What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

  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. 

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 ...

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

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.)  

 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 . . . 

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."  

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

 I went to church in the morning and had a nice long walk at Van Patten Woods in the afternoon.  

Sumac, fungus, mullein.  The place names Des Plaines and O'Plaine are corruptions of "eau pleine" meaning "full of water," which is how the early French explorers saw the river in flood. You can see why.

I had to work off some of the gustatory delights of the day.  I made a half-batch of pancakes, our customary holiday breakfast.  The pancake mix (Christmas 2024 gift) still had enough baking powder oomph ...

We are nearly to my favorite part of any quilt – the machine quilting! But first we need to prep our quilts by making sure the backing is big enough, and then basting. I love making pieced backs from leftovers or other coordinating fabrics because that makes the quilt twice as nice!!

Because I had too many pictures of this process to share, I thought it would be much easier to put them all together into a super short video and talk over the process. You can watch that by clicking play below:

Once the quilt is basted, you are ready ...

 Monday morning has rolled around too fast!  This needs to be a quick post.

Three luncheons in three days (Clara Cummings Book Club on Thursday, retired library directors on Friday, GFWC District 10 on Saturday) plus the 5th Sunday potluck after church on Sunday -- good company at all.  

Palm Sunday origami!  Did you (or do you still) make a cross from the palm frond?  

Every year at this time I look for skunk cabbage along the trail in the ravine at the end of the block.  The “horn” is the flower. It is so named because it has a high ...