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March 18, 2025
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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January 27, 2025
Weekly update: placemats, pink stars + reading from With Strings Attached

 The last Monday of January?!  Slow down, 2025! 

The parts department had two 80" lengths of neutral-squares-neutral (6.5" wide) intended for a border that I didn't use.  I added another strip of squares, then sewed the lengths together, and cut into four 20" pieces.   

I'm using the serpentine stitch to quilt these placemats.   The photo shows the borders sewn on but not yet sewn down. 



The pink Ohio Stars are a basted flimsy.  9" blocks = 36" x 45".  


# # # # # #  The ALA Retired Members Round Table Book Club met by Zoom yesterday.   Instead of reading one book and discussing ...

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January 20, 2025
Weekly update, part 2: in the studio from With Strings Attached

 See the previous post for Stevens' 85th birthday weekend!

The cat's cradle blocks are assembled. 

 Justification for a ginormous stash: this floral print and the backing fabric (not shown), both just right.






One of my 2025 goals is to make 52 placemats.  Last Monday I posted a photo of two.  I made six more.  (After I took the photo I bound the red and black pair on the left.)   All of these are made from already-pieced panels and units from the box at the left.

None of these are the Old Town mystery, obviously.  That box is sitting on ...

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January 13, 2025
Weekly update: RSC pink + SAHRR from With Strings Attached

 

The weather hasn't been conducive to walks . . . hope I can get out this week.  Meanwhile, in the studio: 

My 52 Placemats project is underway with these two in pink.   

I came across a design for my 2025 RSC project.  Eight 6-1/2" 9Ps each month.



I started a batch of Ohio Stars just because. 


(I am avoiding dealing with Old Town.) 





I'm determined to stick with the Stay at Home Round Robin this year.   Here's my starter block.  It was the starter block for the guild 2018 round robin that I switched up (see how it began ...

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January 7, 2025
Weekly update: card shower request, Old Town, estate sale + bargains from With Strings Attached

 I'm starting this week's post with a personal request.

 Stevens will be 85 on January 18.  Can you mail him a birthday card?  If you don't have our address, indicate that in your comment and I will PM it to you.  Five years ago he was quite surprised to get so many cards.   This year he's alert but he's declining, so now is the time.  THANK YOU! 


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I've made 12 out of the 25 blocks for Old Town.  I haven't begun to cut, let alone sew, the turquoise and neutral units for the ...

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December 31, 2024
Weekly update: Christmas week, visitors, and an unexpected project from With Strings Attached

 My internal calendar was thrown off with Christmas in the middle of the week.  We went to the 5 p.m. Christmas Eve service at North Prairie UMC (the "other" Methodist church in town because we didn't want to go out at 9 p.m. for the service at our church).   My sister came for lunch on Christmas Day.  (Her husband is an HVAC guy and had several service calls (gotta have an operating furnace!).)  She and I talk fairly often but we hadn't met in person since last spring.  


On Thursday Bob posted that he was enjoying ...

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December 23, 2024
Weekly update: solstice, ornament bombing, and a little sewing from With Strings Attached

 



On Thursday Zion Woman's Club members helped with the Elf Network.  The bags contain sorted Christmas gifts, personalized by age/gender for each family.  Bags are numbered, people present their number and get their bag.  It was very efficient.   





 
We did nothing to observe the solstice but now there will be a minute more daylight in the morning and in the evening.   
I love this poem. A friend said she rereads Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series this time of year.  I'd like to revisit them but there are so many other books in the queue. . .








On ...

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December 21, 2024
Weekly update: many activities, little sewing from With Strings Attached

 Who says we can't try new things?  After decades of a Saturday luncheon, this year the AAUW gathering was on Friday at  Lamb's Farm.  It's a residential vocational center for adults with disabilities. Their restaurant servers are clients.   Of course we don't just eat -- we raise money!  There's a white elephant/silent auction, a 50/50 cash raffle, and the quilt raffle.   



The winner is a member of the Naperville branch. She and I will meet up sometime soon for the handoff.

The quilt raised $390 for the AAUW  Greatest Needs Fund (unrestricted support for ...

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December 9, 2024
Weekly update: holiday events, UFOs out and in, OT part 3, and the new flimsy from With Strings Attached

 Holiday events are underway!  

 Luncheons Tuesday (Zion Woman's Club) and Saturday (Lake County Women's Coalition), both at the same local restaurant.***  I was hostess for ZWC and brought my vintage Christmas tablecloths to decorate (we were in one of the restaurant's small rooms) but I was so busy presiding that I didn't get a good picture. (***Local as in four-tenths of a mile from my house!)  

On Friday we joined friends Bill and Debbie for dinner before going to the high school performing arts center  We all enjoyed the high school's holiday show by the ...

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December 2, 2024
Weekly update: the stash report, Old Town, OMG + reading from With Strings Attached


 



The tree is up.  



The boys are back.  (The big one never went away....)  

My mother started our nutcracker collection in the mid-1980's with one of the twins on the mantel (#2 or #10) and later with #5, #6, and #8. The others came from estate/garage sales and TJMaxx.   They're all German. 

 


 I try not to acquire more Christmas decorations, but if I come across German nutcrackers at good prices I will indulge.


The November stash report shows that I didn't indulge much compared to earlier this year.    Fabric IN:   60-1/4 yards, $80, average $1 ...

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November 25, 2024
Weekly update: placemats + reading from With Strings Attached




On Friday I showed a photo of nine-patch blocks that I made out of the border fabric from the bingo board blocks.  I said I had no plan for them.  Well, they had plans for me -- and here is what happened.  The placemats will be donated to the guild for one of the agencies it supports.

Speaking of the guild, this week I need to make an ornament for the exchange at next week's holiday party. I also need to fill the gift box for which I made this runner.   

Our Thanksgiving will be the two of us which ...

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November 18, 2024
Weekly update: bingo finish from With Strings Attached

 

It's been unusually warm this fall.  We haven't had a freeze yet, let alone a frost.  (I just looked up the definitions:   A frost is when ice crystals form on the outside of your plant. Frost can occur when the temperature is above 32F.....It’s a short event (usually happens right around dawn). A light frost happens when the ground is still warm enough to give off heat. A hard frost (also known as a killing frost) can occur when the ground temperature drops below 32F. A freeze, on the other hand, occurs when the temperature drops ...

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November 11, 2024
Weekly update: a finish and a start from With Strings Attached

 


Saturday afternoon I walked along this path.  It's part of a bike route that goes through Illinois Beach State Park and then connects with Zion parks and the forest preserves.  

When Zion City was begun in 1901 the prospective residents took the train up from Chicago.   A tower near the train station allowed them to climb up and spot their house lots.  These chunks of concrete are the remaining footings for the tower.  




  

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In the studio:   the homespun half-logs quilt is finished! 






 The back uses an Alexander Henry print from Barb M's garage sale.  It's nostalgic for ...

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November 7, 2024
Weekly update: quilt show from With Strings Attached




We went to the Chicago Botanic Garden Sunday morning to see  the  Fine Art of Fiber.  It's an annual collaboration of Illinois Quilters, Inc., North Suburban Needlearts Guild, and the Weaver's Guild of the North Shore.  

I have artists' statements for most of these if you'd like to know more.  




The theme for this year's Explorations in Fiber was "Inspiration."  Here are some of the selections. 



We went into one of the greenhouses.  Upper right:  cacao pods.

Outside:  roses are still in bloom. 

Work crews were setting up for Lightscape, the holiday light show that opens ...

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  • design wall monday
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