Weekly update: tote bag finished, slab blocks, helping a friend, and new acquisitions

I used some of the newly-harvested rhubarb (see last week's update) to make Bertha's Rhubarb Dessert when I hosted P.E.O. on Monday evening.  My Fargo AAUW/Alpha Gam friend Pat S. gave me this cookbook years ago. It's from Litchville, North Dakota.

Lynn Rymarz portrayed Mary Cassatt at Wednesday's luncheon for the Clara Cummings Book Club.  Lynn's programs are always entertaining. (You can see her roster here.)   I'm new to CCBC though I know many of the members from AAUW, P.E.O., and GFWC.  (And I look forward to seeing Lynn at the end of this coming week at the P.E.O. state convention. Her role will be one of P.E.O.'s founders.)




This morning (Sunday) we went to the annual Winthrop Harbor Fire Dept. pancake breakfast.  It seems that everyone in town turns out!

Right: the back of one of the fire trucks. Wouldn't it make an interesting quilt pattern?

# # # # # # # # # # #

In the studio:

I finished the retirement tote bag.  I fussy-cut motifs from Australian prints for the centers of the flowers, the red/purple circles, and the bird's wing, eye, and belly.  I fussed with fabric/color placement of the flowers. I had an extra flower and used it on the inside pocket.

I made 40 scrappy slab blocks and set them with a turquoise tone-on-tone print. The blocks are 9" finished and the sashing is 5" finished.











One of the quilters on the Stashbusters list has announced an ambitious project. She will make 80 lap robes for the local hospice (southwestern Missouri) in honor of the 80th birthday of a man who helped her through some challenging times.
I used units and blocks from the orphans box to make these three tops. I'll add more blocks and some fabric and send them all off to her. 

(Sharp eyes--that's you, CB -- will note a mis-turned 16-patch block in the second row. I corrected it-- after I'd sewn it the wrong way and attached the border.)

Here's the indulgence.  I won the drawing for a $100 gift card from the quilt guild at the conclusion of the 2018 Block of the Month . It's been burning a hole in my wallet. I extinguished the flame by buying 11 yards of sale-price batiks (left side). The quilt shop in Chappell Hill, Texas, sent an email announcing that Art Gallery fabrics were half price with $10 shipping. Those delicious prints are on the right side.

This week I hope to finish quilting the indigo stars quilt. I'm about 1/3 of the way through.  There aren't many meetings -- it's the fifth week of the month.  I leave early Friday morning for the P.E.O. convention in PEOria.

Here's the weekly linky line up:
 Oh Scrap!
 Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
 Moving It Forward