Weekly update: red envelopes, yellow blocks, pinwheels!, and reading

My lucky envelope had $2

Kathy, Regina, and me

 The Zion Woman's Club had a Lunar New Year dinner fundraiser on Friday.  We sold tickets in advance for pickup at a local Thai/American restaurant.  We had a Wall of  Fortune with red envelopes numbered from 1 to 85 -- pay a dollar amount equivalent to the number to win cash prizes -- at least a $2 bill but there were some $10s and $20s and one with $100.  Regina and I thought we'd be out in the parking lot selling red envelopes but, hooray!, restaurants have reopened (25% capacity) so we were inside in the restaurant's party room.  Good thing, since it's been very, very cold.   

The meal (marinated chicken on a skewer, freshly-made fried rice, spring rolls, and a fortune cookie) was good -- my neighbor said they made two meals out of theirs and another friend said she was adding meat and veggies to the leftover rice.  The club treasurer's preliminary estimate is a profit over $2500.    The proceeds benefit A Safe Place (domestic violence shelter) and other agencies that ZWC regularly supports.  

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I  made 17 framed four patch blocks in yellow for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  (I was aiming for 16 and I miscounted.)    I made two potholders for Joy's Table Scraps challenge.  

I've had fun playing with the pinwheels I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2019. I followed up Trippy Pinwheels (last week) with this random strippy setting.    Doing the math:  360 pinwheels made.  50 used for Trippy Pinwheels and 37 here.   That leaves 263 pinwheels in the box. 

But not for long!  25 of the black/gray pinwheels have joined 216 3.5" nine patches for this as-yet-unnamed project.  The nine patches are from the Block Swappers' decade-long quarterly exchange. (There are several hundred still in the box.)  Since I took this photo on Saturday I've framed all the pinwheels and begun assembling the blocks.  I haven't figured out the border yet.      

                                    248 pinwheels to go!

Linking up with  So Scrappy   Oh Scrap   Monday Making      Design Wall Monday

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I so enjoyed Monica Wood's memoir When We Were the Kennedys (review here) that I looked up the other books she's written.  How did I miss The One-in-a-Million Boy when it was published in 2015?  Well, I'm glad I discovered it.                                                                                                 The boy is 11 and socially awkward--more comfortable with numbers, precision, and the Guinness Book of World Records than with people. His Boy Scout troop service project is to help the elderly with household chores. He is assigned to 104-year-old Ona Vitkus. Each week he records an oral history conversation with Ona. Together they plot to earn her a place in the Guinness record book. When the boy suddenly dies of an undiagnosed condition his father Quinn steps in to complete the chores. Quinn, a guitarist whose gigs provide sporadic work, is attempting to compensate for the years that he wasn't present in the boy's life. Quinn, like the boy, is pulled into Ona's orbit.

Redemption. Hope. Indomitability. Enchantment.
All these positive terms describe this utterly wonderful novel.

 

In memoriam: Roberta Horton

 The Quilt Show posted the news that renowned quiltmaker Roberta Horton passed away on February 4.  Their tribute is here with a link to a TQS episode featuring Roberta and her twin sister Mary Mashuta. [It's a 57-minute show, so allow yourself some time.]

My first encounter with Roberta's work was in the mid 1990's.  I belonged to the Better Homes and Gardens Craft Club.  One month they offered a kit with woven plaids designed by Roberta.  There are 20 fat 8ths. The pattern is a simple square-in-square. The fabric is so nicely-woven and soft. I couldn't bear to cut into it.  That was 25+ years ago and I still haven't.  

I met Roberta and Mary in person in 2001.  Here's the tale: 

(Note: QFALA = Quilters' Forum of ALA. Now we are the ALA Biblioquilters.)

 

I have two of Roberta's books -- in fact, I have managed to acquire two copies of these two.  There is a definite appeal to the array of fabrics used in her quilts and those of her students and colleagues. Scrappy but without jarring contrasts. Nothing trendy, just comfortable.  That's a style I like!

. . . And maybe I will cut into those woven plaids from so long ago . . .

Weekly Update: scrappy, trippy pinwheels

(c) Jen Kingwell

 

In 2019 I made 360 pinwheels for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. They've been in a box waiting for the right opportunity to become a quilt.  

That opportunity came when I read Jen Kingwell's book Quilt Lovely, I bought a copy after attending the virtual program she gave for NSQG last month,    The strong vertical columns on neutral really appealed to me. Note that hers has three different kinds of pinwheels. 

 
Each column of 6" pinwheels turned out to be about 80 x 18 inches.  I had enough neutral (subtle plaid) homespun for the setting triangles and three plain columns.  There's not much contrast between the homespun and the design wall but if you look closely you can see the difference.

*After* I had it sewn together it looked blah. What to do?  

The Magpies' current group project involves Scrappy Trips blocks.  Several 'Pies have followed up their project contributions with Scrappy Trips blocks of their own.  Bingo! I pulled out the 2" strip hamper and cut 15" strips. I turned to the stash and cut more 15" strips.  I cut, sewed, sliced, sewed, and eventually made 45 Scrappy Trips blocks.  (2" strips = 9" finished blocks.)  

Right:    81 x 80.  It still looks off-balance.  

The solution: 

I was able to get enough setting triangles out of the cut-off neutral columns to make a third pinwheel column.  With a horizontal orientation it's 80 x 90.

 I have a left over column of 8 Scrappy Trips blocks to piece into the back or use for something else.  And there are 310 pinwheels in the box hollering that it's their turn now.

Linking up with Oh Scrap    Monday Making  Design Wall Monday   So Scrappy

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 I read two good books this week.     

Recently we watched a PBS program about Agatha Christie's 1926 disappearance. This book is an imagined retelling of what might have happened. Chapters alternate with past--going from the time Agatha met Archibald Christie in 1912 -- and the "present" meaning December 1926 when the police arrive at Archie's door wanting to know if he knows where his wife (by then a best-selling author) is. The story has usually focused on Agatha's side. Here Archie is the "unreliable narrator," a literary device that Agatha used in several of her books.   This is a good tale -- but I do encourage you to watch  the PBS show narrated by David Suchet who played Hercule Poirot. David Heska Wanbli Weiden's debut novel has received critical acclaim. It's a thriller set on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.  Narrator/protagonist Virgil Wounded Horse is a thug-for-hire.  Got a grudge? Virgil will punch the guy out for a fee.  When his 14-year-old nephew and ward Nathan becomes a pawn for the local node of a drug cartel, Virgil is determined to get the dealers.  His girlfriend Maria, the daughter of a tribal council politician, enlists herself in the effort.  The tale is gritty, at times violent, and ultimately hopeful.  I hope that  Weiden will write more about Virgil and Maria.

Friday check in: presenting Code Name Welcome Home

Here it is!   The quilt I've  coyly called "Code Name Welcome Home" has been sent to and received by my friends B and K.  Its real name is Labyrinth Walk.  

Labyrinth Walk, 84 x 84

The backstory: B does not sew. Not buttons, not hems, and certainly not quilts. Five years ago a picture of the Labyrinth Walk quilt popped onto her Facebook feed and she was teased about "her" quilt. It went viral--she says 40,000+ reposts--even though she clearly stated that she DID NOT MAKE the quilt. Last fall B and her husband K suffered from a house fire. They've been living in temporary quarters.

I have wanted to make the Labyrinth Walk quilt ever since I saw the pattern in Quilt Magazine (circa 2008). This was the perfect opportunity! It was not hard, but it was very, very fiddly. Mis-piecing one unit would throw the entire design off. I cut all the pieces in one session and put each piece in a plastic bag labeled with the size and the number of units so I could keep track.

The other challenge for me was working with a limited number of fabrics. I bought all the fabric in one trip to the LQS. The shop personnel helped find just-the-right tones and contrasts.

It was my One Monthly Goal for December.  Barb-the-quilter put it on her calendar last week. I picked it up Friday, added the binding and the label, and mailed it to B and K on Monday.  They got it Wednesday.

I used a thrift-shop cotton sheet for the backing (on the left in the photo).   

B wrote to say they were completely surprised ("gobsmacked," she said) and they are very grateful.  They hope they can move back to their townhome in three months. 

Their cat likes the quilt, too. 

Now I can cross Labyrinth Walk off my want-to-make-someday list!  

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  and  Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

 

Weekly update: an unexpected gift, stash report, OMG finished and planned -- and reading

The 2021 ALA Midwinter Meeting was held virtually from January 22-26.  FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden was the closing speaker on the 25th.  She was so vibrant!   The remarkable young poet Amanda Gorman appeared in a clip just prior to Dr. Biden's talk. 

 

Just a year ago I'd heard of Zoom but I'd only attended one meeting.  It does it much easier to convene groups of people who live both nearby and far away.  A perfect example:  on Saturday morning AAUW-Michigan convened a regional meeting with participants from 18 states. There was lots of good information and idea-sharing. Few would have been able to afford the time or the expense to travel (let alone risk winter weather conditions). 

Saturday evening the Magpies had their first Zoom meet up.  We all agreed it will not be the last.  (And we've begun -- with optimism -- planning for a 2022 in-person meet up.) 

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 I took Code Name Welcome Home to Barb-the-quilter on Wednesday.  "A friend gave me some quilting things she isn't able to use," Barb said.  "Can you use any of it?"  I told her I'd be happy to make it disappear.  

The top photo shows all the loot before I began to go through it.   

The original owner's name was on some of the things. I know her both from the quilt guild and AAUW, but I haven't seen her for a long time. (Barb said she is all right but slowing down and has realized she won't be able to use all of what she has.  Sounds familiar, doesn't it?) 

There were four different mini-irons, a bag of fiberfill, and notions -- including an unopened 6.5" square Omnigrid ruler that I actually had on my shopping list.  There were a couple of magazines and books.  And there were UFOs, and un-begun kits, and fabric.  

Fabric?  58 yards by weight!  The photo shows the pile of batiks on the right and all the "regular" fabric on the left.  

Look at the prices on these Keepsake charm swatches. [Tiny print at the bottom of each label.]

[I am not showing the kits or UFOs because I am finding new homes for them.]

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How did the gift affect my stash?

Here's January stash report, short and sweet:

Fabric IN:   58 yards, cost: zero

Fabric OUT:  61-3/8 yards

Net:  3-3/8 reduction  -- the right direction 

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My January OMG was  to make a mini-quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild swap.  This is Toward the Morning.

(You can see what my swap partner sent me here ) 

I pulled out a finished quilt to donate to an online auction and realized it wasn't labeled.  It turned out that I have a stack of finished quilts that aren't labeled.  My February OMG is to sew on those labels!

I'm joining other bloggers on these link parties: January Finish Link Up    Oh Scrap!    Monday Making

 Design Wall Monday   I found a new link party -- Favorite Finish hosted by Cheryl at Meadow Mist.

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This week's reading:   The Searcher is a very absorbing mystery. Retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper moves to a small village in Ireland to get away from it all.  He finds himself back in the detecting business when a local kid asks him to find his missing older brother.   

I've been gradually listening my way through the Cork Corcoran mysteries by William Kent Krueger.   David Chandler is a great narrator for the series.  Sulfur Springs is #16.  Cork and his wife Rainy go to southern Arizona when her adult son calls to say he is in trouble.  Immigration, drug smuggling, murder, and small-town politics combine for another case for the sheriff-turned-P.I. from the Minnesota Iron Range. 

P.S.  Six inches of snow Saturday night/Sunday morning.  Glad we didn't have to go anywhere today!

 

January rainbow round up

 For Joy's Table Scraps challenge:  I made two pink potholders. 

I also made some framed four-patch blocks. (5.5" unfinished)

Last year I made half-square triangles in each of the 10 monthly RSC colors.  Because I used 5" squares to make the HSTs it was convenient to make two identical HSTs-- 4.5" unfinished.  One pair of squares for each day of the month meant an average of 60 HSTs.    Here is what happened to 270 of the 600.  

The blocks are 12" and the quilt is 60 x 72. 

I used up a few colorful prints for the back.  I used the walking foot to quilt straight lines in a hanging diamonds pattern. 

RSC February is yellow -- I love yellow and I'll enjoy working with it. 

Linking up with Scrap Happy Saturday      and  Table Scraps

Weekly Update: making history (with mittens), pink and more pink, Grassy Creek!, and reading

It was beautiful at the beach when I snapped the photo but at 19 degrees I didn't linger!  The clouds have returned and there's snow in the forecast. 

Years ago I read a time management book that likened the results of procrastination to an obstacle that gets bigger around as the procrastination continues - so big that it takes more effort to go around it than it would be to just go over it.  That's how I've been with a non-quilting project this week that involved report-writing and statistics-compiling. I have to check to see that all the numbers add up and proofread the narrative before I send it off to the appropriate committee chairs. I have spent more time agonizing over it than it's taken to do it.  Will I never learn?     

We watched the inauguration on Wednesday with joy.   Wasn't poet Amanda Gorman wonderful?      This article describes the women's stylish coats -- and note the added commentary about the men's coats. <g> 

We saw Bernie Sanders and his mittens -- and so did the rest of the world.   Bernie memes have flooded Facebook.  I've paid most attention to those about libraries and quilting.   We are hopeful with the direction of the new administration. 

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On Wednesday evening the North Suburban Quilters Guild hosted  Australian quilt maker Jen Kingwell for their monthly program.  The guild boosted their Zoom license to accommodate all the guests, of  whom I was one. (One of 141 attendees.)  Just $10 for a grand quilt show and tell!   

 In the studio:  I made six 8-inch heart blocks for the RFQFA -- the Rotarian Fellowship of Quilters and Fiber Artists. 

Joy, aka the Joyful Quilter, has a Table Scraps sub-challenge for the 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I wasn't up to making a table runner (especially in pink, this month's RSC color), so I made two 8" potholders.  

I made a few more pink framed four-patches.  They're 5.5" unfinished.

I saved the biggest accomplishment for last.  Grassy Creek is a flimsy!  

And big it is -- 96". Every year I say I'll make just a few blocks. Every year I get caught up in mystery quilt fever and make the whole quilt.  

The border has 28 uphill and 28 downhill blocks.  I miscounted and ended up with 44 going one way and just 12 going the other, so I had to make 16 more of "the other."  

  

I'll have fun fiddling around with ways to use the leftovers.

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One page in and I was hooked on Monica Wood's splendid memoir about 1963, the year that changed her life forever. No, JFK's assassination was the second event. The first, and more important, happened in April of that year: her father suffered a fatal heart attack on his way to work at the Oxford paper mill in Rumford, Maine. The unexpected, sudden death shattered the universe for Wood, for her mother, and her four siblings. Wood writes from the clearly-remembered perspective of her 9-year-old self: the neighbors who rallied around the family, her uncle (mother's brother)--the priest whose own center was rocked by the death, and details of life in a mill town when things were prosperous and ever  hopeful.

(How did I miss this when it was published in 2012? A friend recommended it after I reviewed Mill Town, Kerri Arsenault's 2020 memoir about the same town.)

Linking up with  Oh Scrap!   Scrap Happy Saturday      Design Wall Monday  Monday Making