Weekly update: the swap hits the spot, Rhododendron Trail, and reading

 On Friday afternoon it was cloudy along the lakefront here but sunny in downtown Chicago, 40 miles away.   You can see the skyline along the horizon.   

 

I sneaked in some sewing on Saturday as I participated in two AAUW meetings by Zoom.  Our branch met Saturday morning to hear Dr. Ada Cheng, sociology prof-turned-storyteller talk about her immigrant experience.  In the afternoon the AAUW-Illinois state board held its winter meeting.  So convenient to attend from the warmth of my studio rather than driving 200 miles to Bloomington.

We did go out Saturday night to Waukegan High School. The Lake County Community Concert Assn. presented the Thalea String Quartet. They had tremendous energy and performed an eclectic repertoire.

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My MQG swap came in Saturday's mail.  AMV in Georgia sent this beautiful batik mini-quilt.  It truly hits the spot! 

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Assembling Rhododendron Trail is one of my OMGs for February.   I spent most of Sunday putting the center together. I hope I can get to the borders this week.  

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I'd heard of Rosalind Franklin and her DNA research that was co-opted by James Watson and Francis Crick. Now I know much more. There was so much to tell that at times the detail seemed forced (I was tempted to count the number of references to Rosalind's New Look dresses) but those details add dimension to the picture of this brilliant scientist who was the victim of blatant sexism and cutthroat research competition.

Linking up with Oh Scrap!    Monday Making    Design Wall Monday

P.S.  I say this every year. 

Friday check in: two quilt history programs

I'm composing this post on the computer while my iPad is tuned into a Zoom committee meeting.  Though we gripe about the screen time, Zoom is an easier way to meet than a conference call. (My first experience with conference calls was the White House Conference on Library and Information Sciences Task Force back in the early 1990's.  A dozen people on a phone call meant prefacing comments with your name, and a lot of pauses while people tried to figure out who should talk next.) 

I attended two quilt programs by Zoom this week. 

On Tuesday the Winnetka-Northfield Public Library hosted "Faith Ringgold: The Story Quilts and Paintings" with art historian Jeff Mishur.   

NOTE:  all images are my photos of Jeff's slides. 

Two paintings and a soft sculpture.

Tar Beach is both a quilt and a book.  It was the 1992 Caldecott Honor winner.  

Tar Beach closeup.

The "story quilts" have the text written in the quilt borders. 

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On Thursday the Illinois State Museum hosted "Tales from the Vault" featuring quilts from their collection.     Again, note that these photos are my snapshots of the slides.

Lucinda Taylor Conkling was widowed at 24  and had to send her daughter to relatives "back east." She made the quilt so the daughter could remember her.                        I looked her up on Ancestry. The 1870 census shows her living with the Taylors (her parents?) with a daughter, also Lucinda, age 4, and a daughter Philena, age "4/12".   I couldn't find Lucinda Jr. but did find a death record for Philena in Scipio, NY, in 1891.  I also found a Civil War pension record for Lucinda Sr. naming the husband as Philo.   Now I'm interested in learning how the quilt got back to Illinois.

Edge triangles are red and white in the same block.

The quiltmaker solicited signatures from individuals and businesses. The blacksmith declined to make a donation.  She acknowledged his stinginess with this upside down horseshoe so "the luck runs out." 

Albert Small commented on his wife's sewing. She said if he could do better he was welcome to try.  He did and his magnificent hexagon quilts are in the ISM collection. This is the fourth.  The large photo shows the regular-sized quilting stitches and the teeny-tiny hexies.

One of the quiltmaker's sons fought for the Union and the other for the Confederacy. Pieces of both of their uniforms are in this Log Cabin.

The colors in this Amish nine-patch look contemporary.

A husband and wife effort. The stars are smaller than a hand.

Every quilt has a story! 

 P.S.  Faith Ringgold was honored at the 2015 AAUW National Convention

The AAUW Foundation staffer said, "Nann, you need to meet her! She's a quilter!" but my first thought was, "She won the Caldecott!"  

Linking up with other bloggers at Finished or Not Friday  

Weekly update: design twice, sew once; a vintage gift; and reading

This afternoon was our first forest preserve/beach walk in weeks.    I stayed on the shore and zoomed in to get the ice photos.  It's dangerous to walk out on the pack ice.  (Upper right: a fallen tree encased in ice.)  

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"Design twice, sew once" is the corollary to the better-known "measure twice, cut once."  I changed the inner pink border fabric for another pink print AFTER I had the middle round of pinwheels sewn on.  Ripping and re-piecing took an evening (punctuated by the Olympics).  This photo shows the final borders sewn to the sides.  The top border is pinned to the design wall. The bottom border isn't there yet.

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"This box was in my grandmother's attic," Margaret said when she gave it to me at the Lake County Women's Coalition board meeting Saturday morning.  "We don't know who made them.  They're yours!"   I exercised great restraint and only peeked inside the box before the meeting began.  Once I got home I opened it up. 

Wow! Nearly all of the blocks appear to be 19th century. Hand-pieced and starched once upon a time. 

114 Ohio Star variation (Aunt Eliza's Star?).    8".  The hourglasses surround a center square. 

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53 11" Album blocks.  

Three of the blocks had inked-on signatures.

This is a slip of paper basted to the block. Note the old German script with long s's.   I haven't looked the names up on Ancestry yet. 

Some delicious prints!

Miscellaneous blocks. (Just one Rolling Stone.)  

Obviously newer fabric. Machine-pieced. The peach roses on teal would be a great retro/contemporary print.

What will I do with these?  I think I'm going to hand-wash them to get the starch out. Then I'll just enjoy owning them for a while. 

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Fiona Davis brings another New York landmark to life.                                                                                                                                       Manhattan, 1919: Lillian Carter is pseudonymously famous as Angelica, the model for architectural sculptures and statues that grace New York buildings. When her mother died she lost her guardian and her agent and was on the brink of poverty. She unexpectedly found employment as the personal secretary to Helen Frick, daughter of industrial magnate and art collector Henry Clay Frick, and went to live in the palatial Frick Mansion on E. 70th St. The family dysfunction becomes apparent -- Helen's eccentricities, Henry's tyranny and ill health, Mrs. Frick's withdrawal to avoid any conflict -- and the servants take sides.

January, 1966: the Frick Mansion is now a world-famous art museum. Veronica is an 18-year-old aspiring model in the city on her first photo shoot for Vogue. She gets separated from the other models when a huge blizzard hits the city. She is trapped inside the Frick. Fortunately there is one other person stuck there--Joshua is an intern working on the Frick family papers. They set out to solve clues that lead to a treasure hidden since Lillian's time.

Of the parallel storylines, I think the 1919 one is more convincing. (But I wonder: is the name Lillian Carter intentional? (Jimmy Carter's mother.)) 

A charming story of the Blitz told with wry humor and a few surprises.

Ten-year-old Noel Bostock has lived a rich, albeit unconventional, life with his guardian Mattie, a fiercely independent former suffragist. When Mattie develops dementia and can no longer care for Noel it looks as though he will become the ward of Mattie's godson and his wife, who are wrapped up in one another and cannot abide Noel. As WWII begins and London is threatened Noel becomes one of the  children evacuated from the city to the relative safety of the exurbs.

Vera "Vee" Sedge takes Noel, not out of any generosity but because she wants the stipend that comes with the boy. Vee is always on the edge of insolvency.  She makes amends for her past decisions by overindulging her semi-invalid mother and her supremely hapless adult son. Noel is brighter and better-read than anyone in the household. Vee and Noel form a tenuous bond as they concoct a scheme to get money (Vee) and to remember Mattie (Noel). They cross paths with some nasty people, get caught in an air raid -- and find that they can become a family of two.

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Linking up with Oh Scrap!    Monday Making   Design Wall Monday

Midweek: stash report, RSC, OMG, and a new project

 Welcome to February!  I remembered to say "Rabbit, rabbit" when I woke up yesterday.    Since the Zion Woman's Club meeting is the first Tuesday I was busy getting ready for that meeting with no time to write a blog post.

(Here is an explanation of the good-luck charm.)

The January Stash Report:  Fabric IN  52-3/4, $127, average $2.40/yard.  (I received a generous destashing gift.) 

Fabric OUT: 53-3/4    I'm ahead by one yard.

 

The "fabric out" count includes 20 teal/aqua spinner blocks for the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

There are two parts to my One Monthly Goal for February:  

(1) Assemble Rhododendron Trail so that I can add all that scrappiness to the "fabric used" tally.  I also want to sort the scraps and put away the unused FQs and yardage.   I am not turning-cartwheels-wild about this design.  Barbara came up with an alternate setting -- actually, two alternates -- which you can see in this post .   That has me thinking....

(2) Begin the birdhouse quilt. This will be the backdrop for the Home Fund exhibit the 2022 P.E.O. state convention. The president's theme is "sisters gathering in love" with stylized birds.  Birds + Home Fund = birdhouses.

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6-1/2" (unf)  pinwheels were my 2019 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Block -- one for each day of the month, so approx. 300 over 10 months.  I've used many of them but there are a lot remaining in the box.

Lynn Roddy Brown used broken dishes blocks in her quilt. I think the design will work equally well with pinwheels.  

My design wall rough draft does not include the top row.  I'll  fuss with the color distribution some more.   The pinwheels have a variety of grays so I want border fabrics with a cool undertone.  I harken back to Kaffe Fassett's advice from the workshop last month:  "Take away what distracts. Keep what's juicy and exciting. It's the lime in the g & t."  I'll dig deeper in the stash.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for OMG and Midweek Makers

Weekly update: a flimsy, scrappy backgrounds, an unexpected finish, and reading

 

Red Baskets is a flimsy!  

I thought I'd counted out 800 HSTs for the sashes but I had to make more, and more again.  

I purchased a "retro" print for the border (Lori Holt) but it didn't work. I searched my stash and, voila -- a contemporary print that has just the right amount of white and red to be compatible with the 30's prints.  

6-1/2 yards by weight.  82 x 82.

I liked the effect of the crumb background for the Modern Mini (see last week) so much that I pieced two similar panels.  They'll be ready when the Applique Fairy comes to visit.  

Left:  gray 1-1/2" strips left over from last summer's wedding quilt  

I put both on dark fabric so you can see them.

Right:  a lot of neutrals. 

Both of these efforts helped me consolidate scraps. 

Last spring our guild hosted a Zoom workshop with Eleanor Levie.  She taught us how to weave a quilt .  I finished the weaving and put the sample aside.  Now it's a tote bag.   I will add books to the bag and donate it to an upcoming fundraiser.  

The back of the bag is similar-but-different since it's the other half of the woven panel.

My tote bags always turn out higher and narrower than I'd like. I must figure that out....

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(Nancy Pearl, reader's advisor extraordinaire, recommended this. I'm SO glad I took her up on it.)

Laird Hunt's crystalline prose is perfect -- not too much, not too little, precisely enough. I wanted to read fast to find out what would happen but I wanted to pull back to savor every single word. I was reminded of Wendell Berry, Elizabeth Strout, and Marilynne Robinson.

Zorrie Underwood was an extraordinarily ordinary woman and that is the heart of this story.

She was born in 1909 in a small town in Indiana, orphaned young, and raised by a strict and unyielding older aunt. When her aunt died and left nothing she found a job at the Radium Dial Co. in Ottawa, Illinois, where she made friends and unwittingly exposed herself to carcinogens. "Back home in Indiana" was a stronger pull and she returned. She married a local man and kept up their farm after his death in WWII. She befriended her neighbors and their emotionally damaged son. Months turned into years and years turned into decades. "You have to come to terms with things, but not by carrying them out to the field and burying them under the beans" (53). That practical attitude did not preclude imagination or emotion; rather, it centered Zorrie and allowed her to carry on with some regrets, small delights, and love on many levels.

How many of us have our own versions of Zorrie's story?

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This is the February selection for the P.E.O. online book club. They've arranged for the author to visit. 

1950's, northern India. Lakshmi escapes from an abusive marriage to seek an independent life in the metropolis of Jaipur. Over ten years she grows her business painting henna designs and providing herbal remedies, especially to enhance fertility. Her hidden business is providing herbal abortifacients. Lakshmi's success for all of these endeavors depends on word of mouth endorsements by her affluent women clients. Her hard-won success takes a sharp turn when her teenaged sister Radha arrives. The two have a difficult adjustment. Bad judgment and gossip compromise Lakshmi's business and her very independence. There are more sharp turns but Lakshmi is resilient. The proverbial closed door leads to wide-open windows with new possibilities.

The sequel, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, was published last summer.  I'll pick it up at the library today.

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Linking up with Design Wall Monday  Monday Making