Quilting

Like many quilters and crafters, I have a tendency to jump around between projects.  Especially since I retired from teaching and have more time to sew, as well as see new patterns and projects I would like to try.  Sometimes that means a quilt finish gets put on the back burner for awhile.  That has certainly been the case for Patchwork Hearts.  These blocks were made during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2024!

I slowly sewed them into rows and began quilting in 2025.  I wanted to try a quilt-as-you-go finish, building on what I learned from the Pieces of My Life QAL that I participated in in 2024-25.  But, it seems to be months in between time spent working on the quilting - which means the quilt is still not finished.  Taking some inspiration from Kate at Life in Pieces, I'm going to try dedicating some time to this quilt each week until it is finally finished this year!

Two days of quilting this past week helped finish up row 3 which is the center row of the quilt.

On to row 4 this next week.  And, to honor pink month, here is the pink heart, all quilted!

In other sewing-related news, I've been successful at using up the partial spools of thread that I discovered back in January.  I remember that I was so embarrassed about how many there were that at the time I didn't photograph them or count them.  But here are the 10 that I've used up and the others bagged up by color that are waiting to be used up next!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

I Like Thursday #480

One of my favorite events of the year was this week.  "Loveland Loves to Read" is our city's One Book program.  Every year my book club reads the chosen book and then we get to attend the author talk event, along with many other readers from around the city.  This year's book was The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon, and she was an excellent speaker!  

Younger son has purchased a "smart telescope" and we are fascinated by what he can do with it.  Among other things, he got this great photograph of the moon the other night.

I decided to draw out the kite blocks that are needed for the stars in Sandra's Spring QAL so that I could paper-piece them.  I had to start by making some decisions about what fabric goes where, so I did that in my graph paper notebook.  I know a lot of people use their computers for this, but there's something very satisfying about doing it the "old-fashioned way," lol!

And my paper-piecing worked!   I need a few more of these, but they shouldn't take too long.

Did you know that Saturday is National Telephone Day?  LeeAnna's question of the week is about telephones and how we interact with them.   I have an iPhone and I use it for the basic things - phone calls, texting, maps.  I have some grocery apps on there for digital coupons, and then that's about it.  When I want to do other online things - email, blogging, reading - I use my Samsung tablet.  It's like a cross between a phone and a laptop - easier to see what things say, but lighter than a laptop to carry around!

Thanks for visiting on I Like Thursday!

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

Midweek Update

Block #6 for Melva's Little House sew-along came out last Thursday, so I worked on that over the weekend.  The center is called the Snowflake block because book 6 in the series is The Long Winter.  It's made with lots of little half square triangles, and I was very careful to lay them out and sew them together in the correct orientation!

Then the log cabin surround was added, strip by strip.  

And we're up to six blocks now!  Looking at all the blocks together, I'm seeing that I used more orange in the first three (top blocks) and more turquoise in the second three.  I'll have to add some more orange in block 4!

The step of adding the log cabin strips to the center block needs lots of leader/enders in between, so I sewed sashing and borders onto the Spool Love blocks and turned them into a little mini quilt top.  I'm working on a backing for it now.

Sharing at Melva Loves Scraps for the block 6 link-up

and at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

Confused...

We're still working on Spring here at the Little Penguin house.

But outside, Mother Nature is a bit confused!

This was Friday.

So, just to complicate things a little more, why not start a Summer project, lol!  This is the header of Melisa's Summer stitch-along at PinkernPunkin.  I started the borders on another piece of cloth, but realized I didn't like how it was looking, so I started over with the header.  Who can resist a U that looks like a slice of watermelon and a sunflower?!  Definitely not me!

I'll get back to the borders after I finish this top section.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Super Scrappy!

Hello from the Little Penguin house!

I have a scrappy placemat in pink to share today!  I started this month with dumping out the scraps from the pink bin and this was the photo.

There was even an already made block!

So, as I do each month, I just kept sewing and trimming and adding more until I had some crumb slabs that would make the right size for a placemat.

There were even a few leftover quarter star blocks in pink!

Once I had my desired 12.5 x 16.5 size, I layered it up and quilted with a square spiral.  That was fun!  Nothing marked, just chose a spot to begin with a tiny square, and then kept going round and round.

Remember the dots I used to bind the red placemat last month?  Well, there are more of them, and these on pink looked like a good choice for this month's finish.

Voila!

And here's the rainbow!

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 #479

 I love Earl and Opal, of "Pickles!"  Do you read them?

I didn't sleep very well last night, so I hope to have a naportunity today. 😜

Thinking of waking up in the morning - LeeAnna has asked us to describe our morning routine.  I am an early riser - rarely sleep past 6 am.  I think that's a function of getting up so early for work for so many years.  I don't mind being the first one up, though.  I turn on the coffee pot, get that first sip, and spend some quiet time reading the news and my favorite bloggers.

After that, most days we live by the do "whatever we want, whenever we want" 

retired people life style, lol!

We bought a new thistle feeder to try to attract the goldfinches once again, and we finally got one.  We were so happy to see this guy and he hung out for a long time, too.  He looked like he was just getting his summer colors coming in.

I was looking for a new mystery series to read, and saw that the latest book by Tana French has just come out, and it's the third book in a trilogy.  So I thought it would be good to start at the beginning of the trilogy, and I'm liking it.  These books take place in Ireland, but the main character is a retired police detective from Chicago.  Of course he gets involved in a mystery in Ireland!

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

Midweek Update

I was in the mood to start something new this week, so I did!  Last summer, after participating in The Crafty Quilter's Orange Peel QAL, I won a prize package that included this charm pack of Tilda, Country Memories.

When I saw the free quilt pattern offered in the Primrose Cottage newsletter last week, Spool Love, I thought it would be a fun one to use the charm pack for.

So far, I've made three spools and the heart block.   The heart block needed two 3.5 x 6.5 inch rectangles, so I made those out of four of the charm squares.   Sweet and fun!

A couple other new patterns/projects have caught my attention, too.

For participating in this year's Stay at Home Round Robin, I was the lucky winner of a pattern from Sew Fresh Quilts, and I chose her Hummingbird pattern.   I think this could be a fun Rainbow Scrap Challenge project!

Thank you, Lorna!

And the other one - Sandra at mmmquilts hosts a QAL every spring, and I've participated for quite a few years in a row now.  You can see this year's quilt right here.  So far, I've just played with a fabric pull.  I think the first block comes out this Friday.

Plenty to work on this week!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

At Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

And at mmmquilts to share my fabric pull for Sandra's QAL.