Midweek: OMG March roundup

 

I went to the marina/state park at sunset yesterday to see the conjunction of five planets .   The sky was cloudless.

I saw Venus (here) and Mars (much fainter) but I didn't see the others, even with binoculars.  Another couple (whom I did not know) drove up.  We chatted as we tried to figure out what were planets and what were stars.  We were the only people at that stretch of the lakefront, though a cop pulled up to remind us that the park closed at sunset.  I showed him a website photo/illustration of what we were looking at and he said he was going to take a look for himself.

After almost an hour I was cold and had to get home.

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I am pleased to report that I met my March OMG.  

Part 1:  something green for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge -- eight placemats for the guild charity project

Part 2:  quilt the four wheelchair quilts from my flimsy-making spree (Dec.-Jan.) 

Not only did I quilt those four but I also pieced and quilted another.  

That totals 14 wheelchair quilts for this guild project.  

Part 3:   Decide on a quilted something as the Zion Woman's Club donation to the Illinois GFWC convention.   

I made the decision and chose a wall hanging I made a while ago.  

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I'm having fun and making progress on a new project. I hope to have a flimsy to show you soon!

Linking up with Midweek Makers
OMG March 2023   Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: entertainment + two finishes

 

Sign of spring:   Mr. and Mrs. Crane let me get very close to snap this picture at Illinois Beach State Park this week.

Yet the day before the cranes I saw fungus on a tree stump in an icy pond.  

On Thursday the Clara Cummings Book Club was entertained by Mary Cunningham Logan, widow of Illinois Civil War General John Logan.   Jessica Michna's historical portrayal was so informative!  The Logans both grew up in southern Illinois (the Murphysboro library is named for her). She lived in Carbondale during the Civil War. When Logan was elected to Congress she moved to Washington, DC, with him. Mary was active with the Red Cross and in 1904 became its second president (after Clara Barton). She was also an active suffragist. She wrote three books and was a prolific letter-to-the-editor writer whose letters were published in newspapers nationally. (More about Mary here.)

(Clara Cummings founded the Book Club in the 1930's when she was not invited to join the very exclusive Excelsior Club in Waukegan.  The Excelsior no longer exists but the CCBC -- which used to host professional book reviewers -- still meets as a lunch group.   AAUW, P.E.O., and GFWC friends are among the attendees.)

Trumpet, harp, and soprano in one musical group? Illumine Trio provided a superb concert Sunday afternoon.   Bach, musical theater, Metallica, and a dash of Star Trek.  (Look up their music on YouTube!)

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Jeannine and I met for coffee on Wednesday to transfer the files for the P.E.O. Lake County Round Table.  I came home with the a briefcase for my new role as president.  She went home with the wall hanging I made on behalf of the Round Table to thank her for her six years of service.  

In the studio:

I have several yard-plus pieces of floral-on-dark-blue in my stash.  But now I have less!   I came across a pattern using the Carrie Nation block.  I was intrigued by the emphatic diagonal lines of the chains.  I cut, sewed, and by Saturday evening I had finished the whole quilt!  

The blocks are 12". 60 x 72, 5-7/8 in all.

Every spring I donate a quilt for my AAUW branch to raffle.  I made this bright log cabin a while ago and Barb quilted it this week.   

I've named it Out of the Box.   It's 73 x 83.    

The logs are 1/2" and they are not paper-pieced.  Once I got going that size (1" unfinished) wasn't difficult.   

  

A new project is in the works.

Busy week ahead.  I need to compose and post a book review!  

Linking up with Oh Scrap! and  Design Wall Monday

P.S.   Our concert selfie. 

Weekly update: a concert + eight blocks

 We aren't Irish but we enjoyed corned beef and cabbage this weekend along with a loaf of soda bread.   

I used this recipe.  Next time I will shape the dough into two or three loaves.  

This afternoon (Sunday) we enjoyed Irish-American roots music by the duo Swtichback who returned to the College of Lake County.  (We had tickets to their March, 2020, performance but it was cancelled in the great shutdown.)    It was great to drive home in the sunlight!

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In the studio:   among the guild charity kit fabric were 16 5" squares of a chocolate-brown print with inspirational sayings.   I challenged myself to use them all for a wheelchair quilt.  

The Millennium Star block in the Nickel Quilts book was just right, but 16 charm squares made 8 blocks.   How to set them?   I thought, "What would Cathy and Cathy do?" and here's how it turned out.  [And the turquoise in the checkerboard blocks was from the charity kit, too.]

The border fabric was an unexpected discovery in my stash.

I promptly sewed and trimmed all the cutoff corners to make 1-1/2" triangles.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! and  Design Wall Monday

P.S. Our concert selfie.

P.S. 2   Crocuses are in bloom here in northeasternmost Illinois.

Friday check in: a finish!

 A finish -- how appropriate for Finished or Not Friday -- and colorful for  Peacock Party

I made the flimsy last summer, inspired by a photo of a similar quilt on a FB group.  Blocks are 5" finished.  The quilt is 71 x 81.  

The back is all-the-same this time, no orphans or miscellaneous pieces, so no photo.

I used the walking foot and the serpentine stitch to quilt parallel lines through the blocks. 

P.S.  I have no shortage of homespuns.  Confession:  I've recently bought a few more yards in brighter colors.   

Weekly update: spaghetti, some disassembly required + RSC green

 

This weekend was our Rotary spaghetti dinner.  We prepare and package meals and deliver them to the elderly, homebound, and community helpers -- 150 this year.

We used Memorial UMC's kitchen.    Chris and Lisa made the sauce on Thursday evening while Pamela and I began salad prep and cookie packaging.   Rotarians, Interactors (high school), and friends turned out on Saturday morning to assemble the meals (spaghetti and sauce, salad, a roll, and a cookie).  All delivered by noon!

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In the studio:   a few weeks ago I posted a photo of the extra Christmas Star blocks from Rhododendron Trail.  (I miscounted and made 18 more blocks than needed!)   There was a thrift-shop sheet that was just right for the setting triangles and borders.   

Can you see what's wrong?  Look at the setting triangles in the upper right.  Yes, they are stained.  Once you see them you'll see that the second triangle on the left is stained. And on the bottom. And a chunk of border.  That must have been why the sheet was given to the thrift shop.

I had to fix it.  Fortunately there was enough for new triangles and a new border strip.  (That's my shadow, not a stain, at the lower right.)  

It can stay at the flimsy stage, but ready to quilt when its time comes.

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The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March is green.

A guild charity quilt kit included a ziploc bag with 5" green squares. I used them in the three placemats on the left.  [I referred Pat Speth's Nickel Quilts books (2003!) for these blocks.]

The three on the right use up the green units I made for RSC in 2019.  The lower center has RSC 2020 units. The upper center with curvy piecing is just-because.

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I planned to take the Janome in for a cleaning while I was at QuiltCon.  Before I did that I took out the 301 to be sure I could use it.   Glad I checked because the 301 was frozen up.  I took the 301 in rather than the Janome.   It needed a new motor, and fortunately the shop had one on hand.  Just $39.95 for the motor plus the cleaning/service fee.   (And mumble-mumble about the fabric I found on the clearance shelves.)

The 301 was made in 1955. I paid $99 for it about 20 years ago.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  Scrap Happy Saturday  Design Wall Monday

Midweek: a good start on OMGs and Big Coins finished

 OMG part 1:  one of the four wheelchair quilts is quilted and bound.  [I made 13 wheelchair quilt flimsies.  By the end of February I quilted nine of them.   In March I want to quilt the other four.]

These blocks were left over from two previous projects.  All homespun plaids.

OMG, part 2:   something green, the March RSC color.

Placemats are another guild charity project.  I used left over RSC units (2020 and 2019).  

The Big Coins quilt is finished! 65 x 70, approx.  The coins are 2"x5.5" unfinished. The sashes are 5.5" unfinished.  You can see that I had to trim across the top and bottom edges.  

Big Coins back. I used left over coins so I didn't have to match the large-scale print.  

The backing fabric was a guild rummage purchase last year.  There were six 3-yard cuts and I bought them all.  I soon found out that the faux woodblock print is very, very dark. I've used it wrong-side-out as the backing for three quilts...and I haven't used it all.   [See, it looks dark in this photo but it's a lot darker on the right side.]

Busy days, lots of errands, but time to quilt in the evenings.  Snow in the forecast for Thursday night.

Linking up with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: stash report, OMG, and more

 The Lake County Women's Coalition celebrated Women's History Month on Saturday.  "Women who tell our stories" is the 2023 WHM theme.  Each LCWC member organization honored a Lake County woman who has done just that.    The Zion Woman's Club chose Zion writer Sandy Dickson and AAUW-Waukegan Area Branch chose historian Diana Dretske. 

Actor Jenny Riddle portrayed Barbara Walters based on Walters' autobiography Audition. 

ZWC

AAUW

MaryFran was the high bidder for "Hidden Stars," the quilt I donated to the silent auction. 

And I won a big gift basket with soup mixes and other edible delights.

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The March 1 guild meeting was the annual rummage sale.  I bought a table for $10 and sold 35 yards of fabric.   I acquired 14 yards from another member's "free" table.   Good deal. Guild members were encouraged to bring no-longer-wanted quilt books to sell to benefit the guild.  The donated books filled four 8' tables!  (I donated but did not buy.  I don't know what they'll do with 'em all.)

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Stash report, February:  30-3/4 yards OUT.   43 yards IN  $509, $11.84 avg.  Most of that was QuiltCon.

YTD:   101-1/2 OUT.   63 yards IN, $509,$8.07 avg.  (The "in" for January was free, so the dollars spent stayed the same.)

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OMG for March:

(a)   Something green for RSC

(b)   Quilt the remaining wheelchair quilts.  (I handed off the 9 I'd finished to the guild charity chairs.  I have four flimsies.)

(c)   Decide on a quilted something as the Zion Woman's Club donation to the Illinois GFWC convention.   

And finally, here is the work-in-progress.  I'm auditioning bindings and hope to get this finished this evening.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!  OMG March   Design Wall Monday

Remembering Ellie

 

The Magpies are remembering Ellie Fellers who passed away February 19 at her home in New Gloucester, Maine.   Here is her obituary. 

We had a Zoom call with her earlier in the month.  She was weak but very alert.  We are so glad that we got to say goodbye.

I met Ellie in the late 1980's when I worked at the Auburn (ME) Public Library.    She was the New Gloucester reporter for the Lewiston Sun-Journal, covering town, school, and library board meetings. She also edited a feature called SunSpots where people could write in to promote events or to request or offer things to swap.  (I once asked for leftover latch hook yarn, canvas, and hooks for a library program. The response was nearly overwhelming.  People responded SunSpots!)  

However, I didn't get to know her well until she accompanied her cousin Celia Brown to the  Deep Dish Pie Fest in Chicago in 2010.   She was delighted to join the Magpie nest.  She was the hostess with the mostest for the 2018 Pine Tree Pie Fest.  We enjoyed a cookout at her summer cottage on the shore of Sabbathday Lake

Carolyn and Ellie at the cottage

Ellie discovered quilt making about 20 years ago.  She liked bright, ethnic prints and modern design.  The Lewiston Public Library hosted an exhibit of her work.  She also made quilts sold by the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community.  Her involvement with the Shakers was long-term -- see below for their lovely tribute.  

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Betty and Ellie, 2010

Celia, Stevens, and Ellie 2018

TexFest Dos, 2020

This tribute was posted on the Sabbathday Lake Shakers' FB page: Sadly, I’m writing to announce the passing of a long-time friend and neighbor, advocate, defender, and promoter of the Shakers and Shaker Village, Ellie Fellers. For each of us, personally, Ellie was a true friend, always concerned for our welfare and success, and above all else quick to share in a laugh together. She celebrated our victories and mourned our losses.   

In recent decades, many of you have come to know Shaker Village’s programs like the Maine Festival of American Music, Open Farm Day, the Maine Native American Summer Market, Harvest Festival, and the Christmas Fair. Did you know that it was Ellie who made these programs so successful by generating our audiences? As a writer for the Lewiston Sun Journal, Ellie created the buzz and sizzle to a daily newspaper circulation of 20,000 of some our nearest neighbors and participants. We worked with her throughout the season to create the latest story to pitch to her editor. They were always ready to pick-up her stories. She loved knowing that her talents as a writer influenced the turnout at some of our most important cultural arts programs. There has been no other newspaper correspondent in Shaker history to cover so many stories about the Shakers through a career that spanned more than three decades. Ellie always had the scoop on the Shakers.   

(c) Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village

In recent years, Ellie was also part of Creative New Gloucester, a group of talented local artists whose wares are sold through the Shaker Store. If you’ve been to the Shaker Store, you’ve likely seen her gorgeous quilts hanging for sale. She was so excited, honored, and motivated to be a vendor. We could always count on her to come right over with new stock as soon as one of her quilts sold.

Before her passing, Brother Arnold, Lenny, Jamie, and I were fortunate to pay one last visit to her. She was spirited, resolved, and planning what was ahead for herself and her family. With all that she and her family were processing, Ellie wanted to talk about the Herb House and how excited she was to see the  plans for revitalization at Shaker Village coming to reality, “at a time when people need the Shakers more than ever,” said she. She wanted us to know that she wrote her obituary to direct any donations in her memory to the Shaker Herb House Campaign.

To our dear friend, our lady of Sabbathday Lake, we say goodbye for now, and thank you for truly putting your hands to work and giving your heart to God. She’s left her mark on our community, for the better, written in the indelible ink of love, friendship, and family.

 Nearly every day Ellie posted a photo of the sunset, whether from her winter home or the lake cottage.  Ellie, you've gone to that sunset. We bid you a good journey.  We are grateful to have known and loved you.

Posted by Ellie, 2/6/23