A finish to share...

This week I finished the January mini heart quilt for my new quilt display holder - added the border, did some machine quilting, and some hand quilting around the heart, and bound it with snowy white!

After that was done, I went back to the quilting on Woven Wreaths!  I have quilted around each of the monthly designs, plus the plaid squares that are in between them.  Now I'm stitching around the outside edge of the whole panel.  

I'm about 3/4 of the way around, so there's definitely 

some left for my Slow Sunday Stitching.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

 

Playing with Pink!

A pretty pink sunrise - good inspiration!

When the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge year begins, it's hard to resist getting out the scraps for the new color.  This month it's pink!  I think I've got a little of everything from salmon and coral to bright pink.

For a quick and easy block this year I'm making these quarter star blocks, so I whipped up a few in some pinks.

My typical background fabric tends to be whatever I can grab out of the low volume bin - and some work better than others!  That one on the bottom right is kind of dark, on the gray side.  I think I picked the wrong pink to go with it!

Then, while working on quilting Pieces of My Life, I started wondering about choosing a consistent background fabric for this project - and what if it was a dark blue? 

I do have scraps of the blue Grunge that I used for the sashing here

that I could play with.

I like this!

Something to think about.

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

 

 

I Like Thursday #418

Happy Thursday, friends!  This week between Christmas and New Year's has been pretty quiet at our house, which is perfectly fine with me.  There's been lots of time to read, sew, and relax.  We celebrated the New Year with some of our favorite champagne - at 5:00!!!

We splurged on a couple champagne flutes 

(at the dollar store!) for our new holiday tradition.

We enjoyed the "Call the Midwife" holiday special.  It originally aired on our local PBS station on Christmas Day, but I forgot about it.  It turned out that we could watch it on the PBS app anytime we wanted to.  You have to like that!

This was my last book finish for 2024, and it was a good one.  The main character is the detective Renee Ballard, who runs the Cold Case squad.  Harry Bosch - the longtime main character of many of Michael Connelly's books has a smaller role, but an interesting one. 

I've been keeping track of the books I read every year since 2017, and this year's total is 53.  That's not as many as some years, but still averaging over one book a week.  My highest year total was 74 books in 2020 - I wonder why?!  😜

January 1st is always my day for taking down the Christmas tree and getting all the Christmas decorations put away.  January's decor for the little entryway chest is snowmen, and here's how it looks so far.  The heart mini quilt that will hang here with the snowmen is almost done - hope to share that on Sunday.

Have a great day!

Joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

 

Looking ahead for 2025

Happy New Year!

Although I don't generally make a formal list of goals for my new year in quilting, I do like to take a look at what's carrying over from the previous year and what I might like to start new on in the coming year.   I have one big 2024 project that I'm right in the midst of trying to finish up - Pieces of My Life - a QAL hosted by Melva of Melva Loves Scraps.  I joined in on this one because 2024 was my 70th birthday year, and making a quilt was a fun way to celebrate!  It has been constructed and now quilted in sections, and I'm quilting section 4 right now!  Whoop whoop!

Sometimes projects are still on the list from a year ago (or longer!) and that is the case this year.  I have two unfinished quilt tops still hanging in the to-be-quilted closet that have been around for multiple years!   I have batting and wide backing fabric ready to go, just have to do that (least favorite) step of basting the layers together.

Masala Box and Rainbow Jungle

I'm carrying two sets of blocks over into the new year - one is the Patchwork Hearts, a 2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  These blocks are ready to sew into a top.  I'm sure there will be blocks for a new RSC project under construction this year as well.  I can't seem to go into the new year without a new project!

The other set of blocks started as a challenge to myself to see how many crumb blocks I could make out of my blue scrap bin during the RSC blue month back in 2022.  I ended up with twenty of them, which I then made into "wrapped candy" blocks - something I had seen on another blog.  Here's how how they look at this point - just sewn together as is, they would make a small top measuring 40 x 50.  I'm wondering if this needs some sashing and cornerstones in between the blocks - a blue sashing might be pretty.  

There are at least two QALs that I leave room in my sewing schedule for - the Stay at Home Round Robin which is starting soon, and Sandra's (mmmquilts) QAL that usually begins in April.   I've enjoyed both of those the last few years, so there's no reason not to join in again, right?!

And I know there will be small projects that I work on throughout the year, too.  I'll participate in Joyful Quilter's Table Scraps Challenge each month, plus I am planning to make mini quilts out of the Year of Hearts embroidery designs from PinkernPunkin that I stitched up last year.  Here's the January heart under construction right now!

I think it will be a busy new year in my sewing room!

What kind of plans do you have? 

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Quilting Jet Girl's 2025 Planning Party

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday. 

More with blue...

I was a good girl this week and stuck with the two slow stitching projects I shared last week.  That means there was some good progress on each one!

First, the salt box house from last Sunday:

And this - showing my progress as of today:

It's looking like a house!

And a few more sections quilted on the Woven Wreaths piece, too.  I started by quilting around the four center designs (and the little gridded squares next to them) and now I'm moving to the outside ones.  

There's plenty more to do on both projects - plenty for some slow Sunday stitching and more.  Sharing at Kathy's Quilts.

Best of 2024

As so often is the case, it's hard to believe that we are just about to the end of 2024!  I always enjoy taking a look back at my favorite finishes, and joining in with Meadow Mist Designs for the "Best of 2024" link-up.  

Quilts made in a rainbow of colorful scraps have been a favorite in my sewing room for a long time now, and 2024 saw plenty of that kind of project.  I love participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at SoScrappy, and usually have several quilt projects on the go throughout the year for the purpose of sewing with scraps.  

One of my favorite finishes of the year was Rainbow Bowties.  I worked on the blocks throughout 2023, but finished the quilt in 2024.  This quilt was hand-pieced and hand quilted!

I've also been participating in Joyful Quilter's Table Scraps Challenge for several years, and finished something every month of the year for it.  I think my favorite was also a February project.  I just kept sewing together strips of red until I ended up with this fun placemat!

February Table Scraps

Sandra at mmmquilts has a quilt along each year beginning in April which is fun to join in with.  I have always loved her designs, so the finished quilts are on my favorites list every year.  This year's quilt is particularly special because I bought the fabric for it at Hancock's of Paducah while on a trip there in early April.  Sandra calls this design Luminous Layers, but I called it Paducah Stars.

Another blogging friend, Carole at From My Carolina Home, frequently has quilt alongs that I've participated in, and this year she called it Fall Fortnite.  The theme was autumn and Thanksgiving designs, but I made mine as an ode to sunflowers!  It's definitely a favorite finish of the year.  This combined a little sunflower embroidery design from Melisa at PinkernPunkin with a sunflower print I had bought some yardage of on a trip in August.

Sunflowers

When I retired from teaching ten(!) years ago now, I made it a goal to try to contribute to more charities with my quilting.  I've sent lots of quilt blocks to various drives over the years, but I'm now trying to send finished quilts.  Scrappy rainbow quilts are good for this purpose!  This year I managed one donation finish which will go to Many Hands and Many Hearts, started by Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  

All Zipped Up!  

It's fun to go back through my posts from throughout the year and choose some favorites.  Thanks for coming along for this trip down Quilt Memory Lane!

Sharing at Meadow Mist Designs for the Best of 2024 link-up 

and at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Merry Christmas!

from the Little Penguin house to yours!

Wishing you a day that you get to spend in your favorite way, 

whether busy or quiet!

Younger son and I baked some cut out sugar cookies over the weekend.  They're our favorite for this time of year.  So much so that I had put a few in the freezer to save them for Christmas Day dessert!

I made us some new cloth napkins for our Christmas dinner.  These are made from my favorite napkin tutorial, found here.  Over the years I've made many of these - two fat quarters make two napkins and they are reversible.   I really wanted to make four this time, though, so I bought a half yard of each print.  (Joann's was having a really good sale on the holiday prints - I think I paid $4 total!)

I love the cardinal print!

I enjoyed this book this week.  It takes place on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, with lots of interesting characters.

LeeAnna's question of the week is about a favorite Christmas gift we were given as a child.   One year my sister and I each wanted a Tressy doll.  Do you remember those?  Their hair grew, and you could play with it and make different hairdos.   My memory is fuzzy on this, but I think at some point I decided to take Tressy off my list because I didn't think our parents would get her for us.   Somehow I still got one, though - lucky me!

Merry Christmas!  Hope you got everything on your list!

Linking up at Quiltfabrication for Midweek Makers and at

The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss, and

Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.