Happy New Year! Old Town, the Annual Reckoning and goals for 2025

I faithfully remembered the first-day rabbit, rabbit charm.

 I'm trying a variation to the traditional Hoppin' John.  It's a  recipe from the Washington Post:   Jollof Rice.  In addition to the black-eyed peas it has brown rice, canned tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, onion, garlic, tumeric, and thyme.   The peas are simmering now (with salt pork) and smell delicious.

This was us last evening.   

We watched Dalgleish (based on P.D. James mysteries) and an episode of The Larkins (delightful!). 

Bonnie surprised everyone yesterday with Part 8 of the Old Town mystery.   I used the Studio 180 Wing Clipper ruler for four-at-a-time flying geese -- and when I began to trim them I discovered that I had cut ALL the goose squares 1/4" too small!   I cut an entirely new batch of goose and wing squares and by the end of TV-watching they were finished. 

Left:  the small geese. Right: the correct geese. 

This is my 27th Annual Reckoning of quilt fabric used and acquired.  Rather than reprint the ever-longer spreadsheet I'll get right to the point:

2024 Fabric  OUT, 2024:  931 yards.  Fabric IN, 2024:   1631 yards.   Expense:  $2533 which is $1.55 per yard.   

I got really, really good deals at estate sales this year--Barb M's and others.  

Total, 1998-2024:   OUT: 10,844 yards.  IN:  17,375 yards.  Expense: $35,322.   Yearly averages, 1998-2024:  OUT: 402.   IN: 532 yards.  Expense: $1431, $2.69 per yard. 

I'm pleased with my resistance to year-end sales, including the closeout of a local quilt shop.  

My overarching goal is to ENJOY.   Enjoy the process, enjoy learning new techniques, enjoy the stash.   I'd like to accomplish: 

*    52 placemats for the guild and other charity projects 

*     12 wheelchair-sized quilts, started and finished

*     Assess the box of flimsies and decide those I will quilt myself and those I will have quilted.  Move the remainder on to those who finish quilts for charity projects.

*     Declutter.  I've signed up for Karen's declutter challenge at Just Get It Done

Thanks to all of you who've read my posts this past year.  I look forward to reading your comments and to visiting your blogs in 2025.            Linking up with Jennifer's Wednesday Wait Loss and Yvonne's 2025 Planning Party

The Best of 2024

 

"Best of" and "year in review" lists are everywhere this week.  There are roundups of op-eds, celebrity deaths, the primary-to-convention-to-election, sports, movies and televison, theater, and music -- and my bailiwicks of quilts and books.  

I will post the Annual Reckoning (fabric used and acquired) and 2025 goals tomorrow.   

Here are my favorite quilts of 2024. Click on the highlighted link to get the backstory. 

#1   Kamala banner  

Modern Quilt Studio sold the pattern for $10 and raised $100,000 for the Harris/Walz campaign.  My banner hung next to the front door from August through the election. (The house faces due west so this faded considerably.) 

#2   MQG mini swap

I used neckties to make this 26" mini for Sara, my assigned partner in the annual MQG swap.  See the next entry for what she made for me! 

(I missed the sign up for the 2025 swap, alas.)  

#3  Monarch and Zinnia

This is what Sara sent me for the MQG mini swap.  It is drop-dead magnificent. 

#4 Morning at the Marsh 

I was one of the participants in the Villa Rosa Designs blog hop.  "31" was one of the featured patterns.  

#5  Butterfly Effect  

A 60th birthday gift for a friend.  Design concept is by Jan Mullen (Star Gazey Quilts). 

  

  

Two quilts using Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties pattern.   

#6 A   Scrappy Mountains

A commission. 

#6 B  Christmas Peaks

The 2024 AAUW holiday raffle quilt. 

#7  Round Robin rescue

I made two tote bags out of the flimsy from the 2018 guild round robin.  

#8 Homespuns

These are still flimsies. 

#9   Floral Maze

The third maze quilt I've made. Photos of the other two are in the highlighted post. 

   

 #10  Pinwheel Nine Patch

This year's AAUW spring raffle quilt.  I made the flimsy in 2021 and had it quilted in 2024.

Linking up with other quilt bloggers for Best of 2024

Weekly update: Christmas week, visitors, and an unexpected project

 My internal calendar was thrown off with Christmas in the middle of the week.  We went to the 5 p.m. Christmas Eve service at North Prairie UMC (the "other" Methodist church in town because we didn't want to go out at 9 p.m. for the service at our church).   My sister came for lunch on Christmas Day.  (Her husband is an HVAC guy and had several service calls (gotta have an operating furnace!).)  She and I talk fairly often but we hadn't met in person since last spring.  

On Thursday Bob posted that he was enjoying Christmas in Lake Forest with his foster family I promptly sent a message asking if he could come to visit.  

In 1981 Stevens hired Bob to be the government documents librarian at Pittsburg State University.  We moved in 1982.   After Stevens' immediate successor as dean left PSU Bob was appointed dean and held the position until he retired.   Though I've seen Bob at ALA conferences (most recently 2019), it had been more than 30 years since Stevens and Bob had met.

Mild temperatures meant we got out for walks.  

Fungus at Lyons Woods and a dormant but still green prickly pear at Illinois Beach State Park.

The ornaments I hung on Tuesday were still there on Saturday but the paint was stripped off.  

# # # # # #

 Part Six of the Old Town mystery dropped on Monday.   Another easy step.

I haven't begun Part Seven (released Friday).  Instead I concentrated on the project I began last week.   

I was inspired by a quilt by Deb (here).  I think I found it when I was looking for half-rectangle block designs.  

My quilt gave me the opportunity to use the Studio 180 Half-Rects ruler.  (The cut-big-and-trim method results in perfectly-sized units.)    The blue background is Kaffe Aboriginal Dots.  I used virtually every bit that I had, which required piecing scraps and then recutting.   The brights are some Kaffe, some Serious Whimsy, and a few others.  

Blocks are 4 x 8 finished (the largest the ruler makes).  Quilt is 48 x 56.  

The splashy orchid print on the back is a Hoffman from 1985 (selvedge has the date) that I got at Barb M's estate sale. The other is a newish Kaffe. 

I quilted it in diagonal lines with the serpentine stitch. 

Next up will be Old Town.  

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

P.S.  We streamed four movies this week.
  

I'd never seen Christmas in Connecticut (1945)--fun.  It had been years since we last watched Home Alone (1990).  (I didn't realize that Catherine O'Hara, the mom, was Moira Rose in Schitt's Creek. Quite a different mom!)    

No photo: we also saw Elf.  Some funny parts but not cute or charming.

A departure from Christmas fare:   The Six Triple Eight, now on Netflix.  It's based on the true story of the Black WAC unit who cleared up the backlog of 17 million pieces of undelivered mail (incoming and outgoing) during World War II.  It was decades until the women received the recognition and honor they deserved.   I recommend it.   

P.S. 2   Our New Hampshire family sent gourmet treats from Stonewall Kitchen. Almost as good as the food are the boxes and hamper they came in.  Never turn down a sturdy box!  

  

Weekly update: solstice, ornament bombing, and a little sewing

 

On Thursday Zion Woman's Club members helped with the Elf Network.  The bags contain sorted Christmas gifts, personalized by age/gender for each family.  Bags are numbered, people present their number and get their bag.  It was very efficient.   

 
We did nothing to observe the solstice but now there will be a minute more daylight in the morning and in the evening.   I love this poem. A friend said she rereads Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series this time of year.  I'd like to revisit them but there are so many other books in the queue. . .

On a forest preserve walk during the first Covid Christmas (just four years ago?!) I encountered Christmas ornaments hung on tree branches along the trail.  Since then I've looked for ornaments for cheap at rummage sales or thrift shops so I can contribute, too. (The hard part is to remember to retrieve them from wherever I've put them.) 

  

Someone got ahead of me with this cardinal. 

# # # # #

In the studio: 

I'm caught up on the Old Town mystery.  Here are parts four and five.  

I thought I was caught up. Bonnie released Part Six this morning!  

The December guild BOM block is appliqued. I fussy-cut a Kaffe print for the flower.  

I made some broken dishes blocks (6.5" unfinished) with Christmas scraps.  Not sure how (or when) I'll set them.

And then I started something completely different!   

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

P.S.  One of the gently-used quilt books I got from the sale rack recently was an anthology from 2000.  Look who I found!   

Midweek: table runner + reading

 

The two Waukegan-based P.E.O. chapters had their joint holiday party yesterday afternoon.  Though neither is my chapter, I knew most everyone there.   Just desserts, and delicious!

# # # # #

I finished the table runner for the gift exchange at tomorrow's Rotary meeting.  I searched the stash and eventually found just the right fabric.   (I realize that I mispieced the Air Castle block at the bottom so it looks a little clunky. Too late!) 

Now I'm working on the coral HSTs for the Old Town mystery. I made 5 sets Tuesday evening.  Many more to come.

# # # # # #

This book is a gem and I commend it to you.  

Rundell writes about 23 marvelous creatures.  Some are well-known (elephants and wolves), some are not (golden moles and pangolins).  Some are on watchlists (monarch butterflies, giraffes) and some are not (humans).   Ultimately all are endangered (not to be alarmist, but  there could be a modern-day equivalent of the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs).  All have a place on the earth.   

The short chapters are a mix of how the creatures have been regarded through the ages and their current conditions.  An example from the seahorse essay:  "We live in a world of such marvels. We should wake in the morning and as we put on our trousers, we should remember the seahorse, and we should scream with awe and not stop screaming until we fall asleep, and the same the next day, and the next. Each single seahorse contains enough wonder to knock the whole of humanity off its feet, if we would but pay attention."  (136) 

After Rundell describes she prescribes what we can do to protect these and all the wonderful beasts.  Vote. Do all you can to mitigate climate change.  "Educate yourself. Educate others....The world deserves your clear-sighted and nuanced awe." (194)  "The time to give up is never. Hope--active, purposeful, informed hope--is what we owe the world. A body of unimaginable splendor turns on its axis, calling us to its aid." (195)

# # # # #  Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss  Midweek Makers   Susan has announced that December 25 will be the last Midweek Makers.  Thanks for hosting the weekly gathering!

Weekly update: many activities, little sewing

 Who says we can't try new things?  After decades of a Saturday luncheon, this year the AAUW gathering was on Friday at  Lamb's Farm.  It's a residential vocational center for adults with disabilities. Their restaurant servers are clients.   Of course we don't just eat -- we raise money!  There's a white elephant/silent auction, a 50/50 cash raffle, and the quilt raffle.   

The winner is a member of the Naperville branch. She and I will meet up sometime soon for the handoff.

The quilt raised $390 for the AAUW  Greatest Needs Fund (unrestricted support for AAUW initiatives).  The silent auction brought in $320 for Greatest Needs and the 50/50 brought in $150 for our local STEM scholarship.

Since 2003 my AAUW quilts (holiday and spring) have raised nearly $7500 for AAUW initiatives that promote  equity and education for women and girls.

Friday evening Stevens and I went a Christmas party.  Grandparents and Kin Raising Children Lake County helps families doing just that.  (Because grandparents are family, not official foster parents, they don't get the assistance that fosters receive.)  GKRCLC founder and CEO Harriet is a friend from Rotary.  I sat next to 2-year-old Jeremiah. We had a delightful conversation.  Due to privacy rules only the designated photographer could take pictures (especially of the children).  I took this photo from Harriet's FB page with Rotary friends Bill and Debbie as Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

Another schedule change this year -- my P.E.O. chapter met for lunch on Saturday (instead of dinner on our Tuesday meeting night).   Each of us brought gift cards for A Safe Place (domestic violence shelter).  We exchanged festive foods so we all had treats to take home. 

Our chapter meetings are virtual so this opportunity to be in person was delightful.

Saturday evening the Lake County Symphony Orchestra Welcome Christmas concert had a new venue at the College of Lake County.  A professional stage and sound system made such a difference from their more usual performances in church sanctuaries.  Several of the pieces were arrangements new to us.  It was splendid!  

Our concert selfie.   He got compliments on his red suspenders.  

# # # # # #

After the AAUW luncheon I went into the Lamb's Farm thrift shop to see if there was anything interesting.  I paid $11 for 12 yards of fabric. The dragonflies are a print, not a batik--3+ yards!

I finally put needle to fabric on Sunday evening.  Here's the table runner so far.  I'm still auditioning border fabric.  

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

Friday check in: grayscale, something new + reading

 I got this far with the black/white/gray blocks . . . 

And then at Rotary yesterday the president said we'll have a gift exchange at next week's meeting.  $25 value.  (Gender observation: the president is a woman. Would any group of men even think about a gift exchange?)  Of course I'll need to provide Stevens' contribution as well as my own.  

So here's what's on the cutting table. Two table runners coming up! 

The AAUW luncheon is today, we're going to a dinner tonight, the P.E.O. luncheon is tomorrow, and we're going to a concert tomorrow night.   Hopefully I'll get the runners to the flimsy stage on Sunday.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

I've known about Cara Black's Aimee LeDuc series for many years but now that I've been to Paris I've begun to read them.  Aimee is a private investigator, half-French, half-American,  whose late father was a detective with the Paris police. Though her specialty is cyber crime she gets pulled into other cases.  There are many characters and a lot of action.   I've read #1 (set in 1994, published 1998) and #4 (still 1994, published 2003) and will gradually catch up on the others. 

(I just noticed that the book covers are grayscale, too.) 

Midweek: finished already!

At this time of year it's easy to justify any personal purchase as "a Christmas gift to myself." Here's what arrived yesterday afternoon.  

It came just in the (Saint) nick of time.    I had enough batting left for Black Diamond Strings without resorting to making a frankenbatt.   

I auditioned several prints for the backing before I remembered this one. It's genuine vintage (36" wide), a gift from an AAUW friend some years ago.  There's a yard remaining.

I used black thread to quilt serpentine lines through the center strings and at each block intersection.  

Hooray for a finish!   And now I'm just messing around . . . 

Linking up with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss