Weekly update: beautiful days, special quilts, and two flimsies

The weather question in the Chicago Tribune on Thursday: "It seems that when the Atlantic coast prepares for a hurricane, Chicago has beautiful weather. Is there any truth to this?"
                 There is a ton of truth to your statement. When an Atlantic or Gulf hurricane approaches the U.S. mainland, it tends to set up a blocking or slowing effect on eastward-moving weather systems moving across the Midwest, holding rain-producing cold fronts at bay. Additionally, hurricanes have vast circulation fields. Air venting out of the top of a hurricane eventually subsides hundreds and even thousands of miles away from the storm. That subsiding air warms and dries, bringing a string of sunny and warm days, similar to the weather currently gracing Chicago. 

We have indeed had splendid weather with "100% available sunshine," i.e. cloudless skies.  We made time for a beach walk. Though we live just a mile from the lakefront we have to be intentional about going to the park.  (Photos: one piece of beach glass and an array of wildflowers.) 

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On Thursday evening I gave my quilt history program,"Every Quilt Tells a Story," for another  P.E.O. chapter (not mine). I have been so a couple of their meetings and knew many of the members.  I noticed that some of the in the quilts I show are getting a bit soiled at the edges. I need to examine them all carefully.  (I hadn't opened the storage boxes since I gave the program many months ago.)  [You can see a similar EQTAS presentation here.]

The P.E.O. Lake County Round Table met on Friday at the retirement community where a member of the hostess chapter lives.   I'd driven past the place many times but never had a reason to go in. Wow! There's a rainforest in the atrium, the second-largest in the midwest.  After the meeting Betty invited us for a walk around the rainforest to see her apartment and her quilts.   

Her specialty is combining counted cross stitch and quilting.  The Santa Claus is solid stitchery (more like needlepoint, but they are cross stitches).  The borders were added and quilted.  In the scenic hanging the evenweave backgrounds are quilted as well as the sashing.


 Betty makes "regular" quilts, too, like this stained-glass applique. 


The first AAUW general meeting of the year was Saturday morning.  Waukegan To College helps talented students who are the first in their families to aspire to higher education. W2C provides campus discovery, career exploration, and coaching for both students and parents.  The panel included the director, a student now completing her bachelor's degree (and applying for grad school), and a coach (who told her own college journey from a hog farm to a master's degree) -- and Marlenny and her mother Maria whom we met five years ago. Marlenny is now a h.s. junior and Maria was inspired to take English classes and get a childcare certificate (as well as serve as the chairman of the parent support group). A win for all! 

I donated a quilt to the silent auction at the Lake County Symphony Orchestra gala on Saturday. It didn't raise a lot but I was happy to donate.  The music was wonderful, the buffet was tasty, and we enjoyed conversation with the people at the table (whom we did not know).

Yesterday the Zion Historical Society presented The Founding Family's Story, a bus tour with costumed actors.  We learned some new things about Zion and Dr. Dowie, its founder. 

I usually enter Shiloh House, the historical society, by the back door. This time we went in the front and I snapped a photo of the tile floor in the entry. 


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Yes, I did get to spend time in my studio.  Here's how the wedge strips turned out.  The blue-gray background is a Cranston print dated 1992. I've begun quilting it (photo to come). 

My version

Early in the week I pulled a couple of Kaffe Fassett books off the shelf just to browse.  "I could make that, I thought," and look what happened. 

I admire Kaffe fabrics but I am not a collector. My quilt doesn't have any Kaffee prints -- just stash!

The pattern

 Monday link ups:  
Moving It Forward
Oh, Scrap!
Design Wall Monday



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