Charlie

Viking Penguin Quilt Pattern | Whims And Fancies

Purchase Viking Penguin Olaf Pattern

I have had this idea of creating another penguin quilt pattern for months now. I recently got a set of loose colour pencils and I desperately need to make a new pencil case. That provided a perfect excuse to draw my little Viking Penguin Olaf. Viking helmets didn’t really have those horns, but Olaf insisted that I put horns on his helmet. Although I think he looks very cute, he thinks the horns make him look more formidable!

I couldn’t resist taking a short break from the stained glass flower blocks to make him. The penguin pattern is for a 10″ block. I scaled it down to make a 7″ block for my pencil case. Originally I was going to give him a green vest, but the red looks so much better on him against the starry background. Olaf is available in my shop if you want to make him for yourself.

Penguin Quilt Pattern | Whims And Fancies

Purchase Little Penguin Polaris Pattern

It all started with Little Penguin Polaris. I have a gimpy and chubby kitty cat called Charlie, whose photo occasionally surfaces here. He would like nothing more than for people to take him seriously. Except it has never worked since he was a baby. He just gets picked up and cuddled, and he just sits on your lap with all of his claws tucked in.

When I was going to make a little winter-themed block for a friend, I knew I had to make a chubby little disgruntled penguin in a scarf and a hat. So if Charlie were a penguin instead of a cat, this is what he would look like where all the other grown up penguins are just not taking him seriously enough!

Polaris and Olaf have become great friends already. They are busy planning all sorts of mischief together.

Thank you for staying with me until the last set of cards from this set of 61 index card paintings. Here are the last five –

icad 2015 Sunrise Painting | Whims And Fancies

Sunrise

I like to look toward the west during sunrise where the first rays of the sun light up the mountain ranges while the full moon sets behind them.

icad 2015 Affair Of The Hearts Painting | Whims And Fancies

An Affair Of Hearts

icad 2015 Edinburgh Tenement Painting | Whims And Fancies

Edinburgh Flat

I really like moss-covered stone buildings.

icad 2015 Explore other worlds | Whims And Fancies

Cross the boundary and explore other worlds

icad 2015 Telescope, Stars And Blake Painting | Whims And Fancies

I had to make this one as my final card. I love William Blake’s work and I love the stars. I see William Blake’s words come to life every time I look through my telescope.

I will share another post about the index card painting experience along with photos of all the cards together. It has been a lot of fun sharing these cards with you. Thank you again for your encouraging words.

I will leave you with a photo of the lunar eclipse I took last Sunday. We are surrounded by mountain ranges, and there was also a thick layer of cloud right at the horizon. The eclipse occurred right around sunset for us, so it was low in our sky. I really wanted to see it during the maximum eclipse. Just as I was losing hope, a faint, eclipsed moon showed up, shortly before the maximum eclipse and right above the cloud layer.

Lunar Eclipse 2015 | Whims And Fancies

Enjoy,
-Soma

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Taken with my cell shortly after dinner at a pho place

The outside temperature has been around 40C (104F) lately and I am determined not to expose myself even a little bit to the hot sun. The quilts are all put away. Even my quilt-addicted kitties are rolling up their mini quilts so they can sit on the cool, bare surfaces. Yes, they bundle up their quilts with their forepaws when they don’t want to use them. Hot summer days are perfect for rummaging through photos. I did exactly that and found a few that I would love to share.

This is a photo of all the bits and pieces of discarded index cards. I had to restart quite a few of them because of mistakes and bad or unexpected results. The fanned-out stack of cards on the right is where I practised drawing circles over and over until I could draw them without having the marker leaving a darker dot at the start and stop points. I couldn’t bear to throw those cards away. When I get frustrated of my ineptness, they serve as a reminder of the age-old saying – Practice Makes Perfect.

Recently I got a set of lovely soap moulds along with a set of essential oils from my DH. The oils make the house smell amazing while the soap cures. Now I have enough moulds to make a double batch of soap.

I used the Panorama feature of my phone to take this picture. I am at the bottom left corner, being pinned down by these two kitties. I was positively cooking under the bulk of the quilt and two hairy cats. No wonder it took me so long to finish hand-sewing the binding of the Greekness quilt!

This was a few months ago. I couldn’t sleep, so I worked on the binding of the Castles In The Air quilt. I was glad of his company in those wee hours of the night.

Purchase Aran Star Pattern

Lastly, Fort Worth Fabric Studio featured my Aran Star pillow on their blog. I am stoked!!

Thanks to my friends Susie and Lara, I entered this post to Pets On Quilts 2015

I hope you enjoyed photo-rummaging with me. If you are in the area of this extreme heatwave we are having, I hope you stay safe and cool.

Until next time,
-Soma

Viking Penguin Olaf, Paintings And Eclipse

Hot Days Of Summer