Weekly update: border decision and letting the squirrel out of the box

Brisk northeasterly winds brought rolling waves to the lake today.  The water temperature was a comfortable 72 degrees.


I have water shoes with perforated soles so I can wade and walk over the pebbles in comfort.

1.7" of rain mid-week was great for wildflowers as well as lawns and gardens.  (These wildflowers are in Illinois Beach State Park.)

Chicory, thistle (with an orange butterfly), butterfly weed.
Queen Anne's lace, monarda, purple prairie clover.
Lead plant, mullein (6' tall!), yucca.


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In the studio:

I've been mulling over border designs for the GITP quilt.  I had flying geese in mind and made 80 blue and 80 green.  But long rows seemed skimpy.  And should I alternate colors or do segments (four green, four blue, etc.)?





Then I had a WWBD? (what would Bonnie (Hunter) do?) inspiration.














The double rows will require 328 geese so I'm cutting and sewing more.  (As of this writing I've finished the green ones and have just begun the blues.)








And the squirrel in the box?

A while ago I began making 9" homespun churn dash blocks.  I completed one and finished the HSTs for several more.

I don't know how many blocks I'll make nor how I'll set them. Playing in my homespun stash is a nice diversion from the GITP project.



Linking up with Oh Scrap!
Monday Making
 Design Wall Monday

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This week's reading:  The Giver of Stars is the second novel about the pack horse librarians of Kentucky.  (The  Pack Horse Library Project was a WPA program to deliver books and magazines to people in the rural mountain country of eastern Kentucky.)  Both the first novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, and Giver of Stars have the pack horse librarians and the setting in common but the characters and the sub-stories are different.  I enjoyed both!

I brought the advance copy of Wild Nights back from ALA in 2017. My husband read it right away. I finally got around to it this week.  Our norm for sleeping conditions -- seven to eight hours of uninterrupted, continuous sleep,  bed-sharing only by consenting adults, children in their own beds and mostly in their own bedrooms -- is a North American and western European phenomenon developed in the 19th century.  A new way to think about what we think of as "how it is supposed to be."

Weekly update: AAUW convention (with fabric) -- and RSC and Block Lotto

I picked up Erika shortly before 8:00 on Friday morning and we headed to Springfield for the AAUW convention.  We got through rush hour traffic without any delay and arrived in good time.  I'd last been at the Springfield Crowne Plaza for the P.E.O. state convention.  It was funny to be familiar with the layout but to be with a different group of people. 

AAUW CEO Kim Churches gave the keynote address on Friday evening.  Under her leadership there is an ambitious new strategic plan that focuses on economic security, education and training, and leadership.  (YOU can help ensure economic security for yourself and other women in your life:  https://salary.aauw.org/ )

In 2018 Betsy Dirksen Lonergan ran for Congress in the 13th-IL. which stretches diagonally from Decatur/Champaign-Urbana through Springfield to Edwardsville/Glen Carbon.  She lost by *1%* -- and she's going to try again in 2020.

Dr. Zoe Spencer received support from AAUW's Legal Advocacy Fund in her case against Virginia State University.  She is a tenured professor but two administrators who had lesser credentials and experience than she did were reassigned to faculty positions with a lighter course load than hers -- and they got 25% higher pay. 

Dr. Natasha Casey teaches communications at Blackburn College in Carlinville, IL. Her presentation on Media and Information Literacy was very interesting.






The convention ended at 4 p.m. on Saturday with the raffle drawing for Good Fortune.    The fortunate winner is an AAUW from Deerfield.  The proceeds were  $510 for AAUW Funds!    (This was the 17th spring raffle quilt I've contributed.  I estimate the proceeds over all the years are over $6500.)

The two tote bags ( photo here ) I made for the Gender Equity Fund brought $40 and $65.

The drive home was uneventful. I pulled into our garage at 8:35 p.m.

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After the GEF committee meeting on Friday afternoon I had enough time to drive to Rochester -- just six miles from Springfield -- to check out  Peace and Applique.  WOW!  It occupies an 1848 building (four narrow and long rooms) with Bernina machines and 7000 bolts of fabric -- modern, reproduction, batik, and "regular."

 Yes, I indulged.  But not too much.

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Back home, in the studio:

Orange is the RSC color for May.  I made the HSTs last week and assembled them Sunday evening. The pinwheels are 6.5".  I'm making the equivalent of one per day, so 31 for May. (You can see January-April in this post .)  I don't have a project in mind but the units will be handy to have.

I made five pairs of T blocks for the May Block Lotto .

Monday linkups:
RSC So Scrappy
Design Wall Monday
Moving It Forward
Oh Scrap!
Monday Making

AAUW-full -- and $500 for LAF!

The AAUW IL/MO state convention was May 3-5 at the Hilton at the Ballpark in downtown St. Louis. We had a joint convention in 2001 and it was high time to try it again.  I left home early Friday and picked up AAUW friend Kate at her house in a western suburb. Despite rain the entire length of I-55, we arrived in St. Louis at noon. 

[Note: to find out more about AAUW just click here:  www.aauw.org]

I always feel so "AAUW-full" after an AAUW convention -- that's "awe-full," not "awful"! -- because our collective efforts to empower women have accomplished so much since 1881 -- and there is still much to do.  AAUW members are interested, interesting, and dedicated.


The Cubs/Cardinals walk around Busch Stadium raised $2319 (Cubs) and $1285 (Cardinals) for a total of $3606 for  the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund which honors an individual, project, organization, or institution for outstanding contributions to equality and education for women and girls.

AAUW's  Legal Advocacy Fund  (LAF) works to challenge sex discrimination in higher education and the workplace. The speaker Saturday evening was a woman who was sexually harassed and abused while she was in the National Guard, starting with the recruiter who signed her up when she was a junior in high school. The harassment, ostracism, and loneliness she endured during her Guard service (including a deployment to Iraq) were horrible.  AAUW support for a class-action lawsuit has helped both financially and emotionally.  She is now 27 and working as a pediatric nurse in Indianapolis.

I don't always dress to match my quilts!

Every spring I donate a quilt to the Waukegan Area Branch  to raffle to raise funds for AAUW projects.  This year it was Easy Street, the most recent Quiltville mystery. Ticket sales at convention were great!  The net proceeds, $500, will go to LAF.  The LAF plaintiff pulled the winning ticket -- and the winner was delighted!

I took Kate and Shirley May home on Sunday afternoon.  No rain and good company made the drive easier.

See what other quiltmakers (who presumably were at home over the weekend) are working on at Judy's Patchwork Times.

"We ARE AAUW" and $375!

The Twist 'n' Turn Stars were one of the Blockswappers' exchanges last year. I contributed the finished quilt to my AAUW branch to raffle, with the proceeds going to AAUW's Legal Advocacy Foundation (http://www.aauw.org/advocacy/laf/). The AAUW-Illinois state convention was yesterday and today. Ticket sales were brisk! The final tally was $375 and the winner was delighted.

This year's convention theme was "We ARE AAUW." A=Advocacy, R=Research, E=Education, which summarizes what AAUW has been about since its founding in 1881. I've gone to enough state events that I know many AAUW members from other parts of the state, so convention is a time for renewing friendships. Eight women from our branch attended this year, several of whom were first-time attendees.

The keynote speaker was AAUW's public policy director, Lisa Maatz. "We know the world can be changed by one person," she said, "but it's so much more fun to do it in groups." Legislative success requires perseverance, she told us. An example: it took 14 years (7 congresses) to get the Violence Against Women Act passed. "You never know if it is your call or letter that tips the balance for your legislator." Lisa said that AAUW has a reputation as a progressive and moderate organization. AAUW is reasonable in what it seeks; its members are multipartisan. The AAUW Capitol Hill Lobby Corps is the only women's group that lobbies weekly when Congress is in session. Often AAUW is the only gender lens at the table for federal issues: we talk about education in the women's issues committees and we talk about women in the education committees. AAUW's Public Policy Program is determined by the members, who approve the program at the association convention (odd-numbered years).

The Women's Global Education Project was featured in today's breakout session. (http://www.womensglobal.org/) The speaker, Joan Sherman, is a board member of this project. She said that in the developing world 150 million children do not complete primary school; of that, 100 million are girls. Secondary education is a key factor in women's and family success: smaller families, less domestic violence, higher income. She said that these countries have ministries of education and have schools but resources (particularly in rural areas) are scarce, families often undervalue girls' education, etc. The Virginia Gildersleeve Fund (which I mentioned in an earlier blogpost) has given the WGEP grants. Obviously there is more that can be done.

AAUW-IL was instrumental in having December 10 be designated Jane Addams Day in Illinois.
http://www.aauw-il.org/jane.html Watch for an upcoming quilt featuring a block called the Jane Addams Star!