Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Little Penguin Quilts Through the Year

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Travels and More

My mom, who will be 84 on her next birthday, is going on a cruise to Alaska!  I'm so excited for her!  So, I decided she needs a brand new pouch to carry things in on her travels.  Hopefully she will find this little pouch as useful as I am finding the ones I have made for myself.  I used the tutorial from Noodlehead for the Open-Wide Zippered Pouch.  It went together so quickly, and made me think maybe I am getting the hang of doing the zipper!


The outside is a blue polka dot that I think I bought at Hobby Lobby and the lining is from a fun, low volume striped fat quarter, both from my stash.  I can't wait to give to my mom when I see her next week.


Last Friday, I received a package from Tanya, of Tanya Quilts in CO, because I won her blog anniversary drawing!  What a fun treat!  Tanya made a Watcha Got? project bag and a pin cushion out of sweet Bonnie and Camille fabrics.  It is such a great bag and will be fun to use to store a project in with its clear plastic front window.

                           

Tanya also filled the bag with goodies like thread, a measuring tape, buttons, hand lotion, and my favorite candy, Peanut M&Ms.  Don't look too closely in the picture above, or you will notice that the M&M package was already empty when I took the picture!  Yum!  And look at the adorable zipper pull she put on the bag!  I love it!


Thanks, Tanya!  You are so generous!

In other sewing this week, I have been adding string blocks to my collection, and am up to 16.  Every time I make a few more, I have fun laying them out to see how they could potentially look.



I am thinking I might stop at 20 blocks, and then put a pretty large border on to give myself some negative space for quilting in, as inspired by this quilt made by Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  I love how her quilting follows shape of the string block diamonds out into the borders!  And it's something I can do with my walking foot, which is what I do best right now!

Have a great week, everyone!  I am looking forward to a visit with my oldest son for the first few days of the week and then a trip to Arizona to see my mom.  It's supposed to be in the 110s there while we are there... Yikes!  At least there is a pool to cool off in!

I will be linking up with Oh Scrap! on Sunday, and looking forward to reading about the other fun projects going on out there!

8 comments:

Gemini Jen NZ said...

I am loving the string quilt blocks, it will look great whichever way you choose to lay the blocks. I did notice the M&M packet was a bit flat - good on you! Getting a nice set of treats like that in the post is such a thrill!

Gemini Jen NZ said...

I am loving the string quilt blocks, it will look great whichever way you choose to lay the blocks. I did notice the M&M packet was a bit flat - good on you! Getting a nice set of treats like that in the post is such a thrill!

Cynthia Brunz Designs said...

Your string quilt is looking great! I love the idea of big negative space. A client of mine did that with one of her string quilts and it looked great. Thanks for sharing with Oh Scrap!

gayle said...

I love your string blocks. Whatever you do with them, the result is going to be fun!
Now I'm off to look at that pouch pattern again. This time I'm going to actually make one!

Kat said...

Love your string blocks! The colors are perfect.

Vera said...

Pretty bags and projects!

Sandra Walker said...

Okay, guess I'm going to do some MORE 3-D sewing...I really like your open wide pouch, have heard of it around quilting blogland, so need to go check it out. Great gift for your mom; my dad LOVED his Alaska cruise. I also LOVE that see-through pouch Tanya made! Drat, I missed her giveaway, but congrats to you for winning, looks like quite the sweet (ha) prize! Enjoy that AZ heat--a pool will be just the ticket.

Lara B. said...

Ooooh - I hope your mom has a fabulous time Diann! She's sure to find her Open-wide pouch handy.
Love those string blocks! Yeah I would be laying them out with every finish too, LOL.
Congrats on winning such a fun package from Tanya!