Friday update: stormy weather, long-time friends, a flimsy + reading

 

Wednesday:    Sophie hosted the online Block Lotto for many years.  I joined BL about 2009 and enjoyed the monthly block designs.  I won the Lotto several times. 

 Sophie is now traveling the country in an Airstream Sprinter van.  The last couple of weeks she's followed Route 66 but in reverse, meaning that she ended in Chicago.  She headed north and we met for lunch at a newly-renovated cafe in downtown Zion.   

I showed her Illinois Beach State Park where I take so many walks.   

Leftovers for two more dinners

We ended up at my house (a visit to my studio).  She had a reservation for that night  at a southern Wisconsin campground.  

 As she drove away the long-forecast storm darkened the western sky.  She hoped to outdrive it.  Instead, was almost to the I-94 the wind and rain were wild and all her weather-alert systems went off.   She called and asked, "Would you like an overnight guest?" and a half hour later she was back.   HOWEVER in the interim the power went off.  I have flashlights.  (Neighbor Mike hoisted the garage door so I could get my car out.)  The outage was localized -- just our block and the next one.    When Sophie and I drove out for dinner lights were on  everywhere else.    We enjoyed pizza at the Quonset (a Waukegan landmark).   

When we got home Mike showed us his new lantern.  I have two large flashlights (D batteries) but, wow -- the lantern is USB rechargeable, no batteries.   Sophie knit by flashlight while I went out the Walmart and got two of the lanterns for myself. 

And then at 9:31 the power came back on!    

 If I don't have to use the lanterns any time soon that is just fine with me.  (And in the unlikely event that I go camping I'm set for illumination.)

Thursday morning we were up bright and early.  Sophie left for Wisconsin and I went to Rotary.

Late Thursday afternoon another big storm rolled through.   We got about 1" of rain, lots of wind.  There were tornadoes far to the south of the city.  

# # # # #  The lights flickered a couple of times during the storm but they never went off.  I had a productive Thursday evening in the studio.  

Farmyard Friends, the June top-along, is a flimsy.   2-5/8 yards, nearly all thrifted shirts.  (I found some shirting plaids in the homespun stash when I wanted a particular contrast.)  

If you've worked with thrifted shirts you know that it's hard to use 'em all up.  I'm perusing Bonnie Hunter's shirttails pattern books for renewed inspirations.

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I love words. I love colors.  And I love the way that Kory Stamper writes about both in her new book. 

In her engaging style (she has lexicographical cred and a terrific sense of humor) she tells how color names and descriptions were defined and refined for inclusion in the 1961 Webster's Third New International Dictionary.   The process was a whole lot more complicated that you'd expect.  I learned a lot about color standards. 

Put True Color on your list!   (Her previous book Word by Word is also well worth reading.) 

 

Linking up on this sunshiny morning (everything is so green after the rain!) with Finished or Not Friday

P.S.  Foxglove and white indigo at Illinois Beach.  

Weekly update: finished + acquisitions

 Wildflowers at Greenbelt Forest Preserve on Sunday afternoon.  A good 2-mile walk.

Beardtongue foxglove, wild flag iris, oxeye daisy, feverfew, Japanese rose.  

June goal #2:  10 placemats. All finished.  The average fabric in each one is 3/8 yard so 3-3/4 yards for the batch.  

I used up two ziploc bags of triangles. The hourglasses (top right and lower left) were made from 4-1/2" triangles cut diagonally and repieced. 

Some fabric in the "used" column but more fabric in the "acquired" column.   

A guild friend said that her church rummage sale (Thursday-Saturday) had gotten a quilter's estate.  I purposely stayed away until Saturday morning when it was "fill a box."  Small box $10, medium $20, large $30.  "And you can fill it as full as you want," said the fifth-grader who was 'selling' the boxes, demonstrating a big pile with her hands.  I bought a $30 box and filled it.   

There wasn't much yardage left (I got two 4-yd pieces).  There were a lot of men's shirts.  I also got a duvet cover and a fitted sheet.  I de-boned the shirts (I don't keep collars/cuffs/plackets/buttons) and removed seams and hems from the bedding.   I weighed it all:   56-3/8 yards.  For $30 total.  You know me:  if I can't resist buying fabric then I'm going for bargains!  

Rather than putting all the newly cut-up shirts in a box I began cutting.   These blocks are Farmyard Fun by Melissa Milligan, the June top-along pattern.   I may stick with blues but I may introduce a couple of colors....

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I watched this 2013 movie on Friday evening. (Now streaming on Acorn.)   I'd never heard of it.  It kept my attention.

I checked Hoopla to find a new audiobook to listen to.   To my surprise The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett was available.    It's very long (26 hours) and really, really good.  I'm halfway through.  

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

Friday check in: the raffle that wasn't, placemats + reading

 

The rain forecast today will be most welcome. I planted tomatoes, beans, and lettuce earlier this week.  

It was great to have lunch with Pat yesterday.  She lives 60 miles from me and we don't get to visit in person often enough.   We rediscovered an Indian restaurant we found by accident a couple of years ago--we'd both forgotten about it until I turned onto that road, then we both remembered. It was a good choice.

# # # # # The quilt guild's annual Raffle Mania was scheduled for Wednesday evening.  Members bring quilt-related stuff they no longer love and buy raffle tickets in hopes of winning someone else's stuff.  I bagged some fabric (43 yards by weight) and picked up Irene at 6:00.  We got to the senior center and found a locked door and about a dozen guild members in the parking lot.  It turned out there was a plumbing emergency and the building was closed.  We missed the email because we were en route.  What to do?   We opened our car trunks and invited one another to shop, with payment to the guild.  

 It turned out better than the raffle because we -- at least I -- got some really good deals!   I pawned off sold what I brought.  In turn I paid $58 and got 55 yards of batiks and 23 yards of other prints.  That's $1.38 per yard. 

If you've been following my monthly stash report you know that I have been very, very good about NOT acquiring fabric this year.   I relish this treat!

# # # # # #In the studio:   I have 9 out of the 10 placemats (June OMG) pieced.   The triangles were in ziploc bags in the Parts Department.  

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I listened to the audio edition.

Four women from different backgrounds, newly-arrived in suburbia, come together to read The Feminine Mystique.  The book changes their outlook but as importantly the friendships they develop become a strong support network.  

My mother was the generation of these women and I am the generation of their children.  I got all the 60's references:   from the social mix of people of different backgrounds moving to a planned suburb (Reston, VA); Tang and Sunbeam hair dryers, vodka stingers, dancing the monkey, girdles, Miltown tranquilizer.   But mostly, of course, the social inequity for women (couldn't get a checking account, pregnant women couldn't/shouldn't work).  

I remember that my mother was angry after reading Friedan's book.  Not because of women's liberation but because Friedan implied that the only women who felt that way were college-educated.  My mother's post-high school education was rigorous (secretarial/business) but not college, and she valued independence and economic self-reliance.   I realize how enlightened (practical?) my parents were because my dad supported her choice to go back to work (I was 10), and she thoroughly enjoyed her career in publishing.

A literary mystery with dual timelines -- 1530's and 2023.  Informative (Elizabeth Barton was a real person) and suspenseful!  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek check in: flags flying and a finish

 

Flags are flying!  Wild flag iris, that is.  Purple/blue is native, yellow is invasive, and both are beautiful.   Flags like to have their feet wet so they grow in marshy areas. 

More wildflowers:  redroot (new to me), lupine, coreopsis, wild rose, Carolina puccoon, prairie groundsel, rock sandwort. 

That was Monday afternoon at Illinois Beach State Park. 

 No walk yesterday because I joined AAUW friends for our summer luncheon.  There's a silent auction/sale for our scholarship fund. I brought books and a couple of miscellaneous items.  I also brought the box of placemats that I've made in recent months.   Priced at $5 each, 3 for $10 -- sold 33!  

# # # # # #   In the studio:   Tropical Punch is finished!  (That was suggested by Google AI for "orange pink lime green quilt name.")   

I bought the backing at Salvation Army for $5.99.   Four WOF panels, probably homemade curtains (Richloom on the selvedge).  Rather than trying to match the zigzag stripes I sewed them in this orientation.  

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Thanks for the shout out, Jennifer.  

P.S.  I said that wild flags grow in moist/wet areas, but hybrid iris do not. This patch of the hybrid variety comes up every year at the state park on higher-and-drier ground.   

Weekly update: convention, stash report, OMG

 

The 123rd convention of the Illinois State Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood was wonderful. 

 "Live Like Lulu--Be a P.E.O. Builder" was the theme for Fran's presidential term.  Fran is a historian with a specialty in women's organizations and Lulu Corkhill Williams was an influential early P.E.O. 

Fran, Lulu, and me 

 Lulu chartered Illinois chapters and the state chapter. The eponymous Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund provides emergency financial assistance to Illinois women and men.  My involvement at the state level began with a term on the Lulu Fund. 

 I introduced Fran to P.E.O. when she and her family moved to downstate Carbondale in 1991. So glad I did!) 

My table in the Projects Room. The mug rugs I made for chapters that contributed $500 and were matched with scholarship recipients were well-received.  

I used a sarong and two pieces of African wax resist batiks for the table covering. 

 Some of the other projects displays. 

P.E.O. has awarded over $462,000,000 to more than 129,000 women:   grants for continuing education; low-cost loans for continuing education; scholarships awarded to high school seniors; support for doctoral-level research; funding for international students in the U.S. (my committee). P.E.O. supports Cottey College, a 4-year liberal arts college in Nevada, MO.  

Illinois has the aforementioned Lulu Fund and the Home Fund to assist women over age 65 with housing-related expenses. 

The wall of chapters carried out the building theme.  I "built" our house out of fabric, of course. (Lower right.)

Linda and I hosted a pre-banquet party for the Lake County Round table.  

Long-time friends and new ones. Sue with her chapter's Trip Around the World mug rug.  Anne was the Illinois state librarian (I didn't know that she's a P.E.O.).  Sue was Lulu chair my first year on the committee (and I made the tote bag for her).  Sarah was my roommate.  

Sue is a double sister -- Alpha Gamma Delta and P.E.O.  We were connected by an Alpha Gam ten years ago. (Bonnie to Sue:  "Look for Nann." Bonnie to Nann: "You need to meet Sue!")  We were on the Home Fund committee together.  

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I got back home at 5 p.m. Sunday.  I unpacked and got some stuff put away, but treated myself to some sewing while I watched The Boroughs on Netflix. (Four episodes finished, four to come.)   

THE STASH REPORT:   May fabric IN, 18-3/8 yards, $86.25.   May fabric OUT:  42-5/8 yards.  YTD fabric IN 24-7/8 yards, $123.57, average $4.97/yard.  YTD fabric OUT:  301-7/8 yards.  Net DECREASE: 277 yards.   Yay, me!

OMG for June:  10 placemats and 2 quilt finishes.  

Meanwhile, I've got a long to-do list for this week. 

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

Friday check in: a note before leaving

State park, Wednesday:  bumblebee on clover, coreopsis, spiderwort.  ("Wort" means a plant with medicinal properties. I don't know what this one does for humans, or for spiders....)

Thursday:  the Clara Cummings Book Club members were tapping their toes and clapping as presenter Susan Benjamin told us about the life and career of Neil Diamond.  And with that entertaining program the CCBC season has concluded.  Next luncheon is in September and I have the speaker lined up.  

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In the studio:    RBW Stars #2 is a flimsy.   6 yards in all.

No sewing this weekend.  I'm headed for the P.E.O. state convention in Springfield.  

Just call me Elsbeth . . .

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek: stars aligned

 I'll audition border fabric today.   

And tidy up this mess.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: lettering and a shower, and more stars

It's a warm and sunny Memorial Day in northeasternmost Illinois.

  Stevens often recalled the Memorial Day weekends that he'd go with his father from their home in Summit, NJ, to the cemetery in Williamstown, NJ, and clean up around the family graves. 

Yesterday I drove to DeKalb for my nephew and his wife's baby shower.  My sister and her husband and my niece and her husband were there and we were so busy talking at our table (and playing baby shower games) that I didn't take photos of the three-tier cake or the cute "little sprout" cookies.   But I did get a picture of C, B, and me with the I Spy quilt!  

I also gave them Grandpa Blaine's [my sister's and my dad] sterling silver baby spoon from 1918. 

The shower was held in the visitor center, former carriage house, of the Ellwood House Museum.  Isaac Ellwood and two associates patented barbed wire.  The invention made them, especially Ellwood, enormously wealthy.  His granddaughter and her children bequeathed the mansion to the DeKalb Park District in 1964.  I went through the exhibits in the carriage house but didn't have time to take the house tour.   Next visit! 

The Ellwood granddaughters' playhouse.  I glimpsed a little quilt on a little bed through the window.  

In the studio:  

I used the Cricut in the library's makerspace to print letters for the P.E.O. convention display sign.  (My home printer has very limited enlargement capability.)   At home I traced the letters onto fusible web and and fused them down.  

IPS = International Peace Scholarship, awarded to women from other countries enrolled in graduate school at U.S. or Canadian universities.  $12,500 that can be renewed a second year.  

On the design wall:  21 out of 30 stars. (I see a mispiecing: top row, second from right.)  

I binged the final season of Outlander. I cried a little.  Oh, Jamie!  Oh, Claire!    Then I watched the last two episodes of this season of Elsbeth.  A distraction of silliness.  As I type this the theme songs of both shows are mixing themselves up in my head.    I think I'd better go out for a long walk today.

Linking up with Design Wall Monday Monday Musings   Sew and Tell

RSC, swaps, and a couple of books

 Why, yes, I can write a blog post on Saturday!

 

I'm making it easy on myself with RSC this year.  15" x 5" Chinese coins blocks in each monthly color.   The pattern that you can see in the photo is from an old issue of Quiltmaker.  

I used some orange batik to make a fabric box  to hold the mug rugs for next weekend's P.E.O. convention.   The box, or is it a bowl?, uses fusible Peltex to make it flexible but firm.  The exterior fabric is also batik.  

I used to have the Fast Fun Fabric Bowls/Boxes/etc. books but apparently I no longer do.  Fortunately I could recall how to make a humble bowl. Or box. Or container.   I still have several yards of fusible Peltex remaining from the bolt I bought oh-so-long ago. 

This was the second year I participated in Lori/Humble Quilt's doll quilt swap.   

I sent a little quilt to MM in late April.  It turned out I mis-addressed it.   That is, I sent it to her at her PO box number but to the wrong town!   Tracking showed that it arrived, but tracking only cares that the address is correct, not the recipient.  So someone in that other town has a nice little quilt and a few goodies.  UPDATE:   THE BOX WAS RETURNED MAY 30!  That means I have a miniquilt all ready for next year's swap.  Once MM and I corresponded and I found out about the error I got to work, made a replacement, and sent it.  Delivery was successful this time and now I can show it.

The design is from Temecula Quilts. The HSTs are 2" finished.  

Jan in Ripon, WI, sent me this hand-quilted mini. It's literally a charmer where the 2" blocks are all different.  

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 There are dozens of books on the shelves at home but I keep putting more on hold at the library.   Here are some that I've read in May. 

I've had the ARC since I heard the author speak at the ALA conference in 2019....now, in 2026, high time to read it.  I enjoyed the book and learning what happened next for the courageous women in the class of 1973.

An enjoyable mystery introducing a delightful sleuth.  Kausa Khan's daughter calls her in a panic -- Sana has been accused of murdering the landlord of the strip mall where she has a shop.  In the process of rescuing her daughter Kausa rescues herself from the lonely life she's been living.

The second in the series has just come out and I look forward to reading it. 

All that glitters is not gold.  In this case,  Natalie's "perfect" family life on a "perfect" farm--all filmed relentlessly every day for millions of followers on social media--leads to a breakdown, a coverup, and the eventual revelation of yet another Potemkin village.  None of the characters is at all appealing and that, I think, is the author's point.

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Linking up with So Scrappy RSC  Humble Quilts Swap QuiltingPatch