Weekly update: two finishes + the stash report

 

This week's walks were at Spring Bluff (close to home) and Ethel's Woods. 

 Vervain.

Purple coneflower, meadow sweet.

Sawtooth sunflower, white monarda.

Tansy, pinnate prairei coneflower.

There are signs at both preserves that explain the history of the property. 

We saw the movie Oppenheimer on Saturday afternoon.  We arrived in plenty of time, so much so that we had to sit through nearly a half hour of commercials and previews before the three-hour feature began.  It was thought-provoking. Once I got home I looked up the people, some of whom I'd heard of but others who were unfamiliar, like Lewis Strauss.   [My very quick take: if Oppenheimer hadn't said yes to managing the Manhattan Project the government would have found someone else.]

I really dislike the huge screen / small theater design nowadays.  Our seats were two levels up, which meant stairs (a challenge for S to negotiate) but the accessible seats are way too close to the screen.  

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In the studio:   the red and black flying geese quilt is finished.   I outlined the geese and quilted interlocking squares in the sashes.  

I have three big tubs of 3+-yard pieces for backings but more often I turn to the stash to find a variety of prints to use.  

 

I made another batch of mug rugs for the ongoing P.E.O. project.  These were scarily-easy to piece, quilt, and bind. 

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Because I don't plan to buy any fabric today nor do I anticipate finishing anything I can present the July stash report.  

   Fabric IN: 23 yards, $171, average $7.43/yard (LQS liquidation sale).  Fabric OUT:  50-5/8 yards.

Fabric IN YTD: 504-1/2, $1169, average $2.32/yard.

Fabric OUT YTD: 725-1/8.      Net REDUCTION: 220-5/8.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! Design Wall Monday Sew and Tell

Friday update: challenge completed + using left overs

 

My entry for the guild challenge is quilted, bound, and labeled.   

This is all I will show you because it's a surprise. The reveal is at the September 6 guild meeting. 

At the PieFest in 2008 I made a lot of red/black/white flying geese.  They are 3" x 5-1/2" unfinished.   I used five in this project.  

I put the remaining geese on the design wall.  I contemplated blocks -- Yankee puzzle, Louisiana, variable star -- but I wanted to get something done before I lost heart or got distracted by something else.  I didn't fuss much with the color distribution but I made about 10 more geese to liven things up (there were several dark, dark red + dark black that I didn't include).   20 geese @ 2.5" finished = 50".  The piece of black grid print (reads as gray) was 51" long.  That settled it.

45 x 60.  

I've achieved all my July goals*  and will link this post to Elm Street Quilts OMG

*(1) two quilts for Nancy's friend's mission project, (2) string blocks for a swap, (3) placemats for us, (4) guild challenge, (5) something red (=the guild challenge again).

I'm also linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? Peacock Party

Finished or Not Friday  

Weekly update: beautiful days + challenge progress

Birds, butterflies, blossoms, and the beach at Fort Sheridan

 .  

The army base operated from 1887-1993.  When it was decommissioned the open lands were deeded to the Forest Preserve District.  The quarters became upscale housing. 

Lake Carina is a lot less glamorous than Fort Sheridan. It's a reclaimed gravel pit ringed by a ComEd power line and bordered by the always-busy I-94. The one-mile trail is an easy one. 

I don't know what species they are but they held still long enough for me to snap photos. (Left: Lake Carina. Right: Fort Sheridan.)

 

# # # # #    In the studio:  a sneak peek of goals #4 and #5 for July:  the guild challenge + something red.  The challenge theme is Check It Out. Each participant got a fat quarter of red checked fabric and has to use it recognizably on the front of a quilt (max. perimeter 144").

I am trying to use the contents of a box of red/white/black units I made in 2008   Linking up with Design Wall Monday  Sew and Tell  Oh Scrap!

15 years ago!

Our Forest Preserve documentation. :)  

Friday check in: a book review + nine patch finish

 I'm getting accustomed to wearing eyeglasses rather than contact lenses but I still don't like it!  I had an appointment with the retina specialist yesterday and will have an in-office procedure next week to repair a small hole.  (Unexpected exchange between the doctor and the  assistant:  "What's the best Nirvana song to start with?")  DH had a neuropsychiatric evaluation Wednesday; results to come. I was relieved that he was perfectly willing to go through the two-hour testing. 

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The title pulled me in: quilts! But the stories kept me turning the pages. Phyllis Elmore's memoir is compelling and inspirational.

In 1957 four-year-old Phyllis was taken from her family in Detroit to live with her maternal grandparents in rural Alabama. She does not go into details about why, but the result was life-changing in the very best way. Grandma Lula was patient and caring. She knew just how to ease the little girl's fears.

Lula was renowned for her memory quilts. When someone "passed over" (Phyllis learned not to say "died") their families commissioned Lula to make quilts from the loved one's clothing. As she cut and stitched she told stories about strong, determined, and courageous people. "...I used to imagine G.C. wandering in a clear space, looking for someone he could romp and run with. When Grandma sewed his brothers into the quilt it felt like he was no longer alone...Their fabric, those pieces of corduroy, wool, and denim, were arranged throughout the sides and middle of my quilt of souls. Then Grandma put a strip of G.C.'s gray britches along the left edge. Looking at it, I imagined him running down to the spring to romp and splash around, and I smiled." (p/ 130)

Lula's own parents were born into slavery. She knew first-hand the experience of separated families. For many years she worked as a nanny/housekeeper for a white family, making a long daily round trip by wagon and car (though she did not drive) because she had her own children and household.

The personalities that Elmore writes about are memorable -- not only Grandma Lula and Grandpa Edgar but also Miss Sugar and Miss Evelyn, Mama Nall, Aunt Bessie, and Sheriff Scruggs. Just as all the fabric in a scrappy quilt combines and blends to an intriguing (and most often pleasing) whole, all of the people we encounter contribute to the quilt of our lives.

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Speaking of scrappy quilts, the nine-patch is finished!   

I quilted hanging diamonds with the walking foot.

The back uses nearly all of a vintage (36" w) print that I got at an antiques mall a long time ago.  I still have a lot of 9-patches in two boxes, one with dark-light-dark and the other light-dark-light.

 Linking up with Finished or Not Friday Peacock Party

P.S.  Turk's cap lily closeup.  I love the freckles!

Weekly update: flowers, a musical, and a flimsy

 

Wildflowers at Illinois Beach and Van Patten Woods this week:

Coneflower, compass plant, brown knapweed. (Yes, the flower is purple, but  "The nvolucre below the flower head is brown” hence the name. Involucre = whorl or rosette of bracts surrounding an inflorescence, especially a capitulum, or at the base of an umbel. That explains it nicely.

Yellow jewel-weed, Mayapple fruit, hairy pagoda plant (aka woodmint).

Monards/bee balm, raspberries the birds missed (tasty!), Bouncing Bet/soapwort.

We saw cultivated flowers, too!  The Illinois Dunesland Garden Club annual tour was Saturday morning.  The library serves as the hub to get maps and to buy raffle tickets for gift baskets, etc., to support the club.  The tour itself is free.  I am always surprised to discover houses and their gardens on blocks that I've driven on dozens of times.  And it's fun to see so many friends and neighbors enjoying the tour.  The six gardens this year included one in Wadsworth, three in Zion, one in Winthrop Harbor, and two across the state line in Pleasant Prairie.  

Upper right:  those are just half of his tomato plants. 

Back home: we were de-fence-less for a day while the old fence with its rotten wooden posts was replaced by a new fence with metal posts.  "Lifetime guarantee," the guy said. I hope so. 

Saturday evening we enjoyed a performance of Rent at the Racine Theater Guild.  A long-time friend made the arrangements (including driving, since I'm hesitant to drive at night) and we met several of her friends.  We all had dinner beforehand at a Greek restaurant in downtown Racine.  

It was the first time we'd been to RTG and now that I know how easy it is to get to--and that they have matinees--we'll go again.

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One of the LQS is closing after ten years in business.  The owner is going to focus on her long-arm business with a few sidelines.  She's having a big going-out-of-business sale.  Fabric is $7/yard.  Notions, patterns, books, etc. are 30% off.   I indulged a little, and I may make a return visit.  One of the shop assistants said they'd discovered a lot of stuff in the store room that they'd forgotten they had!  

To compensate in part for that indulgence I took the box of 9-patches off the shelf and cut a lot of 3.5" squares.  

Having units on hand expedites the process.  These 9-patches mostly came from the long-time Block Swappers' exchange. 

 By Friday evening I had a flimsy.   I began basting it Sunday evening.  

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  Sew and Tell  Design Wall Monday

P.S. Kathy, one of the people in the theater group on Saturday, said, "I know you from the library. And I won one of your quilts at a school fundraiser a long time ago. It's brown." (Now that I've had a couple of days to think about it I think it's this one.)  

Midweek: seeing straight (but swans!) and goal 3 twice over

 I went to the ophthamologist Monday for a cataract evaluation.  Yes, the cataracts are advanced enough for surgery.  However, because I've worn contact lenses for so long (since 1966) my corneas are misshapen.  I have to wear only eyeglasses for six months, one month per decade of contacts.  That means surgery in January.   Eyeglasses-only will be a big challenge.  Not only do I dislike wearing them, but more importantly the progressive bi-focal glasses correct my vision differently from the contacts. It's especially hard to get a good angle for reading.  (As you know, for me reading is like breathing:  essential for life.)  Yes, I'll go to the optometrist to see about adjusting my specs.

On the bright side, I can see distances adequately in bright daylight, and I can walk -- and yesterday there was a trio of swans at Sand Pond.

Stevens could see them from his seat in the car.

And Turk's cap lilies are in bloom!  I had to twist the stem gently to take the underside photo (upper right). 

The wild ones are much smaller than the cultivated variety.

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In the studio:  one of my July goals was to make a set of two placemats.  I made one set and then I made another.   

They go well with our summer dishes, Summer Chintz (Johnson Bros.) 

The other two goals -- the guild challenge and "something red" will be one project, now on the design wall.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss Midweek Makers

Weekly update: two-and-a-half goals

 

Our walks this week were along the lakefront and to Old School and Raven's Glen West forest preserves.  There were two or three rainy spells which have greened everything up nicely.

Clockwise from left:  butterfly on Canada thistle, vervain, false Solomon's Seal, wild avens, self-heal, milkweed, butterfly weed.   Prairie pinnate coneflower in the center.

Every summer the Zion Park District hosts free concerts at the band shell in Shiloh Park.    This week we enjoyed Dancing Queen, a Chicago-based Abba tribute band.  They sang for 1-1/2 hrs without a break. They were really good.

The weather was great and there was a good crowd.  Our friend Kathy joined us.

(ZPD's June 29 concert featured the annual fireworks but I completely forgot about that.   People in the neighborhood shot off firecrackers well into the night on July 4.)

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Last week I listed five quilting goals for July.  I'm pleased to report that I have completed two and have the third halfway done.

1)  Two small quilts for Nancy's project -- finished and mailed on Saturday.  I had a bag of colorful HSTs and sewed them into pinwheels.  I made the pink stars earlier this year (RSC February) with HSTS left over from Rhododendron Trail.  [That's the abandoned quilt that keeps on giving.  I gave the flimsy to Pat (see the finish here) and I pieced the other left overs into this flimsy.]

2)  String blocks for an online swap.  Three blocks for each of 9 participants = 24 to send and 3 to keep.  The instructions specified paper foundations and 9" unfinished blocks.  A Road Scholar catalog (11 x 17) is printed on paper that's easy to tear away. 

1/2)   A set of summer placemats.  I have them pieced and basted as of Sunday evening.  

Linking up with Oh Scrap! Sew and Tell  Design Wall Monday

Weekly update: OMG July and a finish

 Broadleaf arrowhead at Van Patten Woods on Saturday.   I was able to get a close up because the pond it grows in was dried up. (The ground was mucky and moist but ordinarily the water would be 5" deep.)

After 1" of welcome rain yesterday all the flowers will perk up.  (More rain to the south -- 2.6" at O'Hare and nearly 9" in Berwyn/Cicero.)   

The downpours delayed some of the NASCAR races in the Loop.  (We aren't car racing fans so it didn't bother us.)

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Quilting goals for July:

1)  Guild challenge (due in September) -- maximum perimeter is 144" so 36 x 36 or 48 x 24 (or 68 x 4, to be ridiculous)

2)  Two kid quilts for Nancy's project

3)  Get a start on string blocks for an online swap

4)  A set of placemats for our dining table

5) Something red for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge

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Meanwhile, here's  the first finish for July.  I made the flimsy last year.  The back uses a cheater cloth panel that is one of three different "Amish" prints that I got in a destash.   69 x 77.  3-1/2 yards for the back and binding.  

Homespun plaids on the front,  regular prints on the back. 

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  OMG Sew and Tell

P.S.  I found this in a box of stationery that I got at a rummage sale.  Who wrote it? Who's Margaret?  A creative writer could come up with a good story -- "The Interrupted Letter."