What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

A bumble bee on wood betony (also called Canadian lousewort).  Wild geranium, Virginia creeper (with horsetail in the background), false Solomon's Seal, golden Alexander, horsetail, fleabane.

This one is about a foot long. There are three ...

 Hurray for me!

I have been dragging my feet getting the paper pieced letter S done that I needed last month in the color pink.  Well look what I finally finished this week!

I added them to my design wall with all the other completed blocks ...

Wildflowers at Lyons Woods:  trillium, yellow rocket, garlic mustard. Bristly buttercup, forget-me-not, cow parsnip, white and purple violets. (It's a great year for violets -- there are a lot in our yard, too.)

Apple ("eating apple," the app called it), crabapple, brand-new oak leaves. 

 The memorial service for our good friend Bob was Saturday morning.   Such a wonderful tribute to a long life, well-lived!   (Here is his obituary.)  There were many people -- his widow, four daughters, most of the 17 grandchildren, and many of the great-grandchildren -- and so many friends.  Bob and Liz hosted more than 30 exchange students through ...

 The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for May is green and I got a bit of a late start on pulling my scraps this month.  So I don't have a lot to share today.

I did sort and sew the center portions of all four of my Chaser blocks for the month.

And I did sort out all my green solid bits for my green letters this month.  I have even printed out my patterns.  But I still need to finish that pesky S in pink for April.  I hope to get all caught up this month!

It was so wonderful to be in-person for the AAUW-IL convention!  (The 2020 convention was cancelled. The 2021 convention was by Zoom.)   I picked up Karen and Erika for the drive to the Doubletree in Naperville, about 75 miles away.    

 

Waukegan Area Branch attendees were Karen, Jo-An, me, Jolanta, and Erika. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

This is one f my favorite rhododendrons in my yard.  It is the slightest shade of pink.

 Indoors, I have been focusing on making a bunch of scrappy placemats.  The rest of my available time has been spent working on my May UFO project.

It is wonderfully scrappy too!

Because I am the only quilter in my family, almost all of the family quilty items have ended up at my house.  One of the items is this hand pieced hexagon quilt top.  I think the fabrics are all 1940's ...

Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray.  

 I did say, "Rabbit, rabbit!" first thing today but I also remember listening to Julie Andrews sing The Lusty Month of May on our Broadway cast recording of Camelot.   

We are over the Covid sniffles and sneezes and out of the five-day isolation.  I took a follow up test at the walk-in clinic and was given the same advice as online, but so much better to hear it in person:  for the next five days (to Wednesday), wear a close-fitting mask ...

 The scraps have been flying this week but I don't have a lot that I am ready to share with you today.  I pulled a bunch more orphan blocks for my placemat project and have about six that just need quilting.  And I have been working on the quilts for the next Scrap Mixology Module I hope to publish next month.

I've been really struggling with Natalie's quilt.  I started with one plan then changed to a different plan.  Now I have come up with yet another plan.  Actually, another step in the plan.  Or something like that.  I needed to do something interesting with the 3.5" squares I ended up with after all that cutting, re-sizing, and trimming.  Maybe setting them on point, or putting sashing on two sides, or just about anything!  I got to thinking about a quilt I made a while back with tilted string blocks.  That quilt is one of my favorites. This ...

There was a Covid outbreak among the church choir members after the Easter service.  No choir this morning and we were back to alternating pews and masks required ...

 I scheduled some sewing time this weekend but with the sun shining and the scent of lilacs in the breeze, I am finding it really hard to stay indoors.

Left: the paschal moon on Friday evening as I left the tenebrae service at church.

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Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

 I still have a few more pink blocks to make for this year's RSC projects.

 The weather has been so lovely here I haven't been spending too much time in my sewing room.  So I don't have a lot of blocks to share this week.

In home improvement news, the 50-year-old windows were replaced this week.  (The exception is the five-pane bay window in the living room which has to be custom-ordered.)  My bathroom remodeling is finally done with the last wall patch plastered over and painted.  

We had to bundle up on Friday to plant blue pinwheels for Child Abuse Prevention Month.  It's one of the GFWC-Illinois signature projects.  

Sad news:  two Zion Women's Club members passed away last week at age 91 and ...

 It is a new month so that means a new RSC color.  April is pink so I have been busy sorting out my pink scraps and organizing which of my projects need the color.

But I still needed to finish up two more of my Bloom blocks in yellow for last month.  This project requires no pink blocks so I will not need to make any blocks for this quilt in April.

After sorting my pink scraps, I did get one of my Two Bits blocks completed.  I already made a few pink blocks last year for this project so ...

Chilly but sunny, no breeze this afternoon for a walk in the ravine at the end of our block. The skunk cabbages are in bloom -- this one has leaves beginning to unfurl.

Here are my new socks from Zkano, made in Alabama. Not only do they have great designs, but the socks are very comfortable (nonbinding tops that stay up).

On Thursday I enjoyed the luncheon meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club. The entertainment was a reenactor portraying Princess Diana. She cleverly began, "You know I am dead, of course," so we the audience knew that she knew what ...

 I actually sewed quite a bit this week.

But I sure do not feel like I have much to show for it!

I did sew this little 4" tall block.  I think it took me most of the week!

I am looking forward to April's RSC color to see what letters I get to sew next.

The St. Patrick's Day soda bread turned out better.   We're still enjoying it and leftover crock-pot corned beef.  . 

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Spring Comes First to the Willows is a young adult novel from the time I was a young adult.  I think of that phrase every spring when the willows green up.   I don't remember anything about the book other than its title so I've put in an ...

 The sunny days have turned rainy here so I was able to spend some time in my sewing room.

I love this project more with every month's worth of blocks added.

I also finished two more of my Bloom blocks.  I still have four more yellow ones to make for the quilt design I am making.  Hopefully I can get to them next week - they are all cut, I just need to sew them up.

And lastly, I finished up my letter R for ...