Friday check in: OMG November + Old Town and a new project

 I hope your Thanksgiving Day was pleasant.  

I made two of our traditional favorites:  Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish and cranberry bread.  In 1990 my colleague Pam raced into the library saying she'd just heard a great recipe on NPR and had to write it down before she forgot it.  I still use the copy made from her transcription (lower right) though  NPR tells the story every year.     I discovered the cranberry bread recipe circa 1976 when I read Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin for a library storytime.   Recipe cards with splatters indicate tried, true, and delicious! 

# # # # #    My OMG for November:  " (1) quilt two flimsies, (2) sew blocks, maybe flimsies, using a different genre from homespun, (3) pull fabric for Old Town, the 2024 Quiltville mystery."

I've done #1 (the two bingo board quilts, and seven placemats, and the holiday table runner).    All of them fulfill the not-homespun #2. (Oh, and I also quilted one of the homespun flimsies I made in October.)     I did not pull fabric for Old Town.  I just dived in and made part one, flying geese.   

Part Two dropped this morning -- a LOT of red-and-neutral four patches.  Lo and behold, I already have a bunch of those sewn up. 

The new project came out of nowhere and I'm having great fun making the blocks.  I started with fabric foundations (a worn-out bed sheet) that I cut 10 x 5".   I trimmed the first batch of blocks to 9.5 x 4.5.  Then I realized that putting two of those together made a block 9.5 x 9 (or 9 x 8.5 finished).   Square blocks are easier to arrange!   I cut each to 8.5 x 4.5. Two of those make a block 8.5 x 8.5.   

There are many ways to arrange them. I'm aiming for 72 square blocks (=144 halves, obviously) for a quilt that's 64 x 72.

The strings are 1.5".

 Linking up with  OMG November and Finished or Not Friday. 

 

Weekly update: placemats + reading

On Friday I showed a photo of nine-patch blocks that I made out of the border fabric from the bingo board blocks.  I said I had no plan for them.  Well, they had plans for me -- and here is what happened.  The placemats will be donated to the guild for one of the agencies it supports.

Speaking of the guild, this week I need to make an ornament for the exchange at next week's holiday party. I also need to fill the gift box for which I made this runner.   

Our Thanksgiving will be the two of us which is just fine.  S has good days and less-good days but overall his cognition is declining.  Fortunately he can still negotiate the stairs to the basement so that he can sit next to me when I sew (and we watch TV).  

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I've spent the month in Blue Deer, Montana -- armchair traveling, that is.

Jamie Harrison has written five mysteries set in this southwestern Montana town.  The main character is Jules Clement, a hometown kid who went away to college (PhD. in archaeology) and returned  for a visit that became long-term when he was elected sheriff.   He  knows pretty much everyone in the county (and is related to many of them).  There are many incomers as well.   Each book has a large cast of characters.  I gave up on keeping track of when each one joined the story.   There are rollicking adventures, wry humor, some romance, some archaeology, and of course a lot of dead bodies.

The first book was published in 1995 and the newest came out this year.   In between mysteries Harrison wrote two stand alone novels that I will look up.

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

Friday check in: Snowfall, estate sale, and bingo board with bonuses

 

We had 3" of wet snow yesterday.  It 's all melted on pavement and nearly all melted on grass, bushes, and trees.   Cloudy but dry today so I hope we can get a walk this afternoon.

Tuesday was month 13 of Barb M's estate sale.  Stevens went with me but I didn't get a photo.   The quantities are going way down.  Will the next sale in January be the last?  We shall see.  

I paid $1.60 per yard this time.  Many pieces of Thimbleberries (Paintbox 2002).  

Thank you for your compliments on the Bingo Board quilt I showed on Monday.  The second kit had both white- and black-bordered blocks and an assortment of floral prints (all from donations to the guild).   

The suggested setting was to cut the florals into squares and alternate them with the bingo boards.

I did something completely different!

I put my new-found knowledge of EQ8 to work getting accurate corner pieces for the octagon triangles.   I auditioned several prints for the large background and came across this multicolored print.   It was a remnant, 1-1/4 yard of 108" wide which works out to 3 yards.

The pieced back.

It's 40 x 72.

I made a placemat out of the scraps that resulted from cutting the triangles. 

And I'm using the trimmed-off borders from the bingo blocks with the floral prints from the kit to make 3-1/2" nine patches.

No plan for these yet.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  

and now it's time to begin Old Town, the 2024 Quiltville mystery! 

Weekly update: bingo finish

 

It's been unusually warm this fall.  We haven't had a freeze yet, let alone a frost.  (I just looked up the definitions:   A frost is when ice crystals form on the outside of your plant. Frost can occur when the temperature is above 32F.....It’s a short event (usually happens right around dawn). A light frost happens when the ground is still warm enough to give off heat. A hard frost (also known as a killing frost) can occur when the ground temperature drops below 32F. A freeze, on the other hand, occurs when the temperature drops below 32F, causing water particles inside the plant to freeze. A freeze can happen without a frost, it usually lasts longer than a frost, and it is almost always more damaging.)

This is a bellflower (campanula) back in bloom. The flowers are on the lower end of the stem. The upper 2/3 of the stem were blossoms-gone-to-seed. (Photo taken at Van Patten Woods on Saturday.)

No leaves, just golden fruit (crabapples?) on this tree at Greenbelt on Sunday.

Apparently the warehouse where many growers' amaryllis bulbs were stored was too warm. I went to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Ace Hardware to buy bulb kits to give as Christmas gifts. They're all sprouted. Either I give them for Thanksgiving or I come up with something else.

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Exploring EQ 8 was the guild's monthly skill-building workshop on Saturday. I've had Electric Quilt since version 4 ($50 from a friend who had an unopened package) and bought each upgrade, but I had barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. I learned so much in two hours! Back home I solved a design conundrum in five minutes and a few clicks.

But that's for the next project.

I spent sewing time finishing the Bingo Board quilt. Ta-da!

I used purple thread and the serpentine stitch in horizonal rows. The back is from Barb M's estate sale. The multicolor binding uses the colors in the blocks.

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

P.S.  We saw Thelma at our church's monthly movie night.  (It's also streaming on Amazon Prime.)   Fun! Stevens enjoyed it, too.   Lead actor June Squibb is just 95 years old.    

Friday check in: bingo board flimsy

 

At the July guild meeting we played quilter's bingo.  We made bingo boards from fabric -- "yellow stripe," "green batik," "purple floral," etc.  The boards were bordered in black or white.  The charity chairman designed easy patterns and added fabric to create kits for donation quilts.   I took two of the kits at the November meeting.  

I trimmed the black-bordered bingo board blocks (say that three times fast)  in one kit to 14"  and added snowball corners (2" squares).   I found a yard-plus of Kona black in my stash (2010 purchase per the note), more than enough for the borders.

I have a completely different idea in mind for the remaining blocks.  It's still evolving. Come back on Monday! 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

Midweek: a finish

 It's been a quiet week so far.  Perhaps I'm simmering down after the disappointment of the election results, resigned to the announcements about the change in government and all the analyses of what happened.   

 S had dentist appointments Monday and Tuesday which went well (whew).  Last evening my P.E.O. chapter met by Zoom.  The program was given by a church choir director (a chapter sister is in that choir) who is also a middle school music teacher. She talked about requiems, the funeral masses set to music.   I had no idea there was so much to learn!   Mozart's Requiem is perhaps the most famous but other composers (Verdi, Brahms among them) wrote them, too.   One of the clips she showed was  this explanation of Dies Irae (day of wrath): four notes that you'll recognize! 

I've spent time in the studio and have a finish to show off.   Our guild holiday exchange is a gift box that is to include a seasonal runner that we've made and additional little presents. 

On Monday I wrote that had run out of background fabric for my version of Starstruck and I was contemplating another plan.  The first "other plan" was to set the blocks on point with a contrast fabric for the setting triangles -- but these blocks are 13" so on point the runner would be 20 x 60 -- pretty big!   I searched the Christmas stash again and found this stripe. It picks up all the colors in the blocks as well as the polka dots.  

There is NOTHING on the calendar today.  What kind of mischief can I make?  What can I catch up on?  

Looks as though the next project has leaped onto the table.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss Midweek Makers

Weekly update: a finish and a start

 

Saturday afternoon I walked along this path.  It's part of a bike route that goes through Illinois Beach State Park and then connects with Zion parks and the forest preserves.  

When Zion City was begun in 1901 the prospective residents took the train up from Chicago.   A tower near the train station allowed them to climb up and spot their house lots.  These chunks of concrete are the remaining footings for the tower.  

  

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In the studio:   the homespun half-logs quilt is finished! 

 The back uses an Alexander Henry print from Barb M's garage sale.  It's nostalgic for me.  

When I began quilting in the early 1990's I bought a fat quarter of this print.  I wasn't sure how to use it--it was a few years until I discovered the joy of scrappiness--but I eventually used it all.   

I made the fourth block for the guild BOM.  It's at the bottom with the other months above. 

I need to make a Christmas-themed table runner for an exchange at the guild holiday party next month.  The blocks are  Vicki's Starstruck -- tutorial here .

Uh-oh.  Vicki's design calls for using the  background fabric for sashing between the blocks and for the border.  All I have left are the scraps to the upper left of the blocks.   Yes, I found the fabric online but I'd so like to use what I have!   I'm contemplating a plan B.   Come back to find out what I decide.

Linking up with Oh Scrap! and  Design Wall Monday 

P.S. I have a big stack of library books checked out.  I hope I'll have some time to dig into a couple of them this week.

Friday check in: under the needle, and round robin revealed

 

After a couple of rainy days the sun has come out again so we've enjoyed afternoon outings to the forest preserves:  Indepdendence Grove on Thursday and Waukegan Savanna on Friday.  

At the guild meeting on Wednesday we heard from the founder and director of The Penny's Purpose, an agency that collects and distributes blankets, comforters, and quilts to anyone in the area. (Kids in crisis, nursing homes, homeless shelters....anyone.)    This will be a great way to donate locally.  

We also had the reveal for the 2024 round robin!  There was so much interest that there were two groups of six participants.  I wasn't able to get pictures of all of them.  Those in my group are: upper left, center left, center right, and lower left.  

And here is mine!  

2018 photo. There was a lot more of me then!

My starter block was a leftover from Bohemian Wheels.

I challenged the round robin group to cut the block up.  I asked them to make it rectangular and to go scrappy.   They did!   This will be a fine donation quilt.  

I'm back at the sewing machine. The homespun half-log cabin is under the needle now.  Hope to have a finished quilt for Monday's post.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  

P.S. Enjoying the sunshine at Independence Grove.  

Midweek check in: devastating results

 I am totally bummed and extremely apprehensive after yesterday's election.    

Weekly update: quilt show

We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden Sunday morning to see  the  Fine Art of Fiber.  It's an annual collaboration of Illinois Quilters, Inc., North Suburban Needlearts Guild, and the Weaver's Guild of the North Shore.  

I have artists' statements for most of these if you'd like to know more.  

The theme for this year's Explorations in Fiber was "Inspiration."  Here are some of the selections. 

We went into one of the greenhouses.  Upper right:  cacao pods.

Outside:  roses are still in bloom. 

Work crews were setting up for Lightscape, the holiday light show that opens November 15.  

Even though there's nothing on my design wall, I'm linking up with  Design Wall Monday!