Friday check in: end of the garden, packing, some sewing + reading

 

The geraniums are having a late-season burst of energy. I moved them to the back patio to make room for a mum and pumpkin on the front stoop.

The tomatoes are over.  The crop was nice this year, especially for the grape and cherry varieties. 

The zinnias I planted are still blooming and there are a couple of hopeful (or foolish) buds.  

My preoccupation is preparing for my long-awaited trip to Italy.  I leave tomorrow!  It will be my 51st Road Scholar program:  Rome, Florence, Venice.  Home October 23.   Temperatures there will be mid-70's during the day and mid-50's at night.  I'll take that fleece jacket for sure.

I've spent two evenings making Carolina Chain units.  69 units to go. Have I mentioned how tedious mass-production can be?   

 

I sewed four four-unit blocks to get an idea of what they look like.  I think the tremendous variety of prints will even out once they're all assembled. 

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Renee "Cash" Blackbear is a young Native American woman living in Fargo-Moorhead in the 1970's.  She grew up in a succession of foster homes which made her tough and feisty.  She works the sugar beet and wheat harvest. In her time off she's a pool shark.   A rural sheriff has befriended her (as a little kid she spent a night in his jail). He comes to rely on her talent for transcending a scene to see beyond the immediate.   That ability becomes the key to solving murders.   

Though I lived in Fargo 20 years after the stories take place I recognized the setting.

I binge-read the series.   The characters become more complex with each installment. I look forward to the next one!

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday and Off the Wall Friday

Midweek: dolls, a finish, WIP + reading

 "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" was the program at yesterday's Zion Woman's Club meeting.  Lorna began collecting and recreating antique dolls in the 1990's.  She has traveled all over the country to doll competitions (she's won!),  sold supplies, and taught classes. She makes the porcelain heads and bodies herself. She brought samples of heads as greenware (rather squishy), bisque (first firing), and porcelain (second firing).  She makes all clothes including the shoes (leather sourced from old gloves).   Most of the club members have known Lorna for many years but none of us knew the details about her dolls!  

Top:  reproduction Jumeau (French). The eyes of French and German dolls are different, though the bodies look the same.   Left: 1920's half doll--the skirt conceals a container (trinkets, candy).  Right:  Titanic passenger with her wardrobe trunk. 

Lorna showed a couple of doll-supply catalogs. That got me to thinking about the subcultures of art/craft/hobby -- quilt shops, yarn shops, woodworking suppliers, potters, and more.   They're going on all around us.  

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In the studio:   RSC brown/black Ohio Stars is finished.  

I've been working on Carolina Chain units for a while.  They are 4" finished and I need 288 for a quilt that's 64" x 72."  

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Just drop everything else and read this. You will be glad you did.

82-year-old Fred is all alone in the world--his beloved wife died a decade before, leaving him with a mountain of medical debt that he cannot pay off. He’s about to be evicted from his apartment but doesn’t have any idea where he can go. He takes a walk along the river and encounters a group of nursing home residents on a field trip. It turns out that Fred looks remarkably like Bernard, one of the residents -- so much so that the staff insists that he is Bernard and they take him back to the nursing home. After a few days of trying to straighten things out Fred just accepts it and enjoys having the room and board.

Fred is fundamentally kind and decent. He befriends other residents and the staff at the nursing home. He reaches out to Bernard's estranged daughter and reopens a relationship long shut off. But how long can he keep up the ruse? Confession leads to absolution and opens up a new life that none of them could have imagined.

A wonderful feel-good page-turner!

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: AIC, quilt show, the end of an era, a finish! and a flimsy

 

I've had ample opportunities to go downtown to see the Caillebotte exhibit at the Art Institute, but it took a "closing soon!" email to get me to do it on Friday.  

Wealthy Chicagoans in the Gilded Age (1890's) bought Impressionists as modern and avant-garde, and relatively inexpensive.  They were patrons of the Art Institute and thus the museum developed its Impressionist collection.  

"Paris Street, Rainy Day" was acquired in 1964 and has become one of AIC's most famous paintings.  Caillebotte painted it in 1877.

I had hoped to go to this famous intersection (Carrefour du Moscou) when I was in Paris last fall but couldn't fit it in. 

These are some of Caillebotte's other paintings in the exhibit.

There was an interesting thematic exhibit in the Textile Gallery.  

The selected textiles represent world cultures and span centuries from ancient Egypt to the present day.

Top center and right: mourning samplers.  Center left: photo collage on fabric (a quilt), log cabin quilt blocks (silk) -- but what looks like a Trip Around the World is not a block but a fragment from an altar cloth from Bhutan, 18th century.   Bottom left is a fabric collage (framed, not quilted); center Peruvian khipu, 2024; bottom right Nigerian chief's textile, 20th c.

Before I left the museum I got pictures of other favorites.  Top: John Singer Sargeant, two Georgia O'Keefes. Center: Marsden Hartley, Grant Wood, Mary Cassatt. Bottom: Mary Cassatt, Mark Chagall, and a tiled wall in the corridor to the restroom.

I was home at 4:15 p.m.  I really must go downtown more often.

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I had a meeting Saturday morning (Lake County Women's Coalition steering committee, of which I am the secretary.  (It looks as though I'll reup to be secretary for 2026-28, but that gets me out of being president.)  

 

After lunch Irene picked me up and we went to downtown Racine to see the Lighthouse Quilters biennial show.  

I chose the chickens for Viewer's Choice. 

"You're Nann!" said Laura.  "I know you from your blog!"  And I got a picture of her with her Underground Railroad Quilt.

I bought tickets for raffle baskets, but didn't win any of them.  There were vendors but I resisted temptation.

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Sunday morning I gave the opening message for our church stewardship campaign. The theme is "Sharing the Bread of Life." I used the metaphor of sourdough starter.  Did you know that a sourdough starter can last for ten years?  Hopefully our  starter (flour (our contribution) + yeast (the Holy Spirit)  + water (our faithful reponse)) will be the leaven for our furtherance of God's work in the world.  

After lunch I revisited Lyons Woods Forest Preserve.  Look what I found along the trail -- wild strawberries.  In October!   

Can I go to the movies anytime I want?  Snap decision:  sure I can!  I caught the 4:10 viewing of the Downton Abbey finale.   

The end of an era for the Crawleys.  The show began in the UK in 2010 and in the US in 2011.  Storylines wrapped up with some inside references (Lady Mary: "I slept with a stranger." Lady Edith: "Was he Turkish?"), conventions were upended, and at the end a lovely tribute to Maggie Smith.   

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And, yes, I sewed!  

This is round 6 for the guild round robin.  I can't show you all of JW's quilt because it's a surprise.  

The Christmas Monkey Wrench quilt is finished.  

An assortment of Christmas prints on the back.  

And the October RSC Ohio Stars are now a flimsy.

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

Friday check in: guild speaker

 Judy Martin presented a trunk show at Wednesday's guild meeting.  I'm sure you've known about her as long as I have!  She came to quilting from years of garment sewing. Her first quilt was made from clothing scraps when she was in college in the late 1960's.  She has published eight pattern books.  

 Nearly all of the 24 of the quilts she showed are really big.   

 The designs look very complex but when she showed how the blocks fit together they didn't seem so intimidating.

Though I've owned many of her books I admit that I've never made any of the patterns.   I keep thinking I'd like to make Shakespeare in the Park (which was not in this trunk show).  

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Also at the guild meeting:   the half-yard challenge reveal was at last month's meeting but my partner Cathy and I could not attend.    (Participants chose four half yards that were exchanged. The challenge was to make a quilt (flimsy was okay) using the half yards,)   Now we've swapped.  

She used her embroidery machine to create clever sewing-room 'encouragement'.   I used a Villa Rosa pattern for stars and rail fences.

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I was in the car rather than on the trail yesterday.    In March when Stevens was having increasing difficulty standing up we got a lift assist, a contraption that does just that.  We bought it, nearly new, half list price, from a woman who was one of our caregiver's other clients.  S used it less than a week before he was hospitalized and it's been in the garage ever since.  FB Marketplace wouldn't allow the listing because it is 'medical equipment.'  I looked up "where to donate medical equipment" and found  Devices 4 the Disabled. I called and, yes, they  would take the lift assist.   The suburban drop-off is in Algonquin, 40 miles but an hour and a half away but that was better than driving into Chicago.  Good to get that out of the garage and, hopefully, on the way to someone who can use it. 

I'm planning an adventure for today.  Come back on Monday to find out.

Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday 

Midweek: stash report and goals

 

Yesterday Lynn and I had a nice catch-up and a good long walk in the sunshine at Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve.  We've known one another since kindergarten and reconnected at our 50th high school reunion.   She lives about 30 miles southwest of me.   After the walk we continued the conversation over lunch.  

She is a realtor and a writer/editor (EmpowerWritingService . com)

Image from bunnybunch.org 

Now it's time to welcome a new month with an autumnal rabbit, rabbit.

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In the studio:   

The Christmas monkey wrench quilt is under the needle.   

I've made 10 out of 20 black/brown Ohio Stars for the October RSC.  

Stash report, September.  Fabric in:  53-3/4 yards, $418, average $7.74 per yard.   Fabric out: 53-1/8.  Nearly even!

Year to date.  Fabric in: 1068 yards, $878, average $1.23 per yard.  Fabric out: 785 yards.

My goals for October:   complete the last round of the guild round robin (I'll pick that up at the meeting tonight); finish this month's Ohio Stars; make a couple of 6" blocks for one of the ALA Biblioquilters' projects for next year's auction.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss and  October OMG

Weekly update: a destash, almost a flimsy, RSC October + reading

Old School Forest Preserve

 Chicagoland is officially in a drought but the cloudless skies ("100% of available sunshine") and warm temperatures are the kind of weather I'd like to bottle.  

At Van Patten Woods on Friday:  sulfur butterfly on New England aster, viceroy butterfly, yellow wooly bear caterpillar.

The viceroy is a monarch mimic. The visible difference is the black band across the lower wing. (Read about other differences in this article)

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A friend moved to assisted living earlier this year.  There was an estate sale at her house this weekend.  I bought a trundle bed and because I know where the mattresses have been I'm going to use them.  My plan is to make Stevens' bedroom into guest room with a more flexible bedding choice than a queen-sized bed.  It seems soon to be doing this but trundle beds of this quality (oak, mission-style frame) are a lot more than $275 (and the mattresses would be extra). 

I could not have gotten this far without the help of neighbors Mike (tools), Ira (truck), and Zac (youth and muscle).  Mike said he'll reassemble the frame this week.   I'll need to purchase twin-sized bedding but of course I have a quilt or ten that will work fine.

What I accomplishedon my own was getting a new shade for the lamp temporarily on top of the dresser. That was another estate sale purchase.  (It's Buchan pottery from Scotland, a design I really like.) 

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Two of these are now empty

Destash!   There was a FB post by a quilter showing two quilts she'd made from neckties.  I commented that I had a lot of ties that I'd be happy to send her.  She said she'd love to have them.  I emptied *two* 55-quart bins -- about 400 ties? it's hard to count.  I still have plenty to play with.

On the design wall:  the Christmas monkey wrench blocks are finished.  I hope to get the border sewn on this evening.

Meanwhile, October's RSC is black and brown.  Here are the first two Ohio Stars.

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Late last year I read the five Jules Clement mysteries by Montana writer Jamie Harrison.  They were great.  I found her 2021 stand-alone novel in the stacks at the library.  It was even better.   It's set in Livingston, MT (where Harrison lives), in 2002 with flashbacks to 1968.   Polly Schuster is recovering from a brain injury (caused by a freak accident).  She's preparing for a big celebration for her great-aunt Maud's 90th birthday.   A young woman whom Polly knew well disappears while out for an afternoon of canoeing. As the search proceeds Polly remembers incidents from her family's past with drownings and disappearances.   Family dynamics are all over the place with the cast of quirky characters. Secrets old and recent are revealed.  It's a great story.  

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

Friday check in: orchids in September + a flimsy

Wednesday afternoon I walked the long trail at the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park.    I found a wildflower I hadn't seen before.  Great Plains Lady's Tresses is a variety of orchid.  I recognized it as such because of a similar orchid I saw in the Burren in Ireland.  

The flowers are about 1/4".   

The Irish orchid:  fragrant orchid, gymnadenia conopsea.

Is the hole in the tree a portal?  LOL!

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No walk on Thursday.  Rotary breakfast at 7:15, then the first meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club at lunchtime.  The speaker, Susan Benjamin, was great. The topic was interesting -- Neil Diamond.  But, unfortunately, Susan's AV presentation didn't work on the program chair's computer despite 20+ minutes of trying to install, uninstall, reinstall and finally giving up.  Susan gave the program without the visuals and the song clips -- and she'll return in May with to try again.  (By that time *I* will be the program chair and we are definitely going to have a rehearsal.)

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In the studio:   the framed squares are a flimsy.  The Kaffe Fassett Bead Stripe was just right for the border.

    

The Zion Woman's Club Bunco fundraiser is November 14.  I contribute a quilt to the raffle. Though I could choose a quilt on hand I am going to try to make a Christmas quilt.   These monkey wrench blocks are 7-1/2" unfinished.  More to come.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek: RSC collage + something new

 It's been a while since I walked the trail at Sedge Meadow.  74 degrees and sunshine made it most pleasant. 

I saw three bottle gentians!  (The third one is at the lower right.)

 This circle of little heart-shaped leaves came into view just as I was telling Stevens how much I missed him.  

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In the studio: 

I quilted the September RSC Ohio Stars flimsy (light green and light blue)  on Monday evening.  

Here's a collage of the nine Ohio Stars quilts.  The blue tote bag came about because I trimmed the quilt (before binding) too much.  

These are wheelchair-sized. My plan is to donate them as a group once the entire year's worth are finished.

I packed a stack of 3.5" squares and a piece of sage-green solid to work on when Carolyn and I were in Madison earlier this month. I made a bunch framed HSTs after I finished sewing the Kaffe wedges (which are now a finished quilt).  At home  I kept making framed HSTs until I ran out of the sage.  There was enough of this Kaffe (Mad Plaid) for the setting. 

 Surely my stash can come up with something suitable for the border.

The framed HST units are 3" finished so the four-unit blocks are 6" finished. 

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

So Scrappy RSC

Thanks for the shout out, Jennifer!