What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It's been too cold to walk and I miss stretching my legs.  (I could walk at the rec center but that's early morning and I prefer to walk in the afternoon.)

# # # # #  In the warm, cozy basement studio: 

 I have chosen the starter for the Stay At Home Round Robin.  

At the ALA Midwinter Meeting in 2018 I got two vendor tote bags with this Jane Austen quotation. I ...

 I managed to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve.   I watched a new movie and an old one on Netflix.  New: Wake Up Dead Man, the third (and best, so far) in the Knives Out series.  Old:  How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. A fun caper from 1966.  

As I watched I quilted and bound the golden bowties wall hanging.  (I left for Florida with it basted. I was afraid I'd make a mess of the quilting. But it turned out okay! I hand-sewed the binding to ...

At Thursday's Rotary breakfast we played games (two versions of "guess the carol") and had a gift exchange.  Chris got the pair of pillowcases that I made, along with a box of  candy (shhh...regift of one of the 'festive foods' from earlier in the month).  I got something I knew I wouldn't use ...

No meetings, too cold to walk + an audiobook I had to finish (see below) = a flimsy.

6-1/4 yards by weight. 

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The supermoon as seen from the back yard Thursday at 5 p.m.  

Tuesday:   Zion Woman's Club luncheon at a local restaurant.  We exchanged "festive food" -- a useful alternative to white elephants which are too often a way to get rid of one "dustable" and in turn take home someone else's dustable.   I brought some of my Christmas tablecloths to set the table. 

                       

We finished the puzzle just as Linda called us to dinner.  

I'm giving out bags of  caramel/cheese popcorn.  Our Rotary Club sold it as a fundraiser and I bought three cases of 24 4-ounce bags.  Rather than re-selling it (which other club members have done) I'm giving it away.  Whatever is left will be part of the snacks for the Zion Woman's Club Bunco night in two weeks.  (That is, if I can refrain from any more snacking.)

The geraniums are having a late-season burst of energy. I moved them to the back patio to make room for a mum and pumpkin on the front stoop.

The tomatoes are over.  The crop was nice this year, especially for the grape and cherry varieties. 

Judy Martin presented a trunk show at Wednesday's guild meeting.  I'm sure you've known about her as long as I have!  She came to quilting from years of garment sewing. Her first quilt was made from clothing scraps when she was in college in the late 1960's.  She has published eight pattern books.  

 Nearly all of the 24 of the quilts she showed are really big.   

 The designs look very complex but when she showed how the blocks fit together they didn't seem so intimidating.

Though I've owned many of her books I admit ...

The flowers are about 1/4".   

Is the hole in the tree a portal?  LOL!

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No walk on Thursday.  Rotary breakfast at 7:15, then the first meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club at lunchtime.  The speaker, Susan Benjamin, was ...

Fringed gentian -- you can see the fringes at the edges of the petals.  They like sunshine and moist (but not wet) soil.  The lake prairie at Illinois Beach State Park is just right.  

Some have a single stem and others have multiple stems.

Such a beautiful blue!

(They designate 14 trails.  Participants have to walk (run, bike, jog...) seven of them to get the little commemorative medallion.  I overachieve and do all 14.)

I picked as many black raspberries as I could reach and carried them in my cap. They were great with vanilla ice cream.

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 Every year the Lake County Forest Preserves designates 14 trails for ...

 I had three routine medical procedures this week. Two sets of results are in, one to come. I am not worried.  

On the other hand, the Janome is in the shop.  The ...

On Wednesday the Zion Woman's Club (Kathy, Jeanne, and I) staffed the t-shirt sales table at Camp I Am Me.  The Illinois Fire Safety Alliance sponsors the week-long overnight camp for children and teens who have suffered burn injuries.  This is the 34th year and there are 52 campers from all over Illinois.  There's no charge to the campers (even transportation is provided).   YMCA Camp Duncan is a century-old campground that used to be way out in the country. 

There was a parade with fire trucks from departments all over the area, sirens wailing.  Brats and burgers for ...

The restaurant has quite a history

I've had the backing fabric for a really long time. 

5-7/8 yards used in all. 

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday

I'm confined to quarters most of the day ...

Carol Wilhoit was the speaker at the guild meeting Wednesday.  Her program spoke right to my scrappy heart.   

She mentioned "our" Wanda as the inspiration for the way she selects a range of prints/colors for her quilts.

"Use the good fabric!  Don't be afraid to experiment!" she told us.  Good advice.

Speaking of range of color, here are the 20 orange Ohio Stars.   I'm doing straight sets for each group of blocks in this RSC series so assembly is easy. 

There's a community garage sale this weekend. (Many people sign up and they (who?) publish a ...

I had a good two-mile walk at Pine Dunes Forest Preserve.  At the end, when I saw the car in the parking lot, I had a startlingly clear vision of Stevens half-opening the car door and waving his cane to greet me, with a big smile on his face.  (I hope those clear visions will continue for a long time.)

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Sunrise today.

"Sky-blue pink," as Uncle Wiggly would say. 

Many, many years ago Clara Cummings was denied membership in the Excalibur Club, a very exclusive women's club in Waukegan.  Clara began her own club, now eponymous. Members used to read and ...

 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.