It was our turn to host the church fellowship luncheon yesterday. It was also Purim, the Jewish holiday commemorating Queen Esther and the rescue of the Jews from being massacred back in the 4th century BCE.

Hamantaschen are a traditional Purim treat. The triangular filled cookies commemorate the defeat (execution) of the wily antisemitic Haman. (The word translates either as Haman's pockets or Haman's ears.) My friend Celia provided the recipe and recommended using canned filling (poppyseed and apricot). I didn't have a 3" cookie cutter so I emptied a can of green beans and used the rim.

Though not all of them held their shape, they taste delicious!

Reading the Book of Esther is a Purim tradition. A scroll (the original format) is a megillah -- so "the whole megillah" refers to reading, or reciting, the entire story.
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The Zion Conservatory of Music / Zion Woman's Club fundraiser on Saturday was a nice event. Conservatory students (ages 7 through 18) played during the luncheon. I donated the two
tote bags I showed last week (my March OMG) along with pre-publication books from
ALA Midwinter [see the final photo in the post] and
Scrappy Detour . Fortunately for my pocketbook I was outbid on other silent auction items. (I didn't really need them.) That savings was counterbalanced by the raffle tickets I bought for the 50/50 and gift baskets at Saturday morning's Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast. (I didn't win.)
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I made only 11 Ohio Star blocks for the QOV project this week. I'm determined to use only stash for the 365 blocks. The red and blue prints are easy. I'm digging deeper to find white or very light cream (WOW and COC are okay).
Here's my new project. The table runner will be the Zion Woman's Club door prize donation for the GFWC-Illinois state convention. The pattern is from one of Kim Schaefer's books. Scrappy batiks are such fun to work with! (The outer border hasn't been sewn, hence the "tail" at the lower right corner.)

I presented Every Quilt Tells a Story to the Gurnee Woman's Club last Monday evening. This evening I'm giving the program to the AAUW Riverside Branch, about 60 miles away. After the least-snowy January and February in years, look at what's happening today! I hope by the afternoon the traffic will have beaten down most of the snow.
Monday link ups:
Design Wall Monday
Monday Making
Oh Scrap!