Friday check in: wildflowers, a finish, and progress

 

Wildflowers at Lyons Woods Forest Preserve on Monday.  

Top: Yellow sweet clover, meadow rose, false Solomon's seal.  Middle: Virginia waterleaf (also Shawnee salad), ox-eye daisy, dame's rocket.   Bottom:  Meadow buttercup, false white indigo, common nipplewort (really).

Cow parsnip grows taller than me and has colossal leaves.  

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The schedule has been rearranged to accommodate some unexpected in-patient medical tests for my husband.  So far things are okay and I hope he'll be home tomorrow.

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In the studio:  it's been a while since I made a waffle stamps quilt.  I began with 2" strips cut to 8" or 9". I pieced sets of five, then sliced into 2" x 8" units.  Sewing strips and then cutting them can be quicker than piecing hundreds of individual squares.  

The pieced back uses up most of the green/white floral.  The lavender/green is from a 4-yard piece that I'd been saving for.....for what?  There's nearly 3 yards remaining.

Linking up with Peacock Party  Finished or Not Friday

Friday finishes!

 

We revisited Greenbelt and Ray Lake Forest Preserves on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. It was sunny but cool with very little wind.  The tree swallows are establishing their nests in the nesting boxes.  The flowers are trout lilies and [a yellow flower I have to i.d.]

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In the studio:  two finished projects!

Last in, first out -- I pieced Jumbo Waffles last week. I quilted it in a simple grid using the walking foot. I pieced the four left over blocks into the back before they could be consigned to the orphan box.

(Click on the "waffle stamps" label to see the previous versions of this design.) 

My One Monthly Goal for April was to make a set of springtime placemats.  I used a floral print ("Concord" on the selvage) that I've had for many years.  

The design is from a book I've had for about the same length of time as the floral print.   All the placemats in the book are 14 x 20 finished -- more than big enough for a complete place setting and all the glassware.   I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday   Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?   and  OMG April Finish

I posted this photo earlier -- potholders in RSC's April blue for Joy's Table Scraps Challenge

P.S. April 20 was National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day. We celebrated appropriately. 

Weekly update: out and about, finishes and a flimsy, and more reading

 On Tuesday Zion Woman's Club members planted pinwheels to recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month. (CAP is a General Federation of Women's Clubs initiative.)  I've driven past the corner a couple of times and the pinwheels sparkle as they spin.     We took our masks off for the photo and then put 'em on again, though all of us are vaccinated.

Our beach visit on Friday was to the main unit of Illinois Beach State Park. That's one building in three photos -- the long-abandoned bathhouse. This story  tells about the innovative architecture.  

And this story tells about the erosion along our part of the lakeshore.  I learned that the phenomenon you can see in the lower left photo is called "overwash."   Severe storms are more prevalent. With no barrier dunes the high waves wash sand and gravel over walkways. When the water recedes the foundation washes away so the pavement collapses. 

Today's walk at the north end of the state park:  marsh marigolds, a fleshy-leafed plant whose name I don't know,  and green-topped fungus (about 1/2" each). 

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Most years I have a half-dozen community events that welcome a quilt to raffle, auction, or sell.  Those opportunities haven't yet picked up and  I have accumulated a big stack of finished quilts.  

I've known that  Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion welcomes quilts for their patients. I overcame inertia and delivered eight quilts this week.  It was nice to see Cheryl (also a quiltmaker) and Tim at the concierge desk.  

 Cheryl said to include a tag with my address because the patients often send personal thank  you notes.  Here's the tag I created [mailing address cropped out].  (The quilts are also labeled.) 

I'm counting these for the Hands 2 Help Challenge. 
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And in the studio: 

  Last week I wrote that I needed to make 8 mug rugs but I was thinking about making 10 just in case.  10 turned into 12.    These are for chapters who sponsor recipients of   Illinois P.E.O. Home Fund .grants.  (As I was typing this paragraph I got a phone call from a P.E.O. in Streator, IL, who had a couple of questions about the application process. I may well need those extra mug rugs.) 

Jumbo Waffles is a flimsy.  I used 2" squares and 2" strips for this version.  

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This week's reading:

 I finished listening to Bloody Genius, #12 in the Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford.  It's a police procedural mystery but Virgil is not a typical cop. Eric Conger's narration of the start-and-stop style is just great.   

On Wednesday evening John Sandford and Carl Hiassen presented a Zoom program sponsored by the library (along with other area libraries).   Sandford's latest Lucas Davenport book has just been published. 

Beloved Beasts, Michelle Nijhuis's history of the conservation movement, is spritely and informative.   From Aesop and Linnaeus she takes readers to the modern roots of conservation:  Early proponents were sportsmen (=white, well-to-do) who wanted to preserve animals so they'd still be able to hunt them.   Others were protesting the feather trade -- women's hats featured not only plumes but entire stuffed birds.   Nijhuis profiles William Hornaday, who shot some of the last bison in order to preserve (taxidermy) for the National Museum of Natural History.  Earl  In the 1920's Rosalie Edge took on the Audubon Society and established the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in eastern Pennsylvania.  [You can read this chapter in Smithsonian Magazine.]

Nijhuis writes about the well-known -- Julian Huxley, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson -- and the lesser-known, at least to me. Their collective accomplishments have raised awareness, cleaned up the air and water, and saved many species from extinction.  Of course this is no time to let up! 

Well-written and well worth reading.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!    Design Wall Monday    Monday Making

P.S.  Rambo lives next door. He came for a visit on Saturday afternoon.   

 

Weekly update: wildflowers, new projects, and reading

Spring wildflowers on my walks this week:

(clockwise):  skunk cabbage leafed out (the flower is the purply-brown "horn"), violets, swamp buttercup, white trout lily (aka dogtooth violet -- "trout" because the leaves are mottled brown/green like a trout); bloodroot. 

Saturday morning:   six of us from Illinois Beach Sunrise Rotary joined other District 6440 Rotarians at a warehouse in Northbrook. We sorted the shoes our clubs purchased through Operation Warm -- new sneakers for kids in our communities.  IBSR's share was 92 pairs that will be distributed through two local agencies.  

Operation Warm also provides new winter coats for kids.  Our club participates in that autumn event.

Saturday afternoon the magic of Zoom allowed me to attend two events:  the AAUW-Illinois state board meeting and the annual P.E.O. Lake County Round Table Founders Day.  Had these been in person I would have had to choose to attend one or the other, and I might not have been able to get to the shoe-sorting.  

The Founders Day program included cameo appearances by three women who have benefited from P.E.O. philanthropies.  One received  Program for Continuing Education Grant (PCE) in 2010. It enabled her to finish her college degree and get a job at a university where there was tuition reimbursement for both her children. As she said, PCE provided not one but three degrees.  The second recipient was working two jobs and trying to complete high school.  A Lulu /Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund grant allowed her to quit one job and concentrate on her studies. She will complete her AA this spring and enroll at UIC this fall.  The third recipient received a Star scholarship, a very competitive award for first-year women college students. She's pre-med at Penn State.  Hearing from these women helped all of us (the 55 in the Zoom room) realize that our contributions make a difference in women's lives!

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I'm serving on the Illinois P.E.O. Home Fund Advisory Committee. The Home Fund provides grants to Illinois women over age 65 who need housing assistance (rent, mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs, major appliances like furnaces).    Last year I made house-block mug rugs for each chapter that sponsored a HF recipient -- but the state convention was cancelled and the mug rugs were not given away.   This year the convention is virtual and our committee got the go-ahead to give the mugs rugs to this year's sponsors. I had 12 from last year  . (Fortunately I could just peel off the fused-on labels dated 2019-20.)   I need to make 8 more but I may make 10 just in case.   

I started a batch of waffle stamps blocks using 2" squares and 2" strips. (The three waffle stamps quilts I've made used 1-1/2" strips and squares.)  Maybe these are jumbo waffles?  

The blocks are 8" unfinished/7-1/2" finished.  I'm aiming for 72 blocks.

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It's interesting that there are boycotts of many products that are grown, harvested, pumped, mined, extracted, etc., under working conditions that are unregulated, dangerous, unethical, or otherwise exploitive.  Though diamond mining isn't "clean," I'm not aware of huge outcries about the product. Perhaps one reason is the De Beers monopoly's "diamond are forever" campaign. Whatever-- diamonds are a valuable commodity. The vast majority of the world supply comes from southwestern Africa.

Matthew Gavin Frank conducted an independent on-site investigation of that territory. Working conditions are still terrible. Labor laws and safety regulations are routinely ignored. As long as diamonds have been mined they have been smuggled.  Homing pigeons are very effective carriers of those gems.  The birds are secreted in lunchboxes or the folds of clothing. They are bred and trained to go back to their roosts. (Frank explains pigeon anatomy and behavior.)   What happens after the diamonds are gone? Frank travels to ghost towns that were thriving company towns just a couple of decades ago.

Frank takes the story beyond just reporting to include personal reflections, not about diamonds but somewhat about pigeons. It's somewhat distracting but it intensifies the narrative.   

Last week I wrote about my discovery of Idaho writer Kim Barnes.  I read another of her books this week. 

Barnes ended her widely-acclaimed 1996 memoir In the Wilderness at her high school graduation. Hungry for the World picks up where that left off .  At age 18, legally an adult, she rebelled against her parents' conservative lifestyle and Pentecostal faith. She didn't go far -- an apartment in her hometown of Lewiston, Idaho. She got a job at a bank. She partied, drank and smoked* a lot. The most dangerous behavior was her two-year liaison with Dave, a man who emotionally and physically abused her. Through it all she maintained a visiting-day relationship with her parents and her beloved grandmother. Eventually she escaped from Dave's controlling orbit and found a new future for herself as a college student.  (*She refers to cigarette-smoking so often in the three books I've read that I wonder if she's still a smoker, or if she's quit.)

Barnes is now in her 60's, married for many years, mother of three children. How do they react to her recounting in detail of her wild days?  

Illinois Beach State Park on Sunday afternoon

Linking up with  Oh Scrap!  Monday Making and  Design Wall Monday

Friday finish!

Waffle Stamps is finished!

The stamps are 1.5" squares mostly from mask-making scraps. The blocks are 5.5" unfinished.

 

The back uses old (bottom right, 36" wide vintage), medium-old (the bright butterflies from about 20 years ago and the Hoffman print right above it), and new (the big piece in the upper left, bought last year). 

68 x 70, 10 yards in all.

Linking up with
Whoop Whoop Friday
Finished or Not Friday

DWM: scrappy delight

October stash report:  acquired 28-7/8.  Used 37-3/4.  Yay!

Postage stamps have been my leaders-and-enders of late.   This flimsy has 168 "waffle stamps" blocks made from 1.5" postage stamps and 1.5" x 6.5" strips. The trimmed blocks are 5.5" (5" finished).(See a previous version here . ) When all the blocks were completed. I did NOT put them up on the design wall. I sewed 2's and then 4's together, then three long strips of seven 4's. The only concerns were keeping the horizontal/vertical orientation of the bars, that no two bar fabrics adjoined, and that there was some light/dark color balance. I don't think I will put a border on it.  The flimsy is 60 x 70 and used 5-3/4 yards.



Alycia, who I consider the Queen of Quilts of Valor, announced a QOV block drive for November. (Details are here .)  I made 20 blocks and have another 20 underway.  I found a cache of 2.5" tan strips left over from a quilt I made more than a decade ago. Every time I came across them I thought, "These will be useful some day." That "some day" finally arrived.

I have a very busy schedule this week with evening meetings:
Monday -- report on philanthropic projects for P.E.O.

Tuesday -- "Every Quilt Tells a Story" program for the Chicago NW Suburban Alumnae of Alpha Gamma Delta .  Preparation for this has taken a lot of thought-time and actual time. I am not doing a power point because (a) I am not good at power point and (b) the program will be in the hostess's living room and I don't know if there is wall space on which to project.  (And, (c) I don't own a projector.)   How do you condense centuries of quilt history into a 30-minute program for non-quilters?   I have a selection of vintage quilts and quilts that I've made.  I have pictures of historic quilts to pass around.  And -- audience interaction -- I've invited people to bring quilts that are special to them.  I know enough quilt history to be able to identify styles and general time-frame.  I am going to repeat the program for the Arlington Heights AAUW branch on November 10.  I hope that I can develop EQTAS into a program that I can present to women's groups in the Chicago area. And I will eventually develop a power point.

Spelling bee donation

Wednesday -- Northern Lake County Quilters Guild monthly meeting -- program by Gayle Bong 

Thursday -- 9th annual Spelling Bee -- I am on the library team once again (see last year's results in this post)   I'm donating this quilt to the silent auction. (I made it a year ago with blocks on hand.)

Friday -- to Springfield for some sightseeing the day prior to the AAUW-Illiinois fall conference (Saturday 9-noon).

See what other quiltmakers have on their design walls this Monday at Judy's Patchwork Times .

P.S. Tomorrow is election day!

Design Wall Monday: swap blocks and postage stamps

  
 A week ago the path to Dead Dog Creek ravine was still snow-covered and slippery -- too slippery for me to walk down without a walking stick. Warm days have melted nearly all the snow so today I could easily go down the hill.  The alligator still lies in wait in the woods. 

The skunk cabbages have come up through last season's fallen leaves.




 Back in the studio:  here are my contributions for two of the five installments of the Progressive Swap.  Lori K wrote that she has a stack of pine tree blocks and wants houses and stars to go with them.  She provided three different gray/white prints for the backgrounds.   Cassandra is working on a design with different sizes of blocks, all batiks.  Once I pull out the boxes of batik FQs and scraps it's hard for me to stop!

 Here's how my latest postage stamp (1.5" squares) project has turned out. The blocks are 5.5" unfinished. The orientation is supposed to alternate (horizontal strips, vertical strips) but now that I look at it, there are a few that flipped. (How does that happen? LOL!)  The flimsy is 51 x 56. 

See what other quiltmakers are working on at Judy's Patchwork Times.