Weekly update: adjusting, and progress on goals + reading

 Stevens had laprascopic surgery on Friday afternoon. The results were good.  "I went from one end of the bowel to the other," said the surgeon when he called me, "and there's nothing there."  It's taken S all weekend to recover. He was half-awake when I visited Saturday morning and asleep this afternoon.  Thanks again to all of you for your concern and support.

The thirteen Lake County Round Table P.E.O. chapters held the annual Founder's Day luncheon on Saturday.  I'm round table president so I was the emcee.  This was the second year the event was at the Glen Flora Country Club in Waukegan.  The program featured two members of Chapter MQ-Lake Forest who received P.E.O. grants.  The chapter provided support and friendship to both women and invited them to membership.    

Ajar Chekirova is a native of Kazakhstan who used a an International Peace Scholarship for her graduate work at Ohio University. She now teaches political science at Lake Forest College. 

 Allie Boman received a Program for Continuing Education grant to get a certificate in professional editing. She is now CEO of Boman Communications which provides editing services for agencies and corporations. 

It's inspiring to hear these women's stories and gratifying to know that our fundraising efforts have contributed to their success.  

Chapter HS made the centerpieces. Aren't they clever?  

# # # # # # 

In the studio:   

Garden Path blocks are assembled.  (The pattern is called Sky Diamonds. It is the Running Doe top-along for April.)

I made two placemats out of the cut-away triangles.

I signed up for the doll quilt swap at Humble Quilts. Here's the finished project.  I'll get it in the mail this week. 

I mistakenly thought that teal was the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for April and made eight 9-patch blocks.  It turns out that this month's color is red.  It was no problem to make the eight 9ps in red.

Ohio Stars in the monthly color are my other 2025 RSC project. I combined teal (not-the-color) and red (the color).  Both backgrounds are pindots. What looks like white is a very, very light gray. 

I listened to the latest installment in the long-running Inspector Gamache series.  There's a new narrator who is French Canadian.  

Such great storytelling!  

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

P.S.  One of the raffle prizes at today's Razzle Dazzle (baton corps) mostaccioli dinner this afternoon.  (I took mine as carryout.)  I did not win.  

Friday check in: rafflemania

 Stevens is still in the hospital. The GI tube has been removed and they're going to start real food today.  He'll stay through the weekend (if not longer).   I toured three care facilities yesterday and found one that I really like.  

Our guild's annual Raffle Mania was Wednesday evening.  Members bring no-longer-loved quilt, textile, and fiber-related stuff (like yarn).  Each person gets free raffle tickets based on meeting attendance through the year.  Additional tickets are available for purchase.  I got six free and spend $20 for 35 more.  

I brought five 5-lb bags (100 yards total), a bag of spools of thread (decorative rayon, mostly), and some notions. 

Left: the bags I brought. The paper bags are where we put our raffle tickets. 

There was a lot on offer.  The guild made $467 from ticket sales. 

I came home with less than I brought -- but not by much!   By weight, 92 yards.  I spent $20 so that's .21 cents a yard.  

# # # # #

Last evening I finished the blocks for the April top-along.  The pattern is called Sky Diamonds but I'm thinking Garden Path for the theme I've chosen.  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek: out like a lion, stash report, OMG + reading

 March ended like a lion. On Monday Stevens woke up vomiting. Paramedics took him to the ER where, after many tests, they found a bowel obstruction.  No surgery required but he is still in the hospital. I visited yesterday. He perked up when he saw me.  Not sure when he will be discharged and to where.  More discussion with hospital social worker and a care consultant today.  (The hospital is in the same complex as the clinic where his doctor's office is, so his own physician has been to see him.)  Meanwhile V was so helpful. While I was sitting with S in the ER she cleaned up thoroughly.  And I had a lovely surprise phone call last evening from Jean, S's first wife (she's in assisted living in New Hampshire).  

I've been so alert to S for so long that it's odd to be in the house by myself.  

I didn't have to rush back from Tuesday's Zion Woman's Club meeting.  We planted pinwheels to recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month.  

On to quilting!  

I used orphan blocks to make five more placemats. 

Stash report:   March fabric in:   ZERO!     March fabric out:  86 yards

YTD fabric in:  164-3/4, $58.00.  YTD fabric out:  274 yards.  Yay!

April goals:  (1) make Sky Diamonds, the Running Doe topalong this month.  I'm going to use realistic florals and green.

(2) Finish the doll quilt for the Humble Quilts swap. (It's a flimsy.  I have to choose the backing and figure out how to quilt it.) 

(3) Make a batch of teal/turquoise blocks (RSC color) for a wheelchair-sized quilt.

# # # # # #   Recent reading: 

The Page Turner 2025 FB group has "a book on someone else's shelf" as a prompt.  I did not travel far for my selection.    This is one of my husband's favorite books.  It's been in his bookcase ever since I met him . . . and only now have I read it in its entirety.  Poet and memoirist Donald Hall writes evocatively and lovingly about the summers he spent on his grandparents' farm in New Hampshire.  Each chapter can stand alone; collectively they show the progression as Hall grows up and his grandparents grow older.  The 1979 edition includes a coda that tells what happened next -- Hall and his wife Jane Kenyon moved to the farm in 1975 after his grandmother passed away (at 96) and lived there the rest of their lives.  (Kenyon died in 1995 and Hall died in 2018.)   

[The farmhouse is now a historic property with a nonprofit board restoring and maintaining it.]

~~~~~~
  An intriguing story based on the life of the champion thoroughbred Lexington.  I enjoyed the multiple points of view -- Lexington's trainer in the 1850's, an art dealer in the 1950's, and the contemporary art historian and the Smithsonian scientist.   I listened to the audio version. The multi-voiced narration was easy to follow. 

Diann (Little Penguin Quilts) recommended this a while back.  Thanks, Diann!

 ~~~~~~

I've been an Anne Tyler fan for decades.  Her characters are spot-on -- people we know all too well, situations we are all too familiar with.  

Just before her daughter's wedding Gail Baines finds out that she has lost her long-time job as assistant to the headmistress of a private school.  She barely has time to adjust to that shock when  her ex-husband Max shows up at her door.  He explains that he can't stay at their daughter's house because he is fostering a cat and the fiance is allergic to cats.  What can Gail do but ask him in?  Both of them have always been socially awkward whereas the fiance's family is very polished and more affluent.    Gail and Max negotiate the social terrain, their daughter's pre-wedding nerves (or, remarkable lack of them), and in so doing Gail remembers how they met and why they split up.  And in the end . . . she has a cat and, maybe, a renewed relationship.

# # # # # 

Linking up with  Wednesday Wait Loss    OMG @ Stories from the Sewing Room  

Weekly update: an exhibit, OMG, RSC, reading

 Thank you all for your supportive comments regarding my husband.  The care home assessment was Friday.  His condition is beyond what assisted living/memory care can accommodate.  For now we are increasing in-home care (two caregivers have been recruited to help with the 6 p.m.-bedtime shift (V comes in the morning)).  We have a video visit with his doctor on Tuesday.  

I was able to take time Saturday morning to see this exhibit at the Dunn Museum (part of the forest preserve district).

The oldest quilt was made in Pennsylvania in 1850 (large picture on left).  It came to Lake County after WWII when the maker's great-grandson moved to Waukegan.  

These are county fair ribbons from 1899 to 1904.

The dress on the left was a wedding dress from 1883.  The turquoise dress on the upper right is Thai silk, donated by a friend of mine who served in the Peace Corps in Thailand from 2000-2002.

I had time for a short forest preserve walk before going home.  It was nice to stretch my legs.

# # # # # #

I completed two of my OMG projects and most of the third.   Upper right:  SAHRR flimsy complete.  Lower right:  Transport top-along flimsy complete.  Left:  Mosaic Sparkler blocks are assembled but need borders.

The RSC yellow Ohio Stars are quilted and bound. 

# # # # #

"A trilogy" is one of the prompts for The Page Turner 2025 FB group.   I chose Conrad Richter's Awakening Land.

I have known about these books for decades but only now have I read them. (I'd have loved them when I was in high school.) As I read I thought about my ancestors who were contemporaneous with Richter's characters. I appreciate more what their lives were like.

The Trees begins in the late 1780's when the U.S. government encouraged settlement in the Northwest Territory (Ohio to Wisconsin). Worth Luckett takes his family from Pennsylvania to the dense woods of eastern Ohio. Oldest daughter Sayward, who is the fulcrum of all three novels, raises her siblings after their mother's death, manages the household, and creates the farm. She marries another settler, lawyer Portius Wheeler.

The Fields takes place in the 19th century (Portius attends the Ohio statehood ceremony in 1803). He becomes a judge; she manages the Luckett land; they have many children. The settlement becomes thriving town called Americus.

The Town spans the 1830's to the Civil War. The Wheelers are the prominent family in town. One son becomes governor; another graduates from Annapolis; the youngest becomes a firebrand abolitionist journalist. One daughter marries the town doctor; another daughter marries an English lord; another becomes an academic.

As Richter writes in the acknowledgement, he wanted to tell the story of "those whose names never figured in the history book but whose influence on their own times and country was incalculable." He continues, "If this novel has had any other pruose than to tell some of their story, it has been to try to impart to the reader the felling of having lived for a while in those earlier days....and the broader stuff of reality that was the lot of the great majority of men and whomen who...lived through comparable events and emotions, for life is endlessly resourceful and inexhaustible. It is only the author who is limited and mortal."

Linking up with  Design Wall Monday,  Oh Scrap!,  Sew and Tell OMG at Stories from the Sewing Room

Weekly update: changes ahead + quilting progress

The crocuses under the dryer vent are the first to bloom   

 On Wednesday Stevens' condition took a sharp decline.  He wasn't able to get out of his armchair to use the walker to go back to his bathroom and bedroom.  Our friend Curt came (at 9:45 p.m.) to help me move him.  Thursday began all right--I went to Rotary, came home to get him up, and promptly had to call our part-time caregiver for help.  She came right over.  We began a new routine.  V now comes every morning and every evening.  He's sitting in the transport chair (wheelchair with small back wheels).  There are other adjustments which are TMI, but I am very knowledgeable about adult diapers....   I am so appreciative of her!  Even so, I've had to call the paramedics three times to come to lift him up.  

I'd begun paperwork for to enroll him for a two-week respite care stay at a nearby assisted living facility* for when I'm traveling at the end of April.  I called the representative and asked if I could cancel respite care and sign him up as a resident.  So we have a lease (as of 3/31) and I've even seen the unit (440 sq foot 'open studio').  This week brings more paperwork and, importantly, an admissions evaluation.  April will turn out very differently than planned.  

* I've been working with a care consultant about assisted living options. I don't know what questions to ask (any salesperson puts on a good spin).  This facility is one that she recommended.  I toured it and another facility.  The cost for assisted living varies with the level of care but it is less expensive than 24-hour in-home care. (Plus we don't have room in our house for a live-in attendant.) 

Whew!

 As you know, sewing is a great stress-reliever.

I made 10 daisy mug rugs for my P.E.O. chapter's ongoing project. I have several pieced backgrounds for the next batch.

The March guild BOM is at the lower center with the previous seven blocks.

The yellow Ohio Stars (March RSC) are a flimsy.

And . . . . 

After a lot of ripping and pressing and measuring I solved the problem of the bowed borders for the SAHRR (here).

I inserted a small piece of turquoise (upper right 'log cabin' border).  I inserted a multi-fabric piece in the center of each outer border.  It all measures up to 60" square. 

I thought about adding a narrow (1-1/2"?) outer border to stabilize the edge but I couldn't find any batik that I had enough of in the right color (which I think should be green).

Because it's still a flimsy my SAHRR won't be in the grand finale parade, but I am MOST relieved to have gotten it this far!  

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  Design Wall Monday SAHRR Parade

Weekly update: catching up on this and that

Catching up with a longtime friend:   Leslye and I have known one another since junior high.   We reconnected a few years ago and have had the best intentions to get together -- we live about 25 miles apart.  Last week she emailed and wrote, "Let's do it!" and we did.   We had lunch at a restaurant here in Zion.  Such a delightful time and yes, we will do it again.  Soon.  

Catching up with walking.  Since the caregiver was with Stevens I took advantage of the time and the lovely day to take a quick walk at Spring Bluff Forest Preserve just east of home.  (The Taos shoes you see in the photo were perfectly comfortable for 1-1/2 miles on a fine-gravel path.)    

Photo:  pussy willows at Spring Bluff.

# # # # # 

Catching up    with the guild mystery.  24 dark blocks and 12 light blocks.  The designer warned that the next clue will be more complex.

Catching up on RSC yellow.  I'm up to 11 yellow and white/black Ohio Stars.  9 to go.

Catching up on placemats.  

These three are made with the leftover triangles of Transport, the topalong pattern for March. 

These twelve are made with the pinwheels that I made from the left over HSTs from Amelia, the topalong pattern for January.

(I made two placemats with leftovers from Lantern, the February topalaong pattern, right after I finished the top.) 

This week I will catch up (and finish!) two non-quilting presentations that I'm giving on March 27.   

This is the kitchen counter cutting station with green strips cut for a new project and a pile of scraps destined for the scrapbox (which is in the downstairs studio).

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

Midweek: mystery belatedly begun, placemats + reading

 

Almost-full moon at 5:30 this morning.  Didn't we just have a full moon? The days and nights fly by.

I thought I'd signed up for the guild's 2025 mystery quilt-along in January but it turned out that I hadn't.  I rectified the omission by paying the $10 fee at the meeting last week.  Five weeks' clues dropped into my email box. 

The pattern requires 3-1/2 yards of background (tone-on-tone recommended) and either a jelly roll or 40 2-1/2" strips.  I had a 4-yard piece in lavender (estate sale purchase $5) for the background.  I don't have any jelly rolls so I cut strips from my stash.  The colorway probably looks familiar from my recent Transport and Mosaic Sparkler flimsies--I hadn't gotten around to putting all of those away.

The first of the first 12 blocks is at the lower left.

Look what arrived on Monday.   QuiltDiva Julie sent four placemats for my project.  

Thank you!   

I'm making more placemats, too.  These are the cutaways from Transport and Amelia (the January top-along).  

# # # # # 

In 1936 Charlotte Cross was in Egypt on an archaeological dig. She discovered a trove linked to the only female pharoah, Hathorkare (=Hapshetsut).   Her expedition cut short by personal tragedy, she returned home to New York and her work as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

She never abandoned her research on the queen.  In 1978 while assisting with mounting the King Tut exhibit she discovers that one of the pieces  is the necklace she found in Hathorkare's tomb all those years before.  She is determined to discover who has had it for four decades.   

Enter Annie Jenkins, a nineteen-year-old who inadvertently becomes Charlotte's assistant.  Together the two women unravel long-held secrets.

Davis has hit on a good formula:  take an iconic Manhattan building and use it as the setting for two interconnected stories, one long ago and another sort-of-nowadays.   Though there wasn't as much about the Met as an institution or structure, the tale is a good one.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss  -- and thanks for the shout out, Jennifer. 

Weekly update: signs of spring, quilting accomplishments + reading

 

I set all the clocks ahead just after dinner Saturday. I've finally figured out how to do the clocks in both cars correctly the first try.  

Two beautiful days this weekend got us out for a walk at the state park and a nearby forest preserve.  

The dogwood is really red.   

 # # # # # 

 This is my version of Transport, the Running Doe top-along pattern for March.  

A closeup of the gray-with-dots background.

I made eight 9-patch blocks in yellow for the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   I have a pattern that will use eight 9ps in each color.

I made four yellow Ohio Star blocks and have pieces cut for more. 

  

Our library is having an art contest this spring with divisions for K-12 students and adults.  Any medium is acceptable.  Entries are due March 19.  Here's mine!   24" square. 

It's the necktie project I alluded to on Friday.  I made a similar version with blue ties for the MQG mini swap last year.  Because of that I  had a fair number of the strips already pieced.  

I used the serpentine stitch to quilt in the center of each round. The backing is regular quilting cotton.   

The winners will be announced April 23.  

# # # # # 

In early 2022 I read and reviewed Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans.   I learned that Evans had written a prequel, Old Baggage,  and a sequel, V for Victory.   I checked them both out and liked them just as much as Crooked Heart.  I recommend reading them in publication order (Crooked, Old, Vee) to fully appreciate the character development. 

 

Old Baggage tells the backstory of the indomitable Mattie, a passionate suffragist who is determined to make the world (1920's London) a better place for girls.  She creates a club called the Amazons to help girls become confident and self-reliant.  She is so convinced that she is right that her heartfelt efforts cloud her judgment.  She makes an ethical error that destroys the Amazons' reputation but, being Mattie, she comes out of that episode triumphant.

~~~~~~~

In the fall of 1944 everyone in London is heartily tired of the war, confident that the Allies will win but not knowing exactly when.   Noel and Vee, the heroes of Crooked Heart, live in his great-aunt Mattie's house.  They've taken in boarders to help pay the bills.   Noel is now a teenager. His eclectic education, begun by Mattie, continues under the tutelage of the boarders (a doctor and a journalist among them).    Meanwhile Vee continues her well-intended schemes.  Characters from the past come into the picture. 

Family secrets alluded to in Crooked Heart and developed in Old Baggage are revealed in V for Victory.  And, in the end, there is victory for Noel (oh, and for the world as well).  Wonderful!!

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