Weekly update: welcome autumn, three brown bears,, and reading

 

The first weekend of autumn was great for walks at two sections of Illinois Beach State Park and Lyons Woods Forest Preserve.   

I found a big patch of fringed gentians just one dune over from the beach.  

I use the Picture This app to identify plants.  All it says about mushrooms is, "Do Not Eat!"  

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The grand opening of the library's remodeled adult services section was Saturday afternoon.  The building opened in 2000.  I was the director from 2003-2014.  

Though some rearranging and refurbishing had been done over the years, this was a full-scale reworking. New carpet! New furniture!  Walls were bumped out to create additional group study rooms. Nonfiction and fiction swapped places.  It looks great!  

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We went to see A Haunting in Venice, Kenneth Branagh's new adaptation of Agatha Christie's Halloween Party.  (Wednesday afternoon:  there was only one other person in the theater.)    "Adaptation" is the key--we watched the BBC/David Suchet version on Friday.   There were only a few similarities between the two.  Stevens has the book but I haven't read it.

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In the studio:   I had a grand plan for a project that is drop-dead due October 1.  I started and lost heart.   Sometimes sewing something else entirely. can be a jump-start.   

The something else turned out to be three flimsies.   I started with 2" squares -- Mama Bear.  I continued with 2.5" squares -- Papa Bear.  What about 1.5" squares? Why not? -- Baby Bear. 

Papa = 36 x 48.  Mama = 36 x 45. Baby = 30 x 36.   I may add borders, esp. to Baby.

The photo shows the cutting dimensions for the three sizes.

And, ta-da!    I worked out something completely different for the drop-dead due-date project.  I hope to have a photo (maybe a finished object!) for the midweek blog post.

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London, 1905.  Mrs. King has been dismissed from service in the absurd mansion constructed by the parvenu mining mogul William DeVries.   DeVries died unexpectedly and his daughter is determined to break free from the smothered existence her father forced on her.  Miss DeVries will throw the grandest costume ball Mayfair has ever seen.   Mrs. King seeks revenge on all things DeVries.  She enlists her mentor, the doyenne of underworld enterprises Mrs. Bone in concocting an elaborate and thorough plot to gut the mansion and bring down the DeVries estate.    

The tale is complicated, rollicking, and grand fun!  

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