I Like Thursday #494

It has been ice cream weather here!  Yum!

Last week I decided to harvest my pumpkins because I didn't want them to be sitting out in the heat any longer.  I got three this year - all about the same size, but definitely different colors!

Meanwhile in the garden, these volunteer marigolds are very happy to be out from under the pumpkin vines.  And two more volunteer pumpkin plants are growing!

Today (Wednesday) was my favorite volunteer activity of the year - stuffing the backpacks that are given to kids who help getting their school supplies.  We did somewhere in the neighborhood of 1200 of them this year!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about a favorite vacation - and what made it memorable.  We seem to enjoy vacations that involve boats and bridges, and one of our favorite bridges to visit is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  We've been there quite a few times, but two favorite trips really stand out.  One trip was with both of our kids, and I got this picture.  Probably my favorite family photo of all time!

Everyone always asks why I think of this as a family photo - and

it's because I took it - so I was there, too!

Another favorite trip there was when took the "Bridge to Bridge" ferry tour around San Francisco Bay which went from to the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate, under it and back around.

My happy husband, on the boat ride with his camera 

and his favorite bridge in sight!

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

 

Midweek Update

I have a finish to share - a Christmas in July finish!  This is Carole's tabletopper design from her Christmas in July event at From My Carolina Home.  In last week's midweek post, I had just started this project, but it didn't take long to move it all the way to a finish.

Blocks made and setting triangles all laid out -

Top sewn together - 

28.5 inches square

Everything in the top comes from my stash, but I didn't have anything that seemed right for the backing, so I went shopping.  This one turned out to be perfect - red, green and gold stars!

And ta-daaaa!

I loved Carole's finish with a gold binding, but ended up deciding that mine needed more of the green and red holly print, so I bound it with that.

You can see the quilting on the back - 

Such a fun project, and it came right at the right time when I didn't have anything else I needed to work on.  

Thank you, Carole, for all your inspiration and 

for sharing the directions for this sweet tabletopper!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Still stitching...

I only put a few stitches into the Summer piece this week.  After showing the gold bees last week, and thinking about where else I could use some gold floss in this one, my friend Miss Pat suggested French knots in the center of the red daisy-like flower.  And, yes, that works!  Can you see them?

Now I am stitching my way up to the next 

flower center above that one.

I've spent most of my slow stitching time this week on starting "Hello Autumn," a free stitch for Primrose Cottage newsletter subscribers from last year.   

The gold floss from the bees in Summer (above) was used to stitch a beautiful fall tree - I'm thinking it's got to be an aspen tree which provide Colorado with lots of golden color every fall!

It's time to stitch the word "Autumn" - that will be today's Slow Sunday Stitching!  

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

A hummingbird house...

My last Rainbow Scrap Challenge block for July is a house for my Year in the Neighborhood project, and this one is inspired by our trip up to Estes Park last week.  We really enjoyed seeing the hummingbirds up there, and Mike got some good photos.

We also went to the quilt shop there which is a really nice one - Peak to Peak Stitching.  And look what had to come home with me!

Hummingbirds!  On an aqua background, too.

I decided I wanted to make a house for the neighborhood inspired by the hummingbirds.  Looking around in my stash for what to put with the hummingbird, I found this pretty purple.

And together, they became a house!

With a garden of columbine for the hummingbirds to feed in.

I made a tree for the hummingbirds, too - if you're able to watch hummingbirds for long enough, you'll see them go rest on a nearby tree branch.

The Neighborhood is coming along!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and at 

Quilting Learning Combo for the Quilters Cove July link-up later in the week.

Also at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #493

I really think orange should be the color of the month for July!  I finally have marigolds starting to bloom, along with pumpkins that were planted in the same garden that are starting to ripen.

Plus my Sungold cherry tomatoes are also coming along!

We've been having lots of bird visitors in the yard lately, too.  A crow decided he wanted to hang out here, and we've seen him on the fence, in the bird bath, the fountain, and in all the trees.

And a young red-tailed hawk who thought Mike's pick-up would be a good place to land!

It's no wonder the smaller birds have been making a ruckus!

I've been enjoying this book recently - it was recommended by Carole in her most recent book chat post.  Two families who have owned a Catskills resort since the 1960s have to decide what to do about an offer to sell.   

LeeAnna's question of the week is about journals - do we use one? did we write in one when growing up?  I really have never been a journal person, although having this blog is a bit like journaling a few times a week.  I do like keeping a book journal, which I've been doing since 2017.  It has a list by month and year of every book I've read since I started it.  I even made a special journal cover for it!

Hope you're having a great week!

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

Midweek Update

 

Squirrel Alert!

Carole, at From My Carolina Home, is hosting a fun event on her blog - Christmas in July.

One of the projects is a tabletopper that I couldn't resist working on.   It just needs three fabrics - a white background, a gold, and an accent fabric.  I was lucky to find what I needed in my stash.  Both the gold with leaves and the green holly with red berries have a little sparkle to them, so that's kind of fun, too!

I started with the bell blocks - four are needed, so far I've made two.

These remind me of the handbells I played at church 

years ago as a member of the bell choir!

One star block was needed, and it went together quickly.

You can see Carole's finishing instructions here - I still need two more bell blocks, and they're in pieces and parts at this point.

I like how these are looking together!  Once I finish up the last two bells, it shouldn't take too long to get them into a top.

A quilter's got to have a squirrel project now and then, right?!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.

A little Santa in the summer...

Here's what I've been slow stitching on this week -   

Santa (from Melisa at PinkernPunkin) is completely stitched.  He really didn't take too long at all.  Now I'll put him away for awhile until it's time to decorate for Christmas.

I did make the bees in gold and black in the Summer embroidery.  I like them!  And I think I'll add some more gold in a few other places, too.

Plenty more work to be done on this one, 

so that will be my Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts.

A scrappy placemat for July...

Last week I shared my beginning of a placemat in aquas, and this week it is finished!  Those blocks I came up with - a 2.5 inch square sewn to a 2.5 x 4.5 inch rectangle turned into this design:

A piece this size gets quilted and bound quickly, so the finish doesn't take long.  I love that!  

I still had a good chunk of this pretty blue-green batik 

that I've used on other quilts for the backing and binding.

Here's the rainbow - it's growing every month!  Some of these have been used and washed already, others set aside, maybe for gifting or donating.

But for now, I'm sticking the aqua placemat in my happy place!

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 #492

It has continued to be very hot here every day, so we decided to get away for the day yesterday and went up to Estes Park.  It was probably at least 10 - 15 degrees cooler up there - so pleasant!

We played golf...

It was golf with a view!

And also with geese!

We visited our favorite winery for lunch.  Sometimes we take a picnic lunch with us, but this time we ordered a pizza.   It was so nice to sit outside and watch the people passing by.  Estes Park is a busy tourist town in the summer!

After lunch we walked around town a bit - our favorite area is along the river and there were hummingbirds hanging around.  Mike had a good time photographing them!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about picnics.  If you've read my blog before, you probably know I love picnics, and we go for a lot of them, especially when we are traveling.   We pack the usual lunch stuff: sandwiches, chips, fruit, cheese and crackers.  The food is actually not that important. What's important is the view!

Hope you're having a great week!

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

 

Midweek Update

In the tale of the never-ending quilt-as-you-go project here at Little Penguin Quilts, there has been some progress!  I had been wanting to try figuring out how it was going to work to start connecting the rows of Patchwork Hearts that have been quilted.  You might remember that they look like this - 

The first three rows have been completely quilted, row 4 is halfway there, 

and row 5 is prepped for quilting, but yet to be started.

I purposely cut the batting and backing for each quite a bit wider than needed, thinking that I could use that overage to connect the rows.  I just needed to come up with a plan for how to do it, and that's what I've been working on the last few days.  

Here's how it's working:

I'm trimming the backing to 1.25 inches beyond the quilted section - that will be the sashing on the back that connects row 1 to row 2, and so on.

Trim the batting to 1 inch beyond the quilted section - that stays as the batting in between the quilted sections.

And I chose a white Grunge to be the front sashing that will show on the finished quilt - cutting strips of that that measure 2 x 60 inches (the width of each quilted strip).  It covers up all the connecting seams and the batting to finish the front!

I sewed the front sashing on to the top of row 2's quilting first.  Then trimmed the batting and backing and sewed row 2's back sashing onto the back of row 1 with the .25 inch seam allowance.  Because it's all the same backing, you really can hardly see that's been done!

After pressing that seam on the back, the batting is tucked up under the seam allowance, and the front sashing strip is pulled up and folded over to give the finished look on the front. 

I topstitched that down all the way across, added another line of quilting through the sashing, and voila!  The Patchwork Hearts quilt is 3/5 of the way to a finish!

Figuring all this out has given me a renewed enthusiasm for finishing this quilt - I just have to finish the quilting on rows 4 and 5.  I'm even starting to think about what would work for the binding!  It's getting there!

Sharing at The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

And at Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This!

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday.