Sunday, November 22, 2020

Weekly update: forest preserves, nine patch stars, and the book review

 We visited Prairie Wolf Forest Preserve Friday afternoon.   It's bordered by a shopping center and suburban office buildings -- a century ago that was farmland but a century before that it was a slough, which is what the forest preserve is now.  









When we left Prairie Wolf we saw a sign for the  Heller Nature Center We're glad we took a detour to check it out!  It's part of the Highland Park Park District.  (Not shown: the good-sized education building. I can imagine that in normal years there would be field trips and after-school activities.)  The cabin was designed by noted landscape architect Jens Jensen. 




Diorama boxes were hung on trees along the trail.

These are the ones I liked best.









Saturday's trek was was at the far southwestern corner of the county, 40 miles from where we live. Grassy Lake is on the Fox River. (There is a Grassy Lake a couple of miles away. It's connected to the river by Flint Creek.)  There's a kame (glacial remnant) and the hill is the highest point I've been to in many months. 



Until we began our forest preserve exploration I didn't know that ground cherries grew around here. Now I see them again and again. (I'll need to be on the lookout in the spring to see them in bloom.)  The silver plant on the right has sprouted new green growth.  And that's not the only dandelion I saw along the trail. 


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The Civil War Repro Stash Reduction Project continues. On Friday I wrote that I was contemplating how I'd border the nine-patch.  Simple slab borders didn't do it.   





How about flying geese?  Yes!  56 x 64, 4-1.2 yards.  



........ and I'm nearly finished with the units for the next CWRSRP project.


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I remember watching "Connections" on PBS. The way James Burke related science to technology to    society fascinated me.  That same kind of connection is what The Domestic Revolution is all about.   The subtitle isn't accurate because it's not just Victorian England.  Ruth Goodman's account begins centuries before that.  She writes about how peat and wood were replaced by coal. The change in fuel changed hearths to stoves to ranges [where the oven is separated from the firebox].  It changed how food was cooked (long boiling over peat or wood; baking/roasting with coal). It changed housecleaning and clothes cleaning, led to the creation of house paint and wallpaper.  It affected foreign trade. "Coal enforced new regimes, a new modern way of life. It encouraged and supported a different range of products and practices, pushing out age-old goods, styles, and methods. As London became a cultural and commercial centre of global  , the ways of doing things in this first coal city....had repercussions around the world." (p. 262).   

There were so many "ah-ha, so that's why" moments in this book.  I highly recommend it. 

Linking up with Oh Scrap!   Monday Making   Design Wall Monday  

17 comments:

  1. Ruth Goodman is often seen in reenactment series, worth watching if you can catch them there.

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  2. OH that cinched it...I just have to make this quilt, with your gorgeous flying geese! Have to!!

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  3. oh those dioramas are soo cute! and love the flying geese border...has the repro stash gone down noticeably yet???

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  4. I’ve been delinquent in my blog reading, and have spent the last little while scrolling through your most recent posts to try to catch up with you. You have kept so focused and insanely busy, that’s no easy chore! I am so impressed (and envious) of all the wonderful places you have visited! And all those wonderful quilts! OMG! My journey to your little corner of the world has motivated me to abandon my morning cup of coffee and to get to work!

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  5. The flying geese are the perfect finish to the CWR quilt! You are so focused ! Aren’t ground cherries used for making some food? Maybe jam or something? I really must stop adding your book suggestions to my reading list. It’s looking longer than the list of quilts I want to make. Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃

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  6. Oh man!! THose flying geese totally MAKE that quilt pop!! LOVE it!

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  7. Those flying geese definitely work better than the slab border. I'll check to see if any of the libraries near me have that book. It makes me think of how internet shopping is wiping out in person retail stores. I often wonder how people can purchase sofas or upholstered chairs without sitting in them first. Have a good turkey day.

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  8. Those little blue and white blocks are so sweet and will make a wonderful small quilt.

    Your thankful list contains most everything that I am thankful for this year too. But wishing we could spent Thanksgiving Day with family, eating my son-in-law's wonderful cooking.

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  9. I enjoy combining a nature walk with some local history, too! The flying geese make a wonderful border for your latest quilt - how many does that make from your CWRSRP project now? That book does sound really interesting, too.

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  10. You are so fortunate to live in an area where so many nature preserves and parks abound for walking/hiking! Libby is right that those geese make that quilt sing! What a super duper finish!

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  11. Wow, the flying geese is perfect for that quilt. Nice choice - it makes the center blocks sing.

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  12. Those cat tails look cute all fuzzed out! Love the dioramas, too!

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  13. Love the flying geese on the quilt. Looks perfect.

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  14. This book reminds me of Bill Bryson's At Home. I'm going to look for it since I enjoyed his. It's a treat to read about domestic developments over the centuries and always makes me glad I didn't inherit a castle. Who'd want to update that? Or clean it!

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  15. Those dioramas are interesting. I grew some Chinese Lanterns to add to my dried flowers one year. I think they are similar or even the same as ground cherries. They grew wild for a couple of years after that and then disappeared. I also grew tomatillos one year in the veg garden. I think those are related also. We made a few Mexican dishes with them but didn't really care for them all that much so never grew them again.

    Your Flying Geese border was a wonderful addition. It's amazing what a difference a border can make.

    That book sounds interesting. I have a few books along that line. Back when I started researching family history in the 80s when most research was done in the library I was always going to write a historical fiction book that had my husband's families and my families going back as far as I researched and moving forward to our marriage. I never cared much for history until I could relate it to my own family history so started reading a lot of books like the one you mention to get a feel for how people lived in different time periods and in different countries.

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  16. The flying geese were an inspired choice. You used up more scraps too. So win/win. Hope you had a very nice Thanksgiving.

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