Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️

I'm not Irish, but I do love green!   Today seems like a good day to stitch with green, so I'll be adding leaves to the tree on my March heart design from PinkernPunkin.


I've also been working on another PinkernPunkin design called "Shamrock Blessings."  It's really appropriate for today!  After the letters are stitched, there is one more shamrock and then the word Blessings.  I changed up the shape a little bit because of the size of my piece of fabric.  It will be more square, and may not have the same border.  But it will definitely be stitched in green!  ☘️☘️☘️



Have a wonderful Sunday!
Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.








Friday, March 15, 2024

Bits and pieces of purple...

In between starting a new project - the Pieces of My Heart QAL at Melva Loves Scraps - and working on finishing up my Stay at Home Round Robin (quilt parade starts soon!) I did sew with some purple scraps this week!

Two purple Hollow 9 blocks were hand-pieced to go along with the two red ones from February.  I still need to stitch some green ones, too.  This is definitely going to be a long term project!


I also made a couple more zipper blocks in purple to add to the collection I have.  


Just for fun, I laid all 36 blocks out on my living room floor with the purple blocks in the middle.  It's a fun, colorful group!

These blocks finish at 6x9, so right now this would be about 36 x 54.  
I'm planning to add six more blocks in the next months,
for a 7 x 6 layout, so then the quilt would be 42 x 54 .  
Since these blocks are rectangular, 
there have to be more across than down for a good size!

What have you been working on this week?
Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 






Wednesday, March 13, 2024

I Like Thursday #379 - Flowers

 Here is my flower garden in March!  It's still needing the Spring clean-up, but things are starting to grow - like tulips and grape hyacinths. 


And this is what my flower garden looks like by about mid-summer or so, or at least what I *hope* it will look like!  Every year is different in our yard, and we actually need to dig up and re-do this little garden area.


LeeAnna's question of the week is what is our favorite flower.  For me, it depends what time of year you're asking.  In the Spring it is daffodils, which I've seen are already blooming in some of your gardens.  Not here yet, though.  This is a photo from April of 2021.   

Since then I haven't had any daffodils bloom - they just seem to have disappeared!
I need to plant more bulbs this fall.

If you ask me later in the year, it is sunflowers.  We usually try to plant a few seeds every year, and sometimes we actually get them to grow!


When it's not growing season for flowers around here, I always enjoy stitching some, and right now I'm working on the March heart in Melisa's Year of Hearts SAL.  Of course, it features daffodils, so I had to stitch them first!


Hope you're having a great week!
Thanks for visiting on I Like Thursday 
hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.

 














 


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Midweek Update - a new start!

When Melva of Melva Loves Scraps announced her new QAL - Pieces of My Life - I was intrigued by the idea of sewing the story of my life into a quilt!  Since I will be turning 70 this year, it feels like the right year to take on a project like this.  And this week we're getting started!  Check out all the details at the link above if you're curious about it, too.

I am the oldest of four - three girls and a boy - and was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1954, when my dad was in the Navy.  When I was about two, my parents moved to Rochester, New York, where we lived until I graduated from high school.  My parents both grew up in Iowa, where their parents were also born and lived their whole lives.

This photo is of my mom and me when I was two years old.  Can you see my very curly hair?  


Our first block is called "Bow," and there is an adorable photo of Melva on her post here of her beautiful blonde hair all fixed up with a bow!  My hair didn't work with bows, and it was always kept short when I was little so that it would be mostly under control.  My sister was the one who got pigtails and bows with her long straight hair.  I was always jealous! 

I got started on the bow block by making and trimming a bunch of HSTs.  My plan for this quilt is to use the cream Grunge as my background fabric, the floral as my focus fabric, and various colors chosen from the floral to coordinate with it.  For this block it's a light blue batik.


It didn't take long to stitch up this first block, the Bow!


A little more work is involved - not on the block, but on writing the journal that Melva is providing to document the history of our families and our lives.  I'll get on that this week!

Sharing at Melva Loves Scraps - Pieces of My Life link-up for block #1.
And at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers.







Saturday, March 9, 2024

Slow stitching for this Sunday...

Over the last year or so, since I started cross-stitching, I've made some of Melisa's little stamp designs that are for each season.


But I haven't made one for Spring yet, and it's about time!  So I hunted around on Melisa's blog, PinkernPunkin Quilting and Stitching, and found the perfect little design.


And here's my start.  I chose different colors for the border and letters, but will stick with more similar colors for the bluebird and wheelbarrow of tulips.



Lots more to do today for my Slow Sunday Stitching









Friday, March 8, 2024

Getting started with purple...

It's always such a pleasure to pull out the new color of the month and start digging through the scraps and stash!  That's what I did this week with purple.

Squares and HSTs for a patchwork heart block, 
and odd shaped pieces for crumb blocks.

And, in fact, I did get the patchwork heart sewn up, with lots of fun purples in it.



There are four of these so far, plus three of the alternate chain blocks that I'm also making in the color of the month.   I haven't started the purple one yet, but those blocks will be on the list for this weekend!


Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.








 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

I Like Thursday #378

I decided it was time to stitch something for Spring, so when Melisa shared the March heart for her Year of Hearts, that was the perfect choice!  I'm not very far along on it yet, but started with the daffodils.


It's been a good week here - my mom is back home in her little apartment, Mike and I were able to play golf, and our property taxes are paid!  All good!

There were elk at the golf course the other day!  This is the one we play most often - right in the middle of town.  This is not my photo, but was shared by a friend who lives right on the golf course.  I'm just wondering how these guys crossed the busy streets to get to this area!


Have you read any of Marie Benedict's books?  She likes to write about the hidden stories of historical women.  I've been reading The Personal Librarian, about Belle Greene, a young woman, just in her 20s! who became the librarian for J. P. Morgan in the early 1900s.  It's pretty interesting!  


Our question of the week is to describe something we experience with our senses every Spring.  My favorite sensory experience in the Spring is the blooming trees.  I look forward to the lilacs and our Spring Snow Crabapple and the many other trees and bushes in our area that have beautiful blooms.  The beautiful colors, the scent of the blooms, cutting some to bring in the house.  It won't be until early April that we get these beautiful blooms, but it is worth the wait!


Have a great day!

Thanks for visiting on I Like Thursday hosted by LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color.