Last weekend was a long weekend, with Monday being Thanksgiving in Canada, and I managed to sneak my Penguin Promenade top into the quilting queue. I didn’t really know how I wanted to quilt it, just had a vague idea of maybe some snowflakes. I should know better by now, I never just do “some” snowflakes… of course it took much longer than expected but I am really happy with the result. Here is a little sneak peek of my quilted penguins. Happy Friday, everyone, and have a good weekend!
Nola made this darling litte quilt as a gift for a new baby in the family. The squares showcase the different fabrics with animal motifs nicely, and it didn’t need much quilting. The design I used is called “Celtic Scroll”, a nice and basic circular pattern that works well with the straight lines of the pieced top.
Rail Fence is a great pattern to use if you have a lot of scraps that you want to get rid of. That’s what Darcie did, and she turned all those leftover pieces into a beautiful quilt. Scrap quilts tend to be fairly busy and don’t usually need elaborate quilting, so we went with “Wild Wind”, a timeless swirly design.
Now this was a really fun quilt to quilt. Sharon made it as a decoration for her sewing room wall, and it has everything from traditional pieced blocks to appliqué, from hand embroidery with crayon tinting to button embellishments. She asked for custom quilting to enhance the different parts of the quilt, and I think you can tell how much fun I had with it.
Are you familiar with the game “Minecraft”? My son started playing it a long time ago, and although I have never played it myself, it seemed a really creative game. Ginger’s grandson plays it too, and when he grew out of the smaller quilt she had made for him some years ago, he requested Minecraft as the theme for his new quilt. This is Ginger’s interpretation of the Minecraft world, and she let me choose the pantograph. That wasn’t as easy as it sounds. I wanted to stay with the world of blocks Minecraft theme but on the other hand all those straight lines needed a flowing, curvy design. I finally settled on “Kristin’s Maze”, and we were both very happy with the result.
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: October is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
“Where We Love Is Home” is a pattern by Australian designer Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. Cynthia put a lot of work into this quilt, she did all the appliqué and embroidery by hand, and there are lots of tiny pieces. This is truly a labour of love, and Cynthia did an awesome job putting it all together.
This unusual quilt top was pieced by Doris. I love the vibrant colours and how the white background makes them pop. The timeless swirls of the “Wild Wind” panto were just perfect for Doris’s project.
Susan made this striking quilt in red, white and black. Although it might not be obvious at first glance, the block she used is the log cabin variation “Courthouse Steps”. Placing her colours strategically, Susan was able to achieve a very different look. For quilting, she chose the design “Wild Wind”.
