Weekly update: AIC, quilt show, the end of an era, a finish! and a flimsy

 

I've had ample opportunities to go downtown to see the Caillebotte exhibit at the Art Institute, but it took a "closing soon!" email to get me to do it on Friday.  

Wealthy Chicagoans in the Gilded Age (1890's) bought Impressionists as modern and avant-garde, and relatively inexpensive.  They were patrons of the Art Institute and thus the museum developed its Impressionist collection.  

"Paris Street, Rainy Day" was acquired in 1964 and has become one of AIC's most famous paintings.  Caillebotte painted it in 1877.

I had hoped to go to this famous intersection (Carrefour du Moscou) when I was in Paris last fall but couldn't fit it in. 

These are some of Caillebotte's other paintings in the exhibit.

There was an interesting thematic exhibit in the Textile Gallery.  

The selected textiles represent world cultures and span centuries from ancient Egypt to the present day.

Top center and right: mourning samplers.  Center left: photo collage on fabric (a quilt), log cabin quilt blocks (silk) -- but what looks like a Trip Around the World is not a block but a fragment from an altar cloth from Bhutan, 18th century.   Bottom left is a fabric collage (framed, not quilted); center Peruvian khipu, 2024; bottom right Nigerian chief's textile, 20th c.

Before I left the museum I got pictures of other favorites.  Top: John Singer Sargeant, two Georgia O'Keefes. Center: Marsden Hartley, Grant Wood, Mary Cassatt. Bottom: Mary Cassatt, Mark Chagall, and a tiled wall in the corridor to the restroom!

I was home at 4:15 p.m.  I really must go downtown more often!

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I had a meeting Saturday morning (Lake County Women's Coalition steering committee, of which I am the secretary.  (It looks as though I'll reup to be secretary for 2026-28, but that gets me out of being president.)  

 

After lunch Irene picked me up and we went to downtown Racine to see the Lighthouse Quilters biennial show.  

I chose the chickens for Viewer's Choice. 

"You're Nann!" said Laura.  "I know you from your blog!"  And I got a picture of her with her Underground Railroad Quilt.

I bought tickets for raffle baskets, but didn't win any of them.  There were vendors but I resisted temptation! 

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Sunday morning I gave the opening message for our church stewardship campaign. The theme is "Sharing the Bread of Life." I used the metaphor of sourdough starter.  Did you know that a sourdough starter can last for ten years?  Hopefully our  starter (flour (our contribution) + yeast (the Holy Spirit)  + water (our faithful reponse)) will be the leaven for our furtherance of God's work in the world.  

After lunch I revisited Lyons Woods Forest Preserve.  Look what I found along the trail -- wild strawberries.  In October!   

Can I go to the movies anytime I want?  Snap decision:  sure I can!  I caught the 4:10 viewing of the Downton Abbey finale.   

The end of an era for the Crawleys.  The show began in the UK in 2010 and in the US in 2011.  Storylines wrapped up with some inside references (Lady Mary: "I slept with a stranger." Lady Edith: "Was he Turkish?"), conventions were upended, and at the end a lovely tribute to Maggie Smith.   

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And, yes, I sewed!  

This is round 6 for the guild round robin.  I can't show you all of JW's quilt because it's a surprise.  

The Christmas Monkey Wrench quilt is finished.  

An assortment of Christmas prints on the back.  

And the October RSC Ohio Stars are now a flimsy.

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