Midweek: wildflowers!, all set, placemat surprise + reading

 

Monday:   Prickly pear cactus are in bloom at Illinois Beach State Park. Each petal is tipped with a sharp spine.  They like the sandy soil of the dunes.

Tuesday:   I put the camera on selfie to take this from-below photo of a Turk's-cap lily.  (In another section of the state park with 'regular,' not sandy, soil.)  I love the turned-back petals and the freckled faces.

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In the studio:   

I finished assembling the thrifted-shirt stars.  The sashing is regular quilting cotton, the cornerstones are a woven plaid, and the border is a thrifted sheet. Six yards by weight.   

Design adapted from a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Hand Me Downs (published in Scraps and Shirttales).  I realized that she used the same star block in Blue Heaven, which I made in 2023

I pulled out a shoebox with short 1-1/2" strips. I'd already sewn many into 3-1/2" x 15" (or longer) units to have on hand.  Here's what I ended up with:  four placemats for the year-long project.  

 As I sewed I binged the final season of Grantchester via PBS Passport.  It was wonderful.  I'll miss the characters!  

# # # # # # Though I've got that big stack of books from the ALA conference, these two came from the shelf (more precisely, the corner table in the living room that has several TBR piles).  Both relate to this semiquincentennial month though they deal with other 18th-century events.  

I got Jacobs' book at last year's ALA conference in Philadelphia.   He uses humor and irony to interpret and amplify the Constitution.   The book was researched and written in 2023/24.  Events since then only confirm his conclusions that, yes, the U.S. will continue but that it is imperative that we insist on the checks and balances that the framers deliberately included. [That is, no! to an imperial presidency!]

One of the local museums I visited on my New England trip last summer had a shelf of donated books that they were selling as a modest fundraiser.  I bought a like-new copy of Calico Captive, a YA novel first published in 1957.   It  was a propos right now because of (a) 18th century and (b) the book I just read, A Plea for Freedom.  Both Calico Captive and A Plea are based on real incidences of 18th century colonists being captured by Indians.  

In 1754 James and Susanna Johnson and their family were kidnapped by the Indians and marched from Charlestown, NH, to Montreal where the Indians sold them to the French.   Susanna's account of that harrowing experience was published in 1797.  Speare reimagines the story through the view of Susanna's younger sister Miriam Willard.   

Though I read Speare's Witch of Blackbird Pond many, many times, I don't recall reading Calico Captive.  I'd have loved it when I was 11!  I enjoyed it now, though it's a dated presentation, and I want to investigate Susanna and Miriam's actual stories.

# # # # # Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss 

P.S.  More prickly pear and Turk's-cap photos for your enjoyment!