Weekly update: quiet weekend, RSC, batik blocks

 I had a meeting Friday morning (good to get out and be sociable) and the rest of the weekend I was at home with just a couple of errands.  We're on the southern edge of the huge storm with only 4" of snow.  We're under a blizzard warning because it's quite windy.  I cancelled an appointment this morning and plan to stay in today.   Sewing and reading and, just maybe, catching up on a few no-time-pressure tasks.

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In the studio:  I made red "coin" panels for this year's RSC project.  The pattern (shown in the photo) only calls for two panels in each color but I couldn't stop at two. 

I finished making batik star and basket blocks.   I had to make several batches of 1.5" HSTs that were definitely light-and-dark.  (Too many of the HSTs in the box were dark/dark.)   I have begun sewing the sashing.

The blocks are 4" finished so on point 6". The layout is 48 x 54 before sashing. 

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A powerful kid’s-eye view of the overthrow of British colonial authority in Rhodesia /Zimbabwe. Based on Alexandra “Bobo” Fuller’s memoir of the same title.

Stevens really liked all of Fuller’s books and I’m sorry he wasn't able to watch this. (I streamed it on Apple TV.) [Note the movie poster shown says “from the novel…” but the book is nonfiction. I looked it up to be sure!]

 

The movie makes more sense if you've read the books (particularly Don't Let's Go, the first one).  

Linking up with  Design Wall Monday  Oh Scrap!  Monday Musings  Sew and Tell  RSC 2026

Friday check in: playing with batiks + reading

 

I automatically think of Winnie the Pooh on a blustery morning like today.   

It's been a week of attending to a number of things.  On Monday my sister and I met halfway between our respective homes for a little retail therapy and lunch, and I was finally able to give her gift(s) for her mid-February birthday.  Tuesday I met with the trust attorney to get the ball rolling (belatedly) to retitle Stevens' car in my name (a different process when the vehicle is inherited).  Tuesday evening AAUW met in person with a really informative program about recycling.  (Among the things we learned:  just dump paper into the bin, don't bundle it or put it in boxes or paper bags;  it's okay to rinse jars and other containers, you don't have to scrub them clean; keep lids on containers because small things (like a soda bottle cap) just fall through the sorting screens and are swept up and landfilled.)   

# # # # #  In the studio:  the mug rugs are all bound.   I put the binding trimmings in the batik scrap bin and that led to making some batik crumb blocks.   

I've been perusing both of Emily Bailey's crumb quilting books so these may be put to use in the near future.

Off and on (mostly off) I've made 4" star and 4" cake stand blocks to use up a box of 1-1/2" batik HSTs and squares. 

 I made a few more last evening and put them on the design wall. 

I'm fairly sure the blocks will be sashed partly due to all the seams that are pressed one way and the other way and partly as a way to differentiate between the stars and the cake stands.  Other than that I'm not sure where this design will end up.  It's just fun to play!

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Recent reading:

Thomas and his mum live in an English coastal town in the late 1950's.   He's following in his grandad's career as a shrimper, doing it in the traditional way with a horse and cart. It's a hard living that's threatened by new ways.  Even as he dreams of other things (he's an aspiring folk musician) he doesn't let himself hope too much. Then an American filmmaker comes to town with cash and a flashy offer.  Thomas gets caught up--momentarily.   

Brian Underwood writes with such precision, saying just enough and not a word more.  A story that sticks.

Buckeye is as good as everyone has said.   Two families are brought together by chance and by circumstance in a city in northwestern Ohio.  Ryan's observations of human nature are great.  "'The whole reason you build a bridge together is so the water can run under it, right? And not wash the two of you away? Sometimes one of you makes it a flood, and then the water recedes.'"(348)    "What is it about time that confounds us? We spend it. We save it. We while it away. We waste it. We kill it. We complain about not having enough of it, or about having too much of it on our hands. We regret what we done with it. We give it away. We want it back....Felix saw it so clearly: all we should ever want of time is more of it." (430)  "The wisdom that comes with age was needling, [Cal] found, because it brought the clarity of hindsight without the means to change anything." (446)     

I wonder what Buckeye would be like as a movie.

Ann recommended this in a recent blog post (Fret Not Yourself). Thank you!

 Roxie Laybourne was an ornithologist at the Smithsonian who pioneered forensic techniques to indentify birds, particularly those involved with airplane crashes and human crimes.  She was independent, determined, and opinionated, both in her scientific research and as she dealt with the male-dominated world of 1950's-70's science. Chris Sweeney's writing style is very engaging.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday Brag About Your Beauties

Weekly update: celebrations, a binding resolution, and remembering

The Lake County Women's Coalition annual Women's History Month luncheon was on Saturday.  Each LCWC member organization nominates an honoree who exemplifies the year's theme.   

I'm on the LCWC steering committee as the rep for the Zion Woman's Club but I am also a member of AAUW.  AAUW's honoree was Nan Buckart (bio on left) who was director of education for the Lake County Forest Preserves.  ZWC's honoree was Wendy Driver (bio on right) whose many interests in community activism include gardening (seed-saving, monarchs, zinnias, and more).  

Top:  the ZWC contingent.

Kim Sigafuss gave an informative and entertaining presention about Native American women in Illinois.  She is Ojibwe and is a musician and writer.  

I donated Black Diamond Strings to the silent auction.  It raised a respectable $350!   (LCWC funds go to scholarships for women at the College of Lake County.) 

I bought a lot of raffle tickets but I didn't win anything this time. 

Sunday afternoon with P.E.O. sisters. Sharon showed us how to decorate cookies with royal icing.  

Left:  the four I made. 

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The "binding resolution" was to finish all the placemats-in-progress -- 26.  

I also began binding the Trip Around the World mug rugs -- 21 so far, 20 to go. 

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 March 9, 2025, was our last forest preserve outing.  The parking lots have remained unguarded ever since.  

"Smile for your fan club!" And he always did. 

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

Friday check in: placemats

 I skipped Reflections, the AAUW book club, on Wednesday because I hadn't read the book.   Instead I took a walk at the state park.  I hadn't been there since early January (too cold, or too busy, or traveling).  It was good to be back on the path. Now if I can get back in the habit.....

Dogwood is reddening up.  Fungus looks like little flying saucers.

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The quilt guild meets by Zoom in January and February.  It was nice to be back in person this Wednesday evening.  One of the guild members, an art teacher (retired; with a previous career in fashion textile design) talked about color theory.  Her explanation was easy to understand and most informative. 

In the studio:  

21 placemats finished!  I'm aiming for 130 for the February, 2027 Rotary spaghetti dinner project. 

More placemats are underway. 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  From Bolt to Beauty 

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Weekly update: SAHRR and another finish, stash report, goals + reading

 It was a puttering-around kind of weekend.  Too chilly to go for a walk, no major errands to run, nothing much that needed attention.  So I sewed!

The Stay at Home Round Robin is quilted and bound.  Hooray!  

The back uses two book-related fabrics.

I made the courthouse steps flimsy in 2023.  Barb quilted it in an overall Baptist fan.  I bound it last evening.   It's 72 x 84.  

I've scheduled a quilt a month with Barb.  Whether I take something from the box of flimsies or create something new will depend on the month.

STASH REPORT, February:   fabric IN, 3/4 yard, $10.  (I bought a package of hand-dyed fat 8ths in New Zealand.)     Fabric OUT:  36-7/8 yards.

YTD:  fabric in:  3/4 yard, $10.   Fabric OUT: 103-3/8.   Yay me!  

Cynthia (Oh Scrap!) has announced a new block drive that uses batiks.  That's no problem for me!   I got to cutting and sewing and hey presto, here are 100 blocks that I will mail tomorrow.  

Quilting goals for March:  get going on placemats for the 2027 Rotary spaghetti dinner.  I have 13 pieced but not quilted.

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As I sewed I listened to Monica Wood's 2025 novel.  Harriet leads a book group at the women's prison in Maine. One of the inmates, Violet, is released after serving 22 months.  She and Harriet encounter one another at a Portland bookstore.  Violet gets a job as the laboratory manager for a psychologist whose research is about bird cognition.  Complications arise (of course) and Violet and Harriet unexpectedly come to support one another.

This is the third of Monica Wood's books that I've read.  (The others:  When We Were the Kennedys and The One-in-a-Million Boy.)  She is such a good writer -- and of course I enjoy the Maine settings.   

Linking up with Sew and Tell  Oh Scrap!  Design Wall Monday  Monday Musings   Stories from the Sewing Room  SAHRR (Anja Quilts)    

Friday check in: the orchid show + SAHRR flimsy

 

Steffi and I went to the Chicago Botanic Garden on Wednesday to see the Orchid Show.   This year's theme was back to the 60's.  Different golden oldies played in each gallery--the first flower show I've been to that was a sing-along (and a tap-your-toes-along).

They filled a real VW beetle with orchids.  

Catch the 60's decor -- the RCA console TV, the wood panelling and orange shag carpet.

The CBG staff starts planning two years in advance.  All the sets are made in-house.  

In the course of the six-week show they use 10,000 orchids, all grown at CBG.

It is impossible to take a bad photo of an orchid.

We enjoyed lunch at the CBG restaurant.  I always get their grilled cheese sandwich made with three kinds of cheese on thick, well-buttered bread.  Black bean soup this time, too.

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In the studio:   SAHRR 2026 is a flimsy!  

I had a ziploc back with black/white HSTs on hand. They were just right for round 6, "quilter's choice."

It's under the needle now.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Brag About Your Beauties

P.S. My sweater choice was deliberate.  This photo from just a year ago.  That was our last big outing together. 
 

Midweek: SAHRR, mug rugs + reading

  

 SAHRR, rounds 3, 4, and 5.

I made flying geese for round 3, "animal."  They're set as a ribbon.

I made four little drunkard's path blocks for round 4, "curves." They're the orange and black corners.  This is a wallhanging and I don't want it to get too big.

Round 5, "two colors," was hard to interpret. I chose a strip of orange and a strip of blue.

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I've quilted all the Trip Around the World mug rugs.  They're not due until the end of May so I can take my time binding them. 

I made 42. I finished one to take to New Zealand as a hostess gift.  Thus there are 41 in this stack.  

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I'm not alone in having a huge fear of running out of reading material, especially when I travel.   I know that downloaded ebooks are convenient, but I tend to scroll through way too fast and I don't concentrate.  Instead I take print books -- ideally, those that I can leave behind as I finish them.  For the two weeks in New Zealand I took three and along the way I picked up two from giveaway shelves (one at a roadside cafe and the other in a hotel lobby).  I finished them all.

#1     One of The Page Turner 2026 categories is "a book that everyone else has read."  I checked that off with  Kristin Hannah's bestseller about the French Resistance.  I don't think it's The Great Resistance Novel but it was certainly a compelling story.  

(Library booksale purchase; I left it at the Auckland hotel.) 

#2     I really enjoyed Lily King's Writers and Lovers and Heart the Lover.  Euphoria, published in 2014, is quite different. It's based on Margaret Mead and her research in Samoa.  "Based on" is important--it is not a fictionalized retelling.   I lost an important thread of the storyline and distracted myself trying to go back to pick it up.

(Thrift shop purchase; left it at the Te Anau hotel.)

# 3     There was a bookshelf at a roadside coffee shop where our tour group took a break.   (As I think about it -- three weeks ago today.)

I helped myself to this vintage Ed McBain.  It's #13 in the long-running 87th Precinct series, first published in 1960.  Gritty, urban, terribly and delightfully dated -- such good writing!   After I finished it I gave to one of my fellow travelers. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.  

(This edition was a British reprint from about 30 years go.)

#4    The bookshelf at the hotel in Te Anau had quite a variety, including two Jack Reacher thrillers in Hebrew and another novel printed in an Asian script. (Indian? Cambodian? Thai?)   I left Euphoria  and took this one.  It's a fun cozy mystery set in Connecticut.  American edition, published in 1999.  

I finished it on the flight from Wellington to Auckland and it came home with me.  

#5   Debbie (Time4Stitchin) sent me this months ago after she read it for her book group.  It was just the right length (400 + pages) for two long flights--AKL to SFO and SFO to ORD.    Another novel about WWII Resistance but from the perspective of Poland.  It's based on the author's family.   I finished it just as the plane touched down at ORD, so it came home with me, too. 

I watched two inflight movies, one going and one returning.  Darned if I can recall what the first one was, but the second one has been in the news for its Oscar nominations.   It was quite poignant.  

Ah!  The first inflight movie was  Eleanor the Great starring June Squibb, who was only 95 when the movie was filmed.   A really good story about friendship and mistaken identity.  

You still may be able to stream it on Netflix for free.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss 

I think I've missed the SAHRR link up....

 Steffi and I are having an adventure today.  Come back Friday to find out more! 

Weekly update: placemat delivery + MQG swap reveal + a flimsy and a finish

My trip to New Zealand was wonderful! You can read all about it in the post right before this one.

It didn't take long to recover from jet lag but I caught a cold on the way home (15 hours on three airplane flights means a lot of exposure).  I can finally be more than a foot away from a box of Kleenex.

When I left the amaryllis had one bud. I took it next door to Mike and Jen who watched the house for me. It liked its vacation home!  Four blossoms.

Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning were spent in the company of Rotarians as we cooked, assembled, and delivered 130 spaghetti dinners for area seniors/shut-ins.   

This is the service project for which I made placemats all last year.  I don't know how the recipients reacted but Rotarians liked them!  

Admiration is great encouragement.  I've decided I'll make placemats for 2027.  

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This was the fifth time I've participated in the MQG mini swap.  I challenged my swap partner to upcycle something. She used a shirt for the leafy appliques.

They remind me of New Zealand ferns.

Now I can reveal what I sent to her.  She said she likes untraditional interpretations of traditional designs.  

I used batiks for the star points and the background.  The quilting is vertical serpentine lines a presser-foot width apart.

I began working on String X blocks last fall.  Now they're a flimsy.

I'm not 100% sold on the outer border--the print has no white whereas there's a lot of white in the blocks.  I don't want to buy any fabric, so  I'll put this in the box of flimsies and let it simmer.   

Prior to the trip I took a flimsy to Barb-the-quilter.  I picked it up Wednesday  and bound it that evening.   

The back was free, part of a destash. 

Here it is before quilting so you can see the border. 

When I picked it up I delivered another flimsy for Barb's beautiful work.  

There's more going on but I'll stop for now. Linking up with Design Wall Monday   Monday Musings   Sew and Tell