Weekly update: March summary and OMG April

  

The showers held off each afternoon so I could get good walks -- the state park, a forest preserve, and the nature trail at the end of our block.  

A beaver-chewed tree (one of many along that stretch), a beaver lodge, and horsetails.   

 The skunk cabbage has leafed out.  The horn-shaped purple-green flower has a lot of sulfur, hence the name.  

Easter was pleasant. Stevens was able to come to church with me!   I bought a 4-1/2 lb lamb roast. I rubbed it with a mixture of chopped garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was wonderful and we have leftovers to enjoy.  (Accompaniments were new potatoes and asparagus, spinach/orange/blue cheese salad, and rhubarb upside-down cake.)  

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In the studio:  the homespun nine-patches are a flimsy.  The units are 4.5" finished. 

Stash report for March:

Fabric in:  88 yards, $170, $1.93 per yard average.  (The only shopping I did was at the ongoing estate sale.)

Fabric out:  70 yards.

YTD in: 504-1/2 yards, $845, $1.67 per yard average.  

YTD out:  241-3/4

I'm making 12" churn dash blocks in red, white, and blue for Cynthia's current Compassion Quilts block drive.  I'm putting some of Barb M's estate sale fabric to good use!  My plan is to make 60 blocks.

But that's not my OMG for April -- I have a project with a deadline.  It's a hollyhock-themed wall hanging for the outgoing president of the Zion Woman's Club.  Hollyhocks are the club flower and Judy is an avid gardener.  First thing to do is decide on a pattern and order it!  

Linking up with Oh Scrap  Sew and Tell  Design Wall Monday OMG April

Friday check in: some editing required, OMG success, and reading

 

The weather cooperated yesterday with sunshine and 45 degrees.  We enjoyed a forest preserve walk at McDonald Woods (2 miles)   

I've been working on the homespun quilt.  There's a piece of green tape to mark the misplaced unit (fourth row, second column).  

The fabric for the setting triangles was a serendipitous find on the shelf.   I haven't decided whether or not there will be a border.  

When I make scrappy quilts I try for "no two fabrics touching."  It happened a lot with the second half of the quilt because I hastily put the blocks on the design wall without checking and re-checking.  "Editing" sounds better than ripping, doesn't it? 

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My One Monthly Goal(s) for March:

(a) Quilt and bind the Villa Rosa blog hop samples.  DONE

(b)  Tidy up in the studio and dust/vacuum.  Partially done.   I consolidated the contents of a couple of boxes.  I mailed a box of fabric and notions to my friend who upcycles textiles to make totes and pouches. (Here's her FB page)  I sent a box to the winner of my blog hop drawing. 

(c)  Start something new just for fun.  See above -- despite the irritation of editing, I enjoy working with homespuns.

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In a small Indiana town on a summer day in the early 1980's this happened, and that happened, and then that happened.  Fourteen people, fourteen stories:  Candy forgets the paprika for the deviled eggs she'll serve at the card party.   Turner helps a long-time buddy before he plants the zinnias.  Teenagers Della, her boyfriend Sugar, and their friend Greg each come closer to finding their places in the world.  Toby picks up his Ronald Reagan placard and greets all passers-by.  Meanwhile Gladys loses herself in the cornfields.  After the card party Myrtle goes to visit her former schoolteacher in the nursing home.  The sheriff recalls his kindness to a young troublemaker.  Cubby takes in two strangers from out of town.  Irma is remembered by many.  And at the periphery, but never far away, are Zorrie and Noah, the central characters of previous stories.  

"There's life a lurk behind us," Myrtle remembers her grandfather saying to explain why a gift wasn't acknowledged. (156)   "The more you learned about a person the more you wanted to learn," Cubby realizes. (176)

Laird Hunt's beautiful prose reminds us that no one is an island.  Like Wendell Berry's Port William Fellowship, there are infinite connections among the townspeople in their past and present, and surely in their future.

My reviews of Hunt's earlier novels:  Zorrie and Neverhome.

The great hurricane of 1938 walloped the northeastern seaboard just as young Woodrow Wilson Nickel arrived from the Dust Bowl-ravaged Texas panhandle and just as a ship with two young giraffes docked at the port of New York.   The giraffes were bound for the San Diego Zoo.   Woody found himself in the unexpected position of serving as the driver of the customized truck to take them, and the zoo keeper, across the country.   Along they way they were accompanied by an intrepid young woman photojournalist.   Near-misses, last-second escapes, would-be giraffenappers, swindlers and genuinely good people, and enough adventure to last a lifetime.

And now Woody is 105 years old, living in a VA nursing home, and remembering -- writing down -- all the events of that memorable season.  Author Rutledge adapted a true story for this heartwarming and memorable book. (This is the April selection for our AAUW Reflections on Reading group.)   

 The Boston Post Road was the first interstate (inter-colony) road in America, connecting Boston and New York first for the post--meaning mail and newspapers--and then for transportation and commerce.   The Post Road meant the development of towns in interior Massachusetts and Connecticut and along the Long Island Sound.  Indian trails led to rocky, muddy horse paths.  The route was critical during the Revolution.   In the early 19th century railroads paralleled the Post Road, important for new industries and to transport supplies and troops in the Civil War.   The bicycling craze of the late 19th century brought road improvements, just in time for the advent of the automobile.  Cars meant more and better pavement, suburban sprawl, and major changes to cities.  Jaffe's thoroughly researched history is engagingly written.

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Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday  OMG March Link Up 

P.S.  Spring haircut. Who is more deserving of the halo? 

Weekly update: miscellaneous projects in the works, and some good books

 

Spring came in like a lion.  This is the view out the front door on Friday morning.  

Fortunately there was no wind behind the snow and it stopped by noon.  

The Zion Woman's Club had a small but enthusiastic turnout for our first spring Bunco party.   

Marilyn had the high score, Evie had the low score, and I had the most buncos. (A bunco is 21 points, achieved by rolling three of a kind of the pip in play. A baby bunco is 5 points, achieved by rolling three of a kind of a pip not in play. (E.g. 3 3's when 5 is in play.))

The raffles were a gift card basket ($200 in store gift cards), a wine/cheese/chocolate basket, 50/50 cash, and Sparkling Triangles, which I made.  

Proceeds go to  a high school scholarship, a week-long art camp for a high school student, and contributions to local agencies. 

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On Wednesday I wrote that I looked forward to Diane Harris's improv curves Zoom workshop.  I wasn't able to sit in on the entire 6-hour program but I got the concept.  Here's what I accomplished.  More to come. 

I caught up on some blog reading and was intrigued by Lynne Tyler's slab-pieced triangles . I bought the tutorial from her Etsy shop and found a use for a stack of batik crumb/slab blocks I made a while ago.* The blocks are 6.5" unfinished.  More to come with these, too. 

* The blocks in the stack were 12.5".  I sewed and re-sewed them so that I had 7" panels from which I cut the triangle shapes.  I used Deb Tucker's V block ruler. (Lynne uses Tri-Recs.)

Another new start.  These are homespun plaids with "regular" neutrals. Units are 5.5" to finish at 5".   As of Sunday night I had 75 HSTs and 39 nine-patches. 

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The ALA Retired Members Round Table Fifth Sunday Book Club met yesterday, the fourth Sunday, because next week is Easter.   Because we are librarians we are conditioned (perhaps hard-wired) to read extensively and recommend a lot ("there's a book for that!" as the saying goes), so this book club uses prompts rather than specific books.  The prompt this time was a Western -- however we chose to define it.  Several people recommended mystery writers including C. J. Box, Tony and Anne Hillerman, J. A. Jance, and Craig Johnson, all of whom I've enjoyed.  I talked about Smoky the Cow Horse (Newbery Medal, 1927), The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig, and Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt. 

(I'll have some recent reading to report on later this week.) 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday  Oh Scrap!

P.S.  No walks this past week -- crummy weather and meetings. I missed the exercise!  

Midweek: a finish, estate sale surprise, and a speaker

122 comments and counting!  The response to the Villa Rosa Blog Hop has been great.  Today is the last day for the guest bloggers.  I hope you've visited all of them. 

I finished quilting the second version of Twinkle.  

The FQ bundle I used for the HSTs (the stars) had 11 prints.  Nine made the blocks in the quilt. Rather than making more stars I pieced the other two sets into pinwheels.  The backing fabrics are two 1990's Hoffman prints from Barb M's estate.

And yesterday was Month **SEVEN** of that estate sale.  (If you've missed the ongoing story, start with this post and work back to September.)  The first six sales raised more than $12,000 for different charities. This month the proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research.   

When I walked into the room yesterday Paula greeted me with, "Nann, look what we found!"  

Barb won the guild Block of the Month blocks in July, 2000.  

Yes, those are my initials.  I do not remember making this block at all.   

I did not buy the set, but I did not leave empty-handed.   I piled  my purchases on the ironing board in my studio.  I paid $1.89 per yard.  

Paula said they have an 8 x 10 storage unit filled with fabric they haven't washed yet. She said there will be at least two more sales. 

The  Village Quilters are hosting Diane Harris,  Stash Bandit by Zoom this week.   I met Diane when she was an editor at Quiltmaker and I was selected to participate in a quilt-along.   Last evening she gave a trunk show with great ideas for designing scrappy quilts.  Today I'll attend her workshop (by Zoom) on improv curves.   Now I need to get this posted so I can log in on time!

Linking up with Midweek Makers and Wednesday Wait Loss -- with thanks to both Susan and Jennifer for featuring me this week!

Blog hop reveal -- with prizes!

I'm honored to be among the bloggers participating in this year's VRD blog hop.  

Here's the story behind Villa Rosa: We call Pat Fryer, the owner and the creator of the Villa Rosa Designs brand, our Rose Queen, because she absolutely adores roses.  In fact, her love of roses helped her name her new venture in 2010.  When she designed her first Rose Cards, she had a brilliant and unique idea to name ALL of her VRD patterns after Roses (also why we call them Rose Card patterns).  For many years, all of the patterns were named after roses.  Now we have a collection of talented designers who all have their own covers and logos, but Pat's quilt designs are still named for roses.  If you look at the Villa Rosa Designs patterns, you will see a rose in the top right corner on the cover of the pattern.  That is the specific rose the pattern is named for.  

The hop highlights these five patterns of the more than 600 in the Villa Rosa catalog. -- you can see the Rose Queen's logo on two of them.   Each blogger was asked to make at least one of the five.  

I challenged myself and made all five, using fabric from my stash. 

I used homespun plaids to make Clover, the table runner.

I chose a coordinated palette to make Ebb Tide.  I used free-motion designs by Lori Kennedy in each block.  

The Gypsy Rose pattern was named for  the hybrid rose . (The term "gypsy" is now regarded as a racial slur and Villa Rosa will rename the design.)

The large blocks called for splashy prints.  I cut into my hoard of Lida Enche and Serious Whimsy prints.  

I began Twinkle with the sage green. How could I liven it up?  I opened the box of realistic florals and here's how it turned out.  

I used up all the sage but I still have a few quilts' worth of florals.  

The pattern called 31 uses a panel.  My first reaction was that I don't do panels, but a search of the stash turned up this one.  I bought it at a church rummage sale about 15 years ago. It's a Dutch batik ("wax resist" on the selvedge).  The flying geese are batiks.  The spiky borders are all cut from one piece of striped African fabric. I had just enough for this project.  I'm so pleased with the way it turned out. 

Click here to learn a lot more about 

Dutch wax resist prints and batiks

I outlined the birds and stitched along the edge of each spike.

So that's all five -- but there's another, with a backstory.

In 2020 Villa Rosa was a vendor at QuiltCon in Austin.  The Magpies met up for the show.   I made plans to have lunch with librarian friends that Friday while the others went back to the show.  I asked Celia and Ellie to buy a FQ bundle from Villa Rosa, what ever they thought I'd like.  That turned out to be a coordinated group by Quilting Treasures.   

I knew I'd kept the FQs in one bundle, but when I pulled it out of the bin I found 11 prints, not 12. No green or blue?  Hmm, I probably used one FQ for something else (after all, it's been four years).   [Though VRD offers bundles of 11 FQs so perhaps that was it.]

Here's what happened!  The blue background is from Barb M's estate sale.   

There's very little left over.  

Now that you've seen my quilt show, here's the reward:  your chance to win!

(1)  Villa Rosa is giving away a 2024 Blog Hop Rose Card Collection on each participating blog.

(2)  Sponsors have donated prizes.   The grand prizes are a Kaffe Fassett precut collection, a $100 gift certificate to Hancock's, a box of mystery quilty goodies, and an EQ8 download.   There will be three individual prizes for each blogger (books, precuts, notions).  

(3)  A big box of quilt stuff from my collection.  You won't be disappointed.

To qualify to win you need to leave a comment on this post (and to boost your chances leave comments on the other hop blogs).    Your comment needs to include (a) which of the five featured patterns you'd like to make and (b) what book you're reading (or listening to) right now.  If you are "no reply" or "anonymous" you'll need to include your email address in your comment.   No pattern name/ no book / no email = no entry!  (Note: I can only ship within the U.S.)    

I will draw the winning names March 22.   Three entries go to Villa Rosa for the grand prize competition. Three entries will win Villa Rosa individual prizes.  And one entry will win my prize box.    UPDATE 3/22:  I have drawn the winning names and notified them.  

You are welcome to comment but it's too late for the prizes.  

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of the post and for leaving a comment!

P.S.  Here are links to the other bloggers' posts. 

Thursday, March 14

Villa Rosa Quilts — https://villarosaquilts.com/  

 Friday, March 15 

Kathleen McMusings — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/

The Morning Latte — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
Homesewn By Us — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
Pieceful Thoughts — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
C & T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

 Saturday March 16 — National Quilting Day!

Needle and Foot — https://needleandfoot.com/
MMM Quilts — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
Texas Quilt Gal — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
Time 4 Stitchn — http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
SIY (Sew It Yourself) — https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

 

Sunday, March 17 — Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Quarter Inch Capers — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
Norton House Quilting — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
Quilting Gail — https://quiltinggail.com/  

Wazoo! Newsbits — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

 

Monday, March 18
With Strings Attached — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
Jaftex/Scott Fortunoff — https://scottfortunoff.com/
Cocoa Quilts — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/ 

Quilt With a View — http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

 Tuesday, March 19

Shout 4 Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
The Darling Dogwood — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
Something Rosemade — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
Quilts of Valor Foundation — https://www.qovf.org/

 Wednesday, March 20 — First Day of Spring! 

Grace and Peace Quilting — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
Happy Cottage Quilter — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Joyfully Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
Patchouli Moon Studio — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
Electric Quilt Company — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

 Thursday, March 21

Villa Rosa Quilts — villarosaquilts.com 

It's time for the Villa Rosa blog hop!

 

The Villa Rosa Fast and More Fun blog hop starts today!

Here are the five patterns that each guest blogger received.  Tune each day to see our interpretations. 

My day is Monday and I'm delighted to report that you'll see that I made all five of the patterns -- and got them all quilted, too. 

Here's the schedule: 

Thursday, March 14
Villa Rosa Quilts — https://villarosaquilts.com/  

Friday, March 15
Kathleen McMusings — https://kathleenmcmusing.com/
The Morning Latte — http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/
Homesewn By Us — https://www.homesewnbyus.com
Pieceful Thoughts — https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
C & T Publishing — https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16 — National Quilting Day!
Needle and Foot — https://needleandfoot.com/
MMM Quilts — https://www.mmmquilts.com/
Texas Quilt Gal — https://www.texasquiltgal.com/
Time 4 Stitchn — http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/
SIY (Sew It Yourself) — https://blog.siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17 — Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Quarter Inch Capers — https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/
Norton House Quilting — https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news
Quilting Gail — https://quiltinggail.com/  

Wazoo! Newsbits — http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18
With Strings Attached — https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/
Jaftex/Scott Fortunoff — https://scottfortunoff.com/
Cocoa Quilts — https://www.cocoaquilts.com/ 

Quilt With a View — http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19
Shout 4 Joy — https://shout4joy-shouting.blogspot.com/
The Darling Dogwood — http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/
Vicki’s Crafts and Quilting — www.knitbug2.blogspot.com
Something Rosemade — https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/
Quilts of Valor Foundation — https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20 — First Day of Spring!

Grace and Peace Quilting — https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/
Happy Cottage Quilter — https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/
Joyfully Tracie — https://joyfullytracie.com/
Patchouli Moon Studio — https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/
Electric Quilt Company — https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21
Villa Rosa Quilts — villarosaquilts.com 

Midweek: silk and sarongs, and a finish

The Villa Rosa blog hop begins on Thursday.   I'll post all the links.   Visit the guest bloggers and register for prizes!

Unusually warm weather and sunshine Monday and Tuesday (73 degrees!)  meant walks at Sun Lake Forest Preserve and Illinois Beach State Park.  I heard the cranes bugling and got a photo of one of the pair as it flew overhead. 

A follow up to Monday's post about Liz....her daughter called Tuesday morning to say that they'd found more Rotary things and would the club members like them? (Bob was a 50-year Rotarian.)   I know what the daughters are going through with clearing-out and said I'd help "disappear" whatever they don't want to keep.  While I was there T offered me a package of fabric from a trip to Thailand (or a gift from one of their exchange students).  

 

Left: a silk sarong. Center: a cotton batik sarong. Right: a 36" square silk scarf.  Never used, as is the case with so many such souvenirs,  (I have Thai silk from my parents' trip there in the 1990's.)   [As I refolded the fabric I found a slip of paper saying "Thailand from Liz G... and remembered a Sunday when we celebrated "all the children of the world" with food and fabric. I brought a piece of wool woven in Scotland.]

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Barb-the-quilter did a beautiful job on Pinwheel Nine-Patch. I picked it up last week and bound it over the weekend.  76 x 76.

I made the flimsy in 2021. The pinwheels were an RSC block and the nine-patches came out of the bottomless box from the long-ago Block Swapper's exchange. 

This is the AAUW spring raffle quilt.  I looked back in my records and the first raffle was in 2005. I missed 2000 and 2001 so it's the 18th in the series.  The proceeds go to AAUW's national leadership and public policy programs on behalf of the Waukegan Area Branch.  

Linking up with  Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait Loss

P.S. At the memorial service Liz's ashes were not in an urn but in a travel case -- ready for her final trip.  (Interment, with Bob's ashes, in Colorado.)  

Weekly update: going to the dogs, remembering a dear friend, a little quilting + two great books

My friends Debbie and Bill brought their therapy dogs Buddy and Dandy to the Zion Woman's Club meeting on Tuesday.  They explained that therapy dogs differ from service dogs in that they are trained to be approachable to anyone (service dogs bond to one person).  They're part of  the Medinah Shrine Therapy Dog program and go to the Shriners' Children's Hospital, to schools, libraries, and other locations.  The dogs were a big hit with the ZWC, too!   

Buddy is a Yorkshire terrier and Dandy is a Shiloh shepherd.  When their vests are on they know they are at work -- no barking or yipping.  

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The memorial service for our dear friend Liz was held yesterday. She passed away last month at age 89.  (Do take a moment to read her obituary.)   I met her in 2003 shortly after I started at ZBPL and after she retired from operating a preschool.   She and her husband Bob were world travelers into their 80's.   They had four daughters and many grandchildren (great-grands, too).  They hosted more than 30 exchange students through Rotary Youth Exchange, and the first one (1976-77) came from Perth, Australia, for the funeral.    She was an avid gardener. She was a wonderful hostess with that marvelous ability to invite a group of people to dinner at a moment's notice with no fuss.  She had an ice cream social for the United Methodist Women every summer.  

 Liz loved to read and we talked about books.  The last time we spoke -- at church the Sunday before she passed away -- she said, "I'm looking forward to your book talk for UMW next week!"  and I dedicated the book talk to her.  

Her daughters asked if I would read a poem about her written by another friend (now deceased) and invited me to say a few words. I was honored. 

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The quilt guild meets the first Wednesday of the month. Our speaker was Sara Hochhauser who talked about quilted garments.  What a beautiful trunk show!  

Here she is modeling "A Little Somethin'," a pattern I've had for many years but have not made.  Maybe I'll make a garment . . .  some day.  (The insert strips are her contribution to the design.)  

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I haven't done much quilting this week.  Three of the Villa Rosa quilts are finished and the fourth is under the needle.  The blog hop starts Thursday, March 14, and I'll post the entire list of participants then. (My day is March 18.) 

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77-year-old Jennifer Quinn has always liked to bake. Her husband Bernard and their niece and her family praise the results.  On a whim -- and in secret ("am I too old?") Jenny enters the Britain Bakes competition. To her surprise she is invited to audition.  She bakes up a storm, still not explaining why ("am I really good enough?"), and she's made the cut!  Eventually the secret is revealed and she goes on the show.  But there is another, much older and far more deeply hidden secret:  when she was 17 she had a baby whom she gave up for adoption.   Will Bernard forgive her for not telling him?  As Jenny bakes her way to the finals she wrestles with her doubts.  But the new confidence she gains from the competition gives her the confidence she needs and Bernard (who is a truly dear man) helps her as she finds her long-unknown family.

The story is endearing (I stayed up much too late to finish it), and I learned a lot about how the Great British Baking Show is produced. 

Shannon Reed's memoir of her life in reading also kept me up too late.  OMG!  The first chapters/essays tick all my lifelong reader boxes (that was me! that was me! that was me!). Funny asides: "you might be a character in a children's book if.....you are a bear....who doesn't wear pants...." or "you might be a character in an Amish romance if....your name is Rachel....your intended is named Jacob....." But seriously: Reed taught high school English (there's wonderful episode about getting her students in Brooklyn really engaged in Jane Eyre). She now teaches creative writing at Pitt -- and reading those chapters I got insights into HOW to read (she teaches Gone Girl and Lincoln in the Bardo in one class). Funny and very thoughtful.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! Design Wall Monday

P.S. These are NOT MY QUILTS. They are in the women's restroom at the church where the P.E.O. Round Table met on Friday. No labels so I can't give credit. (No quilts in the men's room. I looked.)