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.

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.

Spring Blessings

...is all stitched up!  I did change the little bees from the original Primrose Cottage pattern, and used some from one of Melisa's designs instead.  I wanted them to be smaller.

For now, I ironed a piece of fusible interfacing to the back of Spring Blessings and clipped it to the mini quilt stand.

There's plenty of spring stitching left to do on the other design - 

so that's what I'll be working on for Slow Sunday Stitching!

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts.

A new house in the neighborhood...

How about a Butterfly house?  After last week's struggle to use the pretty butterfly print I found, it seemed like it might work for a house block.  And it did!

The sky full of stars is dedicated to the Artemis II astronauts 

who we have been fascinated with all week!

(Was anyone else glued to the livestream of their splashdown 

and recovery yesterday about dinner time like we were? 

Pretty exciting!) 

There are five houses in the neighborhood now.

This is going to be a fun and colorful neighborhood!

And, in other pink sewing, I made some tiny pink four patches and added another block to the Gameboard collection.  I decided that it needed some butterflies, too!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

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

Faith, Trust, and Breast Cancer for Sew and Tell Monday

I Like Thursday #478

Happy Thursday, friends!  Have you been watching the Big Bear (California) bald eagles' nest this year?  Jackie and Shadow, the mating pair of bald eagles who live there, have two little eaglet babies now who hatched just a week ago or so.  We're fascinated with them!  It's literally a breath of fresh air to watch how nature follows its yearly path, in spite of us humans.

This is a screenshot from their YouTube channel.

The other cool thing we have been following for the last week is the flight of the Orion spacecraft around the moon and back.   The liftoff, the moon flyby, the 40 minutes of radio silence until they came around on the other side of the moon - fascinating!  We're looking forward to seeing the splashdown off the coast of California tomorrow evening.

NASA site

Something we connected with this event was that the last astronauts who went to the moon were on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.  Mike was in the Navy at the time, and the ship he was on, the USS Ticonteroga, was the ship that was sent to pick up the Apollo space capsule and the astronauts.  Mike was a helicopter crewman, but he was not in the helicopter shown in the photo.  He was back there on the ship - he tells me he was the "flight deck trouble shooter" that day - apparently meaning he had to make sure all the helicopters were ready to fly when needed.

Closer to home, younger son has been experimenting with a sour dough starter, and made his first loaf of bread the other day.  It was delicious!

LeeAnna's question of the week is about the season of spring.  I love spring!   We have had a mild, dry winter, so it has been very brown here, but spring has brought the green back.  The lilacs are blooming, too, and they smell so good.  We were just smelling them on our afternoon walk today.  Lilacs really mean spring to me!

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

Midweek Update

Two finishes to share this week!  One is the tote bag I was working on last week.  The lining was made with pockets for the phone and the little miscellaneous stuff that always floats around in your purse.  (Chapstick, anyone?!)

Several years ago, when I started making these quilted tote bags,

I bought a set of magnetic snap closures and 

I just keep reusing them each time I make a new one.

And the finished bag from the front!  I also reused the gray straps from my previous bag.  They're still good and that saved me the time of making some from fabric.

The other finish is the newest block for Melva's Little House sew-along.  This one has a rail fence block at the center.   I laid this one out with the hope that the pinwheel at the center would be the focus.   Do you see it?

So - here are all five of these that we've made so far.  Only four more to go!

Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss. 

And at Melva Loves Scraps for the block 5 link-up.

Alycia Quilts for Finished or Not Friday 

Happy Easter!

 from the Easter... Gnome?  

This cute guy is from my mom's house.  

One of the gals who decorates there loves gnomes, 

and she puts them out for every season!

Or Happy Easter from the carrot power bunny...

Still one of my favorite finishes from 2025! 

This week I've been stitching away on Spring Blessings which is perfect for Easter.  And almost finished, too!  Just some fluffy sheep and bees to add, which I will do today.

Sharing at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Under Review

If you live with someone who is a sports fan, it's likely that you know about the instant replays the referees will do if there's a challenge to a play or call.  Well, I had to do that this week with a quilt block!  

I decided to start the pink month of April with the Jacob's Ladder blocks and it didn't take long to make the first one.

I've made enough of these blocks now to know that they work best if the two prints I choose are similar in value.  Plus they need to have a good contrast with the ecru background I'm using.  But sometimes I go off the deep end and decide to try something even though I *suspect* it might not work quite right.  That happened this week because I found this beautiful butterfly print.

Isn't that pretty?!  And the selvage is neat, too.

But this - ???

Under review...

Oh no - just way too lopsided, colorwise.

So I found a different, tone on tone pink and made some new parts.  Here they are, laid on top of the butterfly pieces.

Yes, that's going to be better.

So, I ripped apart the butterfly block, made some new sections with the better fabric, and ended up with a much better block.  

So now there are nine blocks!

I've got another idea for the butterfly print!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

And at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

I Like Thursday #477

We did something on Saturday that was a first for us, and that I am so glad we did.  We participated in the No Kings protest in our town. 

Mike and I have been unhappy and frustrated with the current president and his administration since the day he was inaugurated.  The chaos and cruelty that has been unleashed by these people is beyond my comprehension.

However, I am thankful to live in a country where we have the right to free speech and peaceful assembly, and to VOTE!  

We even made signs.  Mike wins the award for the one who was most asked to have his picture taken with his sign!  There were also many veterans there which was very heartening for him.  I think he spoke to every one of them.

And finally - my favorite signs of the day.

If you're still here, and read my whole post - thank you!  I know this is not my typical topic, and that some of you, my friends and readers, have a different point of view from me.  But isn't that - the freedom to espress our opinions - really what makes America great?!  ❤️💙❤️💙

Have a wonderful Thursday!  I'm joining in with Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday.