Some quilters keep a schedule. Penny keeps a quilt life, and Penny's Quilt Life is the collection that follows our penguin mascot through one full day of it. Round glasses on, patchwork scrap hairdo piled high, she goes from coffee to cutting table to a moonlit window without once reaching for a comb. Sound familiar?
Morning: coffee and big ideas
The day begins in Penny's Cozy Quilt Cocoon, wrapped head to toe in a patchwork quilt with both flippers around a mug. Fabric First, Everything Else Later sets the priorities for the day, mug in hand and a little tag reading Quilt Hair Don't Care. Then comes Penny's Fabric Obsession, knee deep in open pattern books and paper pieces, and Penny's Got a Plan (Don't Interrupt), arms crossed in a purple sweater, squinting at a design wall that is almost, nearly right.
Afternoon: the working hours
By lunch the scissors are out. Penny's Flying Geese Chase dashes off with a freshly cut flying geese block, and Penny the Seam Ripper Warrior handles the corrections with her seam ripper raised high. Queen of the Fabric Stack surveys her kingdom from a castle of folded fabric, rotary cutter in hand, while Penny's Fabric Haul peeks out from behind the newest additions to the stash. Penny's Pressing Engagement is the mid-afternoon slump every quilter knows, chin resting on the ironing board while the iron steams away. Send Help (and Batting) says the rest, with a hand-lettered sign held up between rolls of batting.
Evening: Penny off duty
Once the machine cools, Penny's Patchwork Runway takes a twirl in heels and a spiraling patchwork skirt, her motto spelled across her glasses. Quilting on Vacation laughs out loud in a camp chair with a glass of red and a quilt across her lap. Penny's Wine and Whipstitch Night settles in wearing a pink quilted robe, a finished block in one flipper and a sleepy puppy snoozing at her feet. And long after the house goes quiet, Penny's Midnight Quilting Hour is still at it by the light of a full moon, spools rolling in every direction.
Quilters on Penny time
This is for the quilter who sits down to sew for one hour and looks up at midnight, the one who counts batting as a food group, and the friend who arrives at guild with thread in her hair and a grin that says she regrets nothing. Tomorrow Penny does it all again, starting, as always, in the cocoon.
Written by Judy. Thanks for reading.
