Weekly update: concert, new storage, a flimsy, and reading

  Still no walking, but we did get out Sunday afternoon for the Lake County Symphony Orchestra's winter concert at the College of Lake County.  First act:  Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. Second act:  Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  Ode to Joy in the fourth movement was performed by a combined choir (Northern Illinois University and local chorales).   Wonderful music just fifteen miles from home and $30 per seat.  

It was a full house with open seating, but we had seats in the ADA accessible row.

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In the studio:  Closet Maid wire basket units hold a lot of fabric.  Unfortunately they are no longer made.  I learned in McCall's (or Quiltmaker?) that Ikea has a similar product -- Jonaxel.  I ordered one to try it out. 

 

Closet Maid.  Two baskets are pulled out at the moment. 

 Jonaxel.  I want to buy more units and empty the plastic bins.  

The row of Jonaxels will line up behind the Closet Maid units. 

You've heard, and likely experienced, the assembly challenge of Ikea products.  But Jonaxel was easier to put together than the Closet Maid!

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I got the blue Ohio Stars to the flimsy stage.  This will be a 36" x 45" wheelchair quilt. 

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"Pulitzer Prize winner" is one of The Page Turner 2025* categories.  I chose the fiction winner for 2024. 

 A family torn apart by the Civil War comes together briefly under very unusual circumstances, and a nearly-lost legacy is passed on.             In 1874 ConaLee and her mother Eliza are delivered to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia, by the man they know as Papa.  Nearly a decade before he came across them in their remote mountain cabin and moved in unasked.  Now he's prepared to shed them and move on. Eliza is admitted to the asylum because she is outwardly non-verbal.  ConaLee passes for Eliza's maid, not her daughter.                                                              The Asylum is a model institution using humane (at the time) treatments for the mentally ill.  The head security guard is a one-eyed man known as Night Watch.   An orphan boy named Weed is his ward and helper.                                                   Left behind, but not forgotten, is Dearbhla, a healer and herbalist who has known Eliza since childhood.                                                                                                                    How are the three generations of women connected to Night Watch?  The story spins out from multiple points of view.   There's mystery, love, tragedy, and a hopeful ending.

*Nancy Near Philadelphia introduced me to the FB group The Page Turner 2022. It changes its name each year so now it's TPT2025.  There is one book of the year but the others are prompts that participants can interpret as they wish. 

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