Weekly update: a walk on the bluff, estate sale score, and more

 I remember going out to Sunday brunch in the 1960's at the Hotel Moraine on the Lake  in Highland Park. [Click on the highlighted link to learn about its glory years.]  Since we've been exploring parks and preserves in Lake County this fall I thought I'd try to find the site. It's a city park now.  The boardwalk to the beach is closed for repair so I could only go to the edge of the ravine. 

(The gold berries were on a tree. I don't know the species.)

Less than a mile to the north -- but just south of Fort Sheridan (whose forest preserve we hiked in October) -- we found the Openlands Lakeshore Preserve .  There's a paved walk, a tall bridge over the ravine, and definitely no beach access.  

I would love to take a boat ride to see the lakeshore from the lake -- to see the high spots (Evanston to Lake Bluff) and how the terrain flattens out from North Chicago to Waukegan up through Kenosha. It gets higher at Racine.  (I suppose a drone could do the same thing.) 

Upper left:  Queen Anne's Lace gone to seed.

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This weekend there was an estate sale in nearby Beach Park. The EstateSales.net listing showed fabric. I deliberately waited until the final day, today, with everything 50% off.   I just grabbed the tub with quilting cotton said I'd take it all.  I paid $40.  At home I weighed all of it (1 lb = 4 yds) -- 70 yards.  That's .57 (fifty-seven cents) per yard.  Nice stuff, too.  

I also got all 12 months of a BOM by Sue Garman, c2000, for $12.00.  (Original price $11 per month.) 

(Plus a box of Christmas cards, two fancy memo pads, and a package of Christmas printer paper.  There was a lot more stationery and office supplies but I really, really don't need any more file folders or label stock.)

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There is progress in the studio!  I finished Clue 2 of the Grassy Creek mystery -- 25 sets of hourglasses.  

I have five of the nine blocks needed for the Code Name Welcome Home quilt.  The piecing isn't hard but it requires precision.  Here is a peek.

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This week's reading:  one of the characters in the wonderful novel Florence Adler Swims Forever,  which I read several weeks ago, was caught up in the 1920s Florida land boom.  When Bubble in the Sun was well-reviewed I was intrigued -- and now I know a LOT more about the early 20th century real estate wheeling and dealing that made modern Florida.  Knowlton doesn't write only about the land guys -- he also includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas who crusaded to preserve the Everglades.  It's quite a story and it's very well-written.

Linking up with Oh Scrap   Monday Making   Design Wall Monday

P.S. Sunset on Friday.