I Spy published and the postage stamp flimsy

 One of the I Spy baby quilts I made last fall (more details here) used a pattern from McCall's Quick Quilts. I sent a picture to them and it's in the August/September issue. I got a complimentary copy in the mail yesterday. Apparently they will send me a quilt batt, too!

Here's the postage stamp flimsy.  It's 60 x 70, used 5 yards, and has 2,472 postage stamps (1.5").


On the schedule today:  audit committee for the Zion Woman's Club in the morning and a dental appointment in the afternoon -- plus downloading and reading documents for ALA. Oh, yes -- I need to pack my suitcase!  That will include an umbrella because it's going to be rainy in New Orleans.

I mowed the lawn yesterday morning when it was still relatively cool. Glad I did.  The front came through in the late afternoon, as predicted, with a cloudburst (2" rainfall) and a 20-degree temperature drop.

Weekly update: lobsters, spoon rests, and postage stamps

 On Saturday afternoon we joined Chicago-area Bowdoin alumni for the annual Lobster Bash.  Incoming students and their parents are invited--this year that's the class of 2022,born in 2000. That's a demographic milestone.

Stevens ('62) was the oldest alum -- another milestone.

 Bill ('65) and Carolyn have been the hosts for 40 years at their beautiful home in the northwest suburbs. This was their last year.  There was talk that it will be held at Lincoln Park -- more convenient for young alumni and families, but it won't be the same.

Class of '22 and Class of '62

Alumni rep, Bill, Carolyn 

 Many of the first-years have never eaten lobster.  Since they're going to college in Maine they need to learn!

Bowdoin loyalty! 

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It's good to have something specific to look for at rummage sales and thrift shops.  Lately my quest has been for spoon holders.  I learned about them when an AAUW friend used hers when she hosted a meeting. I found a pair at Salvation Army (.99 each).   On Saturday I got another pair at a garage sale.  $2 each was more than than I'd usually pay but another friend has been looking for them and I can take these to her when we have a committee meeting tomorrow.









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I finished the nine-in-nine patch postage stamp blocks.  (81 x 30 = 2,430 plus the cornerstones.) I not only used up a berry-box full of 1.5" white/cream squares but I also had to cut more.  However, I didn't need to add to the multi-color 1.5" postage stamp box.

I auditioned gray/white and black/white sashing but they detracted from the sparkly blocks.

I hope to get the flimsy assembled before I leave for ALA in New Orleans on Wednesday.

Monday linkups:
Oh, Scrap!
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

A nice little quilt show

"I got a Pfaff 1471," Anna emailed.  I wrote back to say that I found some accessories from my dearly departed Pfaff 1472 that she was welcome to have.  How to get them from my end of Chicagoland (way north) to her (way southwest)?  Conveniently for us the PrairieFest quilt show is this weekend in Oswego.  That's closer to her than to me but, hey, a quilt show is a good excuse!

The show was held at the Little White School Museum .  What a nice display! 

These were some of the new quilts.

These were some of the vintage quilts. (There were several cross stitch quilts.)




























After we saw the quilts we toured the local history museum. The exhibits were very nicely-done.   

This was especially interesting.

We had lunch at a cafe on main street and indulged in retail therapy at Prairie Stitches. 

What a great day!

Weekly update: wildflowers, a quick finish, and a new start

I remember the first time I saw wild flags (wild iris):  circa 1990, driving home to Auburn, Maine, on Route 202. That was long before cellphones with cameras. I looked for them the next year, and the next, but never found them again.  Now I make a point to visit Illinois Beach State Park each year to see both blue and yellow flags in bloom.


Flags differ from hybrid iris -- they like wet feet.

There's a patch of hybrid iris along the road in the park. I speculate how they got there. Did someone (illegally) dump a load of garden dirt that included the iris corms?   There were houses in what is now the state park, but they were moved or torn down decades ago, so it's unlikely that these are a remnant from a flower bed.






Other wildflowers in bloom now are bladder campion (maiden's tears), coreopsis (tickseed), spiderwort, and ragwort.  ("Wort" refers to a plant that was used for food or medicine.)

I made a Chinese Puzzle block in aqua/teal, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for June.  (And I've just had a flash of inspiration for setting them.  Hope I remember it when all 10 blocks are made.)

I finished the bookshelf wall hanging.  This is the 37th or so that I've made for coworkers, colleagues, and library trustees. I use a pattern by Christine Thresh (winnowing.com) that I got in 2004. I know there are many other bookshelf designs but this is how I make 'em. (Click on the "bookshelf quilt" label on the sidebar to see a selection.)

I'm making this 20 x 30 wall hanging for the silent auction at our guild show this fall.  I hope no one mistakes the squiggly pumpkin vines for snakes . . .

The pattern is from an issue of Quilt magazine.
The designer's vines are spikier.  The magazine had the pattern half-size so I had to draw the pieces free-hand.

I'm linking up with
Monday Making
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
Oh Scrap!
 Design Wall Monday
 Moving It Forward

P.S.  This was definitely not a wildflower! A half-dozen rose petals had blown down the beach. Wonder what the story is . . .

One Monthly Goal for June

Today's the last day to declare my One Monthly Goal and link up with others at Elm Street Quilts:  Well, I missed the June 7 deadline for OMG. But  here is the link up page with 100+ other quiltmakers who made their decisions (and wrote their posts) in time.

Allen is retiring from the Zion-Benton Public Library after 25 years. He will turn 86 this year!
ZBPL was his second career, following retirement from the U.S. Steel wire plant in North Chicago.  In the mid 1990's he came to ZBPL to be the bookmobile driver. When the bookmobile was decommissioned in 1999 he made the transition to the circulation department. 

His retirement party is June 14. I will have this bookshelf wall hanging finished by then!

Weekly update: stash report, a disappointment, and OMG

Fabric IN, May:  56-3/8 yds, $185.75 (avg. $3.29)
Fabric OUT, May: 39-7/8 yds
*  I used a gift certificate, ordered on-sale Aurifil thread and (to get free shipping) fabric, and bought a king-sized flat sheet at Salvation Army. On Wednesday we had a medical appt. at Froedert (west of Milwaukee) -- too close to Patched Works in Elm Grove to not visit. I hadn't been to PW in years. It's as well-stocked as ever and some of that stock came home with me.

Fabric IN, January-May: 134-1/2 yds, $364.75 (avg. $2.71)
Fabric OUT, January-May: 310-1/4 yds
* My finished projects this month were small (three tote bags, five mug rugs). They took time but not fabric.

Net decrease: 175-3/4 yds
*  It's still a decrease!

(While looking for a suitable falling-off-the-wagon illustration I found a link to this
interesting article .  "Marlatt teaches a technique called "urge surfing" as a way to cope.  People tend to think that urges will escalate infinitely if they don't yield to them — but in fact, like a wave, they rise to a peak and then fall. That is, even if you don't give in, the urge dissipates."   I will keep this in mind when I think about buying fabric.)

The disappointment is the nine-patch-and-pink quilt. I showed the flimsy last week. I pieced the back and sandwiched it.  I decided to use straight-line quilting (feed dogs dropped).  Yikes!!  Little puckers on the top, though the back was fine.  Just too much to rip out, considering it was a scrappy top that used up old, old fabric.   I plugged away, grimacing at the puckers.  I bound it.  I washed it which hid the puckers somewhat......Now it's consigned to the donation box. It will keep someone warm.   As my Magpie friends would say, "This is a learning experience that will contribute to your personal development."

My quilting to-do slate is blank, but my regular to-do list is brimming.  I'm not sure what to declare as my OMG for June.

Meanwhile, here is my design wall.  I want to empty a seemingly inexhaustible box of 1.5" white/cream postage stamps.   My piecing is more accurate when I make the blocks as nine nine-patches (four LDL, five DLD) rather than nine strips of nines.   I am aiming for 30 blocks.  I have more than enough postage stamps! 



Here is the lineup for the week: 
Oh, Scrap!
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward

PLEASE NOTE!  Blogger quit sending email notices of blog comments. [The change has been reported to Google by dozens of bloggers. Google says they're "working to address the issue."]  Unless your email address is in my contacts list I can't write back.   I really appreciate it when you write and I apologize for not being able to email you in response. 

Weekly update: P.E.O. convention

It seemed like a bonus week because of the Monday holiday and a fifth Tuesday, Wednesday, and  Thursday.  The Coalition for Healthy Communities usually meets at 7:30 a.m. the first Friday, but this month it will be at 6:30 p.m. the first Thursday (which is not until June 7).

I left mid-Friday morning to drive 53 miles to the Westin in Itasca, Illinois, for the 116th annual convention of the Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O.  Attendance over two days was 800+ (including the husbands who came to the Projects Dinner).  Illinois chapters contributed more than $680,000 to P.E.O. projects that promote education for women (scholarships, grants, and loans, and stewardship of Cottey College). [You can read more about all the projects here and about Cottey here.]
         My chapter was one of the hostess chapters.  We had the Period of Instruction, a topic presented in a parody. This year it was mentoring new members as an episode of "This Is Your P.E.O. Life!"  We had great fun with the cast names (puns on P.E.O.'s emblem (star) and flower (daisy)) and props.
        I've gone to six consecutive state conventions (and two before that) so I've gotten to know many P.E.O. sisters beyond my own chapter.  The two chapters in my home town (one of which was my mother's) were also hostesses so I got to see many of my mother's friends.

        I completed my term on the state Budget and Finance Committee.  I continue as recording secretary of my chapter and secretary of the Lake County Round Table.

I made these vests in 2004 when my chapter was a hostess.  It's a good thing we hung on to them because the chapter who had the Marketplace got to use them.

P.E.O.'s sesquicentennial is in 2019.  The state convention (May 31-June 2) will be special.

The International convention in Des Moines (September 12-15, 2019) will be over-the-top. I have marked my calendar!

From the archives, circa 1905

Weekly update: part 3, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the studio

"I've got rhubarb if you'd like some," W.D. posted on Facebook.  I went to her house and came home with this. 

A half hour later it was cut, bagged, and frozen. (Though today I made a rhubarb-strawberry pie. I found a bag of sliced strawberries at the back of the freezer dated June 30. Time to use them!)

Dicentra (bleeding heart) 

Hardy perennials and wildflowers are the mainstays of our garden.  I appreciate flowers more than I like cultivating them.

The vegetable patch will be tilled this coming week.  We are late but we are hopeful.

Aresaema triphyllum (Jack in the Pulpit) 

Papaver (poppy)

 In the studio:  it was time to make something just for the sake of it. Quilts without destinations or deadlines go together so easily!  This began with a dusty-pink 1990's print. There was just enough of it for the inner squares.  A second pink yielded enough for the outer squares with a half-dozen squares left over.  A third pink (with blue paisleys) is used in the setting triangles. There's a FQ-plus left of that.  The blue border is of a similar age.    The 3.5" nine-patches are from the Block Swappers.  Alas, participation in the group dwindled and it was closed last month.  I still have several hundred nine-patches on hand.

I've used this setting before:
here and here.

Weekly link ups:
Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward

Weekly update: part 2, OMG for May

I achieved the four parts of my stated One Monthly Goal for May.  Here is the finish link up

Part 1:  two tote bags for the Rotary golf outing raffle

Part 2:  a mug rug for a colleague who's retiring (and another for a friend who graduated from college)

Part 3:  three mug rugs for fellow Buduget & Finance committee members

Part 4:  a tote bag for the Budget & Finance committee chair

Thanks once again to Patty for sponsoring One Monthly Goal. It helps me focus and achieve!

Weekly update: part 1, the wedding

The Castle

Beautiful:  the day, the setting, and especially the couple.

The big event of the week was my niece's wedding.  It was held at Stronghold Camp & Retreat Center in Oregon, Illinois. That's about 100 miles from home.   Amelia went to camp there 20 years ago and fell in love with the Castle. (It was built in the late 1920's by the publisher of the Chicago Daily News as a weekend getaway. The Blackhawk Presbytery acquired it in the early 1960s.  They have a variety of accommodations for summer camp and for year-round retreats.)

It was a small wedding (the groom's side had more family members). 

Left: my nephew (25) and my sister (mother of the bride).


Ms. A wore a 1940's-era lace dress. She donned the vintage mink stole for the reception. (They are WWII reenactors, both history buffs.)


 Gypsy Wedding Wheels is the quilt I made for them. I realize I didn't take a photo after it was Q/B/L (quilted, bound, and labeled).

Weekly update: winnings, THE wedding, and OMG part D

It was cool but sunny on Friday for the Rotary Golf Outing at Shepherd's Crook in Zion. This is our club's major money-maker.  We hope to net over $25,000 to fund international and local projects. (We award $12,000 each in college scholarships to Zion-Benton Township H.S. graduates --  $144,000 so far.)

We are among the major sponsors (and we also get a hole sponsorship sign).  I donated a quilt to the live auction and two tote bags with books to the bucket raffle.  The woman who got the quilt has been the successful bidder in previous years. I posted a picture of the two tote bags last week.

I won the heads-or-tails coin toss -- $70!  That paid for the raffle tickets I bought ($60) with some left over.  I also won a basket with 10 Kaffe fat quarters, an Ott Light, and a rotary cutter.  (I actually needed a rotary cutter and of course I won't turn down fabric, especially Kaffe.)








On Saturday Stevens and I made a quick trip to Sheboygan, WI, for the Rotary District 6440 Awards Luncheon.  (Left at 9 a.m., got home at 4 p.m.) The Green Bag Project sponsored by our club won the annual Community Service Award.

But that was after The Big Event of the weekend.

I don't usually quilt at 5:30 on Saturday morning, but that's what I was doing while (whilst) watching the royal wedding. Wasn't it wonderful?  (And Bishop Curry's rousing sermon on the redemptive power of love was surely unlike any other preaching in St. George's Chapel at Windsor!)







I finished the project you see in the wedding-watch photo. It is Part D of my May One Monthly Goal -- a tote bag for the chair of the P.E.O. committee that I serve on.   P.E.O.'s flower is the marguerite, or daisy. The daisies are made from the same pattern as the mug rugs I wrote about last week.  There are three daisies on the other side and one daisy on the inside pocket -- seven daisies for P.E.O.'s seven founders.

All the tote bags I've made lately have been narrow and tall.  I need to make them wider and shorter. (Note to self!)

I'm ready to start something new.  Hmm.....

I'm linking up with other bloggers:
Oh, Scrap!
Moving it Forward
 Monday Making
Design Wall Monday