Season's Piecings

The Zion-Benton Unit of the Boys & Girls Club of Lake County has a "Have a Heart" fundraising banquet at Valentine's Day. It includes a raffle/auction. I knew I would contribute a quilt to the event but it wasn't until December 24 (yep, three days ago) that I found this pattern in a stack of articles I had clipped from quilt magazines. The design is by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith, aka Possibilities.

Some quilts just throw themselves together, and this is one of them. All the homespun fabric came right from my stash, including the red-on-red border.  It's 64x72 and it's finished!!

Stars and Rails

After I finished quilting "Scrappy Triangles" (see previous post), I put a bunch of red-and-blue rail fence blocks up on the design wall. I remembered a pattern in the December, 2009, issue of Quilter's World that used rail fence blocks and stars. Those blocks were 4.5" and mine were 6.5". As a result, my quilt is 92" compared to the QW version, which is 68".

Leaders-and-Enders: Scrappy Triangles

My leaders-and-enders project in recent months has been half-square triangles. [See www.quiltville.com/leadersenders.shtml for more about leaders-and-enders. Half-square triangles, HSTs for short, are not triangles. They are squares made out of two right-angle triangles.] I began with 3" squares and trimmed them to 2.5". The blocks are 12.5" unfinished and each contains 36 HSTs. There are 49 blocks, so the quilt has 1,764 HSTs (and thus 3,528 individual triangles). Many of the fabrics are repeated, so this is not a 'charm' quilt (in which each fabric must be different). It's 84 x 84 and I am not going to put a border on it. Did it make a dent in the box of 3" squares? Somewhat!

Estate Sale, part 2

After the JAD luncheon (see previous post) several of us went back to the Callahan estate sale. Today was positively the last day, and everything was 75% off. There was still a LOT of stuff.

Here's my haul. $51.25 total! The floral fabric on the bed turned out to be 11 yards, 'designed by Barbara Cartland,' copyright 1980. ($15.00) There is another chunk of upholstery fabric (1970's "Early American" style), a piece of uncut bandanna/scarf fabric (red heart print), and a Japanese yukata.

ERA buttons! (I did not purchase the one that said, "Another Republican for ERA.") Illinois is one of the states that has not yet passed the amendent, even though the Illinois state constitution has an equal rights provision.

Three pillows made out of vintage quilt blocks.

"Stars and bars"--20 brass star-shaped napkin rings and a whole sack of daisy-shaped guest soaps. What every P.E.O. hostess needs!

A silver-plated pitcher (engraved with "First place GPA 1968"), a serving spoon that I thought was silver (after polishing it, I found out that it is silver-over-brass: Indian, most likely) and a lustre-ware pitcher.

And, for the next white elephant exchange: this exquisite beaded basket made from the finest plastic beads--and safety pins!

Jane Addams Day

AAUW-IL celebrated Jane Addams Day today. The event was held at Bowen Park in Waukegan. That's the site of the Bowen Country Club which was established by Jane Addams and Louise DeKoven Bowen as a summer camp for Hull-House children.

"Every summer from 1912 until 1963, children from the steamy and congested streets of Chicago's Near West Side ran and played amidst the wildflowers and trees at the Joseph T. Bowen Country Club. Located on 72 acres of forest, field, and ravine near Waukegan, Illinois, the Bowen Country Club was the summer camp of the world famous Hull-House social settlement house. Financed by philanthropist and social activist Louise deKoven Bowen, the camp sought to provide a sojourn in the country as a necessary antidote to the stresses of city life. Prominent Chicagoans donated funds to build sleeping cottages and children and mothers were invited to the camp for two-week rotations. Days were packed with activities such as swimming in the camp's circular pool, team and individual sports contests, classes in folk or rhythmic dance, games, parties, and art lessons. After a hearty meal in the Commons dining room, a campfire and sing-a-long often ended the day." From: http://collections.carli.illinois.edu

There is more historical information at www.bowencountryclub.org

100 people came to the JAD event. AAUW-IL was instrumental in having JAD declared a state observance. It's December 10 every year.

Estate sale

I went to an estate sale in Waukegan today. This was the SECOND sale for the same estate. The first one, last month, went on for three days. (I was unable to go.) This one began yesterday and will end Sunday. It didn't look picked-over at all, which means that there was a LOT of stuff. I did not know the woman, but I have friends who did and they said that when she found something she liked she bought it in multiples, and she never threw anything away. She was a realtor, served on the boards of community agencies, loved to travel, garden, and collect. And collect. And collect.
The first photo shows everything I bought.





Next: a Lone Star, hand-pieced, bound (sewn with zig-zag). Two of the star points are somewhat faded, but the piecing is excellent. The star is flat (achieving that is difficult with this pattern).








This is a cotton batik sarong. It's a 'second'--the third photo shows where it misprinted. When cut up for a quilt the misprints won't show (at least not show as much). The printer's stamp in the photo is about 2" long.

This is a framed mola. It's 40 x 18. (Just $10.50!)

Four batik napkins. I have a couple of similar sets. One day I will use them in a quilt.





This is a pine utility box. It had a carrying handle, now broken off, and one corner is banged up. I choose to say that it's 'distressed,' and I'll use it to hold notions, or something.

I had not yet purchased Christmas cards for this year. These are Unicef cards, 13 packages of 10, sticker price $8.50 per package. Estate sale price $1.00 per package.

Blogaversary + 100th post

This is my second blogaversary (first post was 12/2/07) and, coincidentally, it's my 100th post. How 'bout that?!