monday musings

Weekly update: celebrations, a binding resolution, and remembering from With Strings Attached

The Lake County Women's Coalition annual Women's History Month luncheon was on Saturday. Each LCWC member organization nominates an honoree who exemplifies the year's theme.

I'm on the LCWC steering committee as the rep for the Zion Woman's Club but I am also a member of AAUW. AAUW's honoree was Nan Buckart (bio on left) who was director of education for the Lake County Forest Preserves. ZWC's honoree was Wendy Driver (bio on right) whose many interests in community activism include gardening (seed-saving, monarchs, zinnias, and more).

Top: the ZWC contingent.

Kim Sigafuss ...

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Weekly update: SAHRR and another finish, stash report, goals + reading from With Strings Attached

It was a puttering-around kind of weekend. Too chilly to go for a walk, no major errands to run, nothing much that needed attention. So I sewed!

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

The back uses two book-related fabrics.

I made the courthouse steps flimsy in 2023. Barb quilted it in an overall Baptist fan. I bound it last evening. It's 72 x 84.

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 ...

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Weekly update: placemat delivery + MQG swap reveal + a flimsy and a finish from With Strings Attached

My trip to New Zealand was wonderful! You can read all about it in the post right before this one.

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.

Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning were ...

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Weekly update: SAHRR, the answer is 42, scrappy souvenirs + reading from With Strings Attached

Brrrrrrr! I hope you are keeping warm during this storm. I've been mostly indoors since Friday. I went to two memorial visitations on Saturday (the son of a Rotary friend in the morning and a quilting friend in the afternoon) though I didn't stay for the funeral services. I overrode the thermostat so the heat stays at daytime temperature overnight. Otherwise it would take all morning to warm up. Snowfall was about 2", no wind.

wrapped up in the Magpies' quilt with another quilt at my back

I appreciate all the people who braved the cold, wherever they ...

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Weekly update: picture books, some surprises, remembering + MQG swap #2 from With Strings Attached

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 ...

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Weekly update: goal met, onto the next + reading from With Strings Attached

The last batch of placemats! The units and blocks are from the orphan box/parts department. Some are recent (the three at the lower right); some are middle-aged (the green/blue hourglasses are from Indigo Way (which itself is blocks-in-a-box); some are elderly (the hard-to-see scrappy trips that are the background for the two feathers in the upper right).

Choosing layouts and coordinating fabrics was a great design exercise.

Each is approximately 13 x 20.

All 121 in the bin. Each placemat averages 3/8 yard, so 45 yards. (With thanks to QuiltDiva Julie who sent a set of four ...

added by Nann 2 months ago. under design wall monday , monday musings , oh scrap! , placemats , reading , sew and tell , weekly update

Weekly update: first finish for 2026, placemat progress + reading from With Strings Attached

Lazy Goose, the January top-along, is finished! I quilted it in parallel lines with the serpentine stitch. The back is a print I've had since the 1990's.

5-7/8 yards used in all.

One of my January goals is to make 20 placemats. I've finished six.

Six more are underway.

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 ...

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Weekly update: holiday events, a cold snap, and a new start from With Strings Attached

The AAUW holiday luncheon was on Friday.

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 ...

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Weekly update: parties and scraps + reading from With Strings Attached

Friday evening: the 151st annual Carthage College Christmas Festival. The college chapel is a beautiful setting for the splendid music.

Rotary friends and family had dinner at a Kenosha restaurant beforehand.

Kaylynn, whose family is in the top photo, is a freshman at Carthage this year and in the orchestra. Donna and I (lower photo) have known her since she was born.

Saturday began with the funeral for our Rotary friend Nate at a church in Waukegan. It was a chilly service because the church furnace was on the blink. (Ironically Nate was a long-time trustee so just a few ...

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Weekly update: a snowy end to November from With Strings Attached

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.

The rest of the nutcrackers are providing a backup chorus for the Christmas tree.

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 ...

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Weekly update: a finish and a good book from With Strings Attached

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.

It is futile to think I'll use up all ...

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Weekly update: local history, bunco, a finish, and the other RSC project from With Strings Attached

The Zion Woman's Club fall Bunco fundraiser was Friday night. As club president I had a lot invested in the outcome and I am delighted to report that it was a great success. If I added correctly, the gross income was $1950. One winner was very lucky indeed -- she won $215 in the 50/50 cash raffle, $225 in the gift card raffle, and the quilt I donated.

# # # # #

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

aka Sauganash ...

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Weekly update, part 1: placemats and more from With Strings Attached

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 ...

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Weekly update: placemat palooza and more from With Strings Attached

There were about 20 trick-or-treaters on Friday afternoon. The little kids are the cutest. And most said "Thank you" without any coaching. Three 11-year-old boys were wide-eyed at the bags of popcorn I gave out. "You are the WINNER!!" one of them said.

Autumn colors and a wooly bear caterpillar at Illinois Beach State Park yesterday. Bottom left: two mullein sprouting new green leaves. We haven't had a frost yet.

As so often happens, it takes an obituary or a funeral to reveal all of a person's accomplishments and how many lives that person touched. Saturday afternoon I ...

added by Nann 4 months ago. under design wall monday , monday musings , oh scrap! , placemats , sew and tell , weekly update

Underfoot in Italy from With Strings Attached

I'll add this post to the Monday link ups because it's quilt design related. I hope you'll scroll down to read the travelog post and leave a comment. Design Wall Monday Sew and Tell Oh Scrap! Monday Musings

I could not resist taking pictures of the tile floors in Rome, Florence, and Venice. My quilter's brain went to work right away figuring out how they were put together.

Don't turn me in! Photography is strictly forbidden in the Sistine Chapel, but I covertly snapped photos of the floors.

Capitoline Museum, Rome

St. Mary Major (Santa ...

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Weekly update: AIC, quilt show, the end of an era, a finish! and a flimsy from With Strings Attached

I've had ample opportunities to go downtown to see the Caillebotte exhibit at the Art Institute, but it took a "closing soon!" email to get me to do it on Friday.

Wealthy Chicagoans in the Gilded Age (1890's) bought Impressionists as modern and avant-garde, and relatively inexpensive. They were patrons of the Art Institute and thus the museum developed its Impressionist collection.

"Paris Street, Rainy Day" was acquired in 1964 and has become one of AIC's most famous paintings. Caillebotte painted it in 1877.

I had hoped to go to this famous intersection (Carrefour du Moscou) when ...

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Weekly update: a destash, almost a flimsy, RSC October + reading from With Strings Attached

Old School Forest Preserve

Chicagoland is officially in a drought but the cloudless skies ("100% of available sunshine") and warm temperatures are the kind of weather I'd like to bottle.

At Van Patten Woods on Friday: sulfur butterfly on New England aster, viceroy butterfly, yellow wooly bear caterpillar.

The viceroy is a monarch mimic. The visible difference is the black band across the lower wing. (Read about other differences in this article)

# # # # #

A friend moved to assisted living earlier this year. There was an estate sale at her house this weekend. I bought a trundle bed and because I ...

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Weekly update: quilt show, a new trail, some quilting + reading from With Strings Attached

The Southport Quilt Guild holds its annual show at the Anderson Arts Center on the lakefront in Kenosha. The quilts are hung by the arts center staff and the show is up for a month. There's no admission fee.

View of the lake from a second-floor window. Podgaji "flags" guided visitors to the front door.

There were 75? or so quilts on display.

This was fun! Each visitor got a clipboard with a scavenger hunt sheet. ("How many points are in the star in quilt #70?" "Which quilt is named Daniel?" "What color is the center pinwheel on quilt ...

added by Nann 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under design wall monday , monday musings , mug rugs , oh scrap! , quilt show , reading , sew and tell , weekly update

Weekly update: an exhibit, golf, and quilting progress from With Strings Attached

Way back in May Sue and I talked about meeting at the College of DuPage to see the Hokusai exhibit. We made it on Thursday -- just in time since it closes September 21.

I took a one-semester Japanese history course in high school and it's remarkable what I remember (Ukiyo-e, the Floating World) despite all that I have forgotten.

Like the Mona Lisa, Hokusai's The Wave is a lot smaller in person than its reputation.

There were prints by Hokusai's contemporaries. The exhibit comes from an Italian museum based on the collection of Edoardo Chiossone, an ...

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Weekly update: friends and inspiration at the Wisconsin Quilt Show from With Strings Attached

Last week Wisconsin Quilt Show returned to the Alliant Energy Center in Madison for the 21st year. It was begun by Nancy Zieman and Wisconsin PBS as the Wisconsin Quilt Expo, hence my blog label. This was the seventh time I've attended and the first time I've stayed overnight.

I picked up Carolyn at the Milwaukee airport Wednesday afternoon. We drove from there to our hotel in Verona, a now-suburb adjacent to Madison.

We set up the sewing machines in the hotel breakfast room / lounge. That attracted other hotel guests and we had good conversations.

Both the FW ...

added by Nann 6 months ago. under design wall monday , magpies , monday musings , oh scrap! , quilt show , sew and tell , weekly update , wisconsin quilt expo

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