Weekly update: spring, a fabric excursion, progress, and the unexpected + books

 

Chilly but sunny, no breeze this afternoon for a walk in the ravine at the end of our block. The skunk cabbages are in bloom -- this one has leaves beginning to unfurl.

Here are my new socks from Zkano, made in Alabama. Not only do they have great designs, but the socks are very comfortable (nonbinding tops that stay up).

On Thursday I enjoyed the luncheon meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club. The entertainment was a reenactor portraying Princess Diana. She cleverly began, "You know I am dead, of course," so we the audience knew that she knew what was coming. It was very entertaining.  It was also great to see friends from AAUW, GFWC, and P.E.O. among the 30 or so who attended.

On Friday Stevens and I took a field trip to Mukwonago, Wisconsin because I had to get fabric. Yes, I really did -- the explanation is below.  Quiltagious is a terrific quilt shop that specializes in Kaffe / Free Spirit /etc. prints, batiks, and other modern brights.  As I chatted with Sue who cut my fabric I found out that she lived in Fargo at the same time that we did. I was a novice quilter back then and not in the Fargo guild, so I never met Sue, but we did a "do you know?" and indeed we do.  Stevens and I had lunch in Mukwonago.  Love the description of the Friday special!  (He had the fish. I had a fancy club sandwich with the leftovers for supper.)

I made the 15 bird house blocks that the pattern called for.  I decided to alter the design.  Instead of the large bands of applique I will make four rows of bird houses (so I need to make one more) and sash them. I will applique two or three birds directly to bird houses.  

The color scheme for the bird houses mimics the colors in the convention logo (turquoise, coral, some red/blue/yellow). 

 

I had in mind low-volume sashing and auditioned one of the precious Lida Enche prints that I've been hoarding for years.

Alas, I didn't have enough and that fabric came out in 2012 -- forget about finding more.  

None of the other Enche prints will work.

I'll get to hoard/appreciate them some more.

  

I have been SO good about not buying fabric that this indulgence at Quiltagious was not all that bad.  Just 12-3/8! (The last 1/8 was to finish a bolt.)

Can you guess which print will become the sashing?  

The Mukwonago area quilt guild had a show this weekend, we learned, but we were there Friday and couldn't make a return trip.

The unexpected occurred the evenings between my re-design and the trip to Quiltagious.  I pulled out the bin of random scraps and started piecing crumbs.  One thing led to another and then to many more. 

I had to cut more strips and squares to get variety. (Since I cut most scraps into specific sizes my random bin isn't very large.) 

It's 80 x 56, 5 yards.  I'm calling it Creme de la Crumb. (That's not grammatical but it is alliterative.)

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The Last Bookshop in London is the April selection for an online book group I'm in. 

 A plucky young woman discovers her inner resources and life's passion in London during the Blitz.  The description of living under siege was particularly timely with the current Russian attack on Ukraine.

The story would be enhanced with an author's note about her research and the inspiration for the story. 

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The historic houses that are featured on tours, written about in books and magazines, and are exemplars of architectural styes are primarily the houses of the wealthy and the upper middle class.    

Architectural historian Thomas Hubka writes about the houses that people of lesser means lived in -- most likely many of our forebears. American cities and towns still have hundreds of those houses.   Hubka traces development from two rooms (kitchen/eating/living and one bedroom) to four or five rooms and the three-fixture bathroom. I've lived in a number of the house styles he describes (bungalow in Pittsburg, KS: side-hall in Portland, ME; side-gable in Auburn, ME; four-box-with bath in Fargo).  I now understand why my mother insisted on having a dining room (a step up from eating-in-the-kitchn) and why there was a lone toilet (in an enclosure) in the cellar in our c1900 Portland house.  Zion has many of the small-to-large houses that Hubka talks about.  I learned a lot from this enjoyable and very readable history.

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Linking up with  Oh Scrap!  Monday Making   Design Wall Monday