What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

I crossed paths with a praying mantis at Illinois Beach State Park yesterday.   I tried to get a head-on photo but it moved too quickly.

The squirrels decided to carve our pumpkin.  Ooooh noooo, Mr. Bill!  

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Last evening's P.E.O. Zoom meeting included a very interesting program.

The speaker was my friend-since-junior high Pam. She was an associate editor for Science  the journal of the American Assn. for the Advancement of ...

We've slipped back into our routine with afternoon outings most days.  The weather has been very warm and sunny though severely dry.  

The caregiver took Stevens out last week, too.  Here's a photo from the beach.  

We really like Swiss Gourmet and Winter Banana (mid-season).

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 The Anderson ...

Bumblebee on goldenrod, Carolina horse nettle (also called Radical Weed or Tread Softly).  Wild cucumber, giant hyssop.

I hope we can do the final trail ...

We've been enjoying other fast and high-flying events on the Olympics this week.  Paris is 7 hours ahead of Chicago so their evening events are late morning and afternoon here.  (Simone and Suni!  Katie! and events we're not as familiar with -- equestrian, fencing, BMX.)

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Sis-boom-dot is finished.

I used the serpentine stitch and purple thread to quilt it.

The back uses an Alexander Henry print from Barb M's estate sale and an insert of a Kaffe Fassett print. 

The Kaffe was ...

My OMG was to make the quilt for the AAUW holiday raffle.  I finished it mid-month.  ("Don't 'peak' until Christmas"?) 

Here is the July OMG link up.

There are trails on both sides of Green Bay Road. This time we went to the west.  

From upper right rattlesnake master, which has such other-worldly flowers!  St. John's wort, eastern bottle brush grass. early goldenrod ("early" is part of the name, and it is!), a buried wheel rim likely from ...

It's a wildflower wonderland here in northeasternmost Illinois.  We went to Ethel's Woods and Pine Dunes.

Compass plant, false white indigo, monada/bee balm, mountain mint. butterfly weed, show tick trefoil, rattlesnake master, pickerelweed, Culver's root.

Bumblebee on a purple coneflower and a flock of little yellow butterflies.

  The Lake County Symphony Orchestra performed on Thursday evening.   The tuba solo (Strauss's Happy Farmer) was fun. 

  Though we missed the fireworks at the park in Zion the neighborhood was a-poppin' with firecrackers until nearly midnight.  The smell of the powder was heavy the next morning.  

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Neighbor Mike worked on our refrigerator on Saturday. His diagnosis is that the relay that tells the condenser to cool needs to be replaced.  He has a call in to the repairman.  Meanwhile we are still 'camping' with two Igloo coolers holding produce and other food.  (I don't want to tromp into Mike and Jen's garage multiple times a day to use their backup fridge where I have more food stored.)

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I got reacquainted with the bin of bright prints when I made the butterfly quilt (see last week's update ...

But first . . . she liked it!  (See Monday's post for details.)

 Monday alternated rain and sunshine, and Cheri's outdoor party was during the latter.  There was a cloudburst in the evening.

The goal was to finish the flimsy from the guild round robin in 2019.  I added the orange inner border and the green outer border and rows of triangles to make it rectangular.

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Here are reviews of books I've read recently. Maybe they ...

Our favorite plant/produce shop is open for the season.  Susan always comes out to say hi to Stevens.  One of her customers made a stack of "hug blankets" to give away to other customers who might need a hug so she presented this one to him.

I got geraniums for the front stoop -- and, hooray -- FIVE healthy rhubarb plants that Susan started from seed.  I'll plant them tomorrow. 

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The egret was quite close--guarding a nest, perhaps?  Upper: sand cherry  (a bush). Lower: crabapple (obviously a tree); mullein.

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At the guild meeting last week I signed up for the upcoming round robin.  It will begin next month so I have to figure out my starter block (an orphan ...

My OMG was to make a hollyhock wall hanging for the outgoing president of the Zion Woman's Club. Hollyhocks are the club flower.  I bought the pattern from Ladybug's Cabin Creations.  It was fiddly to make but the instructions were very clear.   All batiks from my stash.

I'll present it at the ZWC luncheon next week.

Stash report for April:  

Fabric in 76 yards, $110, average $1.44/yard.

Fabric out: 58-1/4 yards.

YTD in: 580-1/2 yards, $955 ...

It did not get dark here but the quality of the sunlight changed, the temperature dropped slightly, and a breeze kicked up.     

Photo: holding iPhone up to the lens of the eclipse glasses.  

This chipmunk was ...

The showers held off each afternoon so I could get good walks -- the state park, a forest preserve, and the nature trail at the end of our block.  

A beaver-chewed tree (one of many along that stretch), a beaver lodge, and horsetails.   

Easter was pleasant. Stevens was able to come to church with me!   I bought a 4-1/2 lb lamb roast. I rubbed it with a mixture of chopped garlic, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was wonderful and we ...

The weather cooperated yesterday with sunshine and 45 degrees.  We enjoyed a forest preserve walk at McDonald Woods (2 miles)   

I've been working on the homespun quilt.  There's a piece of green tape to mark the misplaced unit (fourth row, second column).  

The fabric for the setting triangles was a serendipitous find on the shelf.   I haven't decided whether or not there will be a border.