Friday check in: wildflowers, a little sewing, and a lot of reading

Turk's cap lilies are in bloom.  I love their curled petals and freckled faces.   (Photos from Volo Bog and Illinois Beach State Park.) 

The garden yielded enough basil for a big batch of pesto. I freeze it in 1-T portions.   [For each 2 cups of basil:  2 tsp garlic, 1/2 c grated Parmesan, 1/2 c walnuts (cheaper than pignoli), 1/2 c olive oil, salt.]

 I had three routine medical procedures this week. Two sets of results are in, one to come. I am not worried.  

On the other hand, the Janome is in the shop.  The feed dogs have failed. Symptom: for weeks the straight stitch quality was off (set at the longest, sewed micro-short) though free-motion and walking foot were okay (since those don't depend on the feed dogs). I tried dropping the feed dogs to see if they would pop back up. They didn't.   The repair guys are really busy.  It may be as long as four weeks.

I set up Sweetness, the Singer 301.  I'm in for a lot of piecing.  

Case in point:  18 out of 20 blocks for Jasper, the July top-along. I'm using shirtings supplemented by homespuns.  

Blocks are 12" so this will be 48" x 60".

I went to an estate sale yesterday that advertised a trundle bed.  The bed was an odd size so no sale,  but there were two sewing machines (I passed) -- and a couple boxes of fabric.  I made a stack and offered $10.  Back home:  28 yards, which is .37 per yard. Some great Cranston Christmas prints, none of which I need but . . . 

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I've been reading the books I got at the ALA conference.  

Percival Everett's retelling of Huckleberry Finn from Jim's viewpoint is as good as everyone has said. It's won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Everett spoke at the Carnegie reception and I have an autographed copy.  

James is our AAUW selection for August and I'm leading the discussion.  

I'm now listening to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to compare and contrast.

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This is my favorite book of the summer.  I read it in a day. Funny, incisive, and altogether wonderful.

 Bud Stanley built a shell around himself when he was a kid--his mother died, his older brother was always better at everything--and the shell has gotten stronger over the years.  It turns out that it's not as protective as it is numbing.   He makes a drunkenly colossal email error and loses his job as an obituary writer, which leads to corporate HR bumbling.  It also opens the shell to admit help from friends -- his office-mate, his amazing landlord, the eight-year-old-boy next door, and the woman he meets at a funeral.  Each of them helps Bud realize that he has worth. 

As landlord Tim says, "You watch the world go by...You watch. You comment. But you don't engage. Because to do that takes courage. It takes vulnerability. The chance we might get hurt. But you've had enough of that. You're so afraid."  (188) Tim adds, "It isn't about death. It's about the privilege of being alive." 

Bud says, "Our lives each day are a series of choices. It's one decision over another.....Lives are changed by seemingly unconnected, random decisions that change everything." (247)

And, in the end:  "No one tells you about how, in the days and weeks after, when others have moved on, perhaps rarely thinking of the event, the passing, you sit there and think, 'How am I supposed to live?'"  (269)

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Sarah Penner combines magical realism and romance in Italy, set in 1821 and 2019.  I learned something -- a hagstone is a stone with a natural hole in it. Now I will look for them when I'm beachwalking.

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Wreck (publication October) is the follow up to last summer's best-selling Sandwich.  Both are narrated by Rocky, a fifty-something wife and mom who is juggling (=sandwich) her young adult children, her husband, her free-lance writing career, and her parents.  Sandwich is set during their annual week at the Cape.  Wreck is set two years later, back home in western Massachusetts (the author lives in Amherst).

Both are  told in a lively, rushing, stream-of-consciousness style -- all of Rocky's feelings are there all the time. I'd like her to be more insightful but I can imagine her saying she's so sorry but she's too busy juggling everything. And so, too often, are the rest of us.

 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

More wildflowers.

Yucca, lead plant, purple prairie clover. 

White meadowsweet, butterfly weed, St. John's wort.

Climbing roses, fire pink (also scarlet catchfly), purple angelica. 

Weekly update: catching up in the studio

My t-shirt says Free People Read Freely

I hope you all had a pleasant holiday.   

It rained briefly on Friday morning but the sun came out before lunchtime.  It was a beautiful evening for the Fourth of July festivities at Shiloh Park in Zion.   There was a big crowd for the concert by a band called Mike & Joe (80's rock).  They played for two hours without a break.  

 

The fireworks  began at 9:30.   My phone camera captured a couple of them. 

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My quilting goal for the July is to keep up with a variety of projects.  I got a great start!

The yellow stars were made from HSTs (1.5" unfinished) from a 2023 project. I began assembling them before I went to the ALA conference.  They're now a flimsy.  39 x 44.  

I surprised myself that the border blocks fit precisely.

The final block for the guild BOM was released midweek. It's the shooting star in the center.  

 The BOM designer suggested a straight set with sashing and cornerstones. I'm contemplating other ideas to camouflage the imbalance of the blocks (variance in complexity, light/dark, etc.).

I made 8 nine-patch blocks in purple for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  

The other RSC project is to make 20 9" Ohio Star blocks in the monthly color for a wheelchair-sized quilt.  

I used darker, dustier purples with gold.  The purple/gold border print was a serendipitous discovery in the stash and there was enough of it! 

This is month #2 of the guild round robin. M.N. provided FQs of Cherrywood solids plus a blender and asked that we use only those.I can't show you the entire quilt-in-progress because it's a surprise, but you can see part of the border I added.   I used the Split-Rects ruler by Studio 180. 

Now I'm working on blocks for Jasper, the Running Doe Topalong for July.  I'm using shirtings supplemented by some homespun plaids.  

Linking up with RSC at So Scrappy  Oh Scrap! Sew and Tell   Design Wall Monday  Monday Musings

P.S.  On my evening walk in the neighborhood.  There was no sign of the mate.

#alaac25 in Philadelphia (quilts included)

 

 I've been to five ALA Midwinter Meetings (January/February) in Philadelphia, most recently in January, 2020. This was the first Annual there since 1982.

My first ALA Annual Conference was in 1984. Since the I've missed two (1991 and 2016). 2020 was cancelled and 2021 was virtual. By my reckoning that means this year was #37.  I go to the conference to learn about issues and new books, hear interesting speakers, sightsee, and see friends.  My main involvement nowadays is the Retired Members Round Table.

 Issues:   ongoing threats to access information (from kids to researchers), 

federal budget cuts, 

and the firing of the Librarian of Congress.  

RMRT sponsored a panel about the ways that retirees can (and must!) be vocal advocates for libraries in their communities.  

I popped in for a few minutes at a session of ALA Council, the governing body.  I served on Council for 16 years.  

Books (new and nearly new):

The Carnegie Awards are the adult equivalent to the Newbery/Caldecotts.  (James is my book group's August selection and now I have a signed copy. I look forward to A Walk in the Park)

Left: two of the Literary Luminaries were audiobook narrators so instead of a book there were cards with QR codes for a free download.  

Upper right:  the HarperCollins book buzz is always fun.

Lower right: the Gala Author Tea on Monday afternoon is my last conference event. 

I read The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner on the flight home.  Like her first novel, The Lost Apothecary, it's magical realism set in two centuries. 

Interesting speakers:  there were many.  I couldn't coordinate my schedule to see all of them, but I did get to hear Dr. Brene Brown.

The RMRT President's Program was given by the librarian/archivist at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  She told us how their resources provide documentation and background for the museum's exhibits, using their current special shows about Surrealism and Marcel Duchamp as examples.  

Ann Marie, Nancy, and I thoroughly enjoyed a screening of Rebel With a Clause moderated by writer (and star) Ellen Jovin and filmmaker Brandt Johnson.   They traveled to all 50 states where she set up her grammar table and talked to people, answering their grammar questions and listening to their comments.   

You can watch the trailer here.Theatrical release will be in 2026. Don't miss it!!  Meanwhile, you can read Jovin's book of the same name.

Sightseeing: 

Ann Marie (my roommate), Nancy, Lisa, and I went to Independence Hall. Tickets are free but are timed-entry.  

Lower left: the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall, where the delegates deliberated and then signed the Declaration. Lower right: Congress Hall where Congress met when Philadelphia was the capitol.  (It was originally the county courthouse.) 

Upper right: a bust of Franklin surveys the House chamber at Congress Hall.

We did not see the Liberty Bell. No tickets needed but the line is very, very long.  We contented ourselves with the replica in the visitors' center. 

RMRT sponsors a tour/field trip at each annual conference.  This year we went to the  Rosenbach Library

The tour is open to any conference attendee, hence the younger-than-retired in the group.  

Everyone enjoyed it.

Upper left:  a clock.  Center left: Jane Austen.  Center:  James Joyce (the Rosenbach celebrates every Bloomsday (June 16: Ulysses). Lower left:  the Rosenbachs facilitated the sale of several First Folios but never owned one. These are Second, Third, and Fourth Folios.  Lower center:  the royal charter for the Drury Lane Theatre specifying that women can play women's roles (in Shakespeare's time men played them). Lower right:  British and American first editions of Moby Dick.  

Friends:

Just a few....Nancy, Ann Marie, Carrie, Katharine, Larayne....

and a special meet up!  

Late Friday afternoon I took the train from downtown to the suburbs.  Marsha met me at the station and took me to Nancy's house.   (I met Nancy through blogging and Marsha because she is a librarian and a quilter.  They have been good friends (same church, plus quilting) for many years.)  Nancy served supper.  I met her husband Joe.  We four had a wonderful evening.

Nancy wrote about the flag quilt in this post

One quilt leads to another -- in this case sixteen of them.

This year's auction raised $4180 for the scholarship fund. My records only go back to 2013.   2013-2025: $44,513 (plus the 12 years before that). 

From left: Antipodes (one of mine): $500.   Cats: $500. School Colors 1: $175. School Colors 2: $175. Art Class: $100. One Fish Two Fish (stack 'n' whack): $175. Mrs. Tomte: $150. Dragon Reader: $475. Winnie the Pooh: $400. Tall pumpkin (partially hidden): $100. Short Pumpkin: $175. Wreath: $80.

You can see Ann Marie, Lisa's back, and at the far right Nancy's back.  The easels are for artwork donated by illustrators/graphic artists, also to benefit the scholarship fund.

I made these four.  The Beacon: $150. Morning at the Marsh: $250. Churn Dash: $275. Indigo Stars: $500.  

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And then it was Tuesday morning. Time to check out, get to the airport, and fly home.  The return trip went without a hitch. I walked in the door at 2:45.

I shipped just one box of books and swag. It arrived on Thursday. 

I miss having my first reader to greet me . . .

Midweek: stash report and OMG

 I had a wonderful time at the ALA conference in Philadelphia, quilts included. That report will come in a day or two.  

Rabbit, rabbit -- this pair is dressed for the occasion and posed on a quilt.  (I grabbed the photo from a Google images search. I suspect it's a Chinese-made DWR.)  

I made the July block for the guild BOM to take to tonight's meeting.  It's the heart in the center surrounded by the prevous blocks in the series.  

Stash report, June: 

Fabric IN:  126-1/2 yards, $36.  That's .28 per yard.  Lots of rummage sale bargains this month.    Fabric OUT:  63 yards. 

Fabric IN, YTD:  759 yards, $285.00, average .38 per yard.  If I can't keep myself from acquiring fabric then I'd better get good deals, and I certainly have.   Fabric OUT, YTD: 608 yards.  Net gain: 151 yards.  I'd better get sewing! 

My One Monthly Goal for July is to keep up with the BOM, the guild Round Robin, Running Doe Topalong, and RSC purple.  

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss and OMG at Stories from the Sewing Room