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 "Live Like Lulu--Be a P.E.O. Builder" was the theme for Fran's presidential term.  Fran is a historian with a specialty in women's organizations and Lulu Corkhill Williams was an influential early P.E.O. 

Fran, Lulu, and me

 I introduced Fran to ...

  Stevens often recalled the Memorial Day weekends that he'd go with his father from their home in Summit, NJ, to the cemetery in Williamstown, NJ, and clean up around the family graves. 

Warm on Friday, warmer on Saturday.   Clockwise: blue-eyed grass, skunk cabbage in full leaf, golden Alexander, field horsetail, star of Bethlehem (a garden escapee, very aggressive).   

It was much cooler on Sunday and I took a nap instead of a walk. 

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Several months ago I made string X blocks into a flimsy and added a border.  I didn't like the border but it was the only fabric on hand that sort of worked and that I had in enough quantity.  I put the flimsy in the box and hoped I'd like the border better eventually.  It still didn ...

There are four raffles:  50/50 cash, a gift card tree ($195 value), a ...

One year.  How I miss him!

I'm grateful to everyone for their love, support, and kind thoughts.

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The 101st  AAUW-Illinois convention was in Rockford this past Friday evening and Saturday.  (I didn't go last year because (see above).  The last time it was in Rockford was 2002 and I didn't go because my mother passed away.  Hmmm...)   Helen drove and we roomed together. (It was a test because in October we will travel together. We got along quite well.)  

Top: Peeping Beauty School of Cosmetology; Frida; No Mistakes, Just Happy Little Peeps (Bob Ross). Center: from the Racine city dept. of development; Arthur; "Peepal Conclave."   Bottom: Don Quixote; The Scream.

Of course I liked "They Read Banned Books."  

  The top left and center right are Polish (or Polish-style).  Upper right:  Japanese.  Lower left:  I think ...

 I went to church in the morning and had a nice long walk at Van Patten Woods in the afternoon.  

Sumac, fungus, mullein.  The place names Des Plaines and O'Plaine are corruptions of "eau pleine" meaning "full of water," which is how the early French explorers saw the river in flood. You can see why.

I had to work off some of the gustatory delights of the day.  I made a half-batch of pancakes, our customary holiday breakfast.  The pancake mix (Christmas 2024 gift) still had enough baking powder oomph ...

 I had a meeting Friday morning (good to get out and be sociable) and the rest of the weekend I was at home with just a couple of errands.  We're on the southern edge of the huge storm with only 4" of snow.  We're under a blizzard warning because it's quite windy.  I cancelled an appointment this morning and plan to stay in today.   Sewing and reading and, just maybe, catching up on a few no-time-pressure tasks.

In the studio:  I made red "coin" panels for this year's RSC project.  The pattern (shown in the photo ...

Kim Sigafuss ...

The Stay at Home Round Robin is quilted and bound.  Hooray!  

I've scheduled a quilt a month with Barb.  Whether I take something from the box of flimsies or create something new will depend on the month.

STASH REPORT, February ...

It didn't take long to recover from jet lag but I caught a cold on the way home (15 hours on three airplane flights means a lot of exposure).  I can finally be more than a foot away from a box of Kleenex.

When I left the amaryllis had one bud. I took it next door to Mike and Jen who watched the house for me. It liked its vacation home!  Four blossoms.

The special exhibit at the Dunn Museum opened back in October.  I finally went to see it on Friday, two days before it closes. (Hmm. I went to last summer's big exhibit at the Art Institute a couple of days before it closed.)

The Dunn Museum is a division of the Lake County Forest Preserve District. Museum programming includes county-wide history (the annual history symposium (Zoom) this month was great), natural history, and traveling exhibits like this one.  Just $3 admission for seniors.

So many familiar and favorite illustrators were included.  You may not know their names but surely ...

Choosing layouts and coordinating fabrics was a great design exercise.

Each is approximately 13 x 20.

5-7/8 yards used in all. 

They all use units from the orphan blocks box.

(The fine points of terminology: a patch is a shape cut from fabric. A unit is composed of one or more patches sewn together. A block is composed of units sew together.) 

# # # # #  I have a fear of running ...

We long ago stopped having entertainment at the luncheon. We just enjoy the fellowship, food, and fundraising.  $508.50 from the silent auction and $200 from the quilt raffle go to AAUW Greatest Needs Fund.   $130 from 50/50 cash and $275 in outright donations go to our local scholarship for girls planning to major in a STEM field.

Judy P. won the quilt.  The raffle tickets were sold only at the luncheon this year. (In years past the quilt was displayed at the state fall conference but now that's on Zoom ...

The boys are back! 

The nutcracker collection began with a gift from my mother shortly after we were married.  She gave us two or three more.   I've acquired the rest at TJ Maxx, estate/rummage/garage sales, and thrift shops.   They're all German.  

I made Good Cheer in 2013 from swap blocks.

Just as forecast, it began snowing at noon Saturday and continued all night long.  This was the view from the front door this morning.  9" accumulation.  

I shoveled the front stoop and ...

The thrifted shirts quilt is finished. 

  I made the rounds of local thrift shops and scored two twin sheet sets (flat and fitted) and two flat sheets.  They're all cotton.   I can usually differentiate between microfiber and cotton with just a glance (something about the sheen?) though some 60/40 blends can be deceiving.    

I put one of them to use right away for the shirtings quilt.  It's the paisley.  I had to cut around some small stains.  I added the blue floral to make it wide enough.  

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 I enjoyed two programs sponsored by the Waukegan History Museum in honor of Indigenous Peoples Month.  

Thursday evening was a showing of "The Negotiator."    Billy Caldwell,  

(c) Susan Kelsey

I made time for only two walks this week, in and around meetings, when it was still warm and sunny.    The front came through Saturday night.  We had a dusting of snow and the Sunday high was in the mid-30's.  

Left: Mr. and Mrs. Crane out for a promenade at Middlefork Forest Preserve on Wednesday afternoon.  I was that close to them.

I stopped at Middlefork on my way to Lake Forest Place where the AAUW book group meets.  This month we discussed Horse by Geraldine Brooks.  I listened to it earlier this year when Diann/Little Penguin recommended ...