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  • design wall monday
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June 24, 2025
Weekly update: celebrating, a field trip, rummage sale, a finish + reading from With Strings Attached

 


Happy birthday to me!  I look forward to a *prime* year.  

I caught the sunrise (5:17) at the marina this morning. I stuck my toes in the water at the north beach. 


On Friday I took advantage of an unscheduled day and went downtown. "Dressed in History" is on exhibit at the Chicago History Museum featuring items from their costume collection. The garments were donated by Chicagoans, some of whom wore them.   Quite a variety!

The white Dior gown in the center is so elegant! (Worn by a debutante in 1949.)  The donor of the 18th century court dress ...

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June 16, 2025
Weekly update: wildflowers, blocks and scraps + reading from With Strings Attached

 I joined the nationwide protest marches in spirit only.  I fulfilled a prior commitment to staff the Rotary booth at the Zion Juneteenth celebration at Illinois Beach State Park.   


After my shift was over I walked along the trail at the south end of the park. 

 



Lupine, Ohio Spiderwort, puccoon, sulfur cinquefoil, prickly pear, a hillside (actually a duneside) of lupine.

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In the studio:   I made 24 blocks for Cynthia's current block drive.   3 yards used.   And now I have an idea for next year's RSC.









I saw a photo of a quilt with this design on a ...

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June 9, 2025
Weekly update: rummage sale score, orange stars, topalong start from With Strings Attached

 


Friday's walk at the state park:  lupine, daisy fleabane, coreopsis, blue flag iris (native), hybrid iris (I look for it every year), golden Alexander, Canadian anemone, yellow flag iris (non-native).


On Friday I went to a rummage sale.  As I looked at craft items I mentioned that I'm a quilter. The woman said she had some fabric leftovers in the house that she'd bring out.  I bought all of them -- contemporary prints -- for $10.  The woman's mother was managing the checkout and said, "I have some old fabric from my mother.  I can bring it tomorrow ...

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May 26, 2025
Weekly update: wildflowers, a finish, and other doings + reading from With Strings Attached

 

Finally some sunshine!   It will get into the high 60's today, Memorial Day.   

I enjoyed a walk at Lyons Woods on Friday afternoon.  Clockwise from upper left: red trillium, golden ragwort, bristly buttercup, white trillium, forget-me-not, mayapple, jack-in-the-pulpit.


On Saturday I went to the spring tea (actually a luncheon) given by Grandparents and Kin Raising Children, an agency founded and run by our Rotary friend Harriet.  It was very nice (and good for me to get rather dressed up and out).   Due to privacy concerns only the event photographer could take photos of the attendees, and I didn't ...

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May 13, 2025
Weekly update: two finishes + reading from With Strings Attached

 

Two walks at Illinois Beach State Park this weekend were good for my body and my spirit.  

Woodland violet, field horsetail, wild strawberry, hoary puccoon, prickly pear, serviceberry, false Solomon's seal.

If you look at the horizon you can see the Chicago skyline, 40 miles away.


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In the studio:  two finishes!  



The flimsy was in my post last week.  Now it's quilted and bound.    One of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this year is to make a wheelchair-sized quilt (approx. 40 x 50) out of Ohio Stars in the monthly color.



I signed up for the guild mystery ...

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May 5, 2025
Weekly update: the sew goes on from With Strings Attached

 I continue to thank you all for your kind words and condolences.  Quilting is very therapeutic during stressful times.  And the endorphin rush from bargain fabric acquisition is not to be discounted.   I have recent experience with both.   


Chris called to offer me several bags of fabric.  I bought a huge quantity from her a couple of years ago. She found more and for payment asked if I would make a quilt for her new great-grandson. Of course!

Her gift included bags of flannel that I have given away.  I kept this yardage.  The blue, yellow, and pink pieces in ...

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April 21, 2025
Weekly update: Easter and a finish! from With Strings Attached

 

I hope your Easter weekend was pleasant.   In fourth grade we had a unit about weather lore. The one saying I remember is "if it rains on Easter Sunday it will rain every Sunday for the next seven weeks."  It rained yesterday. Maybe this year I will remember to keep track.  (Now I know that "seven weeks" means until Pentecost.) 

I went to church Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.  I had lunch with Stevens each day.  They put the wheelchair in the hall across from the nurses' station so he can interact with everyone who goes by.  He's been cleaning ...

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April 14, 2025
Weekly update: bunco, a surprise finish, and reading from With Strings Attached

 S is getting more alert.  His appetite is good.  I will learn more when I meet with the care team this week.



The Zion Woman's Club spring bunco party was Friday evening.   Everyone had a good time!  

My friend Donna won the quilt I donated to the raffle.

I'm sure the club treasurer will have a glowing report at tomorrow's board meeting. 





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Here's the ninth block for the guild BOM.  

These are 8" (finished) blocks so the pieces were a bit fiddly to cut.



From "just a few more blocks" (Friday's post) to a finished ...

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April 7, 2025
Weekly update: adjusting, and progress on goals + reading from With Strings Attached

 Stevens had laprascopic surgery on Friday afternoon. The results were good.  "I went from one end of the bowel to the other," said the surgeon when he called me, "and there's nothing there."  It's taken S all weekend to recover. He was half-awake when I visited Saturday morning and asleep this afternoon.  Thanks again to all of you for your concern and support.

The thirteen Lake County Round Table P.E.O. chapters held the annual Founder's Day luncheon on Saturday.  I'm round table president so I was the emcee.  This was the second year the ...

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March 31, 2025
Weekly update: an exhibit, OMG, RSC, reading from With Strings Attached

 Thank you all for your supportive comments regarding my husband.  The care home assessment was Friday.  His condition is beyond what assisted living/memory care can accommodate.  For now we are increasing in-home care (two caregivers have been recruited to help with the 6 p.m.-bedtime shift (V comes in the morning)).  We have a video visit with his doctor on Tuesday.  


I was able to take time Saturday morning to see this exhibit at the Dunn Museum (part of the forest preserve district).


The oldest quilt was made in Pennsylvania in 1850 (large picture on left).  It came ...

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March 24, 2025
Weekly update: changes ahead + quilting progress from With Strings Attached

The crocuses under the dryer vent are the first to bloom   

 On Wednesday Stevens' condition took a sharp decline.  He wasn't able to get out of his armchair to use the walker to go back to his bathroom and bedroom.  Our friend Curt came (at 9:45 p.m.) to help me move him.  Thursday began all right--I went to Rotary, came home to get him up, and promptly had to call our part-time caregiver for help.  She came right over.  We began a new routine.  V now comes every morning and every evening.  He's sitting in the ...

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March 20, 2025
Weekly update: catching up on this and that from With Strings Attached


Catching up with a longtime friend:   Leslye and I have known one another since junior high.   We reconnected a few years ago and have had the best intentions to get together -- we live about 25 miles apart.  Last week she emailed and wrote, "Let's do it!" and we did.   We had lunch at a restaurant here in Zion.  Such a delightful time and yes, we will do it again.  Soon.  





Catching up with walking.  Since the caregiver was with Stevens I took advantage of the time and the lovely day to take a quick walk at Spring Bluff Forest ...

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March 18, 2025
More Progress on Projects from Loose Threads


As you can see by scrolling through this post, I've been busy.   I've scrapped my plan for the Jemima's Creative Quilting Mystery 2025 and switched to the colors below.   I love fall colors especially the rust color, and I like this color pallet a lot better.   I also fussy cut 7 hexagons from another fabric, but those will go into another project.  I know I could finish more things if I just picked something and stuck with it.  Click the link above if you want to join in.  
 

The photo below shows a bit of the process ...

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More Progress on Projects from Luann's Loose Threads


As you can see by scrolling through this post, I've been busy.   I've scrapped my plan for the Jemima's Creative Quilting Mystery 2025 and switched to the colors below.   I love fall colors especially the rust color, and I like this color pallet a lot better.   I also fussy cut 7 hexagons from another fabric, but those will go into another project.  I know I could finish more things if I just picked something and stuck with it.  Click the link above if you want to join in.  
 

The photo below shows a bit of the process ...

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March 10, 2025
Weekly update: signs of spring, quilting accomplishments + reading from With Strings Attached

 

I set all the clocks ahead just after dinner Saturday. I've finally figured out how to do the clocks in both cars correctly the first try.  

Two beautiful days this weekend got us out for a walk at the state park and a nearby forest preserve.  


The dogwood is really red.   

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 This is my version of Transport, the Running Doe top-along pattern for March.  




A closeup of the gray-with-dots background.






I made eight 9-patch blocks in yellow for the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   I have a pattern that will use eight 9ps in each color.





I made four yellow ...

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March 3, 2025
Weekly update: an event-filled weekend, stash report, and OMG for March from With Strings Attached


 The Lake County Women's Coalition held the annual Women's History Month luncheon on Saturday.  Each year the member organizations are invited to nominate a woman who exemplifies the national WHM theme.  We recognize the winners of the scholarships we award through the College of Lake County.  (I'm LCWC secretary and the rep for the Zion Woman's Club.  AAUW-Waukegan is also part of LCWC.)  

ZWC's honoree Jeanne' is the media specialist for Beach Park Dist. 6.  (Her mom is my quilting friend Irene, and Irene and her other daughter joined us.) Jeanne' does a whole lot ...

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February 24, 2025
Weekly update: orchids, placemats + reading from With Strings Attached

 


Our Friday adventure was an outing to the annual orchid show at Chicago Botanic Garden.  

This year's theme is, obviously, India.  







The tickets are timed-entry which helps with crowd control at this very popular show.   I checked out a parking pass at the library which saved us $10.00.  




 


Regenstein Hall was draped with fabric that evoked saris.   (I was last here in November for the Fine Art of Fiber quilt show.) 




The corridor to the greenhouses featured this display. 





It is impossible to take a bad picture of an orchid.  



The peacock's tail was all orchids. 


Stevens ...

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February 17, 2025
Weekly update: concert, new storage, a flimsy, and reading from With Strings Attached

  Still no walking, but we did get out Sunday afternoon for the Lake County Symphony Orchestra's winter concert at the College of Lake County.  First act:  Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. Second act:  Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  Ode to Joy in the fourth movement was performed by a combined choir (Northern Illinois University and local chorales).   Wonderful music just fifteen miles from home and $30 per seat.  

It was a full house with open seating, but we had seats in the ADA accessible row.

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In the studio:  Closet Maid wire basket units hold a lot of fabric.  Unfortunately they are ...

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February 10, 2025
Weekly update: SAHRR, Old Town, and reading from With Strings Attached



How nice to get this FB message first thing on Saturday! 

This is the quilt that she won.  (Working title: "Go Scrappy or Go Home.")   


The weather cooperated Saturday morning for the spaghetti dinner delivery.  All our "customers" (neighbors mostly) were appreciative.  We had two of the dinners ourselves -- tasty!  

Saturday afternoon I went to the last hours of an estate sale.  The advertised German nutcrackers were long gone by the time I got there but I got a nice office chair on wheels for $7.00.   The seat-lifter on the Steelcase chair I've had at my sewing machine ...

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February 7, 2025
Weekly update: OMG February, placemats, and the top-along + reading from With Strings Attached

 


My One Monthly Goal for February is to get Old Town to the flimsy stage.  One motivation is to reclaim the design wall. :)  

The Quiltville FB group has photos of many versions of the design with different colorways and different sashings or settings or borders.  I'm going to stick to the sashing as patterned but I may do something other than the checkerboard border.  

I made six placemat flimsies from units in the parts department.  The tan/green/red one has been around since 2007 (gulp!). I always thought I'd piece it into a quilt back.  The one ...

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  • design wall monday
  • Page 1 of 14 ( 273 posts )