Midweek: placemats!

 

Tuesday afternoon at the lakefront. Another mild day.

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In 2009 when Stevens retired we combined the contents of the parsonage with the house. We rented a storage unit to contain everything that wouldn't fit--furniture and books.  A few years after that we shuffled things around and downsized to a smaller unit.    As of Monday afternoon (with the the help of V & J) the unit is empty!   

As Ann Patchett observed in Whistler when they were sorting through the contents of the house, ""Every teacup comes with a short documentary film."  The cherry table was in the Hilyards' big house; I remember it in the dining area of my MIL's condo. Stevens used it as a side table in the parsonage. Now it serves as the TV stand, replacing the pine sewing table that I got in Fargo (upper right).  V wanted S's dresser (he called it his bureau) and the spoon-carved chest (bought in Bismarck) replaces it in the guest room. (I'm still working on outfitting that space.)  The rest of the furniture is in the garage (previously occupied by S's car; I trade both mine and his for the new Subaru). I will offer it to my nephew and his wife who live in a late-Victorian house. 

Now, what will I do with the $75 I'm no longer paying to rent the storage unit?  LOL.

# # # # # #  In the studio:  

I finished this batch of 15 placemats for the Rotary project.

Look what came in the mail!  Sara sent these placemats to add to the supply. 

A friend turns 80 this fall and her family is having a party for her on Saturday.  A mug rug is just right for a "no gifts" birthday celebration.  I made one and then had to make a replacement.  Can you see why?   

The Happy Birthday novelty print is upside down!  I used a non-directional print for the second version.

The quilt guild holiday exchange is a wall-hanging.  I'm using Amy Smart's tutorial (Diary of a Quilter).  These little cuties are 3-1/2 x 4-1/2 unfinished.  I'm aiming for 30 but they're such fun to sew that I'll probably make many more.  No problem with that.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss 

Thanks for the recognition today, Jennifer!

P.S.  The very last roses from the bush in the front flowerbed.  

Weekly Update: bunco, quilt show, and some sewing

 It was nice to go to the quilt guild meeting Wednesday evening.   The charity quilt challenge ended with voting for favorites. (The challenge was to select fabric from donations to the guild and to use a pattern or template from the guild library.  I used a pattern by Amy Ellis.)  I didn't get a picture of the winning quilt (red/white/blue for QOV).   

The block of the month concluded with a display of the Lori Holt sampler patterns they made--either a witch, a scarecrow, or a snowman. 

I put a bag of scraps (8 yds by weight) and a stack of old Quilters' Newletters on the free table and they were taken.  Hooray!

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The Zion Woman's Club Bunco fall fundraiser was Friday evening.   57 people came and everyone had a good time.   The treasurer's preliminary accounting is a profit of $1600! 

My friend Colleen won the quilt I donated. When I drew her ticket she yelled, "Now I can die happy!"  Not that she's planning to do that any time soon.

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The Fine Art of Fiber is always the first weekend of November at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  It's a collaborative effort of Illinois Quilters Inc. (IQI), the North Suburban Needlearts Guild, and the Weavers Guild of the North Shore.   

I went on Saturday morning.  

I have artists' statements for most of the quilts if you'd like to know more.  

RATS!  Google photos won't upload all the pictures I want to post.  Maybe they'll be available later in the day.

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In the studio:  I'm making placemats.  Come back on Wednesday to (hopefully) see the finished products.  

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

Midweek: dark skies, the blue wave, and flimsies

 

I did not take any photos at yesterday's Zion Woman's Club meeting -- and my sister was the speaker!  She's actively involved with the Dark Sky Association (darksky dot org) which works to preserve the natural nighttime environment. Light pollution takes its toll on everything -- insects, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals, including us!  

I didn't stay up to watch the election results but I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't resist checking.  Illinois' results were never in doubt but other races provided some cliff-hangers and surprise/no-surprise.  Once the euphoria is over the challenge of actually legislating and governing effectively will begin.

Image grabbed from Facebook.

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In the studio: 

I sewed borders on the unexpected nine patch. (Unexpected because I pulled the box of light-cornered nine patches off the shelf on Saturday with no particular design in mind.  They just arranged themselves like magic.)

Oakmont is the Running Doe/Villa Rosa top-along for November.   I used thrifted shirts with regular quilt cottons.  The units are 5" squares so the blocks are 9" finished. The flimsy is 54" x 72". 

No sewing today:  a funeral this morning (at our church), AAUW book club this afternoon (I'm leading the discussion of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), and quilt guild this evening.

Linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss

Weekly update: accomplishments and plans

 
 See the previous post for designs from Morocco and the announcement of the Quiltville mystery. 

Late bloomers at Spring Bluff and Van Patten Woods forest preserves this weekend.  Center:  oak trees are the gnarliest.

I was sixth in line at 10:00 a.m. Saturday when the thrift shop opened.   My half-off coupon was in hand and I scooped up nearly all the Aurifil thread.  (There was a box with ziploc bags with partially-used spools and cones. I left those.)  Mind you, that's half off the thrift shop price which was already astoundingly less than retail.  

What will I do with it?  For the time being, I will own it.  

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I could have used neutral, the RSC color for October, to set the coin blocks I've made for RSC this year.  Instead I used a medium-blue ditsy print from the nearly-vintage bin.  I had just enough!  

66 x66.  4-1/4 yards.

STASH REPORT for October:  fabric in:  none!  Fabric out:  18-7/8 yards.  

Year to date:  fabric in, 442-1/4, $719, $1.62 per yard.  Fabric out: 700-1/2.  Net decrease: 259-1/4.  

Cathy L. said her theme for November is "WITB?" meaning what's in the box.  That sounds like a good idea to me. I turned to a box on the top shelf.

For many years I participated in a quarterly swap for 3.5" nine patches. Most were dark corners (left box) but some were light corners (right box).  I've used both varieties in a lot of quilts but not for a while -- the coating of dust on the box lids testified to that.

I thought I'd use this setting.  It involved making many more 3.5" HSTs.  

But as much as I like busy designs, this was TOO busy.

Back to the drawing board . . . and look what happened!  All of this from Saturday evening to Sunday evening.  

I hope to have the flimsy completed for the midweek post. 

OMG for November:   24 placemats for the Rotary project. I have a half-dozen ready to quilt. I can use some of those 3.5" HSTs (see above), too.

Linking up with Sew and Tell  Design Wall Monday  Monday Musings Stories from the Sewing Room RSC So Scrappy

Morocco inspiration!

 
Walls.  Floors.  Textiles.  Exteriors. Interiors.  I took pictures of all of them.   

Moroccan design inspired Bonnie Hunter, too. She announced the 2026 Quiltville mystery, Star of Maghrib.  Count me in!!   (Morocco is "al-Maghrib," Arabic for "the west," because it was the western edge of the known world for centuries.)   

Bonnie's palette is red, green, blue, and neutral.  I'm going to use the colors in the ceramic plate I got in Fez:  orangey-red and yellow-green.   

Back to some of the dozens of photos I took! 

See the butterflies? 

Painted ceiling

Definitely a quilt pattern

Embroidery on a rug

Embroidery on a rug 

I bought postcards at the Majourel Museum. This was the packaging.