Can you believe it’s November already, and we have only one block left until the Penguins are complete? 2020 is a very strange year. Sometimes time doesn’t seem to pass at all with all the Covid restrictions and no place to go, and then you turn around, and it’s been eight months and we are getting ready for Christmas. With next year looming in the not so distant future, you are probably wondering if there will be another block of the month next year. The answer is, I am working on something but I haven’t made as much progress as I would have liked, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. I might or might not be able to publish the first block on January 1, stay tuned for further updates, I will announce the start date as soon as I can.

Back to our Penguins, this month’s block features a snowball fight. That was one of the first winter activities that came to mind but it turned out to be more difficult than I thought to come up with a fairly simple design for the block. So here we go, our snowball-throwing buddy is about to get hit in the face by an incoming snowball. The block is available for free download until the end of the month and will be moved to the pattern store in December when the final block is released.

Click to download Penguin Promenade Block #8 pattern (English/Imperial)

Another month has come and gone, it’s October, and there are only two penguin blocks left after this one. On some levels, this year seems to drag on forever but then you wake up, and Christmas is coming. Well, I am exaggerating, of course, but the Christmas quilting rush is just around the corner, and the year will be over in no time. In gardening news, I have had decent success, considering that I had no clue when I started out in March. I had a huge tomato harvest and still have three trays of green ones ripening inside. I planted a second round of beans in August, and they grew like crazy and were ready to harvest within six weeks. I also planted more peas and spinach but these don’t mind cool and rainy weather so much, so they should be fine.  I am definitely going to do this again next year and have already started planning.

Coming up with winter activities for our penguin pals wasn’t as easy as it sounds. After going through the obvious ones like skiing and skating, I played around with lots of possibilities to fill the remaining blocks and came up with this ice fishing guy. Isn’t he reeling in a nice catch? The more blocks I made, the more I kept looking for interesting fabrics in my scraps to use for their accessories. Stripes and plaids work really well for scarves and mittens, polka dots and flowers are also good choices. The block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move over to the pattern store in November to make room for the next free pattern.

EDIT: If you missed the free download in October, block #7 is now available for purchase in the pattern store.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #7 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Block 7 ist jetzt auch auf Deutsch erhältlich, das Kaufmuster ist ab heute im Pattern Store zu finden.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #7 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

I will keep it short today as I am taking this week off, so you don’t have to read through my garden ramblings. I will be back next week after Labour Day with the start of this year’s Row Along with the theme “It’s A Garden Party”. I am scheduled to post on the first day which is September 8, so make sure you don’t miss the fun.

This month’s penguin is building a snowman… or maybe a snow penguin? The pattern will be available until the end of the month, as always, and then move over to the store when the October block is released.

EDIT: It is October, and the September block is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. I have also created another bundle for those who missed blocks 4, 5 & 6.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #6 pattern (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade pattern bundle 4, 5 & 6 (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Block 6 gibt es jetzt auch auf Deutsch als Kaufmuster im Shop. Die Blöcke 4, 5 und 6 sind auch als Bündel zum Sonderpreis erhältlich.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #6 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitungsbündel Penguin Promenade 4, 5 & 6 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

After a cold and wet June, July came with nicer weather, and it has been really hot for the past week or so. It feels a bit weird to be working on skiing and skating penguins when it’s 35 degrees outside. Celsius… that would be in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, I believe. I have never been a winter person, and I don’t like snow. Unless it is on the mountains and stays up there, then it’s pretty. And while I like skating, I have never learned how to ski. I gave it a try once, maybe ten years ago or so but I never got the hang of it. I believe that it is easier to learn when you are young and don’t even think about falling down and not being able to get up again or break a leg. My husband has been skiing all his life, and our son was a quick learner and went down the slopes in no time, and I decided that it was better to let them do their thing and not get in the way. I’d rather be quilting anyway.

In garden news, I lost a bunch of broccoli plants to the cabbage root fly. They were doing just fine, and then just fell over one day. Those little maggots had munched all the roots right off. Two plants were either not infected or strong enough to survive, in any case I harvested two nice crowns of broccoli last week, and they were so good. Now I am waiting for the tomatoes to turn red. I have a whole jungle of tomato plants with lots of green ones on the vines but no sign of red yet. The potato plants are all gone, I removed the last dried up stalks and leaves last week. Since I am not very patient, I already dug up some potatoes, I had to make sure there were some, right? I prefer firm potatoes, and this is a quite mealy variety but they make excellent mashies. Considering that I had no clue about gardening when I decided to do this in March, my first season is going quite well.

Okay, now back to winter and our penguin buddies. This month’s block features a penguin on a sled, all dressed up in matching ear muffs, mittens and a bow tie. The block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the store section in September.

EDIT: If you missed the free download of the August block, it is now available for purchase in the pattern store.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #5 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Auch Block 5 ist jetzt als Kaufmuster auf Deutsch und in metrischen Maßen im Shop verfügbar.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #5 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Happy Canada Day! We had really bad weather during the first half of June, cold and wet, and while the spinach still decided to bolt, I had little hope for my remaining cucumbers. But as soon as the weather changed, the first flowers appeared on the cucumbers, and they seem quite content by now. The tomatoes ignored the weather as well and have apparently decided to outgrow their cages as quickly as possible. They are in a rather dry spot close to the house but I didn’t think they would grow that much while it was so cold. In other gardening news, I have decided to try to grow Brussels sprouts. I belong to the 50% of the population who cannot taste anything bitter in Brussels sprouts and have always liked them. And I know they grow around here, you can see them in the fields awaiting harvest in late autumn. I had to order the seeds online, I guess this is not a very popular crop. As you can tell, I am having a lot of fun with my garden experiments.

But you are not here for my veggie stories, so let’s move on to this month’s penguin. July means Canada Day, and Canada means hockey. So of course the July block had to feature this favourite winter pastime and Canada’s official national winter sport. I realize the little guy should be dressed in red and white and not in blue but it didn’t look right in the final layout of the quilt. So I have decided to have him play in Vancouver Canucks colours instead. The hockey penguin will be available for free download until the end of the month and then move to the store section to make room for August’s free block.

EDIT: If you missed the free download of the July block, it is now available for purchase in the pattern store.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #4 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Auch Block 4 ist jetzt als Kaufmuster auf Deutsch und in metrischen Maßen im Shop verfügbar.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #4 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Another month has come and gone in this weird year. British Columbia has entered phase II of its reopening plan, and I have amended my procedures for taking in quilts a bit. This is mostly interesting for local customers, please click here to read more. There is still no square dancing (and probably won’t be for a long time), and the lack of dancing has managed to turn me into a gardener. I never thought that day would come but I have planted lots of veggies, and most of them seem to thrive. We have already harvested some spinach and lettuce, the peas are blooming, and the potatoes are growing like crazy. And yesterday I found the first flower on one of the tomato plants. Just the cucumbers don’t seem to like me but I am hoping it’s just the weather. One of my green thumb friends says her cucumbers are struggling too which made me feel a bit better.

I can’t think of a clever transition from gardening to penguins, so let’s just jump right in and check out what our friends are up to this month. There is definitely no gardening going on in their world. June’s penguin is gliding serenely across the ice on his skates, all dressed up in his finest bow tie, his ears kept warm by matching earmuffs. As always, the pattern is available for free download until the end of the month and will move to the pattern store when the next block is released.

Edit: The June block is now available for purchase in the store section if you missed the free download. I have also created a pattern bundle that has all three blocks that were previously released for a special price.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #3 pattern (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade pattern bundle 1, 2 & 3 (English/Imperial)

Der dritte Block ist jetzt auch auf Deutsch mit metrischen Maßen als Kaufmuster verfügbar. Und auch in diesem Jahr gibt es wieder ein Blockbündel, das alle drei bisher erschienenen Blöcke zum Sonderpreis enthält.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #3 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitungsbündel Penguin Promenade 1, 2 & 3 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Welcome to May and the second block of our Penguin Promenade. This month’s block features a chubby little guy skiing downhill, his hat and scarf flapping in the wind. I chose red fabrics for his accessories but the colours don’t really matter, so just go with what you have in your scrap drawer and have fun. The ski poles are quite narrow and not easy to cut but you can always choose to embroider them if you don’t feel like doing appliqué. I appliquéd everything and didn’t have a problem but I realize that not everyone is fond of tiny pieces 🙂

I hope you are all hanging in there, trying to stay home as much as possible. This virus will be with us for a while, and all we can do is make the best of the situation. Luckily quilting is a hobby that will keep us entertained at home for a long time. Until we run out of fabric, I guess, which for many quilters should not be a problem anytime soon 😉

As always, the pattern will be available for free download until the end of the month and move over to the pattern store when the June block is published.

EDIT: The second penguin block is now available for purchase if you missed the free download.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #2 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Penguin Promenade gibt es auch auf Deutsch, allerdings nur als Kaufmuster. Die kostenlosen Downloads jeden Monat sind nur auf Englisch und in Inch erhältlich. Die deutschen Blöcke werden jeweils einen Monat später im Shop veröffentlicht.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #2 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Okay, here we go. I was a bit faster than I thought, and the first pattern is ready for download. “Penguin Promenade” has nine blocks, each featuring a penguin. These are cartoonish penguins as you can tell by the scarf and hat the first one is wearing. His friends in the months to come will all be participating in some kind of winter activity. They will all be wearing accessories. Use your scrap bin and imagination for these, they don’t have to be in the colours that I chose for the design. The finished block size is 8″, and the finished quilt size is 38″ x 49″.

There is one major difference this year: The finishing instructions will NOT be included with the last block, and I will NOT provide them for free download. Of course you are welcome to just download the free patterns and assemble them any way you like. If you do the math, nine 8″ blocks do not give you a quilt of 38″ x 49″, and I added a couple of filler rows. These are pieced (no appliqué, no penguins, just plain old patchwork), and it takes a lot more time to write instructions for this than to just place sashing around the blocks and add a border. The finishing instructions will be available separately for a nominal fee. If you collect all the blocks there will be no need to purchase the full pattern if you decide you want to assemble them the way I did. I will however send the finishing instructions for free to anyone who makes all nine blocks and sends me a picture of all of them before April 1, 2021. That gives you a whole year to make nine blocks, and I enjoy seeing what other people do with my designs.

If you want to use the same background fabric for all nine blocks, you will need approx. 7/8 yard. The background fabric does not appear anywhere else in the pattern. For the pieced elements you can pick coordinating fabrics later on. My design is rather monochromatic, I chose only blue fabrics in different values from light to dark for the pieced parts. This is just to give you a general idea, I will post more information on this when I have double checked the math. 

The free pattern will only be available in Englisch/Imperial this year. I haven’t decided yet if I will publish a German/metric version but if I do, it will not be for free download. The rest of the rules are the same as last year, and I copied them from last year’s post:

A new block will be published on the first day of every month at 9 am Pacific Standard/Daylight Time. This means it will already be the second day of the month for some of you. Please be patient and please don’t email me asking when the next block will be published. I don’t like to schedule posts to be published in the middle of the night. There can always be a problem with one of the pattern files, and I would like to be able to fix it within minutes instead of waking up to dozens of messages complaining about the bug. If you find an issue, then please don’t hesitate to contact me, so I can fix it ASAP.

Each block will be available for free download during the month of its publication. It will be moved to the store section when the next block is published. If you miss a block, you can still purchase it for a small fee. Please do not email me asking me to send you the pattern for free. I will ignore these requests. I only charge $2 per block (and that’s Canadian dollars, so it is even less for you in the US), and I will make bundle packs available again for three or six blocks, once we get there, that will give you an additional discount. Please respect my copyright and don’t pass your copy of the pattern on to your friend who might have missed the free download. This will just result in designers not offering free patterns anymore.

And now I think I have talked enough, here is the download link for the first block. Enjoy 🙂

EDIT: It is May, and I moved the April block to the pattern store. It is now available for purchase, in case you missed the free download.

Click to purchase Penguin Promenade Block #1 pattern (English/Imperial)

EDIT: Penguin Promenade gibt es nun auch auf Deutsch, allerdings nur als Kaufmuster. Die kostenlosen Downloads jeden Monat sind nur auf Englisch und in Inch erhältlich. Die deutschen Blöcke werden jeweils einen Monat später im Shop veröffentlicht.

(Kauf)Anleitung Penguin Promenade Block #1 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

Here is a preview of my 2020 BOM that has nine blocks and will start in April. I can’t promise yet that the first block will be ready for download on Wednesday but it should be no later than the end of this week, so stay tuned. I had good intentions but then got a bad head cold last week and had to take some time to rest. Luckily it was just that, a head cold, and I am much better now. I played around with lots of ideas, and at some point came up with this funny little guy who made me laugh. He will be the first block, and eight of his pals will be joining him through the rest of the year. I hope you will enjoy my Penguine Promenade as much as I do.

Welcome to December and the last block of the Tuxedo Cat BOM. This pattern includes instructions on how to make the sashing and assemble the quilt. If you missed downloading any of the blocks, now is the time to get them. The Black Friday coupon code is still valid for 20% off until tomorrow. (Scroll down to see the Black Friday Sale post for the coupon code.)

In other news, I am not going to start another BOM on January 1. I really, really want to but I have decided to be reasonable and not jump into another big project right away. All year long I have been complaining about how busy I am and how I am always behind. In addition to that I have been having health issues for the second half of the year and I also took over as president of the Chilliwack Piecemakers Quilting Guild. Don’t ask me why… somebody had to step up and do it, and I like doing it but it does add to my workload.

But the main reason is that I just need to take some time to catch up. If you downloaded all my BOM blocks you might have noticed that I changed my layout earlier this year. I had a reason for this, and a big one as well. My patterns were accepted by QuiltWoman.com last December for sale on their website. If you haven’t heard about them, they sell patterns in digital and printed formats, and they sell to everyone – retail, wholesale, distributors and also chains like JoAnn’s. But they have certain format requirements including fonts and page layout. Almost a year has gone by, and I haven’t managed to edit very many of my patterns to match their requirements. So instead of working on new things (which would be much more fun, I admit) I will take the time to edit my patterns for their website before another year comes and goes and I still haven’t made any progress. We will see how long it takes, I am hoping that maybe by April I will be ready to start another BOM project. But if not, I will just work on it for as long as it takes. (And for those who keep telling me I don’t owe any of you an explanation… I know 🙂 This is mostly pep talk for myself. My main business is still longarm quilting but I almost enjoy the pattern part more and have to keep telling myself to focus.)

But enough of my ramblings, here are the links to the last patterns with the finishing instructions.

EDIT: The December pattern has moved to the store and is available for purchase if you missed the free download. Pattern bundles for blocks 10, 11 and 12 and for blocks 7-12 are also available. And I finally uploaded the pattern for the full quilt, direct links can be found below for both versions (English/Imperial and German/Metric).

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cat #12 pattern (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cats pattern bundle 10, 11 & 12 (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cats pattern bundle 7-12 (English/Imperial)

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cats Quilt Complete Pattern (English/Imperial)

(Kauf)Anleitung Tuxedo Cat #12 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitungsbündel Tuxedo Cats 10, 11 & 12 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitungsbündel Tuxedo Cats 7-12 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

(Kauf)Anleitung Tuxedo Cats Quilt Komplett (Deutsch/Metrisch)

For the first time ever, I am publishing a block early. I will be busy square dancing all weekend, and I don’t want to have to deal with it first thing next week, especially since the Christmas rush is picking up speed, so here is a nice little treat for Halloween. Well, maybe not… it still is October 31 here as I am writing this, and the trick or treating hasn’t even really started yet but for most of you it is already November. Can you believe there is only one block left? I am still undecided if I want to do another BOM next year. I have more ideas than I can ever handle, I just have to decide if I want to put that pressure on myself for another year. I will think about it this month, stay tuned. For November, we have a jumping kitty. Isn’t it amazing how high they can jump just like that? A very long time ago, when I was living in my first apartment back in Germany where we don’t usually have built in closets, I had a big wardrobe in a nook near the entrance door. When I moved out and we took it apart, I discovered paw prints in the dust on top of it. I still don’t know how my silly cat managed to jump up there, I would have sworn it was too high but still she did it. She also managed to fall behind a china cabinet once and get trapped there but that’s a story for another day 😀 The November block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the store section when the final block is published in December.

EDIT: The November kitty moved over to the store section. If you missed the free download, it is now available for purchase.

Click to purchase Tuxedo Cat #11 pattern (English/Imperial)

(Kauf)Anleitung Tuxedo Cat #11 (Deutsch/Metrisch)

November is just around the corner, and this time I am going to publish the block EARLY. I won’t have time to do it on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and have decided to do it Thursday night instead. Since I am way behind timezone-wise, it will be November 1 for most of you anyway. But this also means that the October block will move to the store section early. If you haven’t downloaded it already, please do it now before I move it on Thursday night.