Weekly update: a visit, handwork, and October stash report

It's the end of October and the roses are still blooming. See the buds? That's optimism!

Daughter Julie arrived on Thursday to see her dad and to help me with decision-making.   On Friday the nursing home PT did a home assessment and made recommendations for ways to make our house more accessible.  We had passes so he could spend time off-campus.

We went out to lunch, he got a haircut, and he and I voted.  (He signed a form to permit me to assist him.  He was able to sit in a voting booth. I read the candidates' names for each office and marked as he instructed.  The election judges said they were doing a brisk business though there wasn't a line when we were there.)

Their noses are from the Stevens side

On Saturday we took a drive down the North Shore and had lunch in Lake Forest.  On Sunday we went to church, where Stevens was heartily welcomed.   It was the congregation's 93rd birthday, commemorated with a "family" photo and a potluck lunch.

I took Julie to this cheese shop just off I-94  in Kenosha.  I remember stopping here in the mid-50's when our family went to Door County for vacation.   The clerk said they've been in business 67 years.

I got summer sausage "mittout" (without garlic, that is).

Julie went home to New Hampshire Sunday afternoon.  I took her to the airport (Milwaukee is such a breeze compared to O'Hare!) and returned to the nursing home in time for with Stevens. We watched  The Durrells in Corfu (we loved the books and we really like the TV version) and Poldark.

I sneaked glances at the World Series.  All of Chicagoland is rooting for the Cubs!





And, finally:  the quilting report.  I haven't had time to sit at my sewing machine for any extended period. The plus blocks I showed last week are still on the design wall.

I take handwork to the nursing home.  Coastal Lily is by Minick and Simpson. The bright version in the photo is clipped from American Quilter magazine. The flowers have embroidered stamens. I've done 15 of the 36.  I anticipate this project will have a long germination.

Barring a Hallowe'en fabric shopping excursion, here's the October stash report:
October fabric in:  0  -- zip, zilch, nada! 
October fabric out:  42-3/4  (which includes 21 yards sold at the guild rummage sale and 10 yards sold afterward)
2016 to date fabric in:  345-1/4, $1338 ($3.88/yd)
2016 to date fabric out:  258-1/8

See what other quiltmakers are working on in the Monday linkups:
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
 Design Wall Monday

 P.S. Not all my landscape snapshots are at the beach. This is Shiloh Blvd. in Zion, Sunday afternoon.

OMG report for October

 This photo is reposted from three weeks ago.
My One  Monthly Goal for October was to quilt this t-shirt quilt. (The OMG for September was to assemble it.)  I finished it October 5!

You can see what other OMG'ers have accomplished here:

  OMG It's Finished

I've made a few more plus blocks (see Monday's post).  This is a temporary arrangement so I can see what color combinations are lacking. Will this be my November OMG?  I'm not sure.

Weekly update: a new project

I was in the mood to start a new project last week.  Should I look through books or magazines for a pattern?  Cut up some scraps? Make a stack of nine-patches?  Open up the orphan blocks box?

Instead I looked at the weekly quilting linkups.  Surely you've had this experience:  you click on one thumbnail photo in a blog linkup and you meet another quiltmaker. She links to her quilting blog pals and a half hour later you've made six comments and gotten three new design ideas.  

Design (c) Tisha Nagel

That's how I found Tisha's Quilty Therapy and the announcement of the Charming Plus Quilt-along.  Click here to see it.  Perfect!  Scrappy black/white with bright. And easy.

Tisha has divided the quilt-along into four weeks -- choosing fabrics, cutting fabrics, piecing blocks, assembling the top.  I don't want to take that long. I pulled a stack of black/white FQs and some brights.

I made a few blocks in the stated size (6" fin.) and put them on the design wall.   Hmmm.  What if I made a smaller size? What if I made a larger size?
I made some 3" and 9" blocks.




Here is the work-in-progress.  I'm aiming for 54" x 60". I need to balance the colors and the block sizes.  I'm having fun!

Thanks for your kind words, prayers, and healing thoughts for my husband.  Last Tuesday he was released from the hospital to rehab where he is not happy.  I hope he can be released this week to continue as an outpatient.  

I'm joining quiltmakers on
Oh Scrap
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: it's a flimsy!

This has been a challenging week. My husband was admitted to the hospital on Sunday -- a week ago -- and is still there.  Hopefully he will be released to rehab tomorrow.  I will not go into details here, but you can understand that visits and concern have kept me preoccupied.

I love to see the sunrise over the lake. I took this picture Friday.    I'd hoped to get a picture of the full Harvest Moon rising over the lake on Saturday but it was cloudy.

 There was a touch of frost in the nature preserve on the way to the lakefront.












Sewing is a respite during stressful times. (Unless, of course, the stress is caused by a stalled project!)

I forged ahead and made ten more blocks for my Rainbow Scrap challenge.  I repeated the monthly colors with one exception. I used regular gray rather than "grayed purple."  Each of the blocks used 8 HSTs.  Since HSTs come in pairs I had 160 spares.







  I thought I would use them for the border.  When I auditioned a few I thought that the mixed-up colors detracted from the intensity of the one-color blocks.












I searched my stash and found that I had enough of this bright floral print to cut 4.5" borders.  (I've used it before: here and here.  There is still a chunk left -- I wonder if I can get another border out of it.)

The flimsy is 58 x 68 and used 4-1/4 yards.  (And I have 160 HSTs for another project.)


I'm linking up with
So Scrappy  (Rainbow Scrap Challenge)
Oh, Scrap!
 Monday Making
 Main Crush Monday
 Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: Winter Stars and RSC

It turned out to be a week of quilts! I  didn't go to my P.E.O. chapter meeting on Monday because I gave my quilt history program ("Every Quilt Tells a Story") for another chapter. I only knew one of the members (she's also in AAUW) but, as always with P.E.O., I was warmly welcomed.  (I am reimbursed for mileage. In lieu of an honorarium I ask the chapter to make a donation to the Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund which provides emergency assistance grants.)

The Northern Lake County Quilters Guild meeting was Wednesday. We had a members' rummage sale. Anyone could purchase a table for $20 to sell quilt-related items.    I made $69 -- less the $20 for the table, that's $49 -- and busted 30 yards of fabric!   I was too busy at my table to take photos or to buy anyone else's fabric.

On Thursday Jonnie and I went to the Quirky Quilters guild in Hebron, Illinois (33 miles straight west of where I live) to sell tickets for the NLCQG raffle quilt and promote the November quilt show.  It was interesting to see how another guild operates.


On Friday evening Karleigh came to pick up her t-shirt quilt (see previous post). She loves it. Yay!

I can boast of two finishes this week.  The first was the t-shirt quilt. The second is Winter Stars. This is the AAUW holiday raffle quilt.  My goal was to have it completed to take to the AAUW district conference on October 22.  I was pleased with the way the quilting on the stars turned out.

  I decided against using blue-with-snowflakes as the back because the winner might want to use the quilt year-round. I chose a faux-batik print (another long-term resident of my stash).

The back and binding used 3 yards.
(3 yds + 7 yds (t-shirt quilt) + 30 yds (rummage sale) = 40 yards busted this week.)





















And, one last accomplishment:  here's my Rainbow Scrap Challenge block.

The Monday line of linkups:
RSC 2016
Oh, Scrap!
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Design Wall Monday

Burp! t-shirt quilt is done

One bite at a time, I wrote a couple of days ago.
The last bites of the t-shirt quilt were gobbled down, hence the burp.

I quilted the sashing on Sunday (while watching Poldark).
No sewing on Monday (I gave EQTAS -- Every Quilt Tells a Story--to P.E.O. Chapter LG on Monday evening).
I quilted the borders on Tuesday while watching the vice presidential debate.
I stayed inside on this lovely, sunny, early-fall Wednesday to attach the binding and the label.

Here it is!  (7 yards used for sashing, borders, backing, binding).

Take note! This is my declared OMG for October and it is DONE on October 5!!!

I'm joining these Wednesday linkups:
Midweek Makers
Let's Bee Social

Weekly update: One bite at a time and September stash report

"How do you eat an elephant?"
"One bite at a time!"
That's my approach to quilting the t-shirt quilt.  The first bite was piecing the backing (photo to come).  The second bite was basting it. (I used almost all the basting pins).  An 82 x 86 quilt sandwich is hefty!  The third bite was quilting all the t-shirt motifs.   I started in the center and quilted three motifs down, then went to the right and quilted three down, to the right again and three down. I turned it over and, from the bottom center did the three columns. Then I rerolled the quilt sandwich and, sideways, quilted the motifs in each corner.   That took Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

This evening (Sunday) I will quilt the sashing. I may get started on the border.

The week to come is busy -- I'm out MTWTh evenings and have daytime meetings T and F -- but I am determined to get this quilt finished this week!

Meanwhile, here are sixteen basket blocks for a group quilt I'm participating in.




















And here are nine Dresden plates for the October Block Lotto. (I re-read the instructions. The wedges are supposed to be light-dark-light-dark so I will need to make five more with the correct orientation.)

As for the stash report?
I indulged in September. Oh, wow, did I ever!
September fabric in: 56-1/4 yards, $371 ($6.22/yd)
Fabric out: 14-1/2
YTD fabric in: 345-1/4, $1338 ($3.88/yd)
Fabric out: 215-3/8 
I'll blame that on free shipping -- I placed two orders with Fabrics.com.  They provide free shipping for orders over $50.  Go broke saving money . . . but I did get both the fabric I needed and some that I really liked.


C&T offered free shipping for orders over $50 with their warehouse sale.  I took advantage of that.
Most of these books were $5.00. A couple were more and a couple were less.

See what other quiltmakers are up to!
Monday Making
Oh Scrap!
 Main Crush Monday
 Design Wall Monday

Raffle quilt

I'll bet this grabbed your attention!  No, it's not on my design wall.  This is the Northern Lake County Quilters Guild 2016 raffle quilt.  The design is "Flowers for My Wedding Ring" by Judy Niemeyer.  It is 87 x 100 and is all batiks, machine-pieced and exquisitely machine-quilted.

Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. The drawing will be on Sunday, November 20, at the conclusion of the NLCQG biennial quilt show.  (We'll ship the quilt to the winner.)

If you'd like to buy tickets, leave a comment.   If you are a no-reply blogger be sure to include your email address.

Proceeds from the raffle benefit NLCQG programs and also  Lake County PADS (services for the homeless).

Thank you!