What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 On Tuesday I drove 430 miles to Paducah, Kentucky, for my first-ever AQS show.  My librarian friend Terri lives in Paducah and invited me to stay at her house in town.  

En route I got a call from the nursing home telling me that Stevens had very low blood pressure so they were sending him to the hospital.   

Stevens has been sitting in a wheelchair just across from the nurse's station so he can see and react to people going by.  He can hold a spoon or fork to feed himself and he can grasp a cup to drink.  

Stevens moved to a rehab facility yesterday afternoon. I went to visit.  "Hello, my love," he greeted me before nodding off again.  

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I miscounted the number of blocks I made for Gray Scale. (See the lower right corner.)  Fortunately it's easy to remedy.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday  

 Stevens is still in the hospital. The GI tube has been removed and they're going to start real food today.  He'll stay through the weekend (if not longer).   I toured three care facilities yesterday and found one that I really like.  

Our guild's annual Raffle Mania was Wednesday evening.  Members bring no-longer-loved quilt, textile, and fiber-related stuff (like yarn).  Each person gets free raffle tickets based on meeting attendance through the year.  Additional tickets are available for purchase.  I got six free and spend $20 for 35 more.  

It rained Tuesday night. When I went downstairs Wednesday morning to do laundry I found puddles on the basement floor.  The culprit was a detached downspout extender.  Did I forget to check it after the landscapers did the fall cleanup, or did it fall off sometime afterward?  In any event it took two wet-vac tubs full to get all the water.   The 1-1/2" and 2" strip bins under the cutting table got wet.  The bins themselves are made out of nylon or polyester and they dried fine.  I contemplated putting the strips in pillowcases and putting them in the ...

I posted this photo on Monday. I intended to make wheelchair quilt (36 x 45).  I finished the quilting--just an easy swirl, no sweat.  When I trimmed the edges I trimmed one long side TOO much and it looked.....not right.   I could have bound it "not right" and given ...

"Smile for your fan club!"

Sunshine and temperatures in the upper 30's and lower 40's were conducive to walking this week.  It was good to stretch my legs!

This is pack ice, covered in sand.

I saw four of the ornaments I hung along one of the paths in mid-December.  This one had a few remnants of its red paint.

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I had a satisfying and productive month in the studio. 

The Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) prompt this week was half-square triangles. I have a box of batik HSTs on hand so this was an easy step ...

 On the home front:   Thirty birthday cards arrived this week.  THANK YOU! 

The dishwasher repairman came late Monday.  He pried off the lower panel, plugged a gizmo into a gauge or something, and got a readout that said the dishwasher had run 1,586 cycles since installation.  That was interesting.  He then replaced a water intake valve.  Here's the important part. He said he guessed that I used the economy cycle (51 min.).  He was right. It turns out that's wrong and I should use the normal cycle. That pushes more water through the valve and keeps it ...

Thanks to everyone who's asked for our address for Stevens' birthday card shower. It's not too late--PM me to send the address. 

Quick post this morning.   The Running Doe top-a-long (what is that? read details here) is a flimsy.  

I cut into a few Kaffe prints, including the spashy center flowers.  I used up the large part of several others.  (I'm trying to get over the "can't cut this!" hurdle.) 

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In a small outport town in Nova Scotia in the last months of World War I a dead whale is stranded on the shoreline.  In a ...

I've bundled up for two forest preserve walks this week.  Fortunately the Kicks (S's car that I drive) stays warm so he is comfortable.  

We are at the southern edge of the paper birch range.  Hickory nuts.  The icy snow sparkles. 

All the Christmas decor is put away except for the wreath.  Each year I think about going through the storage boxes and culling decorations that I didn't use this year (or last year or the year before....) Then I think what if I want to change things up next season? So I just close up the ...

And then at Rotary yesterday the president said we'll have a gift exchange at next week's meeting.  $25 value.  (Gender observation: the president is a woman. Would any group of men even think about a gift exchange?)  Of course I'll need to provide Stevens' contribution as well as my own.  

The AAUW luncheon is today, we're going to a dinner tonight, the P.E.O. luncheon is tomorrow, and we're going ...

I made two of our traditional favorites:  Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish and cranberry bread.  In 1990 my colleague Pam raced into the library saying she'd just heard a great recipe on NPR and had to write it down before she forgot it.  I still use the copy made from her transcription (lower right) though  NPR tells the story every year.     I discovered the cranberry bread recipe circa 1976 when I read Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin for a library storytime.   Recipe cards with splatters indicate tried, true, and delicious ...

I paid $1.60 per yard this time.  Many pieces of Thimbleberries (Paintbox 2002).  

Thank you for your compliments on the Bingo Board quilt I ...

I trimmed the black-bordered bingo board blocks (say that three times fast)  in one kit to 14"  and added snowball corners (2" squares).   I found a yard-plus of Kona black in my stash (2010 purchase per the note), more than enough for the borders ...

We also had the reveal for the 2024 round robin!  There was so much interest that there were two ...

Welcome to November. As I write the sun is shining and it's about 20 degrees cooler than earlier in the week.   

It was windy as I walked in  Lyons Woods (Wednesday) and  Capt. Daniel Wright Woods (Thursday)  

Fall fungus.    

Golden catalpa in a clearing in the woods.  

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Fabric in:  86-1/2 yards, $186.50. average $2.15 per yard. Most of that was from Barb M's estate sale.   Fabric out:  a paltry 33-1/4 yards.  

YTD fabric in: 1446-1/2 yards, $2959.50, average $2.04 per yard.

YTD fabric out:  778-2/4 ...

It's been sunny and hot all week. We really need some rain!  But it's been great for walks:  three sections of Illinois Beach and one forest preserve. 

Here's a closeup photo of fringed gentian.  You can clearly see the fringes at the edges of the petals.  The blue is such a heavenly color!  I found several clumps at the middle unit of Illinois Beach State Park.  

 Left: blue wood aster.  Top: apple, primrose.  Center: New England aster, white heath aster.   Bottom: purple lovegrass, hairy aster. 

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In ...