* RBQS = Really Big Quilt Show -- that is, the International Quilt Festival -- is at Rosemont this week. ("Rosemont" is Chicago-speak for the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in the village of Rosemont, Illinois.
Here is more than you thought you needed to know about the eponymous Mr. Stephens.)
I've been to the RBQS, hmmm, eight times. I remember the inaugural show in 2003. The exhibits were squeezed into the upper-level exhibit halls and I heard that the convention center people didn't believe that a quilt show would draw 20,000 people. Subsequent shows have been in the larger first-level hall. For a few years there was no Chicago show and for a couple of years I had ALA obligations that weekend. When I dreamed of retirement I thought I would gorge on quilt shows for a year and go to all of them. That hasn't happened. Paducah and Houston are on my bucket list.
This year's show began Thursday and ends Saturday. Friday was the day Irene and I could go. We met my online friend Ellie and my Magpie friend Anna at lunchtime.
But before that were quilt exhibits and after that was shopping!
Only two exhibits had "no photography" this year. (In the past there have been too many no-photo areas.) I didn't get all the quiltmakers' names (sorry).
These quilts were in an exhibit called HERstory. The women honored are artist Emily Carr (a long-time favorite of mine), Julia Shepherd who successfully fought for women's suffrage in New Zealand in 1893, the Abbott sisters of Grand Island, Nebraska, who were pioneering social workers at Hull-House, and Rosa Parks.
There seemed to be less fabric at the vendors at this show. I wonder if the closure of Free Spirit (Kaffe Fassett, Tula Pink, etc.) made the difference? Those designers are moving to other companies but that's still in transition. I bought 23-7/8 yards and spent $159. That's discipline!
(a) Assemble the wedge wheel quilt, prepare the backing, and deliver it to Barb J. (the quilter) DONE (delivered April 7)
Here's Papa Bear (large): This is approx. 52 x 60. It's the very last round of the guild round robin. My addition is the batik checkerboard outer border. (The beginning center block has eight small paper-pieced elephants.) It will certainly be interesting to see how participants have added to each of our beginning blocks. The presentation will be at the guild meeting May 3.
The inner stars are 3" finished. Those small pieces (1-1/4 for the corner squares) did not daunt me. I made many units on that scale for the Moda Blockheads project.
My stated April OMG was to complete a list of four projects. I've shown the wedding wedge wheel quilt (now at the longarmer) and the GFWC-IL convention door prize.
On Saturday I joined 130 P.E.O. sisters from Lake County chapters for the annual Founders Day luncheon. I have met many members of other chapters because I've given programs and through my involvement on the round table board. P.E.O. was founded in 1869 so sesquicentennial preparations are in full swing. 
This year's theme, "Raise Your Voices P.E.O.," was reflected in the invitations (my chapter's job) that used real 45's and the centerpieces that used a melted/shaped LP for the vase and a 45 for the logo.
In the 1870's they wore gingham CHECK aprons.
In the 20's they wore flapper dresses and TEDDIEs. 
This year's show began Thursday and ends Saturday. Friday was the day Irene and I could go. We met my online friend Ellie and my Magpie friend Anna at lunchtime. 
Yesterday we added to our Frank Lloyd Wright list with a field trip to Penwern on Delavan Lake in Walworth County, Wisconsin. The tour was sponsored by the lifelong learning division of the College of Lake County. We met at the Southlake Campus where Mark Hertzberg, the tour guide, told us about the history of the estate and FLW's other commissions at Delavan. Mark is a FLW expert whose book about Penwern will be published next year. It was his connection that got us entry because Penwern is privately-owned and not open to the public.
On Saturday friends and family had a wedding shower for my niece at the groom's parents' house (just up the road west of Racine). Though the bride and groom are registered at Target, I shopped in my vintage stash.
I made four Night and Noon blocks for the April Block Lotto . There are some slick tricks to the cutting that make this easier to piece than you'd realize. Note that I promptly trimmed the cutaway corner HSTs.
