Midweek: one more walk, the other eye, and OMGs all done

 

Monday afternoon I gave a book review to the Memorial Methodist Women.   I talked about eight books, all of which I've reviewed in previous blog posts.  Afterwards I returned the books I'd borrowed from the library and checked out four more.  And so it goes.

Photo: crocuses in our garden. These are right under the dryer vent which gives them an edge. 

I took a flimsy to Barb-the-quilter yesterday. It will be the AAUW spring raffle quilt.  While we were nearby we visted a forest preserve we hadn't been to in a while.  I enjoyed the 70-degree temperatures.  Overnight a cold front came through and we woke up to the high 20's and a dusting of snow. 

The second cataract surgery was today.  Binocular distance vision!  I still have to wear readers for close-up. I got light-adjustable implants.  That procedure is scheduled for March 21.  

The perforated shield is easy to see through. I'm supposed to wear it for the next week, but only when sleeping and showering.  And of course there are still eyedrops.

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In the studio:   I am happy to report that I achieved ALL the parts of my One Monthly Goal.

International Sisters -- blocks by the ALA Biblioquilters.  Nine patch by Barb N, quilted for her to give to her daughter.  (The 1980's prints were from clothing and craft projects they made.)  Mountain Majesties, commissioned by Janice for her daughter's wedding.                                                                                                                              AND   

I'm going to be featured in a blog hop sponsored by Villa Rosa Designs   It starts in mid-March and my day is March 18.  Each blogger got the same five Villa Rosa patterns and is to make at least one to feature on her day (quilting is optional).   I decided to make all five and maybe they'll be quilted by March 18!  

Linking up with Midweek Makers         Wednesday Wait Loss  (Thanks for the shout out, Jennifer!)   OMG Link Up   

Weekly update: cranes, spaghetti, estate sale, and a goal finished

 

Sign of spring:  cranes at Illinois Beach State Park.  They're camouflaged in the brown grass but their bugling gave them away.

 

I spoke to the driver of one of the trucks hauling rocks for the shoreline stabilization project. He said the quarry is in Waterloo, Wisconsin.  Rocks for inshore are trucked in. Rocks for the offshore reefs are trucked to the Port of Milwaukee and sent by barge, a trip that can take six hours.  Because the weather has been so mild they've been able to get weeks ahead of schedule.  

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Illinois Beach Sunrise Rotary Club prepares and delivers spaghetti dinners (pasta, freshly-made sauce, a salad, roll, and cookie) to senior citizens in congregate housing.   We used the kitchen at Memorial UMC (our church) for cooking and prep on Thursday evening and packaging on Saturday morning. 200 meals this year!  

Our club sponsors an Interact Club at ZBTHS-East Campus. They are enthusiastic helpers.  Stevens (upper right) came on Thursday evening and enjoyed the outing. 

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In the studio:  last Tuesday was the SIXTH month of Barb M's estate sale.  (See here for last month, with links to the previous sales, and the explanation for this bounty.)  The charity beneficiary this time is polycystic kidney disease research.

I indulged but not as much as I did earlier.  By weight, I paid $1.89 per yard.  Photo shows the haul at home.  

I did USE some fabric and I can boast of a finish.  It's one of my February goals.

The block is one of Bonnie Hunter's early ones, Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  

My stash yielded a backing that was perfect.  108" wide so no piecing required.  

60 x 77, 8-1/4 yards in all. 

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

P.S. If you didn't see my post from Wednesday, do take a look. I'm still wowed. 

Midweek: mini quilt swap -- wow!

 Yesterday I received the mini-quilt from my MQG swap partner, Sara Hooten.     I am utterly gobsmacked.  Isn't it gorgeous?

A big picture of a small quilt 

Detail of applique and quilting 

Sara used this photo.  I took it at the entrance to the Zion-Benton Public Library in August, 2021. 

Zion is Monarch and Zinnia City. This year Benton Township (Beach Park and Winthrop Harbor) will join as the Bee Cities.  (Our high school mascot is the Zee-Bee.)  

Posting to Midweek Makers Wednesday Wait Loss

 

Weekly update: scrappy mountains

 I'm working on a commission quilt (#3 of my four-part OMG list this month).  It's for Janice's daughter's wedding this summer.  Janice, her mother Joanne, and her sister-in-law Michelle have all won quilts I've made for our AAUW raffle so this is a third-generation quilt.  Janice said I could make anything which of course imposed more pressure rather than less. 

 I've always wanted to try Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties.  I showed a photo of someone's version (found online) to Janice. She liked it.  Decision made!   I chose a cool blue/green/turquoise/gray color scheme, pulled fabrics, and got going.  All the fabric will be from my stash.

I'm planning to make 50 blocks (7.5 x 12 finished) for a 60"x 75" quilt, no borders.  I've come to a conclusion that from here on I'll make wedding quilts sofa-sized, rather than queen-sized. That relieves the couple from the obligation of using the quilt on the bed.  Easier for me, too, and after all it's the thought that counts.  

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I drove to church this morning (2-1/2 miles) and made a grocery run afterwards, but I was hesitant to drive farther so we didn't make it to an afternoon concert.  Better to miss that than to drive nervously.  

This is my Chuck Schumer look.  Now I understand why always has reading glasses perched at the end of his nose. These are 2.5 power.

Instead of a book report, here's a movie report.  We rented The Holdovers from Amazon and enjoyed it very much.  We identified with the retro setting (Christmas, 1970, New England).  (Apparently the filmmakers deliberately emulated early 70's technology.)

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

Friday check in: ruby cobblestones flimsy

 Thank you, all who commented on my cataract surgery.  Post-op yesterday concluded all is well, with another bottle of eyedrops and a chart to remind me when to use which.  If I put my glasses on, with the trifocal lens on the left and nothing on the right, I see at two levels.  Today I'm not wearing eyeglasses at all.  My right eye is doing the seeing and my left eye is providing binocular balance (it's too nearsighted to see anything clearly).   

Fortunately I can see to sew! 

 Here is the cobblestones flimsy.  3-7/8" yards used.  The blocks are 5" finished.  

I've gotten many 2-yd pieces of batik at Barb M's estate sale, just right for borders. 

[How a propos. The motif in the lower row, second column, left side looks like an eye!  You can see the piece it was cut from on the quilt back  in this post  ]

The setting was inspired by this design in the April 2024 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  

Designed by Cindy Hargrove who hand-pieced all the 3" Lemoyne Stars. 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek, part 2: Valentine's Day etc., back to batiks, and a good book

 Today is momentous.  Most important?  I've been a big sister for 70 years today!  

Secondly:  cataract #1 was done at 11:30 this morning.  The surgery was as quick as everyone has said.  I'm a bit woozy from the Valium and the eye stings a little.  They warned that because my eyes are light blue the mega-mega dilation may not wear off until tomorrow.

I'm not supposed to drive for three days so we are relying on friends.  (Stevens no longer drives.)  I've done some cooking ahead. We will not starve. 

I wish I'd kept the Singer301 set up in the living room because I am not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for 24 hours. 

And thirdly:   today is Ash Wednesday.  We'll miss tonight church service (no driving).  I usually give up buying fabric for Lent but I don't think I'll manage (the next round of the big estate sale is next week).  Instead I'm going to focus on giving, rather than giving up.

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In the studio:  I took a break from the goals list and made more batik cobblestone blocks, inspired by Wanda's recent project.  My blocks turned out to be small slab blocks, 5.5" unfinished.  Here they are en masse, with a dozen more to come.  I know what the actual setting will be.  Come back to see it. 

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To the Best of Our Knowledge (Wisconsin Public Radio) included an interview with Lucy Jane Bledsoe as part of a show about Antarctica.   I enjoyed her commentary and promptly put her novel on hold. It came in a couple of days later.  I was surprised that it was published in 2010; it was new to me.

People sign up for a stint on the Ice, as those who know call it, to do many things, but fundamentally to find themselves by going to, literally, the end of the earth.   For Rosie, a galley worker in her third season, it was to escape her broken family.  For Mikala, a musician with a grant to write an Antarctic-themed symphony, it was to confront her long-absent father (a cosmologist researcher also on the Ice).  For Alice, a geology PhD candidate, it was to do significant fieldwork with pristine rocks but also get away from her stifling, emotionally needy mother.    These three women, with no previous connection, become the unlikeliest of friends and protectors. 

Bledsoe has traveled to the Ice on three arts/writers' fellowships so she knows the story.  I hadn't thought about how many people it takes to run the camps and bases in support of all the scientists.  It's a world within a world.

Linking up with Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait Loss

P.S.  Two other new-sister pictures.  

Midweek: orchid show 2024

 The annual orchid show at Chicago Botanic Garden is a wildly popular event.  This year the tickets are timed admission which helps a lot with crowd control.   Monday morning wasn't terribly busy (compared to weekends) and we were able to get a handicapped parking space right at the entrance.  

 Big Top-style music played in the exhibit hall (not in the greenhouses).  There were  clever arrangements.  

It is impossible to take a bad photo of an orchid.  

Fun house wavy mirrors.  

It was a delight for both of us!

And we were home for a late lunch.

Weekly update, part 2: goals achieved

Goals?  As I type this the Super Bowl is in overtime.  Kansas City won!!!

We've been watching though my attitude is more in line with the Dowager Countess.

Last week I stated my four goals for the month. I'm delighted to report that I've finished 2-4/5 of them.

 

#1   Commission quilt.   Barb N. made the nine-patches from fabric left over from clothing and crafts that she and her daughter made  in the 1990's. She added the green squares long ago.  She asked if I could finish it so she could give it to her daughter.  

I added the borders.

I used similar vintage (Cranston, Springs, Wamsutta) prints from my stash for nine-patches to make the back larger.  

Quilted with the serpentine stitch and bound with another 80's print.   

Barb picked it up on Tuesday.

#2   I'll be part of a blog hop sponsored by Villa Rosa.  My day is March 18.    VR sent five patterns of which we are to make one of our choice.  My goal is to make all five, and I have four to the flimsy stage -- in other words, 4/5 of the goal. 

#3    The ALA Biblioquilters made International Sisters blocks (pattern by Preeti here).  I completed the flimsy just as the game ended. 

I auditioned a dozen fabrics for the border.  I looked on another shelf and the unexpected was the solution.

There are four more blocks that I'll piece into the back.

Busy week ahead with the first cataract surgery on Wednesday.  

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

Weekly update, part 1: museum, with quilts

Sandra and I have known one another for many years. We were both public library administrators in the suburbs.  Her late husband was a pastor-turned-librarian and my husband is a librarian-turned-pastor.  We had mutual friends in Fargo, too.  We realized that it had been about ten years since we'd gotten together.  When she wrote in her holiday card that she moved back to Chicago last summer  I responded with the suggestion that we meet at the Museum of Contemporary Art. There's a special exhibit of works by Faith Ringgold that closes at the end of February.  That was fine with Sandra and last Friday was the date.  

MCA is just east of the Water Tower in the Streeterville neighborhood on the lakefront.   I caught an earlier train and had time for a walk in the park adjacent to the museum.  It was another warmer-than-normal day with lots of sunshine. 

I first knew about Faith Ringgold because of her Caldecott Honor-winning picture book Tar Beach.   Much later I learned about her social activism through art and quiltmaking.  (In 2022 I went to this lecture online.)  

The MCA exhibit began with her paintings. 

Left:  a 'postage stamp' with Black Power going one way and -- if you tilt your head (or the picture) White Power is the white grid between the small pictures.  

Right:  upper left "die" and from bottom to top, sideways, N-word.

 

It continued with her fiber sculptures. 

Note that the paintings (acrylic on canvas) are framed with fabric.  

Storyboards from Tar Beach.

And, finally, the Story Quilts!    The  paintings are bordered with text -- painted or inked by hand.   They are "quilted" in large X's and framed by fabric (probably home dec).  I don't know if there's batting but I assume the backing is also fabric. (I wish I could have looked, but museum guards are not the same as white-glove helpers at quilt shows!)   They are all pretty big -- 5 x 6 feet, I'd say.

My pictures are just enough to give you an idea of the artistry, social commentary, and overall exuberance in each. 

Left: the white bands at top and bottom have the story. 

One of the captions.

This is my favorite.

Do you see Vincent van Gogh on the right?

The women are Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, ?, ?, Rosa Parks, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ella Baker.

"The Sunflower Quilters of America."

My second-favorite. 

We had a delightful time catching up over lunch in the museum restaurant.  After perusing the selections in the museum store we said goodbye. I walked all the way back to the train station, got the 3:37, and pulled into the driveway at 5:00 on the nose.  

(Stevens and caregiver V had a great day, too.)

P.S. I met Faith Ringgold at the AAUW National Convention in 2015.