Rabbit, rabbit! Welcome to September. I caught this cottontail bounding across the path at Lyons Woods last week.
Hike Lake County 2024 is a wrap! They allow a wild card, meaning a 2-mile hike at any forest preserve not on the list. On Friday afternoon we went to Van Patten Woods which is close to home. To change things up I went in the opposite direction from usual.
There were many monarchs and other butterflies flitting about. One of them stayed still long enough for a photo.
Clockwise from top: white panicle aster, scarlet lobelia and sneeze weed, the trail, large-leaved aster, blue lobelia, false Solomon's seal (seeds), baneberry (seeds). Center: a burl.
The Welcome Center is a new building. The Ryerson house is the Brushwood Center, independent of the forest preserves with arts and environmental programs.
Only 7 designated trails are required to complete the Hike Lake County challenge, and itdoesn't end until November 30, but I'm sure I won't be the first person to turn in my log this week!
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Stash report. Confession time.
Fabric IN, August: 127 yards, $256 (two estate sales and a rummage sale). Average $2.01 per yard. Fabric OUT, August: 119-1/8.
Fabric IN, YTD: 1285 yards, $2460, average $1.91 per yard. Fabric OUT, YTD: 727 yards.
I am working on neckties for the guild demo I'm giving on September 14.
I have four big bins of ties that have been taken apart, washed, and ironed. I've acquired them over some 25 years.
The prep now is to cut away the lining at the two ends and iron fusible interfacing to the fabric. I guess I could chop off the two ends, lining and all, but there's a lot of usable silk in that wide end. It is tedious and time-consuming. I'm trying to use a whole bolt of interfacing and a whole lot of ties just to have them ready for further cutting. As I pick and choose I think about what would work well as demo samples. And then I cut a few, and then I have to sew a few . . .
Here's I've made so far. The yellow background of the floral picture is regular quilting cotton to show how cotton and silk can be used in the same project. The flowers look clunky (based on a quilt in a Kaffe book (Pauline Smith)) and I'm already envisioning fancier ones....for another time. The disappearing nine-patch blocks began with 3.5" squares.
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Speaking of silk . . . it was by pure coincidence that I picked this advance reader copy off the pile from the ALA conference. (August publication.)
In 1820 an English explorer/entrepreneur goes to a remote Greek island to discover the mysterious spiders whose silk can be woven into astounding fabric that provides utter silence to those who drape themselves in it. Silence is not the only change the spider-silk brings. The explorer's wife makes discoveries about herself that bring on discontent. Sixty years later the descendants of those smuggled spiders are caged in a textile mill in the English countryside. The silk is fabulous. The effect on the mill workers and townspeople is horrifying. Though the silk brings blessed silence on one side, all the blocked-out noise is concentrated on the other side and it drives people mad. The greediness of the mill owner, the ambition of the young salesman, the nefarious intentions of the plant manager all come up against the truly devastated workers. Everything threatens to spin (hah!) out of control.
Creepy and compelling!
# # # # # Busy week ahead! Linking up with Oh Scrap! Sew and Tell Design Wall Monday
You're making me want to pull out my bin of ties and make something with them. The prep work does take quite awhile. I like them in your disappearing 9-patch blocks. My favorite block for ties is Dresdens.
ReplyDeletenice buckeye beauty...i gotta use more browns....congrats on the hikes!
ReplyDeleteIt has been great walking weather this weekend and it sounds like a good week ahead. We have the Sandwich Fair Wed - Sun so we're always happy for good weather this week.
ReplyDeleteThat book sounds a little too creepy to me.
You explorations with ties is going well. Maybe you are on the wrong side with your stash report, but the shear volume of fabric out is impressive! Sounds like a very interesting book. Has the book been published?
ReplyDeleteWorking on those silk ties is time consuming -- but having a bunch done (even if not the whole collection) will be well worth it in the future.
ReplyDeleteLake County sure has some wonderful places to walk! And so great that the Preserve has such a nice place for Stephens to hang out while you walk there. I imagine there's some good people watching for him there, too! Your flimsy is a "beauty" :) and your work with the ties is fascinating. I've never done anything with ties, but will enjoy following along with your progress!
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do with the middle part of the ties?
ReplyDeleteI love that buckeye beauty flimsy. Working with neckties is likely something I'll never get around to as it would require going to a bunch of estate sales to acquire them. There's enough fabric around here to last the rest of my life already!
ReplyDeleteYou have a huge collection of neck ties! All the better to choose pieces for projects though.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing all the walks and so rapidly too.
I have a small bin of neckties but haven't done anything with them yet so I'm looking forward to what you do with yours. The Buckeye Beauty is really beautiful. It has a soft soothing look to it.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for all that walking! I like seeing that lobelia in the wild. I've tried growing that in my native wildflower garden. The seeds are like dust and need stratification. No lobelia has ever appeared, darn it. I like your Buckeye Beauty - a classic. I remember when we swapped parts (sets of 4Ps and HSTs) with Block Swappers years ago. Oh, those ties sure sound like a lot of work for a little piece of fabric but I sure do love those D9P. I have quite a few silk ties with Christmas theme and was always going to make a few crazy quilt Christmas stockings with them. They are still in the bag along with some other trimmings I think.
ReplyDelete