Weekly update: stash report and OMG May

More meals out, all in good company.

Friday-- dinner with Ann and John (who live in Evanston) and Marty and Pete (who were visiting A and J from Falls Church).   Ann and Stevens went to kindergarten together (in 1945).  Pete and Stevens went to prep school (all-boys) together (7th grade-12th grade).   Ann and Marty were classmates from first grade all the way through college (all- girls/women).  It had been 40 years since Pete and Stevens had seen one another.  (The jacket was one of the first things I made when I moved back to Illinois in the spring of 1998.)

Saturday -- the P.E.O. Lake County Round Table Founders Day luncheon.  Dr. Jessica Nelson, the speaker, received a P.E.O. Scholar Award in 2018. She told us about her dissertation research: "Women of Our Nation: Gender, Race, and Christian Indian Identity in Mexico and the United States, 1753-1867." (The Scholar Awards are competitive, merit-based awards that recognize and encourage academic excellence and achievement by women in doctoral-level programs. 2,527 awards have been made since inception in 1991.)

Saturday evening we went to a spaghetti supper at the Winthrop Harbor recreation center to benefit the Razzle Dazzles who are going to the world championships in Liverpool, England, this summer. Hundreds of people turned out.

But you didn't come here to hear about food!

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The stash report for April:

Fabric OUT: 64-3/4 yards (that includes the box I sent to the Hands2Help give away winner).

Fabric IN: 23 yards, $146, average $6.34/yard.

Year to date OUT: 278-1/4

Year to date IN: 256-1/2, $778, $3.03/yard

Net decrease: 21-3/4

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One Month Goal for May:

(a) Something orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This year I've been going to "what's in the box?" Here's what that box turned up in the way of orange.

(b) More WITB: I am planning a project that will require red, white, and black fabric. Back in May, 2008, I brought my Featherweight and a pile of those colors Magpies' PieFiesta Dos. Though we did a lot of other things that weekend I did have time to sew. Once I got home I put all the units and pieces in a shoebox. I guess I've added to it since because when I opened the box last week I was surprised by how much was in it.

So, the goal is to make this project -- and figure out what to do with the other units in the box.

The geese are out of the box

Panel is from a tote bag

Linking up with Oh Scrap! Elm Street OMG May Sew and Tell Design Wall Monday

Friday check in: Mme. Curie, a flimsy + OMG April

 "Meet Madame Curie" was Lynn Rymarz portrayal at yesterday's Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon. The setting was 1920 when Marie Curie came to the U.S.   The Association of Collegiate Alumnae, as AAUW was then called, raised $100,000 to buy one gram of radium for her research.  Since many AAUW members come to Clara Cummings it was very fitting.   Dr. Curie sought medical applications to treat cancer but radium found commercial uses, too.  

The second character in Lynn's program was one of the   Radium Girls who painted watch faces and clock dials at the Radium Dial factory in Ottawa, Illinois, in the 1920's and 30's.  Most of those young workers succumbed to radiation poisoning decades before workplace safety and compensation. 

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In the studio:   Courthouse Steps is a flimsy! 

72 x 80, 6 yards by weight.  I gambled on having enough of the border fabric -- I had a strip and a half left.

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OMG April summary:  I had three goals.

YES   #1  12 daisy mug rugs

YES  #2   Something purple for RSC -- four placemats and a lap quilt 

NO   #3   Five drawstring bags made from a friend's wedding dress, one for each of her granddaughters.   I grew faint of heart with this and introduced that friend to another friend who was happy to have the commission. (The bags turned out beautifully.)  

Linking up with Peacock Party Finished or Not Friday OMG April Finish

Midweek: courthouse steps

 

Happy National Library Week!   Zion Woman's Club members were at the Zion-Benton Public Library at 9 a.m. Monday to give donuts to the staff in honor of Library Workers' Day.  (LWD was actually Tuesday but the library was closed Tuesday for planned construction.)   ZWC led the effort the create the Zion Memorial Public Library in 1937.  

Last evening I attended a Zoom program with Will Shortz, the puzzle editor of the New York Times and the NPR Sunday puzzle guy.  It was interesting to learn about his life and career.    

He wrote the essay when he was in 8th grade.  At Indiana University he had a self-determined major to become an "enigmatologist," or puzzle-studier.  

The program was hosted by hosted by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide programming collaboration.

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In the studio: 

I tried other arrangements of the courthouse steps blocks and decided on this.  I'm using the remaining strips, and cutting more, for the border.  It will be a flimsy soon!

Linking up with   Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait Loss

Thanks again to Jennifer for including me in her WWL post this week.

Weekly update: farewells and new beginnings (with music)

 

2020:  a drive-by birthday parade to honor Sally

Saturday morning I attended the memorial service for Sally Zeit who passed away in December at age 94.  I first met her in AAUW. She was the branch voter registration chair (coordinating training for voter registrars and then registration events).  She connected my husband to the Lake County chaplaincy agency where he served as a nursing home and hospice chaplain.  We attended many church services for which she was the organist.  But I'd only known her as a fierce and feisty senior citizen.   Her memorial service provided a life story of decades of community activism and advocacy for justice.  (Here is a 1991 Tribune story about her work with prisoners.  (I'm sure it came up in Google because many people looked it up.  One of the participants in the service read a letter from a prisoner  she worked with many years ago. He never forgot her kindness.))  

Sally truly exemplified Micah 6:8 which was the Old Testament reading:  "He has told you, O mortal, what is good,   And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?"  

A fun anecdote was about Sally's famous almond cake.  She baked it for every occasion.  It turned out that Marilyn M., one of Sally's dearest friends and fellow activist, gave the recipe to Sally -- only at the memorial service did we learn the rest of the story!  **

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Saturday evening we enjoyed the Lake County Symphony Orchestra's annual Classical Jazz concert -- Brazilian jazz and Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition. (The  Promenade has been a pleasant earworm since.)

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Sunday afternoon I attended the installation of a new P.E.O. chapter -- OP.  (Chapters are named in alphabetical order and a town is assigned.  This one is Bull Valley in McHenry County.)  This was the first new chapter installation I've been to since 1987 when I was part of Chapter G (Maine).    Among the attendees were the state board, past state presidents, and P.E.O.s from area chapters.  I knew so many!  (My friend Fran, now on the board, lives far downstate.  She was upstate for officer workshops and this event.  So good to see her!)

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Yes, I did have some sewing time!

Thank you all for your suggestions about the Civil War pinwheels.

I rearranged the nine-patch idea so the pinwheels dominate.  I'm still considering.  

Meanwhile, while the CW repros were out, I began something new. 

The logs are 1.5" and the blocks are 8.5" unfinished.  I have in mind an 8 x 9 setting (64"x 72").  

Linking up with  Oh Scrap!  Design Wall Monday

**  P.S.  There are many recipes for almond pound cake.  This version is Sally's from her friend Marilyn. 

Scandinavian Almond Cake
 
1 1/4 C sugar
1 egg
2/3 C milk
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
Beat well, then add:
1 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Beat well, then add:
1 stick melted butter

Beat well.  Pour into small greased tube pan. Bake in preheated 350 oven 50-60 minutes. Cool completely, and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.  

Friday check in: GIVEAWAY WINNER! and design considerations

 

I thank everyone who took time to comment on Monday's Hands2Help blog hop post.  It was inspiring to read all the stories about the ways that quilters use their passion to enrich people's lives.

 I used a random number generator to pick the giveaway winner:  KAWeed  (Though her post came as "anonymous" she included her email, per the giveaway qualifications.)   

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In the studio:  the pinwheels and square-in-squares are on the design wall.  The units are 4-1/2" unfinished.

The pattern (Gerri Robinson in McCall's Quilting) is a straight set. 

 I tried on-point.  I cut setting triangles and borders after this photo.

The problem is that the blues and golds are similar in hue so up close they are mushy.  (From a distance, as in this photo, not so mushy.)

Here's another possibility.  The blocks are 12-1/2" unfinished.  If I chose this I'd need to make eight more square-in-squares.   I'd also have to figure out sashing.   

I keep thinking about the reproduction Dutch quilts with busy, low-contrast prints. Those work so surely I can come up with a satisfactory setting.

Suggestions are welcome!

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday
Peacock Party Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Midweek: lunch with friends, intermittent sunshine, and something new

Waukegan Area Branch members

 Saturday's AAUW meeting was the annual Fellows Luncheon.   The Waukegan and Deerfield branches invite women who have received AAUW fellowships to study in the U.S. (specifically, the Chicago area) to tell us about their research.

Matilda Adebove from Nigeria is studying educational psychology at Loyola.  She belongs to a religious community and told us that her International Fellowship freed up funds for seven other sisters to pursue educational opportunities.

K.C. Palisoc from the Philippines is doing research in data science and public policy at the University of Chicago.  She was formerly an economist with the Asian Development Bank.

We saw a video clip from Kristine Lornezo who received a Career Development Grant at DePaul where she is studying urban forestry.  (Quite a change from her background as a public school teacher and a hairdresser!)
  

The luncheon is also the kickoff for the annual spring quilt raffle.  It's an in-the-family raffle (no license--please don't report me!) with sales at this event and at the AAUW-IL state convention in May.   Proceeds benefit the AAUW Greatest Needs Fund to support programs for equity for women and girls. 

(The quilt is Out of the Box.  There's a full-on photo in this post.)

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We're back to seasonally normal temperatures after last week's 80-degree days.   We took advantage of sunshine yesterday afternoon. 

The boardwalk at Hosah Park is shorter than it was last year.   Erosion is a big problem along our stretch of the lake shore.

   In the picture above the blocked-off end is at the T where the boardwalk (left) goes down to the water.  Everything to the north of that is gone.

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In the studio:   something new!  

 It involves several hundred HSTs, many squares-in-squares, and a lot of trimming.  I really like Deb Tucker's Square Squared ruler for accurate SIS.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss  Midweek Makers

P.S.  Swans are more common these days but still a thrill to see. This at Lake Forest Place after I dropped off Eleanor and Dorothy after the AAUW luncheon.

P.S. 2  Thanks to Jennifer for the WWL shout out this week.

Weekly update: Hands2Help blog hop and a giveaway (and the purple triangle finale)

 

I'm delighted to be among the bloggers participating in the Hands2Help blog hop !

Avid, committed quiltmakers bestow quilts on their immediate and extended families. They happily make quilts for baby and wedding gifts, graduations and retirements and anniversaries.  They have wall hangings and placemats for every season. They may even sell a few pieces. But the inspiration keeps coming -- online, in print, at shops and shows, from fellow quilters.  What does a quiltmaker do?  Make quilts for strangers, of course.

I've been donating quilts since early in my quilting career.  I just went back in the photo album (real, on-paper, with actual photos) and found this entry.  The design is by Marti Michell from one of her "quilting for people who don't have time to quilt" booklets.  I remember that the back took just one yard of fabric. I felt so thrifty.   (I wonder if the agency (named in the photo) actually gave the quilt to a single mother and her baby. That baby would turn 30 this year.)

This was a pleasant surprise back in 2009. From this post   A colleague (director of a library in a southwest suburb and a fellow Rotarian) wrote me yesterday: "Were your ears burning this morning? A picture of one of your quilts for Alliance for Smiles was shown during a presentation at today’s Rotary meeting. The presenter read the label off the screen, and it was yours! I told the group that I knew you, and impressed the heck out of ‘em! Guess you’re world-famous now!"

The funny thing is that I did not give the quilt to this project! I e-mailed the presenter, a Rotarian from Oswego, IL, and he sent me the photo that my friend commented on. Obviously it is a quilt that I made. I donated it to the Rotary Club of Boothbay Harbor, ME, which was collecting quilts for Safe Passage (http://www.safepassage.org/) a couple of years ago. The Boothbay club coordinator told me that my quilt was not going directly to Guatemala but would be sold (or raffled) stateside as part of a fundraiser. Evidently it ended up with Alliance for Smiles -- keeping it in the Rotary family.

More recently I've been fairly intentional about finishing quilts which means that as the stack of flimsies goes down the pile of finished quilts goes up.   Earlier this year I gave 15 quilts to a transitional living facility in Waukegan and 10 quilts to City of Hope, the cancer hospital in Zion.

One of our guild charity projects is wheelchair quilts for an area nursing home.  As regular blog readers know I've had great fun with that size -- 14 completed so far.   

I could bore you to tears regale you for hours with stories about donation quilts.  In return I'd be happy to hear about yours!  Please leave a comment about a quilt you donated.  What was the pattern? When did you make it? Did it go to a agency, or a fundraising event?  Did you ever learn who received it?  

Everyone who leaves a comment with a donation story will be entered into a giveway!   You'll get a flat rate box with fabric, notions, and a book or two.  Note these conditions:

*   If you are no-reply or anonymous you'll need to include your email and first name in your comment.

*   I can ship only to U.S. addresses.  (If you're out of the U.S. you're welcome to share your story.)

*   The drawing will be Friday, April 21, at 9 a.m. CDT.   

But wait -- there's more!   Last week I wrote about the purple triangles left over from a long-ago workshop.   After making four placemats (another guild charity donation) I still had purple triangles.  I was determined to make them into something. 

I went modern and emphasized negative space.   I used the walking foot to quilt diagonally in the triangle panel and straight horizontal lines in the light gray.   39 x 68.

And so a new donation quilt is added to the Stack of Opportunities.

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Be sure to visit the other bloggers in the hop.

4/2     Kat of Scrap Box Quilts 

4/9     Kat of Diary of a Madkapquilter

4/16   Nann of With Strings Attached and progress check-in on my blog

4/23   Bonnie of In Stitches With Bonnie

4/30   Kathleen of Kathleen McMusing

5/7     Leanne of Devoted Quilter and progress check-in on my blog 

5/14   Emily of Em's Scrap Bag

5/21   Moira of The Quilted Snail

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

Midweek: purple placemat project (com)pleted

 

As predicted, the purple placemats are completed.   

They're not all the same size. They're intended as a charity donation, not kept as a set.

I still have two dozen purple triangles (mostly light lavender).   Meanwhile, I sewed some of the scraps into crumb blocks.

Linking up with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: Easter, a finish, and some purple

 Sunshine this weekend meant two good walks.  

Grant Woods 

The pine trees in rows are remainders of a tree farm.

Lots of beaver activity at Sand Pond.  The fire lane is under water (very effective!) most likely because of beaver dams on adjacent streams. Ukrainians wave pussy willows rather than palms at Palm Sunday, I learned from a Chicago Tribune article about Ukrainian refugees in Chicago.  

Easter dinner at home:  vintage tablecloth,  vintage Fiesta, and vintage husband.    Roast lamb, new potatoes, and asparagus with pear/blue cheese/spinach salad and cheesecake for dessert.

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In the studio:  To the Nines is finished! I used the serpentine stitch and walking foot to quilt along the seamlines.   

 

The back uses a thrift-shop sheet (big print on the bottom) and quilting cotton.  

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this year are turning out to respond to "what's in the box?"  In this case, a lot of purple triangles.  

Back in 2015 the guild had a  workshop with Mary Fons for which participants cut equilateral triangles.   I chose purple-on-purple and I wasn't happy with the class sample.  I put all the triangles into a bag.  A couple of years later I cut black-and-white equilateral triangles that lightened the purples nicely (resulting quilt here).  The leftovers went back into a bag in that box.  

I finished one placemat and have three others pieced.   There are a few more purple triangles....can I use them all?  

Linking up with Design Wall Monday

RSC at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap!

Friday check in: blogging friends and a workshop

 The Northern Lake County Quilters Guild hosted Lynn Dykstra who is familiar to many quiltmakers from her blog Klein Meisje Quilts.  Lynn presented a trunk show at the Wednesday evening meeting and gave a workshop on Thursday.   

I've admired Lynn's work since I began reading her blog way back when she and Bonnie Hunter were among the "Quilt Mavericks."  

Two members of the McHenry County quilt guild came to sell tickets for their annual raffle.  One of them was Sue Daurio, who blogs at Sue Daurio's Quilting Adventures.  We've been meaning to meet up for several years.      

Their raffle quilt is a collaborative Dear Jane.  In the photo we're pointing to one of the blocks that Sue made.

Horizon and Ladder 

At the Thursday workshop Lynn gave us the choice of two designs,  Horizon and Ladder. She offers all her patterns on her website, no charge -- so why attend a workshop?  (Other than the pleasure of her company, that is.)   I appreciated her insights about fabric selection and design.  She likes to combine solids and prints in blocks.   She mixes genres--prints, plaids, batiks.  In one quilt there will be blocks with high contrast, complementary, and analogous colors; low volume and high volume prints.  And everything works!   If you use one of her patterns pay attention to the pressing instructions because they're very helpful. 

With our day's output

Back home:  the 5 x 9 blocks are on the design wall.   I'm aiming for seven rows of ten.

 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday Can I Get a Whoop Whoop