Friday check in: best in show but some editing required

 The annual GFWC-IL Tenth District Art Show was Wednesday.   They have used the same categories for years ranging from painting (subcategories by medium) to floral arranging to holiday decor, sculpture, paper crafts, photography, knitting/crochet -- and "wall hanging" and "embroidery, quilting, tatting."  Categories are subject to interpretation.  This year sculpture included a fused-glass panel (beautiful)  and a fabric/quilted covered flower pot (artificial flowers.  Well, I didn't make the rules.  I just followed them -- and I won!   Full confession:  I entered the only wall hanging and there two quilts and a quilted tote bag (no tatting).  But I got Best in Show. 

Nancy Z is a GFWC friend and P.E.O. sister who won the knitting/crochet category.  

Our housekeeper/caregiver looked after S (and cleaned the house) while I was gone.  

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SAHRR Round 6 called for kites or a block beginning with K.  I don't have the Studio 180 Corner Beam ruler but I do have the 30-Something ruler. However, 30-Something makes 3" or 4" units.  Sure, I could have drafted a template or paper pieced.  But I didn't want to.  

K is for kaleidoscope.  I bought the large and small Kaleido-rulers from Marti Michell's retirement clearance sale last summer.  Time to try them out.   I was mightily impressed!  Easy to use and accurate results.  

I sewed and sewed until I had 56 4" blocks.  I made rows and attached them.  They fit!  Remember that I'm sewing upstairs in the living room these days, away from the studio (basement) design wall and cutting table so I can't easily spread my work out to measure.  Afterwards, when I pinned the flimsy to the design wall -- oops.  It bows.   I have some calculating and adjusting to do.

I think I'll add a skinny green border to stabilize the outer edges (once I've corrected the bowing).

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  Brag About Your Beauties  OMG February

Midweek: a walk and round 6

"Hello, fan club!" 

 

Tuesday afternoon the temperature reached 51 degrees, about 40 degrees higher than a week ago.  We paid a visit to the state park.  It felt good to stretch my legs.

 Yuccas stay green.   The fungus reminded me of hand- and foot-holds on a climbing wall.  There's still a little snow. 

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SAHRR round 6 in progress.  Come back on Friday to see the flimsy.  

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: orchids, placemats + reading

 

Our Friday adventure was an outing to the annual orchid show at Chicago Botanic Garden.  

This year's theme is, obviously, India.  

The tickets are timed-entry which helps with crowd control at this very popular show.   I checked out a parking pass at the library which saved us $10.00.  




 

Regenstein Hall was draped with fabric that evoked saris.   (I was last here in November for the Fine Art of Fiber quilt show.) 

The corridor to the greenhouses featured this display. 

It is impossible to take a bad picture of an orchid.  

The peacock's tail was all orchids. 

Stevens enjoyed it, too.

An orchid-bedecked rickshaw (tuk-tuk). 

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In the studio:    I showed a photo of leftover batik half-rectangles.  I put darks and lights togther and sewed and sewed -- more than 60!   The units are a snap to make using the Split Rects ruler from Studio 180.

Most were 3 x 6 though some were smaller.   Three placemats with more in the works.

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Tommye McClure Scanlin is a tapestry weaver (and professor emerita) who has woven her journals for more than a decade.  Her book features journal, diary, and calendar projects created by more than two dozen fiber artists. They describe their particular medium and their inspiration. 

There is a temperature quilt by a quiltmaker who lives near me (though I don't know her).    Of course I was reminded of the journaling Julies:  Julie in GA  Julie and Julie 

My blog is the closest I've come to keeping a journal. It helps to have specific interests to chronicle (quilts, reading, travel, and so on).  I admire all the fiber artists who document their lives and their reactions to the world in their work.   

Linking up with Design Wall Monday  Oh Scrap Sew and Tell  

Friday check in: SAHRR, a bag created, and a bag rescued

 

I've had a productive day and a half!

This is month #7 for the guild BOM.  The February house block is in the center with its predecessors around it. 

SAHRR with round #5, quarter log cabins.  They fit!  I am very pleased with the way this is turning out.  

I posted this photo on Monday. I intended to make wheelchair quilt (36 x 45).  I finished the quilting--just an easy swirl, no sweat.  When I trimmed the edges I trimmed one long side TOO much and it looked.....not right.   I could have bound it "not right" and given it away; who would know?  I would.  I could have kept it as a UFO muttering at me.  I didn't do either of those things.  

Ta da!  I made a large tote bag to take quilts or flimsies to guild meetings (and other things to other places).  I trimmed two edges and used those pieces for the handles. 

That was my downstairs studio sewing today.  (Remember that I've set up a sewing station in the living room so that Stevens doesn't have to go downstairs when we watch TV together in the evening.)  My upstairs sewing was a bunch more sliced batik blocks (continuing the sliced blocks from SAHRR round 4).  I found a ziploc back with batik split rectangles that are scraps from a long-ago project.   I sewed them all up.   Trimming can wait until Friday evening.

We're going to have an adventure tomorrow.  Come back on Monday for the report.  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday   SAHRR Round 5 RSC Saturday

Midweek: round 5 underway + dust off a book decision

 

SAHRR Round 5 so far.  I've made all the quarter-log cabin units (3" finished).  I hope to have all four borders sewn on by Friday. 

I'm participating in Bea's (BeaQuilter) Dust Off a Book blog hop next month.  I'm perusing quilt books, dusty or not, to choose a project to make. 

I do not lack choices. (There are more quilt books than these.)

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss -- thanks for the shout out today, Jennifer. 

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! 

Friday check in: it's a flimsy!! and more progress

A librarian's Valentine!  

We didn't get much snow from Wednesday's storm (about 3") but now it's very, very cold. I went to Rotary yesterday morning (S stayed in) and didn't go out the rest of the day.    More snow coming this weekend.  

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Old Town is a flimsy!  

I added a white border to stabilize the edge.  8 yards by weight.  I have an April appointment with Barb-the-quilter.  

I made two placemats out of the leftovers from Lantern, the top-along for February. (See last Friday's post.)  They await binding. 

Twenty Ohio Stars in this month's RSC color, blue, displayed on the design floor (the living room).  

The sliced units for this week's SAHRR were such fun to make that I'm making more. 

These start with 4" squares and 1.5" x 5" strips and are trimmed to 3.5".

 Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

 

Midweek: SAHRR surprise

Looking out the front door at 10 a.m.  The storm has been predicted for three days.  3"? 6"? 8"?  I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere today.  

Old Town awaits the outer border. I am hoping that the little checkerboards didn't stretch out on the edges . . .

BUT!

I did not have any units on hand for this week's Stay at Home Round Robin prompt for "slashed/sliced" blocks.  I had to resort to sewing but that was no hardship. They were easy to make and,  miraculously, they fit perfectly. 

Linking up at Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: SAHRR, Old Town, and reading

How nice to get this FB message first thing on Saturday! 

This is the quilt that she won.  (Working title: "Go Scrappy or Go Home.")   

The weather cooperated Saturday morning for the spaghetti dinner delivery.  All our "customers" (neighbors mostly) were appreciative.  We had two of the dinners ourselves -- tasty!  

Saturday afternoon I went to the last hours of an estate sale.  The advertised German nutcrackers were long gone by the time I got there but I got a nice office chair on wheels for $7.00.   The seat-lifter on the Steelcase chair I've had at my sewing machine for 15+ yrs has quit working.  I moved the Steelcase chair in my home office to the studio. This estate sale chair will go in the home office. [Yes, Steelcase furniture can be repaired but that would be more than $7.00.]

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This week's prompt for the Stay at Home Round Robin is "stars." Conveniently I had a stack of 4-1/2" (unfinished) variable stars in the batik box. 

More progress:  

I assembled the Old Town blocks and added the inner border.  

Here are the checkerboard inner borders. You can see my living-room set up with Stevens in the background (Superbowl playing).

On the design floor:   I bought both sizes of Drunkard's Path templates from Marti Michell's retirement sale.  Her method and instructions make them almost easy.  The tedious but necessary part is pinning.

I cleared the DPs away to show another RSC blue project:  9" Ohio Stars. 

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An interesting look at the dynamic of one family.

"No one will love you more or hurt you more than a sister." (p. 258) 

Olivia "Ollie" Shred is a beautiful, talented athlete.  She's also selfish and manipulative -- and, as it turns out, mentally ill.   Younger sister Amy is studious, socially awkward, and caught up in Ollie's orbit even as she is repelled by it.  Their mother is determined to show the world only a perfect family while their father loses himself in his successful business.  

 Ollie has inpatient treatment but runs away, establishing a pattern for the next twenty years. She returns home to be bailed out yet again, and disappears overnight.  Eventually she makes her way to Hollywood where, being Ollie, she charms a studio producer.  Amy puts all of her efforts and energy into academics (biochemistry at Columbia).  When she loses her research grant she switches to publishing where she finds success as an editor though she is less successful in love.  It's not a happy story, but it ends with a glint of hope.  

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

Friday check in: spaghetti prep, top-along, and a really good book

 

Yesterday was spaghetti prep day. Our Rotary Club makes spaghetti dinners (pasta and homemade sauce, green salad and dressing, a roll, and a cookie) to community helpers, shut-ins, and others who would like a home-cooked meal delivered to their doors.  

My job was to buy all the supplies except for the sauce ingredients and the pasta. Chris (upper left center) is in charge of that. He's teaching new member Ted (upper left left).  Harriet and I had salad duty.   Interact Club members helped out.  We used the kitchen at our church (Memorial UMC in Zion). 

Delivery is tomorrow.  Next year there will be quilted placemats to go with each meal!

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I have set up the Singer 301 in the living room because Stevens is having trouble negotiating the stairs to basement (the studio).  I don't want him to fall.   It means I have to decide what I'm going to work on and bring that fabric, ruler, etc. upstairs.  I made all the blocks for Lantern, the February top-along, with the new setup, but I did the layout and block assembly downstairs (design wall and the big sewing table).  

I often have trouble distributing prints to get a good balance and avoid same-fabric-touching. There are 12 fabrics here (plus the background). I labeled them A-L on the pattern and and labeled my blocks A-L.  

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This was recommended at last month's ALA Retired Members Round Table book club.  

Daphne has lived in seclusion in her spacious London apartment furnished in eclectic elegance. Now that she's turning 70 she decides it's time to venture out. She pays a visit to the Senior Citizens Club at the Mandel Community Centre. There aren't many club members (one of them drops dead at Daphne's first meeting). The new social director, Lydia, is tasked with growing the group while dealing with the local council's threatened demolition of the building (as well as the disintegration of her marriage). Daphne welcomes the challenge to put her formidable organizing skill to work. She identifies the talents of the other club members--retired actor Art, former celebrity photographer William, yarn bomber Ruby, born-to-be-wild Anna--and enlists them in not only saving the building but also saving Lydia.

This funny and delightful novel proves that it's never to late to reinvent yourself.

Linking up with  Finished or Not Friday 

Weekly update: OMG February, placemats, and the top-along + reading

 

My One Monthly Goal for February is to get Old Town to the flimsy stage.  One motivation is to reclaim the design wall. :)  

The Quiltville FB group has photos of many versions of the design with different colorways and different sashings or settings or borders.  I'm going to stick to the sashing as patterned but I may do something other than the checkerboard border.  

I made six placemat flimsies from units in the parts department.  The tan/green/red one has been around since 2007 (gulp!). I always thought I'd piece it into a quilt back.  The one below it (pink and green) is left over from the insert strip from a quilt back. 

Lantern is the The Running Doe Quilts top-along pattern for February. Here are the first four blocks (12" x 14") and the rest of the fabric pull.  

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 "Reframing the Portrait" was the topic of the December 28 episode of NPR's To the Best of Our Knowledge.  British opera singer Peter Brathwaite was one of the people interviewed. I was so intrigued by his story that I checked out the book. 

During the Covid lockdown the Getty Museum challenged people to recreate famous paintings using things in their homes. Brathwaite took the challenge a step further and recreated portraits of Black people, portraits created as early as 1375 up to the present day (Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack Obama).   

His Barbadian grandmother's quilt features in several, such as this one by Christian Weiditz circa 1530-40.

Another quilt is the portrait.  I recognized Bisa Butler right away.  

I very much enjoyed this journey through art history.  

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Linking up with Sew and Tell  (thanks for the shout out, Melva!)  Oh Scrap!  OMG February and Design Wall Monday