A couple of days off

I've had three days off at home this week.  I had a meeting at the state library on Monday. 
Since that grant project was paying my mileage and one night hotel stay, we thought we'd make it into a little vacation and leave on Sunday, return on Tuesday.   My husband didn't grow up in Illinois and as a consquence he has never "done the Lincoln sites."  (Going to Springfield is a grade-school rite of passage for many Illinoisians, including me.) 

It didn't work out that way. My husband spent two nights in the hospital! Fortunately he is okay, and I brought him home Tuesday afternoon.

But, meanwhile, I'd scheduled the time off.  I've used it productively to get various chores done (well, not ALL the housecleaning, but some of it).  I found an upholsterer who will re-do the two living room armchairs (fabric bought three weeks ago) and was home when he came to get the chairs. I scheduled the furnace servicing (though it's been in the 90's this week, fall is coming); got the car's oil changed; balanced the AAUW checkbook; wrote the next column for the Zion-Benton News; wrote the "coast to coast" book review (see previous post).   True, the list of to-be-dones is still lengthy, but not as much as it was.

I wrote that I had some quilty to-do's to attend to.  Here are three of them: from yardage to flimsy in three days!

A long-time member of my P.E.O.  chapter is moving out of state. She's been a mainstay of the group and we will miss her.  I said I'd make a good-bye gift. The January, 2007, issue of McCall's Quick Quilts was on the giveaway table at last week's guild meeting. I looked through it and, voila! the perfect pattern.It's by  Pat Sloan who visited the quilt guild last month and gave an applique workshop .    I had all the fabric in my stash -- that lime green check leaped from the shelf the cutting table and the rust basket fabric wasn't far behind. 
Pat's version is called "Snowflake Basket."  I substituted daisies for snowflakes.   This is an odd size -- 23x 43.  I will distribute signature squares to P.E.O. sisters and incorporate them on the quilt back.  [P.E.O.'s emblem is a gold star and its flower is the marguerite, or daisy. There were seven founders. You can count the stars and daisies. :)]

This fall our P.E.O. chapter will have the quadrennial official visit from a state officer. We will also have a report from our delegate to the International Convention. (I was the delegate in 2011: here is my account.)  These 14 x 16 wallhangings will be our thank you gifts for their presentations. 

Back to work tomorrow. 
The next wallhanging due is a bookshelf quilt.  I'm ready!