Thursday, March 14, 2024

It's time for the Villa Rosa blog hop!

 


The Villa Rosa Fast and More Fun blog hop starts today!


Here are the five patterns that each guest blogger received.  Tune each day to see our interpretations. 

My day is Monday and I'm delighted to report that you'll see that I made all five of the patterns -- and got them all quilted, too. 





Here's the schedule: 

Thursday, March 14
Villa Rosa Quilts — https://villarosaquilts.com/  

Friday, March 15
Kathleen McMusings — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
The Morning Latte — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
Homesewn By Us — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
Pieceful Thoughts — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
C & T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16 — National Quilting Day!
Needle and Foot — https://needleandfoot.com/
MMM Quilts — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
Texas Quilt Gal — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
Time 4 Stitchn — http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
SIY (Sew It Yourself) — https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17 — Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Quarter Inch Capers — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
Norton House Quilting — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
Quilting Gail — https://quiltinggail.com/  

Wazoo! Newsbits — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18
With Strings Attached — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
Jaftex/Scott Fortunoff — https://scottfortunoff.com/
Cocoa Quilts — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/ 

Quilt With a View — http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19
Shout 4 Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
The Darling Dogwood — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
Something Rosemade — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
Quilts of Valor Foundation — https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20 — First Day of Spring!

Grace and Peace Quilting — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
Happy Cottage Quilter — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Joyfully Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
Patchouli Moon Studio — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
Electric Quilt Company — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21
Villa Rosa Quilts — villarosaquilts.com 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Midweek: silk and sarongs, and a finish


The Villa Rosa blog hop begins on Thursday.   I'll post all the links.   Visit the guest bloggers and register for prizes!


Unusually warm weather and sunshine Monday and Tuesday (73 degrees!)  meant walks at Sun Lake Forest Preserve and Illinois Beach State Park.  I heard the cranes bugling and got a photo of one of the pair as it flew overhead. 

A follow up to Monday's post about Liz....her daughter called Tuesday morning to say that they'd found more Rotary things and would the club members like them? (Bob was a 50-year Rotarian.)   I know what the daughters are going through with clearing-out and said I'd help "disappear" whatever they don't want to keep.  While I was there T offered me a package of fabric from a trip to Thailand (or a gift from one of their exchange students).  

 

Left: a silk sarong. Center: a cotton batik sarong. Right: a 36" square silk scarf.  Never used, as is the case with so many such souvenirs,  (I have Thai silk from my parents' trip there in the 1990's.)   [As I refolded the fabric I found a slip of paper saying "Thailand from Liz G... and remembered a Sunday when we celebrated "all the children of the world" with food and fabric. I brought a piece of wool woven in Scotland.]

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Barb-the-quilter did a beautiful job on Pinwheel Nine-Patch. I picked it up last week and bound it over the weekend.  76 x 76.

I made the flimsy in 2021. The pinwheels were an RSC block and the nine-patches came out of the bottomless box from the long-ago Block Swapper's exchange. 

This is the AAUW spring raffle quilt.  I looked back in my records and the first raffle was in 2005. I missed 2000 and 2001 so it's the 18th in the series.  The proceeds go to AAUW's national leadership and public policy programs on behalf of the Waukegan Area Branch.  

Linking up with  Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait Loss


P.S. At the memorial service Liz's ashes were not in an urn but in a travel case -- ready for her final trip.  (Interment, with Bob's ashes, in Colorado.)  

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Weekly update: going to the dogs, remembering a dear friend, a little quilting + two great books


My friends Debbie and Bill brought their therapy dogs Buddy and Dandy to the Zion Woman's Club meeting on Tuesday.  They explained that therapy dogs differ from service dogs in that they are trained to be approachable to anyone (service dogs bond to one person).  They're part of  the Medinah Shrine Therapy Dog program and go to the Shriners' Children's Hospital, to schools, libraries, and other locations.  The dogs were a big hit with the ZWC, too!   

Buddy is a Yorkshire terrier and Dandy is a Shiloh shepherd.  When their vests are on they know they are at work -- no barking or yipping.  

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The memorial service for our dear friend Liz was held yesterday. She passed away last month at age 89.  (Do take a moment to read her obituary.)   I met her in 2003 shortly after I started at ZBPL and after she retired from operating a preschool.   She and her husband Bob were world travelers into their 80's.   They had four daughters and many grandchildren (great-grands, too).  They hosted more than 30 exchange students through Rotary Youth Exchange, and the first one (1976-77) came from Perth, Australia, for the funeral.    She was an avid gardener. She was a wonderful hostess with that marvelous ability to invite a group of people to dinner at a moment's notice with no fuss.  She had an ice cream social for the United Methodist Women every summer.  

 Liz loved to read and we talked about books.  The last time we spoke -- at church the Sunday before she passed away -- she said, "I'm looking forward to your book talk for UMW next week!"  and I dedicated the book talk to her.  

Her daughters asked if I would read a poem about her written by another friend (now deceased) and invited me to say a few words. I was honored. 

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The quilt guild meets the first Wednesday of the month. Our speaker was Sara Hochhauser who talked about quilted garments.  What a beautiful trunk show!  

Here she is modeling "A Little Somethin'," a pattern I've had for many years but have not made.  Maybe I'll make a garment . . .  some day.  (The insert strips are her contribution to the design.)  

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I haven't done much quilting this week.  Three of the Villa Rosa quilts are finished and the fourth is under the needle.  The blog hop starts Thursday, March 14, and I'll post the entire list of participants then. (My day is March 18.) 

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77-year-old Jennifer Quinn has always liked to bake. Her husband Bernard and their niece and her family praise the results.  On a whim -- and in secret ("am I too old?") Jenny enters the Britain Bakes competition. To her surprise she is invited to audition.  She bakes up a storm, still not explaining why ("am I really good enough?"), and she's made the cut!  Eventually the secret is revealed and she goes on the show.  But there is another, much older and far more deeply hidden secret:  when she was 17 she had a baby whom she gave up for adoption.   Will Bernard forgive her for not telling him?  As Jenny bakes her way to the finals she wrestles with her doubts.  But the new confidence she gains from the competition gives her the confidence she needs and Bernard (who is a truly dear man) helps her as she finds her long-unknown family.
The story is endearing (I stayed up much too late to finish it), and I learned a lot about how the Great British Baking Show is produced. 


Shannon Reed's memoir of her life in reading also kept me up too late.  OMG!  The first chapters/essays tick all my lifelong reader boxes (that was me! that was me! that was me!). Funny asides: "you might be a character in a children's book if.....you are a bear....who doesn't wear pants...." or "you might be a character in an Amish romance if....your name is Rachel....your intended is named Jacob....."
But seriously: Reed taught high school English (there's wonderful episode about getting her students in Brooklyn really engaged in Jane Eyre). She now teaches creative writing at Pitt -- and reading those chapters I got insights into HOW to read (she teaches Gone Girl and Lincoln in the Bardo in one class). Funny and very thoughtful.


P.S. These are NOT MY QUILTS. They are in the women's restroom at the church where the P.E.O. Round Table met on Friday. No labels so I can't give credit. (No quilts in the men's room. I looked.)

Monday, March 4, 2024

Weekly update: stash report and OMG + reading

 


ZWC (Deb second from right)
The Lake County Women's Coalition honored Women Who Advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the annual Women's History Month luncheon on Saturday.  Each LCWC member organization is invited to nominate a woman who exemplifies the theme.  AAUW-Waukegan honored Katie Rinehart and GFWC Zion Woman's Club honored Deb Will, both of whom are long-time friends.   

AAUW (Katie seated) 
   


You can read about the other women honored at coalition website










Sharon Epps gave a stirring portrayal of Harriet Tubman.  

LCWC awarded four "returning to learning" scholarships for women enrolled at the College of Lake County.    

The scholarship fundraiser includes a bag raffle, a silent auction, and a split-the-pot cash raffle. 





I donated Borderlands, a quilt I made last year ( more info here ).  My good friend Steffi was the high bidder.  I won a necklace made by another friend, Helen, and $131 in cash!   

# # # # # #

Stash report for February:  
Fabric OUT  46-3/4 yards
Fabric IN  122.5 yards, $245, avg. $2.00/yard 
Year-to-date:
Fabric OUT 171-3/4 yards
Fabric IN  416-1/2 yards, $675, average $1.62/yard 
You will recall that most of the acquisition came from the ongoing estate sale (March will be Month 7).


Goals for March:
(a)   Quilt and bind the five flimsies I've made for the upcoming Villa Rosa Designs blog hop.  (I quilted #1 on Friday and am halfway finished with #2.)
(b)   Tidy up in the studio and then clean (dust and vacuum).
(c)    Start something new just for fun.

# # # # #

I've known about Doerr's novel since it was published in 2014 but only now have I read it.  It's as wonderful as reviewers and readers have said.  In brief:  in WWII Marie-Laure, a blind girl, and her father flee Paris to live with their reclusive uncle in coastal Saint-Malo.  Their story alternates with that of Werner, a German boy whose mechanical genius grants him special status in the Nazi war machine.   The courses of the two young people inevitably cross -- the suspense is so compelling! -- but rather than colliding and exploding they come together and then separate.  The ending is unexpected.    (I haven't begun to watch the Netflix series based on the book.)   




It is 1885. U. S. Grant is trying to complete his memoirs before throat cancer kills him.   He recalls episodes from his eventful life and career, not the least of which is the time that he met Julia Dent, the Missouri woman who has been the love of his life.   Her constant support has buoyed him through Army campaigns (the Mexican War as well as the Civil War), his civilian life as a farmer, his political career as a two-term president, and the financial disasters in the years that followed.    Jon Clinch writes just enough and not a word more in this perfectly-balanced portrait of a hero and his family.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Midweek: one more walk, the other eye, and OMGs all done

 


Monday afternoon I gave a book review to the Memorial Methodist Women.   I talked about eight books, all of which I've reviewed in previous blog posts.  Afterwards I returned the books I'd borrowed from the library and checked out four more.  And so it goes.

Photo: crocuses in our garden. These are right under the dryer vent which gives them an edge. 

I took a flimsy to Barb-the-quilter yesterday. It will be the AAUW spring raffle quilt.  While we were nearby we visted a forest preserve we hadn't been to in a while.  I enjoyed the 70-degree temperatures.  Overnight a cold front came through and we woke up to the high 20's and a dusting of snow. 


The second cataract surgery was today.  Binocular distance vision!  I still have to wear readers for close-up. I got light-adjustable implants.  That procedure is scheduled for March 21.  

The perforated shield is easy to see through. I'm supposed to wear it for the next week, but only when sleeping and showering.  And of course there are still eyedrops.

# # # # # 
In the studio:   I am happy to report that I achieved ALL the parts of my One Monthly Goal.


International Sisters -- blocks by the ALA Biblioquilters.  Nine patch by Barb N, quilted for her to give to her daughter.  (The 1980's prints were from clothing and craft projects they made.)  Mountain Majesties, commissioned by Janice for her daughter's wedding.                                                                                                                              AND   
I'm going to be featured in a blog hop sponsored by Villa Rosa Designs   It starts in mid-March and my day is March 18.  Each blogger got the same five Villa Rosa patterns and is to make at least one to feature on her day (quilting is optional).   I decided to make all five and maybe they'll be quilted by March 18!  
Linking up with Midweek Makers         Wednesday Wait Loss  (Thanks for the shout out, Jennifer!)   OMG Link Up   

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Weekly update: cranes, spaghetti, estate sale, and a goal finished

 


Sign of spring:  cranes at Illinois Beach State Park.  They're camouflaged in the brown grass but their bugling gave them away.

 


I spoke to the driver of one of the trucks hauling rocks for the shoreline stabilization project. He said the quarry is in Waterloo, Wisconsin.  Rocks for inshore are trucked in. Rocks for the offshore reefs are trucked to the Port of Milwaukee and sent by barge, a trip that can take six hours.  Because the weather has been so mild they've been able to get weeks ahead of schedule.  

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Illinois Beach Sunrise Rotary Club prepares and delivers spaghetti dinners (pasta, freshly-made sauce, a salad, roll, and cookie) to senior citizens in congregate housing.   We used the kitchen at Memorial UMC (our church) for cooking and prep on Thursday evening and packaging on Saturday morning. 200 meals this year!  

Our club sponsors an Interact Club at ZBTHS-East Campus. They are enthusiastic helpers.  Stevens (upper right) came on Thursday evening and enjoyed the outing. 

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In the studio:  last Tuesday was the SIXTH month of Barb M's estate sale.  (See here for last month, with links to the previous sales, and the explanation for this bounty.)  The charity beneficiary this time is polycystic kidney disease research.

I indulged but not as much as I did earlier.  By weight, I paid $1.89 per yard.  Photo shows the haul at home.  



I did USE some fabric and I can boast of a finish.  It's one of my February goals.


The block is one of Bonnie Hunter's early ones, Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  










My stash yielded a backing that was perfect.  108" wide so no piecing required.  

60 x 77, 8-1/4 yards in all. 


Linking up with Oh Scrap! Sew and Tell  Design Wall Monday

P.S. If you didn't see my post from Wednesday, do take a look. I'm still wowed. 

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Midweek: mini quilt swap -- wow!

 Yesterday I received the mini-quilt from my MQG swap partner, Sara Hooten.     I am utterly gobsmacked.  Isn't it gorgeous?

A big picture of a small quilt 


Detail of applique and quilting 

Sara used this photo.  I took it at the entrance to the Zion-Benton Public Library in August, 2021. 

Zion is Monarch and Zinnia City. This year Benton Township (Beach Park and Winthrop Harbor) will join as the Bee Cities.  (Our high school mascot is the Zee-Bee.)  


Posting to Midweek Makers Wednesday Wait Loss
 

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Weekly update: scrappy mountains


 I'm working on a commission quilt (#3 of my four-part OMG list this month).  It's for Janice's daughter's wedding this summer.  Janice, her mother Joanne, and her sister-in-law Michelle have all won quilts I've made for our AAUW raffle so this is a third-generation quilt.  Janice said I could make anything which of course imposed more pressure rather than less. 

 I've always wanted to try Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  I showed a photo of someone's version (found online) to Janice. She liked it.  Decision made!   I chose a cool blue/green/turquoise/gray color scheme, pulled fabrics, and got going.  All the fabric will be from my stash.

I'm planning to make 50 blocks (7.5 x 12 finished) for a 60"x 75" quilt, no borders.  I've come to a conclusion that from here on I'll make wedding quilts sofa-sized, rather than queen-sized. That relieves the couple from the obligation of using the quilt on the bed.  Easier for me, too, and after all it's the thought that counts.  

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I drove to church this morning (2-1/2 miles) and made a grocery run afterwards, but I was hesitant to drive farther so we didn't make it to an afternoon concert.  Better to miss that than to drive nervously.  

This is my Chuck Schumer look.  Now I understand why always has reading glasses perched at the end of his nose. These are 2.5 power.


Instead of a book report, here's a movie report.  We rented The Holdovers from Amazon and enjoyed it very much.  We identified with the retro setting (Christmas, 1970, New England).  (Apparently the filmmakers deliberately emulated early 70's technology.)


Linking up with  Design Wall MondayOh Scrap! Sew and Tell

Friday, February 16, 2024

Friday check in: ruby cobblestones flimsy

 Thank you, all who commented on my cataract surgery.  Post-op yesterday concluded all is well, with another bottle of eyedrops and a chart to remind me when to use which.  If I put my glasses on, with the trifocal lens on the left and nothing on the right, I see at two levels.  Today I'm not wearing eyeglasses at all.  My right eye is doing the seeing and my left eye is providing binocular balance (it's too nearsighted to see anything clearly).   



Fortunately I can see to sew! 

 Here is the cobblestones flimsy.  3-7/8" yards used.  The blocks are 5" finished.  

I've gotten many 2-yd pieces of batik at Barb M's estate sale, just right for borders. 

[How a propos. The motif in the lower row, second column, left side looks like an eye!  You can see the piece it was cut from on the quilt back  in this post  ]




The setting was inspired by this design in the April 2024 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  

Designed by Cindy Hargrove who hand-pieced all the 3" Lemoyne Stars. 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday




Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Midweek, part 2: Valentine's Day etc., back to batiks, and a good book



 Today is momentous.  Most important?  I've been a big sister for 70 years today!  

Secondly:  cataract #1 w
as done at 11:30 this morning.  The surgery was as quick as everyone has said.  I'm a bit woozy from the Valium and the eye stings a little.  They warned that because my eyes are light blue the mega-mega dilation may not wear off until tomorrow.

I'm not supposed to drive for three days so we are relying on friends.  (Stevens no longer drives.)  I've done some cooking ahead. We will not starve. 

I wish I'd kept the Singer301 set up in the living room because I am not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 24 hours. 

And thirdly:   today is Ash Wednesday.  We'll miss tonight church service (no driving).  I usually give up buying fabric for Lent but I don't think I'll manage (the next round of the big estate sale is next week).  Instead I'm going to focus on giving, rather than giving up.

# # # # #

In the studio:  I took a break from the goals list and made more batik cobblestone blocks, inspired by Wanda's recent project.  My blocks turned out to be small slab blocks, 5.5" unfinished.  Here they are en masse, with a dozen more to come.  I know what the actual setting will be.  Come back to see it. 

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To the Best of Our Knowledge (Wisconsin Public Radio) included an interview with Lucy Jane Bledsoe as part of a show about Antarctica.   I enjoyed her commentary and promptly put her novel on hold. It came in a couple of days later.  I was surprised that it was published in 2010; it was new to me.

People sign up for a stint on the Ice, as those who know call it, to do many things, but fundamentally to find themselves by going to, literally, the end of the earth.   For Rosie, a galley worker in her third season, it was to escape her broken family.  For Mikala, a musician with a grant to write an Antarctic-themed symphony, it was to confront her long-absent father (a cosmologist researcher also on the Ice).  For Alice, a geology PhD candidate, it was to do significant fieldwork with pristine rocks but also get away from her stifling, emotionally needy mother.    These three women, with no previous connection, become the unlikeliest of friends and protectors. 

Bledsoe has traveled to the Ice on three arts/writers' fellowships so she knows the story.  I hadn't thought about how many people it takes to run the camps and bases in support of all the scientists.  It's a world within a world.

Linking up with Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait Loss

P.S.  Two other new-sister pictures.  



Midweek: orchid show 2024


 The annual orchid show at Chicago Botanic Garden is a wildly popular event.  This year the tickets are timed admission which helps a lot with crowd control.   Monday morning wasn't terribly busy (compared to weekends) and we were able to get a handicapped parking space right at the entrance.  




 Big Top-style music played in the exhibit hall (not in the greenhouses).  There were  clever arrangements.  





It is impossible to take a bad photo of an orchid.  




Fun house wavy mirrors.  


It was a delight for both of us!

And we were home for a late lunch.