Little Penguin Quilts

Thursday, May 14, 2020

All 9 blocks are done!

Book Club Hand-Pieced QAL - Updated, see below!

This week I finished up the last two blocks I needed for this quilt-along: Emma and Elizabeth. Both involved curved piecing, but I found that actually went pretty smoothly when stitched by hand.

Claire, Emma, and Elizabeth - lots of curves!

Now I can lay out all nine of the blocks and think about how I want to finish this project!

I'll definitely start with sashing and cornerstones to connect the blocks - more of the Kona Snow for the sashing and the red prints for cornerstones.

Update: Since I first wrote this post, I sewed together the first row of blocks and here's how it's looking! So far, so good!

Sharing at Elm Street Quilts for the Week 7 Link-up and at

Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

I Like Thursday #185 - Around the Neighborhood

Are you keeping your head above water?

Hope so!

Mike and I take a daily walk around our neighborhood and there have been some fun sights recently! We have some very creative sidewalk chalk artists -

"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage

to lose sight of the shore." I think this was advice for a

graduating senior.

Or how about these?

I'm trying! 😁

I loved this cute painted rock that was sitting on the button for the crosswalk, too.

Last week, a bunch of us had a birthday parade for my dear friend and teaching partner who is battling breast cancer. It was only a few minutes, but it sure was fun!

We all stopped our cars for a bit and got out and sang to her, carefully distancing ourselves and wearing our masks. Her husband kindly sent us all a picture!

Closer to home, this beautiful Western Tanager has been visiting our feeder the last few days. He is one of our favorite birds!

I got some happy mail the other day! My fabric stash was needing a boost. I haven't bought anything in several months, so I decided to order from Bernie's shop, Needle and Foot Fine Fabrics. Bernie has the most amazing service! I ordered and she shipped on the same day!

The bottom piece is a white on white for backgrounds. I needed some green, too. A few of these came in a kit for a baby quilt that Bernie designed. I probably won't make that baby quilt right now, but I love the pretty fabric!

This one is especially fun!

And I'll leave you with this:

I'm joining in with my friends at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursday! Be sure to check out the other posts that are shared every Thursday, too.

Monday, May 11, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #37

Happy Tuesday, all! Hope your week is off to a good start! I'm joining in with Roseanne at Home Sewn by Us for To-Do Tuesday. I don't always get everything on my list finished, but it's a great way to keep track of what I'm working on!

From last week's list:

1. Participate in the "Created a Quilted Legacy" blog hop. ✔ That was a lot of fun to do, and lots of great blogs to visit, too. Click HERE if you'd like to see what that was all about.

2. Get my blue and white embroidery with hand-pieced stars quilt top basted for quilting. Not done yet. This is how far I got -

The back of this quilt needs some TLC! I'm still pressing all those intersecting seams

and trimming off the stray threads, but it's getting closer to being ready for quilting.

3. Keep up with the QALs I've committed to. ✔

The Book Club hand-pieced block, Claire

and Block B for the Centred QAL at mmmquilts -

So this week is more of the same - the blue and white quilt and keeping up with those QALs!

1. Baste the layers of the blue and white quilt and get quilting started.

2. Finish the 8th block of the hand-pieced QAL - that won't take long!

3. Work on the A2 and A3 blocks for Centred.

4. And these are the four tiny blocks I made for the Safekeeping Sew-along at Heartspun Quilts. It's time to finish them into a tiny runner!

These blocks are 4.5 inches - with sashing, the runner will be about 4.5 x 18.

Looks like there is plenty to keep busy with around my sewing room!

Saturday, May 9, 2020

QAL Catch-up

The Red, the White...

Another block finished up for the Book Club Hand-pieced QAL! This one is Claire. I'm guessing she is representing Claire from Outlander, a very famous and popular book series, of which I read 2 or 3 way back when they first came out!

Claire required curved piecing, and that went pretty smoothly for me. I really appreciated Patty's tips for hand-piecing blocks with curved pieces! My block is a little awkward where the pointy ends of the orange peels come together, but I'm hoping I can tame that a little bit when I add the sashing.

We've made 7 blocks now, so only two left!

This afternoon I'll get the pieces ready for block 8, Emma,

and that will be my slow stitching for the next few days. I'll be watching

Kristin's video about piecing Emma before I get started!

And the Blue...

I finished up the four Block B's for mmmquilts Centred QAL yesterday. These blocks go together quickly because they're all strips and after learning the process while I made the A blocks, I sailed along on these.

Here are the first eight blocks up on the Design Wall!

Two of my blocks have the final section that appears black, but it really is just the darkest blue I had! When this quilt is all finished, I hope to find a good place to photograph where the true colors will show up correctly...

On to Blocks A2 and A3!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching and

Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scrap!

Friday, May 8, 2020

This week in greens...

Even though it feels like I am mostly staying home, except for grocery shopping, this week flew by! Amazing how that happens... but I did find some time to sew with green.

I've been keeping up with Heartspun Quilts' Safekeeping Sew Along, just making one 4.5 inch block a week. This week's block is my favorite so far, called Colorado Beauty.

There is one more block to make,

and then a simple setting to make a tiny runner.

Should be a fun finish for this week!

A few more scrappy darker green 4 patches were made as leaders and enders, and I started sewing them into the double 4 patches with the blue background fabric.

And then, silly me... I started something new... 🤣 I've had this jelly roll sort of nagging at me for a couple years now. It's full of pretty fabrics in all shades of green, cream/gold, and purple, plus it sparkles! I won this in a giveaway, and it came without the wrapper, so I'm not sure what fabric line it is, but it is pretty!

For quite awhile, I've been on the lookout for a quilt that would be easy to make with this jelly roll, and found what I wanted to do in this post by Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts.

So, just for fun this week, I pulled out the jelly roll and started pairing up darks and lights to sew together. A little cutting, a little sewing, a little more cutting, a little more sewing - each pair of strips made two 8 inch finished blocks.

I've just made a few so far, but it will be fun to keep going with this and see what happens!

Hope you've had a good week! Sharing at SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Creating a Quilted Legacy Blog Hop

Honoring Paula Budinger

Big thanks go to Janice at Color, Creating, and Quilting, and Kate at Smiles from Kate, for organizing this blog hop to honor Paula. You can read more about Paula here.

I met Paula, as many of you also did, when I first joined in with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and we commented on each other's posts. Sometime in 2019, we discovered that we had both purchased the same new sewing machine, a Pfaff Ambition 610, and were working hard to figure out all its great features. I especially admired Paula's generosity as a quilter, and am so pleased to honor her life by sharing some donation projects of my own.

There are so many ways that quilters can donate fabric, thread, and time to help others. If you're a slow quilter like me, it's great to find ways to give back that may not involve a completed quilt! Block drives, like the ones that Kat of Kat and Cat quilts organizes for her charity, Covered in Love are a great way to get started. I've really enjoyed sending blocks to Kat several times a year for the last few years. It's even more fun when she shares the finished quilts on her blog, and you can say, "There's my block!"

These interesting string blocks were sent in

for the January/February 2020 block drive.

Carole, of From My Carolina Home, collects small quilted items for Safelight, a domestic violence shelter. I've been making sets of quilted pouches and sending them to her once a year. These pouches go into tote bags full of helpful items that support people who've had to leave their homes without taking anything with them.

This year's set -

Recently, Carole came up with another challenge that I had to join in with, too! Make a placemat that shows how you're spending your time during the Covid 19 Stay-at-Home period, and donate it to Meals on Wheels.

Here's my contribution for the challenge:

Can you tell what I've been doing? Waiting for Spring to arrive, enjoying the birds in my yard, doing lots of embroidery, and sewing scrappy 4 patches!

Finally, this is a little quilt I'll be sending off to Jack's Basket, a favorite organization of Paula's, later this month. The mission of Jack's Basket is to celebrate babies with Down Syndrome, and small quilts are perfect for the baskets they give to families.

Bright and colorful! Hopefully, perfect to celebrate a newborn baby!

Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Hands2Help 2020.

Thanks for visiting my stop on the blog hop today! Be sure to check out the other quilters who are joining in to celebrate Paula's life, too. And if you leave a comment, you'll be entered into a drawing for some great prizes, which are listed at the very bottom!

Wednesday, May 6

Karen @ KaHolly

Kate @ Smiles From Kate

Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life

Bernie @ Needle and Foot

Linda @ My Sew-Called Quilts

Cathy @ Crazy By Design

Sue @ From the Magpie’s Nest

Thursday, May 7

Kate @ Smiles From Kate

Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts

Rose @ Something Rose Made

Nann @ With Strings Attached

Mari @ The Academic Quilter

Louise @ My Quilt Odyssey

Susan @ Desert Sky Quilts

Friday, May 8

Janice @ Color, Creating and Quilting

Kate @ Smiles From Kate

Joy @ The Joyful Quilter

Susan @ Quilt Fabrication

Edi @ Edi’s Crafting Life

Carol @ Quilt Schmilt

Preeti @ Sew Preeti Quilts

Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

PRIZES!

Lorna, Sew Fresh Quilts, $50 gift certificate for her pattern shop.

Yvonne Quilting Jetgirl, 2 PDF patterns of choice.

Bernie Needle and Foot, $25 certificate for her shop.

A fat quarter bundle from Figo Fabrics

A set of quilty gift cards from Initial Thought by DMF Note cards set 1

A pattern of choice from Karen, Sugar Free Quilts

A $30 gift certificate for Doris, Cactus Queen Quilt Co

A PDF pattern of choice from Joanne, www.etsy.com/shop/CanuckQuilterDesigns

$25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

(donated by Janice Holton)

Monday, May 4, 2020

To-Do Tuesday #36

Good morning, friends! Hope your week is getting off to a good start. I started mine with a birthday parade for a friend who is fighting breast cancer, and it felt good to do something like that! We all wore our masks and stayed in our cars, but there was honking and singing and signs - it was so good to see everyone, even at a distance.

Last week, I had these things on my to-do list:

Finish the April Color Challenge Block. ✔ Done! In fact, that post details everything I accomplished last week, including...

My blocks for the Centred QAL. ✔