Little Penguin Quilts

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

I Like Thursday #164 - Holiday Likes

Good morning, friends!

We decorated for Christmas inside and out the other day. I'm liking how our outside lights are looking this year!

Can you see the red and green sparkles?!

Last year we got one of those outdoor projectors that displays red and green lights on the house. We tried shining it on one of our trees, but never liked the result because the trees are just too tall for you to see anything. So this year Mike pointed it toward the house, and I like it a lot!

A few weeks ago, Shannon at I'm Working on a Project shared the dolls her mom had made, and it reminded me of my Raggedy Andy dolls that my mom made when my boys were little. I always get them out at Christmas.

We actually call them Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Kevin, because those are our kids' names. They have their own Christmas quilt to cuddle under! I love having these dolls and several other things my mom has made for me over the years.

I like my teeny bowtie block made for the Temecula Quilt Co's Tiny Tree project!

How about a whole quilt made out of these 2 3/4 inch blocks? :)

I liked looking out the back window the other day and seeing this bunny warming himself in that sunny patch of grass by the tree.

I don't mind sharing my yard with him!

This time of year, I really enjoy reading the next books in a series - the characters and settings are familiar and you don't have to think too hard to enjoy the story. I'm reading two right now because they both became available from my library at the same time!

One for my afternoon reading, and one before bed - enjoying them both!

Have a great day! Don't forget to check out the other I Like posts at Not Afraid of Color!

Monday, December 9, 2019

To-Do Tuesday #15

I didn't post a To-Do list last Tuesday because my Virtual Cookie Exchange post was scheduled for that day, and that seemed like enough for one day! But there was still a mental to-do list going on here, and things were accomplished!

1. Make more progress on my Scrappy Sprouts quilt. ✔ Yes, I did and it's moving along!

2. Finish up the gift I'm taking to my quilt group's Christmas party. ✔ More about that later this week.

3. Decorate the house for Christmas. ✔

I have to admit I don't *love* putting up the tree, but I do love

having it up, if you know what I mean!

So, this week, what's on the list? It's a pretty full week, with two holiday events to go to, and my oldest son coming in on Thursday for the weekend. But there are a few things I'd like to keep in mind.

1. I'm joining in with Temecula Quilt Company's Tiny Tree sew along, and I hope to keep up with those blocks. Here are the 6 blocks made so far, as of Monday afternoon.

These are pretty quick to make, so not too hard to keep up with.

I actually made the log cabin block twice - those 1.25 inch strips got

kind of wonky on me the first time around!

2. Make sure groceries are bought and the house is ready for company. Even though your kids aren't really company, there are things you do for them when they're visiting, right?! :)

3. Work on Christmas cards! Hoping to make that happen some evening when we're watching TV.

Have a great week, friends! Joining in with Roseanne at Home Sewn by Us for To-Do Tuesday!

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Just playing...

If you've visited my blog before, you probably know that I enjoy finding a coordinating bundle of fat quarters in a few seasonal colors and prints, and just playing with them to see what I end up with.

I enjoyed working on a series of fall themed pieces in October and November, and it's happening again this month!

I originally bought these red, green, and white fabrics to make some mug rugs for my post on the Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop.

I used a few strips from those fat quarters in my Tiny Christmas Runner, too.

Recently I saw a tutorial for 4 patch in a square blocks, and because the Christmas-y fabric was still out, I've been using it to sew up some of those as well!

I bet you can tell where the gray corner pieces came from, too! :)

I'm not sure what those blocks will become yet, but they're fun to make! I think they would make a great Rainbow Scrap Challenge project, with blocks in all the colors.

Meanwhile, I saw the posts for the Temecula Quilt Company's Tiny Tree, and I thought, "Why not?!"

Tiny blocks for a tiny tree!

It sure is fun to just play in my sewing room!

Sharing at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Friday, December 6, 2019

Slow Progress

I've made a little bit of progress recently with the top section of my Scrappy Sprouts quilt. (My attention keeps getting hijacked by little squirrels, especially the holiday kind!)

One of the things I had to figure out had to do with the size, shape, and colors of the sky pieces. When I really paid attention to the sprouts blocks, I decided to mimic their pieces in the sky. (I'm apologizing ahead of time for my dark photos! This is all on the design wall in my basement sewing room, which works great for my purposes, but low volume fabrics don't photograph well there.)

The border and sashing pieces are 2.5 inches like the sprouts pieces, but the center strip (the stem) is 1.5 inches.

So I've started making the top in blocks like this - adding in more blues as I get to the top.

That section of sky matches up perfectly with the first column of sprouts!

I will need two more rows above this section to get the size I want.

I've continued to cut various pieces for this section, but still need more. Here's how the design is looking at this point. I've just stuck all the blues at the top for now - some of them may still be too dark for this project.

Working on these blocks from left to right at this point.

Slowly... I'm getting there!

Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

I Like Thursday #163

Happy Thursday, friends! Hope your week is going well! Have you been enjoying all the posts over at the Virtual Cookie Exchange blog hop? I sure have! Check them out at Just Let Me Quilt.

I'm a lazy cook, and don't really ever want to go to a lot of trouble to make complicated side dishes, even for our Thanksgiving meal. But I had a bunch of carrots, and when I found this recipe for Roasted Carrots at Food network, I knew we would like it. And, sure enough, they were delicious with our turkey and potatoes!

We had the chance to go see "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," last week, and I really enjoyed it!

It's an interesting combination of the story of Fred Rogers and the story of a journalist whose life was changed when he got an assignment to interview Mr. Rogers for a magazine article.

I've been getting out my Christmas decorations, starting with the quilty things which are always my favorites. I love this tree mini made of hexies!

I blogged about it HERE if you're curious to know more.

It was a fun new-to-me technique that I tried in 2015.

I loved this Christmas card that came in the mail yesterday. Could you make that design in fabric, I wonder?

I've been working on a tablerunner for a gift to give at my quilt group's Christmas party next week. I'm not going to show the whole thing until after the party, but I love the serpentine/scallop stitch on my Pfaff that I'm using for quilting! Had to show a close-up.

I've been slowly stitching away on this sweet little design from Gail Pan. I really love the variegated blue thread.

I have to laugh at myself these days because I really love embroidering these sweet designs with really no plans for how I will finish them off! I might just be a bit addicted to the stitching part... :)

And finally, a big thank you to our friend, Michele, of the 3P &N blog! On her other blog, Pennsylvania Piecemaker, she is doing a yearlong series on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. It has been really interesting and I learn a lot from each of her posts. I asked her for a book recommendation for my book club for next year, and she sent me this title -

It was available from the library, so I am pre-reading it, and will suggest it to my book group next week when we meet for our December discussion.

I'm joining in with "I Like Thursday" at Not Afraid of Color.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop

Welcome to my day on the Virtual Cookie Exchange Blog Hop hosted by Carol at Just Let Me Quilt!

I'm so excited to be joining in this year! If this is your first visit to Little Penguin Quilts, thanks for stopping by! I love to make scrappy quilts of all sizes, and Christmas projects are some of my favorites. I also love being part of the quilt blogging community, and get lots of inspiration for my own projects from the bloggers I follow.

When it comes to holiday decorations, Christmas trees are at the top of my list! I love them inside -

I love them outside -

And I especially love quilted Christmas trees! Almost every year, I make a new tree project.

The adorable mug rugs in the lower right picture of the collage are from a tutorial by my friend, Sandra, of mmmquilts, and with her permission, I am sharing them with you today. Sandra calls them Leaning Tree Mug Rugs, and they are so fun to make! Back when I made these the first time, I gave them all away, so this year I decided to make some more!

Using four fat quarters of Holiday Lodge by Deb Strain for Moda,

I cut out enough pieces to make two large trees and four small ones.

They combine to make two mug rugs that measure 9.5 x 6.5.

Christmas trees even make it into my holiday baking! There are just two of us at our house these days, and we don't eat a lot of sweets, so this recipe from Carole at From My Carolina Home is my go-to for Just a Dozen Sugar Cookies.