Revisiting an old friend: "O Ye Jigs and Juleps"

I found an old friend among boxes of books donated to the library earlier this month:   "O Ye Jigs and Juleps."

I first read OYJ&J when I was 11 or so.  Its small format and easy-to-read (and funny!) text meant that it was a "grown-up" book that I could read.   Understanding the words is one thing; fully appreciating the humor came when I read it as an adult.

It is a series of essays purported to be written in 1904 by 10-year-old Virginia Cary.   The essays were discovered years later by her daughter.  Virginia lived in a southern city and was Episcopalian, which is central to her essays.  ("Most of the things you get somebody dies so you can get it, but you have to die your own self to get Everlasting Life.  When you are dead as a doornail, God gives it to you, and you can't get rid of it. You can't buy it, or sell it, or trade it. You have to keep it whether it suits you or not.")  She has other observations:  "Personal appearance is looking the best you can for the money."  "Spring is when you draw a circle in the dirt with your finger, if you don't have a stick, and win all of the boys' marbles. My mother rubs lemon on her hands to make them white. I rub salt on my shooting thumb to make it tough."

Perspicacious, indeed. Too good to be true? Tucked inside this recently-given volume was a leaflet from the Episcopal Book Club, Summer 1962. It says the essays are genuine. (For more information on the EBC and its parent organization, The Anglican Digest, and their 'home' at Hillspeak, click here.)

As I reread OYJ&J I realized how many of the passages I've memorized. I'll close with one of my favorites:  "The Library is full of dust. Mrs. Simons sits in the middle and George Washington hangs in the hall. In the library are three kinds of books. Books people like to read. Books people do not like to read, and books people never will read. Mrs. Simons says people like books with spice. Spice comes from India....The library is where my fatehr took his check book when I broke the window. I was only trying to kill a fly. It would take too long to tell you what my mother said....In the library there are signs. Silence. Mrs. Simons must not know they are there. Mrs. Simons talks the whole long day."

Amen, and be it so!

Using orphan blocks: 9 Patch Strippy

The 9-patch blocks are left over from this
quilt that was completed five years ago or so.
I've long wanted to make a zig-zag strippy (or, as EQ calls it, "half-dropped blocks, vertical set").  The setting fabric is red-orange on white, but it looks peach/solid in the photo. Yes, I know that the corner blocks would be more effective set on point, but that would entail wider borders and I didn't have enough of the border fabric for that.  53" X 72" or thereabouts.

Wright Plus 2010

This weekend we headed sixty miles south of home to attend  Wright Plus 2010 sponsored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.  The centerpiece is the Saturday housewalk in historic Oak Park, Illinois  where FLW lived and worked.  The "plus" are the events on Friday and Sunday.  

We were among 250 people who went on the Friday Excursion.  We divided into groups of 50 and the tour leaders managed to keep us from all crowding together!  This year the bus tour went to the Avery Coonley estate  on six acres along the Des Plaines River in Riverside.  FLW designed the main house, coach house, gardener's cottage, and the Playhouse (for Mrs. Coonley's progressive primary school). His associate William Drummond designed Thorncroft, the residence for the schoolteachers.  In the century since there have been many owners of all the properties and a tremendous amount of repair and restoration.  (Upkeep was not one of FLW's concerns!)   We went from Riverside to Lincoln Park in Chicago where we had lunch at the Cafe Brauer, designed by FLW contemporary Dwight Perkins.  (It was closed for almost 50 years, preserved in no small part because it was a maintenance storage facility.  The renovation began in 1987 and is now complete.)  There was time to see the zoo--lively with hundreds of school kids on field trips that sunny afternoon--and then a visit to the Prairie School-inspired Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, a lovely wooded spot at the north end of the zoo.

Saturday's house walk featured ten properties, five of which were designed by FLW.  We managed to get to eight of them.  The other two (FLW home/studio and Unity Temple) are open all year, so we plan to go back.  The Preservation Trust site gives details about this year's sites.  Our favorites were the River Forest Women's Club, which has been remodeled into a private home, and the Frank Thomas House, on the tour for the first time in 21 years. 

The FLWPT has the housewalk planning down pat:  there are more than 300 500 docents to guide, answer questions, and provide descriptions.  There are shuttle buses that make frequent circuits.  There were portable toilets at strategic locations.  With more than 2600 housewalk tickets sold, lines were long, especially at the end of the day, but people were in good spirits.

And the people!  They came from all over the country and from abroad.  A woman at our table at the Cafe Brauer said she lived in San Francisco and had been coming to Wright Plus since 1987.  Other people were combining WP with vacation time in Chicago. 

Sunday was "Smart Start."  We drove to Hyde Park (near south side) to see the Robie House
adjacent to the University of Chicago campus.  The house was designed by FLW and built in 1909.  For many years it was the married students' residence for the Chicago Theological Seminary.  It is being restored--as with other FLW properties, an expensive and extensive undertaking.  After the tour we were taken to the Smart Museum on the campus.  The FLW tie-in was that the dining table from the Robie House on display. The rest of the museum has an eclectic collection and we want to go back to see it when we can spend more time.

We were home at mid-afternoon.  It seemed as though we'd been gone much longer!   We had a splendid time and we hope we can attend Wright Plus again. 

Photos:  Coonley House exterior concrete design; Coonley Playhouse; Caldwell Lily Pool; afternoon line (SWH in center); Thomas House; anecdote about the Thomases; Matthews House; Robie closet window; Robie sign; SWH at the Chicago AD house .

Name this block: new flimsy

I was inspired by a quilt called "Mill Girls" in one of Jennifer Chiaverini's books.  The block is called "Variable Star" on Quilter's Cache and in Judy Rehmel's block identification book. It is called "Chickadee Quadrille" in Judy Hopkins' "Around the Block" book.  To me this block is neither. Can anyone else provide a name? 

It's been a while since I've used my 30's reproduction fabrics.  They are just right for a springtime quilt!   (Blocks are 9".  Flimsy is 80 x 91.)

"Railroad Ties": the guild challenge quilt

Last evening the NLCQG biennial challenge quilts were revealed.  The theme was "Name That Tune." The only limit was that the perimeter measurement had to be 144" or less.  Of the 35 entries, only one tune name was duplicated.  The art quilt winners were "North to Alaska," "Beyond the Sea," and "Harbor Lights." The traditional quilt winners were "American Pie," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Stardust." The best in show was "Every Rose Has Its Thorns."  (Photos will be on the NLCQG site.)

My song was "I've Been Working on the Railroad."  My quilt didn't get many votes, but it was very special for me.  I made it using my dad's neckties. He was a railroader and had many railroad-themed ties.  The railroad logo heralds were premiums in Nabisco Shredded Wheat Post Sugar Crisp in the 1950's.   There were 26 heralds, of which one was a duplicate, and there were 25 block intersections in this quilt: perfect!

The blocks are 6" finished. The quilt is 36" x 36", or 144" square.

The label, which I will have to rewrite ((1) syntactical error and (2) correct information  about the origin of the emblems).

Block detail.

The backing fabric.

And Dad would have been 92 on May 5!

AAUW Raffle Results

 Batik Bars  raised $715 for the Waukegan Area Branch contribution to the AAUW Funds! The winning ticket was drawn at the conclusion of the AAUW-IL state convention last Saturday.

35 years ago!

Thank you!

The results of the 2010 ALA Election were announced Friday.  I was elected Councilor-at-Large for the 2011-2013 triennium.  I thank everyone who voted for me!

ALA Election Results

DDPF pictures

Quilt Show 2010

My shopping at the quilt show was purposeful, for the most part.  Nearly every vendor had batiks and there were many with 19th-century reproductions.  I didn't buy any of either. 

Here's what I got:

(1)  Novelty FQs, mostly sports, for a commissioned quilt

(2)  Miscellaneous FQs and long q's (9 x 40) from a booth where they were "buy 12 @ $1.25, get one free"

(3)  A splurge:  Terrie Hancock Mangat brights -- 2 FQ packs

(4)  Red and brown shweshwe from South Africa -- these FQs are keeping company with the reds and browns I bought from the same vendor last year :)

DeepDishPieFest

A week later -- still basking in the glow of a wonderful reunion!

It's National Library Week

National Library Week

Pyke Johnson, Jr., wrote this poem, which was published in Connecticut Libraries in the 1970's or early '80's.

[For National Library Week]
Take a Librarian to lunch.
You know that she deserves it.
Ascertain her favorite food,
And find a place that serves it.
Seek out, too, an ambience
That you are sure will suit her.
Some place that bans all little kids
And where there’s no computer.
Serve her with her favorite drink:
Champagne? Or something diet?
And make it clear that, at this meal,
There are no rules on quiet.
Ask her to tell you of her job:
Which books are circulating?
Which patron said what funny thing?
You’ll find it fascinating.
But do leave promptly when you’ve shared
Good talk and drink and food.
Librarians must be back when due
And may not be renewed.
N.B. Nothing her should be construed as precluding the taking of a male Librarian to lunch.

Challenge quilt finished, and other progress

The challenge quilt is finished!  The label has a scanned photo and a lot of text.  It turned out perfectly on the first try.   I can't post pictures until after the challenge revealing at the guild's May 5 meeting.

I flung a box of fabric to Cricket (one of the HeartStringers) -- 44 yards!  I also dropped a box off at Salvation Army -- 36 yards!  And while I was at SA I did not buy anything, not even a necktie.

Back to housecleaning.  The Magpies are coming next weekend!

Paths and Stiles

The guild challenge quilt is nearly finished!  It is quilted and bound. I am embellishing it now.  Next is the label, which will be special.  Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, during the four-day weekend, I pieced this "Paths and Stiles" variation. (I say 'variation' because other blocks with this name have HSTs in the corners.)  The fabrics are homespun plaids and plain muslin.  The setting is from "Forty Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts" by Evelyn Sloppy.  I made 9" blocks for my version, which is about 73 x 82.  I have the backing pieced and the batting cut, ready to baste and quilt.  I'm pretty sure this will be donated to a local school fundraiser.

Fabric bargain!

In 2007 Julie and I bought a tremendous quantity of fabric left by a local quilter who passed away in 2003. The widower remarried and they needed to clean out the sewing room/studio.  I got 1700 yards out of that deal, and Julie got a comparable amount.
Last week Mrs. H. called to say that there were still some boxes of fabric and some rubber stamps that she was never going to get around to using, and would I be interested? I asked my coworker Tara if she'd like some rubber stamps, cheap. Yes, indeed! So at 1 p.m. today we met at the H's house.

Pricing was up to us. Tara got 40 or so stamps for $30. I took all the fabric that appeared to be cotton, several packaged batts, a big Olfa cutting board. Left the DMC floss (I have boxes of DMC already), left the serger thread, left the box of lace and prepackaged Wright's bias binding. I wrote a check for $150. When I got home I used the bathroom scale to weigh the fabric: 93 lbs. At 4 yds to the pound, that's 372 yards. I've been sorting (and I'm not finished yet)-- several sets of blocks from long-ago guild swaps, some FQ bundles still packaged, a roll of fusible web, some fabric that turned out to be polyester (I did a burn test), some fabric that exceeds my quotient of 'cute' -- but there is a LOT that will be right at home in my stash.

Challenge begun, but meanwhile....

Here are blocks for the challenge quilt, thus far.  I redesigned the quilt in my head Sunday evening while we were at Christ Community Church to see "King of Kings."  

Meanwhile, I have come down with a cold that is keeping me at home for two days. (How nice of my DH to share it with me!)  In between working on library business at home, and napping, I finished this scrappy top. It began as leaders-and-enders, using 2.5" squares.  I often get impatient when making L-and-E projects. I just go ahead and crank out quantities of the units and assemble them.  This is about 74" x 86". 

When I ran out of the speckledy sashing fabric I substituted a similar slate blue (the vertical strip). (I got these circa-1990-slate blues from an estate purchase.  I swear they haven't been in may stash that long.)  The border is one of those "I can't bear to cut this up" fabrics that I have had for, oh, five or six years.  (I still have a yard of it, so I don't feel totally bereft. )

Years ago I read an article by a famous quiltmaker who said she tried to use a bit of orange in each of her quilts to add sparkle. I don't remember who that was or where I read it, but that's why I often have an orange (or somewhat orange) inner border.

Still procrastinating

Two years ago I proposed that NCLQG use Bonnie Hunter's pattern Cathedral Stars for the 2009 raffle quilt.  I made a couple of sample blocks, as did my bee-mates Dawn, Julie, and Joan.  CS was indeed chosen for the raffle quilt, Julie coordinated the project, and the results were beautiful and lucrative.  This past week, while *still* not ready to work on the guild challenge, I pulled out the sample blocks (3 Jacob's Ladders, 6 stars, and enough red/black half-square triangles to make 13 more Jacob's Ladders).  This 84 x 84 top is the result.

[Update: the flimsy was quilted by Wendy Maston. I donated it to AAUW-Waukegan Area Branch as the spring, 2010 raffle quilt.  Ticket sales were approximately $500, donated to AAUW projects.]

Progress while procrastinating

I ought to be working on the NLCQG challenge quilt. The theme is "Name That Tune," that is, "take a song and quilt it!"  I have the tune picked out. I have fabrics pulled. I have considered one design and then another, in my head.  The challenge will be revealed at the May 5 meeting, so I have two months and a week to go (with a lot going on between now and then).

Meanwhile, last week I pulled 2.5 strips from the basket below the cutting table.  They turned into this 60 x 74 quilt, which I finished last evening.  The Scrappy Bargello

is a Bonnie Hunter design.

http://www.quiltville.com/scrapbargello.shtml

Now, back to the challenge drawing board....

Batik Bars: done, done!

I pieced "Batik Bars" in March, 2009, and quilted it last week.  It's 78 x 82. I used variegated thread to quilt loopy swirls in the body of the quilt, my 'trademark' parallel zig-zags on the inner border, and perpendicular parallel lines in the outer border.  The quilt will be raffled at the AAUW-IL state convention at the end of April.  (Proceeds will benefit Waukegan Area Branch projects and the AAUW Funds.)

Recent stitching

(1) Wonky log cabin blocks -- my contribution to the BiblioQuilters 2010 quilts at the ALA Annual Conference.
(2) Scrappy hearts -- a BlockSwappers' exchange.  This is a flimsy (unquilted top).
(3) Nine Patch Strippy -- finished!!  This is the second quilt I've made with this design. The BlockSwappers have had several 3.5" Nine Patch exchanges. The blocks are so cute!

Baseball Swap

For nearly ten years I've been in an online group whose participants swap 6.5" fabric squares based on the results of Major League Baseball games.   For each game that the team you back wins, you get one square from the backers of the losing team, and vice versa.  You can chose one team from the AL and one from the NL, or one from each league.  For me, that's the Red Sox and the Cubs.  All the who-owes-what-to-whom is tracked by a group member. She sends us the tallies at the All-Star Break and at the end of the season.  (With the teams I back, that means that I usually get a few more than I give in the first half, but fade in the second half. :)) We send the squares, counted out and packaged in ziploc bags, to another group member who swaps everything out.

I have a acquired a great assortment of fabric squares that way which I use from time to time.  In addition to 'regular' quilt fabric, there are a lot of baseball-themed squares. 

When the Zion Area Chamber of Commerce announced that this year's annual banquet theme would be Root, Root, Root for the Home Team in honor of our new baseball team, the Lake County Fielders (http://www.lakecountybaseball.org/), I turned to the BBS box.  This jacket is the result.

Raffle Mania!

The quilt guild had Raffle Mania at this week's meeting.  We brought quilt-related items we no longer wanted which were raffled bucket-style.  Chances were fifty cents each.  I brought two boxes of stuff (books, a box of woolly nylon thread, some q-snap plastic frames, two hoops), bought $10 in chances, and came back with three boxes of stuff!

Here's the entire haul arrayed on my cutting table.  There were five 2-yard pieces of plaids  that turned out to be poly/cotton (not suitable for quiltmaking).  You can see the bright yellow corduroy print (bottom right) that will be great for Care Bags.  I also scored several books and patterns and a roll of upholstery-weight fabric (more Care Bags).  I estimated that I got 60 yards of fabric for $4.00.

Lynn R. brought two bags crammed with scraps. Once I opened the bags the contents burst out!  I spent last evening sorting through the pieces which include strips, squares, and even some fat quarters. 

The Annual Reckoning, 2009 edition

Since 1998 I have tracked fabric used and acquired. Since 2004 I have also tracked how much I have spent.  (None of these figures includes the expense for thread, batting, books, patterns, etc.)  This is the third year I've posted (confessed) the Annual Reckoning on my blog.  I have all the calculations in a spreadsheet available upon request.
My quilting (and sewing) accomplishments this year included:
* 11 quilts begun and finished (crib-sized to queen-sized)
* 7 wallhangings begun and finished
* 6 UFOs finished (begun in previous years)
* 6 flimsies created (a flimsy is an unquilted top)
* 150 Care Bags (http://www.carebags4kids.org/)
* 5 tissue box covers (holiday gifts)
* 1 tote bag (for a community project)
* 3 jackets, 1 dress, 1 pair of slacks, 1 shirt
I used 301 yards of fabric (that includes yards given away to HeartStrings sew-ins, the NLCQG White Elephant exchange, etc.).  I acquired 353 yards of fabric (that includes purchases and gifts) and spent $1371, or $3.88/yd.
Though I didn't use as much as some years, I acquired a LOT less. The used/acquired ratio is 85%, the best yet.
I sold 2 quilts, 1 wallhanging, and 5 flimsies.  I sold many quilt books, patterns, and magazines.  I sent a box of flimsies to a church quilting group (thus removing them from my UFO list).
Whew!
What's in store for 2010?  Stay tuned!