Weekly update: log cabins + reading

 

Some of this week's wildflowers and other flora:

Top: smooth false foxglove, chokecherry, sand cherry.  Middle: few-leaf sunflower, limestone calamine (teeny flowers!), white flat-topped goldenrod (new one to me). Bottom:  sky-blue aster, mountain mint (it does smell minty when it's crushed), whole leaf rosinweed.

# # # # # #

We watched the first season of Joe Pickett.  We've both enjoyed the series by C. J. Box.  This season combined two of the books. They took other liberties, not the least of which was that Nate Romanowski was cast as a Black man (in the books he's a blond) and Mary Beth is a lawyer (in the books she's a librarian).  But Joe himself was well-portrayed.  BUT, to make this quilt related:  the Bouvier sisters are wearing patchwork vests!  I'm sure the costume department found those at a thrift shop. 

 There's a second season that apparently will be the final.  We haven't started it yet. This coming week we'll be caught up in the Olympics.

Last fall I made this I Spy quilt with the help of a P.E.O. chapter sisters. We rushed to have it done for a shower in November -- and then the baby came early.  Our chapter finally got together on Saturday.  It was more fun because Patrick was there!  Isn't he a cutie? 

# # # # # #

In the studio:   I spent several hours on the guild round robin.  This is the third round (starter block plus two) out of six.  I can't show you because it's going to be a surprise.   

I finished the log cabin blocks.  For this batch of 24 I cut first, then sewed. That way the strips were the correct length.  That method is more efficient than sewing-then-trimming. 

I am going to try different orientations before I assemble them. 

Blocks are 10.5" unfinished.  All 48 = 6 yards of scraps.  

# # # # #

I finished two good books this week.

The AAUW Jane Addams Branch hosted a Zoom book discussion of Remarkably Bright Creatures.  I didn't get it reserved at the library soon enough so I bought it (Amazon Prime Day discount).  

Yes, the clues to the mystery are pretty obvious and the reader has it figured out halfway through, but it's so compelling that you have to read to the end.

To many people, 19th century American ornithology is epitomized by John James Audubon. His magnificent paintings of the birds of eastern North America with backgrounds of lush flowers and foliage have been widely reproduced.    Kenn Kaufman dispels the mythology surrounding Audubon (a good deal of Audubon's own making) in this history, biography, and memoir.   

There were naturalists before Audubon (including Napoleon's nephew) who documented American fauna and flora in words and pictures. Audubon and his family went from Philadelphia to the Kentucky frontier and then to New Orleans, going from prosperity to financial ruin and then back again.  Technological advances in bird identification began even while Audubon was still living.   As the book title indicates, he missed more than a few well-known birds and misidentified others.  He was not a cooperative player in the scientific community.

Kaufman is an ornithologist, illustrator, and naturalist in his own right and "interludes" between chapters explain how challenging it is to depict birds accurately.  He writes about his adventures in birding which began when he was in grade school.

p. 365: "In bird study, as in almost every other pursuit of knowledge, discovery has become a shared experience, a group adventure. a team effort....Neil Armstrong [got to the moon] as the result of teamwork by thousands...Magellan and Cook...sailed with full crews and the backing of wealthy patrons...Likewise, most who have explored the worlds of natural history have been embedded in networks of shared information."  (Kaufman recaps Mark Catesby in the 1720's; Linnaeus setting up classification in the 1730's, Alexander Wilson 1808, and others.)   

BUT  

(p. 366)  "I think we can all make discoveries every day. At a deep level, I believe that something new to us, personally, can be just as important as something that's new to everyone.....Miracles wait for us around every corner." 

I'm still amazed at the dissemination of information, scientific and otherwise, before widespread telegraphy and subsequent mass communications.

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