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June 21, 2026
Easy As A, B, C ~ Sew & Tell - 6/22/26 from Melva Loves Scraps

Welcome back to MLS & another party session of Sew & Tell!  Creatively speaking, the party was diverse... There were several finishes and WIPs and progress updates... and inspiration was abundant!  This week's randomly selected feature is Vicki at Vicki's Crafts & Quilting.  She shared her colorful strings... her first complete donation quilt for the year.  

This was a project that she worked on over the winter.  She said that the strings were sewn to phone book pages that she had saved.  Wise plan Vicki!

Head over to her blog to see what she chose for the backing!  

I had a ...

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June 19, 2026
100 Days Continue ~ Sew & Tell - 6/15/26 from Melva Loves Scraps

 

Summer is in full swing with sunshiny days causing the temperatures to rise into the 90s.  Thankfully, there was a cool front come through mid-week... keeping us from needing to install window AC units and losing the windows. Hallelujah!

It seems that summer is in full swing for others as well... the participants in the Sew & Tell party were significantly less than previous weeks.  Those that joined the fun shared some great projects.  Leeanna at Not Afraid of Color worked with pastels... in paint and in fabrics.  Head over to her blog to see her artwork. :)  Several others included links ...

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June 16, 2026
Weekly update: a finish, two starts + reading from With Strings Attached



Friday afternoon:   Wild flag iris, palespike lobelia, spiderwort, Canadian anemone....and a turtle on a log.







It was sunny and hot on Saturday for the Zion Juneteenth celebration at Illinois Beach State Park.  I staffed the Rotary booth from 11-3.  The chair and three other Rotarians are on the event committee.  I only got one photo, of me with four of the Interact Club who were all-around helpers for the event. 


I got teary-eyed at church yesterday.  The opening hymn was The Summons.  It so perfectly summarizes Stevens' life and ministry. The sermon was about "Sarah laughed" (when God told ...

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June 10, 2026
A Crafty Sew & Tell ~ 6/8/2026 from Melva Loves Scraps


Welcome back to the weekly Sew & Tell party!

Thanks for joining me for a fun session of show and tell to see what all of our friends have been up to.  We are away again for the weekend... camping this time with friends to celebrate an 80th birthday and a Quilt of Valor presentation.

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June 8, 2026
Weekly update: finished + acquisitions from With Strings Attached


 Wildflowers at Greenbelt Forest Preserve on Sunday afternoon.  A good 2-mile walk.

Beardtongue foxglove, wild flag iris, oxeye daisy, feverfew, Japanese rose.  



June goal #2:  10 placemats. All finished.  The average fabric in each one is 3/8 yard so 3-3/4 yards for the batch.  

I used up two ziploc bags of triangles. The hourglasses (top right and lower left) were made from 4-1/2" triangles cut diagonally and repieced. 


Some fabric in the "used" column but more fabric in the "acquired" column.   

A guild friend said that her church rummage sale (Thursday-Saturday) had gotten a quilter's estate ...

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June 1, 2026
Weekly update: convention, stash report, OMG from With Strings Attached

 


The 123rd convention of the Illinois State Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood was wonderful. 

 "Live Like Lulu--Be a P.E.O. Builder" was the theme for Fran's presidential term.  Fran is a historian with a specialty in women's organizations and Lulu Corkhill Williams was an influential early P.E.O. 


Fran, Lulu, and me 
 Lulu chartered Illinois chapters and the state chapter. The eponymous Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund provides emergency financial assistance to Illinois women and men.  My involvement at the state level began with a term on the Lulu Fund. 

 I introduced Fran to ...

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Bookish Review ~ Sew & Tell - 5/31/26 from Melva Loves Scraps

 
Another month has passed by, and we are turning our calendar pages to a new chapter.

Dave and I are attending a wedding out of town, so this party is pre-recorded. ;)  Therefore, I am skipping the Sew & Tell feature.

Since we're starting the 6th chapter of the book of 2026 and I'm here to show off the bookish blocks I have made to represent each book that I have completed during May.

A Spool of Blue Thread was nothing that I expected it to be (but good)... And Every Breath was all that I had hoped for and ...

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May 27, 2026
Sew & Tell - 5/25/26 from Melva Loves Scraps

Here we are nearing the end of the 5th month of year... the informal kick-off to the summer season.  Schools are wrapping up their year of education, and teachers and kids alike are looking forward to the time off.  Gardeners are busy with flowers and plants and some already harvesting some early produce.

I remember the times of having a (LARGE) home garden and the bounty that it produced.  Those times are long in the past since we moved to Colorado and the growing season is so short and overnight temps cool.  But I do have fond memories and am ...

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May 25, 2026
Weekly update: lettering and a shower, and more stars from With Strings Attached


It's a warm and sunny Memorial Day in northeasternmost Illinois.

  Stevens often recalled the Memorial Day weekends that he'd go with his father from their home in Summit, NJ, to the cemetery in Williamstown, NJ, and clean up around the family graves. 



Yesterday I drove to DeKalb for my nephew and his wife's baby shower.  My sister and her husband and my niece and her husband were there and we were so busy talking at our table (and playing baby shower games) that I didn't take photos of the three-tier cake or the cute "little sprout ...

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May 19, 2026
Revisiting the Past ~ Sew & Tell - 5/17/26 from Melva Loves Scraps


Did you miss my safari finish last week?  You can read all about it here.  As I quilted it on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was up to my ears in listening to the classic Anna Karenina.

As it turns out... I am STILL listening. I am getting there... it is not an exciting page-turner that leaves you wondering what happens in the next chapter.  Rather, it tells of ordinary, everyday life events and relationships.

As I pondered my empty design wall I decided to pull out the 20 Pieces from the Past blocks.  I embroidered names and dates of my ...

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May 18, 2026
Weekly update: spontaneous scrap stars from With Strings Attached

 


Warm on Friday, warmer on Saturday.   Clockwise: blue-eyed grass, skunk cabbage in full leaf, golden Alexander, field horsetail, star of Bethlehem (a garden escapee, very aggressive).   

It was much cooler on Sunday and I took a nap instead of a walk. 

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Several months ago I made string X blocks into a flimsy and added a border.  I didn't like the border but it was the only fabric on hand that sort of worked and that I had in enough quantity.  I put the flimsy in the box and hoped I'd like the border better eventually.  It still didn ...

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May 13, 2026
Mother's Day ~ Sew & Tell - 5/11/26 from Melva Loves Scraps


Thanks for stopping by!  I'll start off by saying Happy Mother's Day to all the moms -- wannabe moms, birth moms, stepmoms, bonus moms, adoptive moms, mentor moms and spiritual moms.  And especially to my friends for whom this holiday will be hard. Friends who will be standing by gravesites this Mother’s Day. Friends whose moms haven’t been a part of their lives in many years.  And those who have challenging relationships with their moms who try to navigate Mother’s Day with grace but some necessary distance.

I hope that your day was blessed.  I'm ...

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May 4, 2026
Bookish Journey Continues ~ Sew & Tell - 5/4/2026 from Melva Loves Scraps


It was quiet in the studio this past week.  Since we started the "window" project in the guestroom last weekend and I was waiting for a quilt kit to arrive, I did spent time in the kitchen and doing some spring cleaning in the rest of the house. 


First though... let's take a look at this week's feature.  Gwyned shared her story of how a package took a 2-week scenic tour around the country as well as her latest block in the Butterfly Sanctuary BOM.

This block had 71 pieces in it! It is beautiful.  Head over to ...

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Weekly update: Wildflowers, Bunco, and placemats from With Strings Attached

 


Two walks in two days!  Lake Carina on Saturday (lower left) and the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park on Sunday.  Upper left: crabapple. Upper right: hoary puccoon (which sounds like a Shakespearean insult). Center; Sand cherry.


But before that:  Zion Woman's Club spring Bunco was Friday evening.  We've done this for 10+ years and have a group of regulars.  Though fewer people came than last fall the preliminary income is $1402 (thanks to club members who aren't asking for expense reimbursement).  

There are four raffles:  50/50 cash, a gift card tree ($195 value), a ...

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April 30, 2026
Weekly update: anniversary, convention, and a little sewing from With Strings Attached

 


One year.  How I miss him!

I'm grateful to everyone for their love, support, and kind thoughts.


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The 101st  AAUW-Illinois convention was in Rockford this past Friday evening and Saturday.  (I didn't go last year because (see above).  The last time it was in Rockford was 2002 and I didn't go because my mother passed away.  Hmmm...)   Helen drove and we roomed together. (It was a test because in October we will travel together. We got along quite well.)  


The Rockford Women's Suffrage Monument was unveiled in 2020 for the centennial of the 19th amendment.   The ...

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April 27, 2026
Fort Building ~ Sew & Tell - 4/27/26 from Melva Loves Scraps


Welcome back for another episode of Sew & Tell.  The place where everyone is encouraged to share their projects and get inspired by what others share. 

Many thanks to everyone who happily joined the parties while I was away on vacation.  Especially to Patricia at Faith, Trust & Breast Cancer for acting as hostess for one of the parties!  The fact that we were camping in an area around Moab, UT that had no service made it easy knowing that all was managed by her and thanks to the ability to schedule posts, I was not concerned in missing anything important.  If ...

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April 21, 2026
Weekly update: quilt exhibit + finishes + reading from With Strings Attached

 We escaped the tornadoes and the flooding that hit Illinois and Wisconsin last week but there was a lot of rain.  It's the third-wettest April on record.  My basement stayed dry (I had the landscapers add a bank of soil around the problem corner of the foundation) but apparently there's a roof leak.  It's always something . . . 


On Friday Leslie and I met at Concordia University in River Forest to see an exhibit of quilts by Modern Quilt Studio (=Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr).  Leslie and I met at a P.E.O. convention and we immediately hit ...

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Sew & Tell - 4/20/2026 from Melva Loves Scraps

We're on the road...

Before we left on the trip, I was able to finish and deliver a t-shirt quilt.  This quilt is for a smart, kind and intelligent young man that we have known for all his life.  He graduated in May of 2025 and currently attends Colorado Mesa University.  He loves Dr. Pepper, the Lord and his college.  He was granted the Daniels Fund scholarship... and if you know anything about this, you know it is a prestigious scholarship as well as very generous. 

He wanted to have a few more CMU shirts included but didn't ...

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April 15, 2026
Weekly update: exhibits and celebrations + two finishes + reading from With Strings Attached

I took a little excursion Friday afternoon.   Every year the Racine Art Museum hosts an exhibit of Peeps art.  Entries come from studio artists, kids, city/county departments, and every day people.  Such punny fun!  


Top: Peeping Beauty School of Cosmetology; Frida; No Mistakes, Just Happy Little Peeps (Bob Ross). Center: from the Racine city dept. of development; Arthur; "Peepal Conclave."   Bottom: Don Quixote; The Scream.



Of course I liked "They Read Banned Books."  



In the upstairs gallery at RAM:  paper cutting. Exquisite!

  The top left and center right are Polish (or Polish-style).  Upper right:  Japanese.  Lower left:  I think ...

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April 12, 2026
Sew & Tell - 4/12/26 from Melva Loves Scraps


Thanks for stopping by!  I'm currently traveling... Patricia over at Faith, Trust & Breast Cancer is the guest host for this week's party.  Head over there to join her!  She's ready and waiting. ;)

Keep Piecing,

Melva

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