What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

I got my laptop back from Best Buy late Sunday afternoon. New hard drive, new MS Office, all the Windows updates.  Though I managed to get a fair amount done with the iPad, I'm happy to have the larger screen and keyboard of the laptop.

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Costume designer Edith Head visited the Clara Cummings Book Club luncheon on Thursday.  Martina Mathisen gave an interesting and informative portrayal. Head was awarded 8 Oscars over the span of her 60-year career, mostly with Paramount and later with Universal.   

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In the studio:   it's a finish!

Here is Spare Parts V.   72 x 80.  I estimate 8 yards used. 

  Last week I posted photos of the border/sashing I was considering. I searched further and found this gold batik. It's a Christmassy print (pinecones and sort-of poinsettias) that I got when we were on vacation in northern Minnesota ...

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 I'm behind with working on non-quilting responsibilities but while I procrastinate on those I'm having great fun with the batik parts and orphans.  

The panel on the right is 68". That's the length I'm aiming for with the other three.  

The pile on the table has possibilities for the sashes/border. (Side borders only, I'm thinking.)

The brown strip on the wall was just a thought. Now that I see it in the photo I kind of like it.  But this is a constantly evolving design so the end result may be completely different.

I ...

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Fall colors at Van Patten Woods on Friday afternoon.  Left: sumac. Right: white snakeroot or bone set (gone to seed).  Center:  hickory nuts.  Bottom: Virginia creeper, fungus on a log. 

We enjoyed oldies sung by the Saddle Shoe Sisters on Friday evening at our church.   (The acoustics are better in the sanctuary than in the fellowship hall. And the pews are more comfortable than metal folding chairs.)

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In the studio:  it's a finish!  

The pattern is Entwined by Evelyn Sloppy from her book Forty Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts.

I used a batik and two hand-dyes (all gifts from a friend ...

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Temperatures in the high 50's and abundant sunshine made this a brilliant fall weekend. 

On Saturday afternoon we went to Ryerson Woods.  The Ryersons were Chicago industrialists who built their weekend farm on 257 acres where they raised Arabian horses.   In 1966 they deeded the property to the Lake Co. Forest Preserve District.  There are several activity centers, including barns and open pastures with a demonstration farm,  Brushwood (the Ryersons' house) used as an event center, several cabins used for environmental education, and miles of trails in restored woodlands.  

Left: joe pye ...

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I have dozens of quilt books that, I admit, have provided more inspiration than actual projects.  On Monday evening I took took Evelyn Sloppy's 40  Fabulous Quick-Cut Quilts off the shelf.   "Oh, I don't want to....oh, I can't..." became, "Of course I can!"

....and here's what's underway.  [Neutral batiks, of which I have many yards, and inky-dark purple batik.]

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Yesterday afternoon I took a quick walk in the ravine/nature trail at the end of our block.  Look who was in the yard at a house on the other side of the ravine.   

Linking ...

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 The batik crumb geese quilt is finished. (Anyone have suggestions for a better name than "crumby geese"?)

You can just about see the orange binding.

I used two batiks for the back. They blend so well that you can barely see the "zipper" that combines the them. 

I usually don't use batiks as quilt backs because I still consider them "special." However, I'm trying to use up batik yardage as well as scraps.

Closeup of the zipper.

 I have new projects in the works! Come back on Friday to see them.

 Linking up with Midweek Makers  Wednesday Wait ...

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Bumblebee on wild indigo, baptisia alba. Also called false indigo.  (Pine Dunes Forest Preserve on Tuesday.)

The sunshine and moderate temperatures are great for walking.  This morning (Friday) we are finally getting some rain.   That's fine because I have a lot of office-work to catch up on.

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In the studio:   

The batik crumb HSTs got lost in a straight setting.  

They stand out more as flying geese.

The flimsy used 5 yards.  I still have 2 yards+ of the turquoise batik. (The tag pinned to it said it was a 2014 purchase in the red tag section at Joann ...

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Batik Bars is quilted and bound!

    I got the swirly Asian print way back in 2000. I remember that because I stopped at a quilt shop the weekend I went to an out-of-state wedding. I thought it would be good for a jacket. Over the years I'd take it off the shelf and think about using it (though the idea of a jacket was long gone). I just couldn't cut it up  so I used it in its entirety.   (The other green print on the right came from the birthday bash stash. The one at the bottom was ...

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 Rabbit, rabbit!   Welcome, July!

The ALA Annual Conference was GREAT.  I will post the account this weekend.   Suffice it to say it was wonderful to see friends and colleagues in person again.  

I got home early Tuesday afternoon.  My husband did all right in my absence and I appreciate the neighbors who kept an eye out and friends who came to visit him.

The stash report for July:   some planned, some unplanned growth but all very satisfying.  

Fabric IN:  1272 yards, $595.  Average $2.13 per yard.  (That includes 1200 for $233 for my birthday stash bash, a garage sale ...

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 I was up very early Tuesday and took pictures of the sunrise on the lake for the summer solstice.    (5:15 a.m.) 

I have yet to find a really good not-wooded place to get a sunset photo. This was taken off a side road about 8:20 p.m. (Sunset officially 8:32.)

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In the studio: I finished the 22 mug rugs and mailed them to the woman who commissioned them. They will be favors at the Georgia state P.E.O. convention next spring. (I joked it's up to her to remember where she put them!)   2-3 ...

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 The Glenbrook North High School Class of 1970 had not-quite a reunion on Saturday evening.  Early in 2020 we began planning.    Committee members (of which I'm one) tracked down classmates to get phone numbers and email addresses.  We created a Facebook group and used an online class reunion site to try to reach everyone we could.   In July, 2020, we realized that the pandemic wasn't going to be over by October so we cancelled the event. We began 2021 with the hope we could pull off a "Fifty Plus One" reunion for October, 2021.   Evites went out and ...

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I realize I am jumping the gun with this, but I am so chuffed at my progress that I can't wait.  If you're reading this and you're in my quilt guild, don't look any further.  If you do, don't let on. 

"Birth Month" is the theme for our guild's 2021 challenge:  use the flower and the gem for your birth month.  Maximum size 20 x 21 for the year.    The reveal was scheduled for scheduled for August -- I knew I wouldn't make it because I was preoccupied by the wedding quilt.  But when ...

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 But first, a few wildflowers at Camp Logan/Illinois Beach (June 15).  The wild flag iris is still in bloom (but about over now). Also: hedge bindweed aka "bell bind"; flowering spurge; rudbeckia aka Blackeyed Susan; green bulrush; bird's-foot trefoil; spiderwort aka Bluejacket or Widow's Tears; oxeye daisy.

On Friday I picked up Erika and we drove to Nordstrom's at Woodfield Mall to have lunch with six other AAUW friends from the northern suburbs.  It was SO wonderful to see everyone in person!!   (We've met at Nordstrom's cafe a couple of times before. I don ...

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When we began exploring the forest preserves the walks seemed longer because I wasn't familiar with the trails.  The path around Lake Carina, a reclaimed gravel pit, is just a mile.  

Upper right: strawberries. Middle right: black mustard (an nasty invader). Lower left: puccoon. I haven't identified the other two. 

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Eleanor (Ellie) Levie was the quilt guild speaker Wednesday evening by Zoom (she lives in Philadelphia).  Her lively presentation  "American Quiltmaking 1970-2000" is a version of the book she wrote (see photo).  I have owned Great Little Quilts, her ...

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I made twenty batik crumb blocks. I planned to sash them shadowbox style and auditioned some fabrics.   In addition to this purple/turquoise combo I tried a white batik but that contrast was too stark.  [Of course I am using only what I have on hand.]
 

Then I found a lovely soft brown/tan Indian batik (part of this gift).  I was so sure it would be ideal that I cut all the sashing. 

I wanted low-volume but it was TOO low-volume and the colorful mix of the crumbs got lost.  

I tried a third time, and here's how ...

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I've had Patchwork with Pizzazz for more than a decade. (Author Lisa Bergene is Norwegian.  The original title is Kreative Lappe Ideer Vesker og Bager.)  I pulled  the book off the shelf a couple of days ago and one of the designs began to jump up and down and holler, "Try me!"  I couldn't resist.  

The blocks use split rectangle units. I have probably made them sometime along the way but I know I haven't used them as a significant component of an entire quilt.  I remember being put off by the fussy tedium of the bias ...

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 I was going to make simple slab borders for the elephant-block placemats. 

Then I thought I'd use a skinny strip and scrappy neutral borders.  That required piecing more scrappy neutrals. 

I didn't like the "fenced-in" effect.

 

If I took the fence out the elephants would be swimming in a pool of neutrals.

What to do, what to do?  

I happened to have some scrappy-batik slabs on hand.  I cut them into three-inch strips. 

I have quilted the elephants and the neutral backgrounds on all four.  I hope to finish quilting the borders today. 

(And now I have 16 ...

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 As far as we are aware, we are not one speck Irish.  (We may be surprised when we receive the results of the Ancestry DNA tests. We spat in the vials and mailed them in about a month ago.)   I baked a loaf of soda bread this morning and have corned beef in the crock pot for tonight's supper.

 That's cultural appreciation, not cultural appropriation.  I have never been to a St. Patrick's Day parade nor gone downtown to see the Chicago River dyed green.

 

A colleague posted her mother's soda bread recipe on Facebook last ...

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