12/18 Sue Pfau

12/19 Tiffany Jenkins

12/20 Ellen Murphy

12/21 Amanda Castor

12/22 Jo Kramer

All the best!   ~ Ellen

Update!  A winner has been chosen for 

this giveaway.  It was Bonnie.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Happy Birthday American Homestead ~ 5 years!

It is the American Homestead blog's 5th birthday!

It is easy to remember since it is my birthday too.

Five years ago I started this blog to chronicle the

changes I expected to have in my life.  My kids were

growing up and living at school and I was suddenly

faced with reinventing myself.  At the time I had no

idea what would happen in the future but in five

short years so many things have changed.  I started

a business and from that I have written a few books.

In the last five years I have circumnavigated the world

twice and had many other travel adventures as well.

I have watched my kids grow into interesting, smart

adults and I have celebrated 25 years of happy marriage 

with my Mr. Wonderful.  

Stay tuned for new adventures to come.

Oh Paris...

My heart is with Paris.

Majestic Autumn

I guess I have some catching up to do.  As many

of you know this has been a big travel year for me.

I think I have been away as much as I have been

home.  Between mid-May and mid-September, I

traveled over 50,000 air miles and then there were

the additional thousands of miles by car, train,bus,

boats, bikes and elephants. 

The last time I posted on this blog it was still hot

Summer.  Since then I have been busy as always,

just not blogging about it.  In September I went 

to Alaska for a big quilt retreat and I will be writing

about that soon.  Just after getting back from that

trip my laptop got very sick and had to be sent away

to the hospital.  Sadly all my data was lost including

all my photos.  I am working to get them back and I

will post about the retreat once I have photos again.

When I got back from Alaska I decided I had to 

attend to some chores around my house before

the cold weather set in.  I spent a day painting

my garden shed with primer and in trying to reach

the roof I ended up doing some interesting gymnastic

moves while hanging from the top of the ladder and

I ended up seriously injuring my back.  For quite a 

while every time I tried to move I would actually 

scream, it was very embarrassing.  

Once I got moving about a little better I got to work

and made 7 quilt tops for a new book I am involved

in that will come out in December.  I wrote a chapter

of the book and my chapter alone has 8 different quilt

designs.  I am working on a new lecture about my

chapter in this book.  Here is the book if you are 

interested in pre-ordering: 

 http://www.ctpub.com/75-fun-fat-quarter-quilts/

Now it is on to the quilting and binding of these

quilts.  Perfect work for this time of year as the days

are getting colder.

I took a nice long hike in the woods today and thought 

I'd share some photos from this beautiful Fall day.

Shelling on Sanibel Island

Just call me Shellin' Ellen!

Last week Mr. Wonderful and I celebrated our

25th Wedding Anniversary.  I wanted to do 

something special to mark the occasion and  at

first I thought we would go out for a nice dinner.

The more I thought about it though, that didn't

seem to be special enough to mark such a big

milestone.  As I was travelling all over the world

earlier this summer, I would fall into bed exhausted

and talk to Wonderful on the phone each night and

ask him to take me to the beach for our next trip.

Something relaxing and laid back.  A big anniversary

seemed like a good reason to head to Sanibel Island.

Well, it was laid back... I'm not sure if you would call

 it relaxing.

I'd have that poor guy out on the beach at dawn 

each day so I could have an early look at what 

washed up overnight.

We got up close and personal with the local

wildlife.  We saw dolphins and manatees and

all sorts of shore birds and an eagle flew right

over us one morning.

I would walk for hours down the nearly deserted

beaches.  I was lost in my thoughts listening to the

waves crash on the shore and the tinkling of the 

shells as the waves went back out to sea that sounded

like the most beautiful wind chimes you have ever

heard.

The best reason to come to Sanibel is for the

shells.  This is what I found in just the first day

and a half.  I especially love the beautifully 

colored calico scallops.  While most teenagers

were rebelling against their parents, I was traveling

with mine.  My Mum and I would spend weeks

collecting those beautiful scallops and finding so 

many now makes me miss her even more but at

least I have happy memories of times gone by.

On our third day at Blind Pass Sanibel beach, we

arrived early and I was noticing the shell line was

being pulled out onto the sand bar,  I worried that

maybe the sand bar was weakening and there could

be a rip current.  I went for a walk for a few hours

 and when I got back the area that looked strange

that morning had become a mountain of shells.  It

was as if it was a volcano and the lava was shells.

The really odd thing about this was it happened

right in front of where we had set up camp for the

day.  I think the mermaids got together and said

Ellen has come here for a big celebration, let's 

give her a present from the sea.  And by the next

day it was gone, all washed back out to sea.

(I'm so sorry I didn't get a photo of the mountain!

We had a great time on our little getaway.  Oh, how

I miss living near the beach.  We also got to catch a

few terrific sunsets.

Too often I see people watch the sun set into the

water and then they take off.  Then they miss the 

after show, always wait for the after show!  That's

when you can often see the best color.

Can, Can, Canning!

This weekend I pulled out the canning equipment 

from a back shelf in my laundry room.  I haven't 

used it in years!

I didn't grow up with much canning in my family.

If we came home from Bramhall Woods with a pail

filled with blackberries and the scratches to show 

for the effort, my Mum would take pity and whip

up a batch of jam but it wasn't something that 

happened on a regular basis.

Her brother on the other hand was mad for gardening

and always put up some of the fruits of his labor.  Uncle

Ed would make the best zucchini pickles and once we 

said to him, "Unc, the zucchini is great but we fight over

the onions at the bottom of the jar."  Wouldn't you know,

the next season he put up jars of just the onions.  We 

would pull off a piece of Italian bread, spread it with

some brie and top it with the pickled onions ~ it was

heaven!

When I moved to the Midwest twenty-five years ago

(25!), I was in my Country Living phase.  I dreamed 

of living in an old farmhouse and going down to the

cellar to shelves lines with jars of things I canned 

from my garden.  Of course, I didn't know how to can

but I was moving to the Midwest and thought I would 

learn.  About 30 minutes away from where I lived at 

the time was Muncie, Indiana, the home of the Ball

Corporation, the canning jar people.  I marched into

their corporate office building one day and admired 

all the old jars in their lobby and asked where do I

find out information about canning?  They looked at

me like I had two heads.  They had no idea.  I told them

they should...

I had to teach myself through books and I generally

stuck to just fruits.  I would go to the strawberry farm

every June and pick 30 pounds of strawberries and make

jam.  When the kids were little, we had friends who 

lived in the country who had grapes on their property.

We would fill the station wagon with boxes of grapes and

go home and make a big mess and enough grape jelly to

last us all year.

Then life got too busy for canning but luckily we had our

Uncle Jamie who was a mad scientist in his kitchen and 

he whips up all sorts of chutneys and pickles and preserves.

Every Thanksgiving he comes with boxes filled with goodies

so we really relied on his delicious efforts.  

When we were at his house after the big trip this summer he

served us a snack that used his Pike County Tomato Preserves.

Kate and I were crazy for it and we said we'd make some for 

ourselves this summer.

It is tomato season in our neck of the woods and this

was the weekend to "put up" some preserves.  I went 

to the Farmer's Market at Minnetrista yesterday

morning which coincidentally is where the Ball Brothers

lived years ago, their mansions still stand on the property.

The first table I went to had a display of Ball canning items

and the ladies were making Bread and Butter pickles. 

They gave me some good info on where to find the best

stores with the largest selection of canning items.  We

picked up some tomatoes from another vendor and also 

stopped at a farm stand near our house.

I made two batches of Pike County Tomato Preserves.

The recipe calls for tomatoes, an orange, a lemon, sugar,

salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Mine aren't as good as

Uncle Jamie's but I'm happy for my first attempt.

We like to eat ours on a thin cracker spread with whipped

cream cheese and topped with the preserves.  Num!

In the stores I was happy to see a big selection of

canning supplies.  There must be a resurgence of 

interest for major retailers to give up that much shelf

space to canning.  I had to take home these little jar

toppers.  They are made to look like a fabric and 

ribbon top that we have all used at one time or

another but they are made of silicon so they keep

your jams or jellies fresh in the fridge since it keeps

the jar airtight.  

I'm already thinking about zucchini pickles...

Asia Through the Back Gate and The House of Waris

With such a limited time in Istanbul we knew 

our days would be busy.  We started the day 

with a beautiful Turkish breakfast.  Mr. Wonderful

and I had stayed at this hotel the first time we were

in Istanbul.  We told Midi about it and he stayed 

here the next time he was in town.  It is a small hotel, 

the rooms are small but nice but the reason we stay

here is for the breakfast, it is fantastic.  It is such a 

spread that our first time we stayed here we had to

make two trips to the buffet just to be able to taste 

everything.

This is the honey dispenser,  I'd love to

have this at home.

But enough with the food, we had sites to see.

The first stop was the Hagia Sophia,  I told my

kids that the first time I entered the vast room

I gasped and I hoped it would have the same 

effect on them.  Sadly, there was construction

scaffolding on one side so that took away from

the soaring impact of the space.

We could still enjoy the beauty of the architecture.

And enjoy the beautiful mosaics.

After leaving the Hagia Sophia we strolled

over to the Spice Market and stocked up on

some of our favorites.

And who could pass up the Turkish Delight?

Afterwards, it was time for lunch and we decided

to go to Asia.  Asia you may ask?  Yes, Istanbul is 

the only city located on two continents and it is 

only a short ferry ride away.  

We arrived in Kadikoy on the Asian side of the

Bosphorus and I was looking for a particular

restaurant.  We hiked up and down winding lanes

trying to find it.  Locals were happy to help us, one

young woman google mapped it and even called 

the restaurant to confirm the directions.  

When we finally arrived I told the man at the

door that I had read that some said it was the

best restaurant in Istanbul ~ he countered with,

oh no, the world.  We weren't disappointed.

There were no tables outside though and since

it was such a nice day we wanted to eat outside, he

said no problem, we have a few restaurants on 

this street and all the food is the same.  He took 

us over to one of the other restaurants and gave

us a description of each of the dishes.  The food

was fabulous.

We walked off lunch with a stroll back through 

the winding streets to the port to catch a ferry

to Karakoy on the other side of the Golden Horn.

From there we took the funicular or mountain

tram as they call it and walked up the hill until we

reached the Pera Palace Hotel.

The Pera Palace is a grand old hotel and it

was especially interesting to us since we are

Agatha Christie fans and this is where she 

wrote Murder on the Orient Express.

The grand tea salon was being used for a private

party so we headed out to the terrace.  Kate and I 

headed inside to find the wash room and came into 

the tea salon as the turbaned and bearded Waris

Ahluwalia of the House of Waris was giving a 

speech about creativity and our need to take time 

for tea.  Waris is a some time actor, designer and

now I suppose tea peddler.  This event was part of

Istancool, an international arts and culture festival.

The crowd had gathered in the middle of the room

and Kate and I were stuck in the crowd so we stayed 

for the speech.

Back on the terrace we enjoyed some lovely

beverages and desserts.  Following this we

headed back to the hotel for a rest.

Later in the evening we went back to 

Sultanahmet for dinner.  On our way 

to find a restaurant we came upon a

Whirling Dervish performance.

Brennan chose the restaurant this evening, he

wanted one of the places where you sit on the

floor on pillows.

Thankfully, the food was good too.

Then we stumbled back to the hotel and

fell into our beds.  A grand day in a grand city.