Weekly update: three finishes

I made two tote bags.  These and the two I showed last week comprise my One Monthly Goal for February.

The bag on the left uses the same pattern as one of last week's bags.  Both of them have fabric that I used for these tote bags .

The February OMG link up is HERE .








Ripples blocks were made by ALA Biblioquilters for the silent auction at the annual conference in June.  They are easy to make -- two 1.5" x WOF strips sewn together, cut into 2.5" sections, and pieced. However, those pieces are devilishly slippery and they twist the wrong direction.  After I'd assembled the blocks I found one mis-directed unit and corrected it.  While I was quilting I found two more, but it was too late to change them. Let's call it a design element!

These blocks also reminded me of Mary Ellen Hopkins' PPM, Personal Private Measurement -- that is, 1/4" isn't always the exact same from quilter/machine to quilter/machine.  Variances compound with as many seams as blocks like these. The unfinished sizes ranged from 8" to 8.5". I ended up trimming them all to 8". Thus the blocks finish at 7.5" and the quilt is 60 x 67.5.

Here's the back.  I need to attach the binding and create the label.

With both the cutting table and the design wall cleared off I am turning my thoughts to something new, just-for-fun.

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

Weekly update: OMG halfway and more

After I assembled Spare Parts IV (see previous post) I got started on the tote bags that are my One Monthly Goal for February.   By the time the end Sunday night PBS programs (Victoria followed by a documentary about Princess Margaret) I'd completed two of the four totes.

I got the Blazing Star block in a long-ago swap. I came across it when I pulled out spare parts -- high time to showcase this beauty. 

The guild did not meet on Wednesday because of bad weather.  The round robin coordinator is intrepid and delivered the February installment to me at home.   I added pinwheels to TB's starter with LM's Seminole border. I love this colorway!

Linking up with  Monday Making and Design Wall Monday .

It's a flimsy: Spare Parts IV

Here it is!

The Chinese Puzzle blocks were my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for 2018. I made a ninth block in brown but it didn't work with the overall brighter colors.

Two Block Lotto blocks are here. The Dresden sunflowers are obvious. Can you find the California Poppies ?  I sliced the four leftover poppy blocks diagonally and made square-in-squares with the purple tree block (lower center right) and the basket block (lower center).

The polka dot bubbles were left over from this quilt.

As I've done with the other Spare Parts quilts there's a block that repeats in different places. This time it's the nine-patch variation.

The flimsy is 58 x 80 and used 6-1/4 yds (by weight).  Now my design wall is cleared off and I can get to work on the tote bags for One Monthly Goal.

Linking up with So Scrappy .and Oh Scrap! 

P.S. Look how long I've had the border fabric:  here -- and I still have 3/4 yd.

#alamw2019: Seattle

Two weeks ago 6,490 librarians and 2,721 vendors were getting down to business at #alamw2019.
I'd been to Seattle twice before (Midwinter 2013 and PLA 2004). It was nice to be back in the Pacific northwest.  The skies were blue all week and the temperatures were mild.

My roommate Pat and I flew out on Thursday, January 24.  We began the conference at dinner that evening with colleagues who served on the ALA Executive Board. (My EB term was 2004-07 and Pat's was 2014-17.) 

I am on several ALA committees which met during the conference.
  I am a representative on the Freedom to Read Foundation board which met all day Friday.  The Retired Members Round Table has a business meeting followed by a book discussion that I host. The prompts this time were "a book you recommend" and "a book you didn't like."  Several of us were in agreement on those we considered clunkers.

There were many book and author events.  Midwinter is when award-winners are announced -- not only the Newbery and Caldecott medalists but also Andrew Carnegie winners (adult fiction/nonfiction) and Notable Books. 

Publishers also promote their spring titles.





Note "Lost Roses" by Martha Hall Kelly. She is second from right on this panel. I reviewed the audio edition of her first novel, "Lilac Girls." The new book is a prequel.  She was in the next seat on the shuttle bus when we went back to our hotel so we got to chat.

Debbie Macomber signed the audio edition of her latest book.











It is always interesting to see how a hotel interprets "high tea." At this Gala Author Tea the food was the best yet -- real cucumber open-faced sandwiches, a variety of tea, and delicious sweets.











My Magpie friend Gina was my guest. It was great to meet her in person at last!   Author Juliet Grames based her first novel on her Italian grandmother's life story.  A nice connection to Gina's Italian heritage.

(I've since finished The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Foruna.  It is great!)

 I was in the second row for Rick Steves' presentation, "Travel as a Political Act."  It was like being in PBS special.

"When we travel history becomes real.  We humanize humanity. We need to carbonate outlook with different passions," he said.  His favorite country is India but his beat is Europe. "Europe is the wading pool for world exploration." He travels four months out of the year -- northern Europe in the hot months and southern Europe in the colder months. "Fear is for people who don't get outside very much. It has never been safer to travel than now."


"Travel with an open heart, open eyes, and a rolled-down window."



He asked us to circle around him -- "a mosh pit of librarians" -- for the book signing.











 Another special event was a screening of the forthcoming movie The Public . Emilo Estevez wrote, directed, and stars in the film which is about a librarian and dealing with the homeless people who come to the downtown library every day.  It has drama, humor, and suspense.

Pat and I had second-row seats for the screening. Estevez and co-star Jena Malone answered questions afterwards.  I asked a question . . . and the next evening when I got on the hotel elevator to go out to dinner, there was Estevez!  He said, "You asked a question last night, didn't you?  And I answered, 'It's only a movie.'"  He got off at the 7th floor and I went down to the lobby. My brush with celebrity!  (Though I was more htan happy just to see/hear Rick Steves.)







There was time time to be tourists, too!  I spent an afternoon at MOHAI, the Museum of History and Industry.  It was easy to get to by streetcar ($2.00 round trip).

The museum is all about Seattle from the Native Americans to the present day.










Pat and I went to the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass  (They are adjacent and there's a combo ticket package.)

This is as far as my toes would let me go on the glass floor.   MOHAI is at the center of the top left photo.













We had lunch at Collections Cafe which showcases Dale Chihuly's eclectic collections -- lead soldiers, toy irons, shaving brushes, cast iron vases.

The Chihuly museum is spectacular.  There are indoor and outdoor installations.  It turned out that I dressed to match one of them.

We were supposed to return to Chicago on Wednesday, January 30, but that was the day of the polar vortex -- the high temperature was -21. Our flight was cancelled!  We rebooked (no charge) for the same flight the next day. The hotel allowed us to stay at the conference rate.  We spent the bonus day at the Seattle Art Museum, lunch at the Public Market, and at the Seattle Aquarium.  We saw the sea otters and the giant Pacific octopuses being fed (separately, of course).

The flight back to Chicago was uneventful.  The limo was there to meet me and I was home at 9:30 p.m.





The boxes of books and swag that I shipped back arrived on Tuesday.  Here's the haul!  Lots of good reading ahead.

Weekly update: stash report, RSC, Lotto, BOM, and OMG

I've been mentally composing my report on the ALA Midwinter Meeting but until then, here is the quilting news:
Stash report, January:
Fabric IN:   35 yards, $34.81
Fabric OUT: 35 yards
Net:  ZERO    
Yellow is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for February.  My project this year is MonthlyColor + gray/taupe pinwheels, one for each day of that month.  I made these 28 during TV-watching last evening.


This month's Block Lotto is "alternating nine-patch." The nine-patches are maker's choice with light squares and inky-dark squares.  These were a snap because I used nine-patches from my Block Swappers stash.

Our guild BOM this year is wonky paper-pieced houses.  I'm using all polka dots for mine. This is the February block. 

Here is the neighborhood.

It's time to declare the One Monthly Goal for February.  I need to make four tote bags. I will fill them with advance reader copies of forthcoming books and donate two to the Lake County Women's Coalition and two to the Zion Woman's Club/Zion Conservatory of Music for their March fundraisers.








I left for Seattle with the design wall like this.





Now it looks like this.  The upper left and upper center units are sewn. The Chinese Puzzle blocks are those I made for the 2018 RSC.

Linking up with
OMG 2019
RSC 2019
Oh Scrap!
 Design Wall Monday
Monday Making
Moving It Forward 

It's a finish!

The photo doesn't look much different from the one I posted yesterday, but if you look closely you can see the blue binding. 

I used leftover bow ties on the back.

I am low on big pieces of 30's fabric. The green/pink print on the left and the blue/black print on the right are genuine vintage pieces--36" wide.




















My 30's stash is down to one shelf.












I have two boxes of genuine vintage fabric . . . but if they haven't been sewn for 50+ years, what's the rush? 

Linking up today with Connie and friends
at Freemotion By the River

P.E.O. is 150!

The P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded on January 21, 1869, at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.  The seven founders were Mary Allen (Stafford), Ella Stewart, Alice Bird (Babb), Hattie Briggs (Bousquet), Franc Roads (Elliott), Alice Virginia Coffin, and Suela Pearson (Penfield).

Earlier that school year a chapter of I.C. Sorosis was established at IWC.  Some of the seven were invited, but not all of them, so they decided to start "a society of our own."  As members graduated they continued their fellowship in community-based chapters.  In the 1890's the collegiate chapters were closed. Ever since, P.E.O. has been a community organization.


P.E.O. has grown and prospered.  There are over 200,000 members in more than 5,500 chapters across the U.S. and Canada.  P.E.O. is a Philanthropic Educational Organization that promotes educational opportunities for women through its projects:  Cottey College, a four-year institution for women in Nevada, MO;  International Peace Scholarship; Educational Loan Fund; Program for Continuing Education; Scholar Award; Star Scholarship.
P.E.O. projects have helped thousands of women attain higher education.


My paternal grandmother was a P.E.O.  My mother was a P.E.O. I was initiated into Chapter D, Maine, in 1985. I was a charter member of Chapter G, Maine; transferred to Chapter V, North Dakota; and since 1998 I've belonged to Chapter MY, Illinois (now HV-MY). 

The determination of seven young women at a small rural college to perpetuate their friendship has made a tremendous difference to an untold number of people -- P.E.O. members, their families, recipients of grants and loans.  The star shines brightly!

For more about P.E.O.:  here
My friend (and P.E.O. sister) Fran has many posts about P.E.O. on her blog: here
And click the label on the sidebar for my own P.E.O. posts.

Weekly update: eclipse and OMG progress

The skies were clear Sunday night making the lunar eclipse easy to see, but the 6-degree temperature meant I viewed it very briefly from our front steps.








It's much warmer in the studio!
I'm pleased to report that I have completed both parts of my One Monthly Goal for January.

OMG Part One:  assemble the blocks for the Good Fortune mystery.  Last week I posted the photo and the story of my travails.  I haven't done anything to rectify the make-do corners on the outer border.

Instead, I worked on OMG Part Two: assembling the 30's bow tie blocks.  Here's the flimsy.  It's 70 x 70.


I missed the OMG link up due to my travel schedule--I got home late 1/31 and didn't realize the link up closed a midnight --  but all the other finishes are  HERE

I pieced the back.  It's under the needle with the center quilted.  Hopefully I can finish it before I leave for the ALA Midwinter Meeting on Thursday.

Linking up with
Oh Scrap
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward

Midweek: EQTAS, Rockin' Robin, and a flimsy

Yesterday I presented Every Quilt Tells a Story, my quilt history program, for another P.E.O.  chapter. I knew several of the members from our county round table (and one is an AAUW friend).  I give a trunk show of quilts I've made and quilts I've collected. I ask people to share quilts they've inherited, received as gifts, or made themselves.

Jody's grandmother made this.  Isn't it super?

Donna remembers that this was always on her grandparents' bed. Her grandfather was a draftsman and created the templates for the appliques that her grandmother sewed. The green edging is worn-out applique.

The green leaves haven't survived but the green cornucopias have.

I suggested to both Jody and Donna that their quilts should be professionally appraised.

Mickey and Dorie are quiltmakers. Here are their recent projects.


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The guild 2019 Round Robin began at the January meeting.  LM's starter block is 10".  I added the brown/turquoise borders.  The The strips and squares were cut 1-1/4" and finish at 3/4". I used a couple of can't-cut-this! fabrics that I have had for a long time. 


And, hurrah!  X Marks the Block is a flimsy!  6-1/2 yards.

Linking up with Midweek Makers