I Like Thursday #481

We've had a gray and chilly week here in northern Colorado, and finally some rain came!  So nice to finally get a little of that precipitation we need so badly!   It's been cold enough that I need to wear my down coat when I go for a walk.  But not too cold for the neighbor's iris to bloom!

We've done some spring clean-up in the yard when it's been nice enough.  That includes cleaning off our back porch (it gets really dusty over the winter!) and getting out the furniture for enjoying it.  We both enjoy spinners and yard art, and have been replacing the cloth ones we had previously (that get destroyed by the sun and wind) with metal ones.

I think this one's my favorite right now.

I think LeeAnna's question of the week is about Spring cleaning, but I can't seem to find the email about it.  (Must have been Spring cleaning my inbox, lol!)  When it comes to cleaning, I seem to go in spurts.  Sometimes there is routine cleaning or cleaning because company is coming.  Sometimes I see that something in particular needs to be done so I just do it.  But I rarely do a large "Spring Cleaning."  

This week we have been cleaning out/collecting our old electronic items for an e-waste collection drive that we can take them to.  Think old phones, laptops, charging cords, VCRs, and that type of thing.  It turns out we have a lot of them!  It requires looking in  junk drawers and places where those things hide.  And finding things you forgot you had - like this... never opened.  I've been retired for 11 years, and I stopped wearing nylons to work long before that.  Wonder how long this has been in that drawer.  

I got a good laugh out of this find!

Do they even sell these anymore?

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

Midweek Update

This week I've been focusing on the parts and blocks needed for Lyra, mmmquilts' Spring QAL.  I shared the first two kite blocks that I paper-pieced in my Thursday post last week.  And from there I realized that I could paper-piece each of the sections that I need for this quilt.   

I drafted these myself, remembering to add the 1/4 inch seam allowance all around the outside, and they are working out perfectly!  (And fortunately, we have a printer than also works as a copier, so I only had to draw each block once, and then I could make multiple copies as needed.)

Kite, square-in-a-square, and tri recs blocks

The individual parts go together to make these interesting, interlocking stars!

I've been working from left to right.  To the right of the pink and blue star

 is another like the big star on the left.

I made a few more pieces and added them on, and now you can see that third section developing on the right.

Sandra has released the pattern for Lyra, and you can see her post for that here.   She also has designed another version of the quilt which I think is really fabulous.  I'm thinking about making that version sometime in the future.  For now, I'll keep working on this one!

                         Linking up with The Inquiring Quilter for Wednesday Wait Loss.

Stitching Summer

We're in that lull between Spring bulbs blooming and being able to plant this year's flowers and vegetables. So nothing much is growing here right now, and I'm dreaming of June in my garden!

Until then, though, I can enjoy stitching on the Summer stitch-along, hosted by Melisa at PinkernPunkin.  This week I finished the header and got going on Stamp 1.  

Lots more to work on here, so this will be my Slow Sunday Stitching.

Linking up at Kathy's Quilts.

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.

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

Melva Loves Scraps for Sew and Tell Monday.

Quilting Learning Combo for I Quilted This!

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.