Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

I Like Thursday #338

LeeAnna has declared the month of June to be ice cream month for I Like Thursdays, and I can get on board with that!  The question for this week is - what's your favorite ice cream flavor?  Well, that's an easy one!

I don't get it very often anymore, but when we do go to Baskin Robbins, that is what I order.  Hmmm... it must be time for a little ice cream field trip!  Or buy some and bring it home - then there could be more than one bowl! 

I was googling Jamoca Almond Fudge to find out how long it's been around, and while I didn't get that question answered, I did find this article about BR's co-founder, Irvine Robbins, who died in 2008.  Apparently my favorite flavor was also his!

Over the long weekend, we had a chance to do a little wandering at our favorite local trail areas.  At one, we found lots of yellow-headed blackbirds, a favorite bird of ours to look for this time of year.  Mike got some great photos!



On our other outing, we enjoyed seeing this goose family swimming along!


And a pretty Columbine!


And, this being primarily a quilting blog, I thought you would get a kick out of this one - who knew there was such a thing?!

This was in a native plant area, and there were many of these painted rocks
that helped identify what was growing.

In my actual sewing room, I've been working on House #8 for the Rainbow Neighbourhood and the pieces and parts are ready to sew together.

I'm not sure about that green for the grassy strip yet, but maybe.  
In real life, the batik that I'm using for the house front (around and above the door) 
is much more purple than it looks in this photo.

I'm ready to sew this up today!

Joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color 

  











 


Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Hands2Help Final Check-in

I have two quilts that I'm sending along to two different charities for the H2H quilt drive this year.   These are both baby/toddler size, so I'm sending one to the Little Lambs of Utah, for kids going into foster care, and one to the Cool Kids Campaign in North Carolina, for kids fighting cancer.


Both are washed and labeled and ready to go as soon the large bubble mailing envelopes I need to send them in arrive from Amazon.  I've looked all over town and can't find any in the regular stores, so Amazon to the rescue!








Monday, May 29, 2023

To-Do Tuesday #182

Good morning, and happy To-Do Tuesday!  Hope you enjoyed the long weekend.  There were lots of graduation parties around here - we were even invited to one!  It was nice to get caught up with some extended family that we hadn't seen in awhile.  But did we take any pictures?  No...

I do have pictures of things I've been working on this week to share, though.  House #7 for the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL is done!  This might be my new favorite!

The Bird House!

Here are all seven - they're really starting to look like something!

Two houses to go!

I made some progress on my project for the June blog hop to launch Kelly Young's new book.  Layers are spray basted and quilting has started.

June 21st is reveal day!

And two small projects were finished - May Table Scraps and Robin Lane.

So, what will I be working on this week?
  • House #8 - the quilt block section is started, and pieces and parts for the rest of the house need to be cut and sewn.

  • Keep working on my project for the June 21st blog hop.
  • Get started on June blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - working with more blues.
Joining in with Carol and friends at Quilt Schmilt for To-Do Tuesday!











Saturday, May 27, 2023

A finish and a new start!

Earlier this week I finished up the "Robin Lane" design that I'd been working on recently.  Last week I shared the green border I picked for it and the pink backing.  This week, I did some simple quilting, and finished it off with a pale pink binding.  

Now it's hanging on the side of my fridge 
where I enjoy displaying little seasonal pieces.

I couldn't go very long without prepping another embroidery design to work on, and since there's been a lot of planting and watering going on at our house the last couple of weeks, I found the perfect one!

This is "For Every Season," another Kathy Schmitz design - find it HERE on her website.
I'm going to enjoy lots of slow stitching on this one!

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.




 

Thursday, May 25, 2023

ABC Table Scraps for May

 Hello!


My Table Scraps project for May celebrates a Favorite Feathered Friend, the Western Tanager.  They're such beautiful birds and we were lucky to have a male and female visit our feeders for a couple of days recently.  He reminded me of this orphan block I had in the cupboard, again leftover from the 2020 Color Challenge, hosted by Patterns by Jen.

I'm also incorporating the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month - orange,
and the letters F and L as prompted by Joy over at the Joyful Quilter!

It was pretty easy to make a placemat out of this block by adding some blue strips to each side so it measures 12.5 x 16.5.  Quilted with the serpentine stitch and bound in the same blue, and voila!


Small projects like this are good for using up Leftover pieces of batting and backing, like the Sprinkles wide back I've been using on bigger quilts this year.


I enjoy having a fun placemat for my breakfast each morning.  They make great gifts, too!


Sending you off with one more shot of that Western Tanager.  They've flown off up into the mountains and further west for the summer - only graced our yard for a couple days during their migration.

Thanks for visiting!

Sharing at ABC Table Scraps link-up for May at The Joyful Quilter,
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and 














Wednesday, May 24, 2023

I Like Thursday #337

Happy Thursday, friends!  How's your week going?  I'm joining in with I Like Thursday at Not Afraid of Color.  

We drove out through Eastern Colorado to where our son lives in western Kansas last Saturday and encountered this crazy fog/Canadian wildfire smoke combination that made visibility pretty bad.  Not something to like, but definitely made the day interesting!

(Do you like that crack in the windshield?:)  
Fortunately, the fog did lift after we got up out of the river valley a ways. 

I needed something to stitch on earlier this week, and haven't had a chance to trace a new embroidery design so I pulled out some Aida cloth and stitched up another of the sweet Spring Stamps from Melisa at PinkernPunkin Quilting.  I liked this one with the bird and the watering can because that's what I've been doing this week - planting and watering!


This week I've been reading the book that my book club chose for our June discussion.  It's about a woman named Elizabeth Packard who lived in Illinois in the 1800s, and was committed to an insane asylum for several years by her husband because she dared to have her own thoughts, ideas, and beliefs!  It's quite a story.  I suspect my group will have lots to talk about with this book!


LeeAnna's question of the week is if we could go on vacation anywhere right now, where would it be?  Well, I've been itching to get out of town lately to... somewhere, anywhere!!! ... but because of family things going on, we just haven't been able to make any plans.  

You might know, if you've been reading my blog for awhile, that I love to go anywhere that is by the ocean.  In recent years, our favorite destination has been the Oregon Coast.  So beautiful and scenic there!

We actually have a trip planned to go back there in September, 
and I am sooo looking forward to it!

Other favorite destinations include coastal cities in California like San Diego and Monterey.  I'd like to visit the Central Coast, too, like the Morro Bay area.

But the place I'd really like to go and have never been to is Hawaii!  Still dreaming of that one!

Where would you like to travel to?














Monday, May 22, 2023

To-Do Tuesday #181

Good morning, friends!  It's Tuesday again, and I'm sharing my progress from last week, and my to-do list for the week to come.  Big thanks to Carol at Quilt Schmilt for hosting the To-Do Tuesday link-up!

This week I made sure to get my Hands2Help quilts washed and ready to send off.  I love a freshly washed and dried quilt, don't you?!


House #6 for the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL is completed.  To keep up with the schedule I should have completed #7 as well, but I'm not there yet.  Good thing it's not a race!

I did also finish up the orange split 9 patch blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  See my Saturday post here.

On this week's list:
  • Finish house #7 and get started on #8 for my Rainbow Neighbourhood.  #7 will be done in reds, and celebrate birdwatching!

  • Keep working on my project for the blog hop in June.  No progress on that one last week, but hopefully I can get more done this week.
  • There are a couple of small quilted items that I want to finish up this week - my May Table Scraps project and an embroidery piece.
  • That's probably enough for this week's list!
Have a great week!