What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Flags are flying!  Wild flag iris, that is.  Purple/blue is native, yellow is invasive, and both are beautiful.   Flags like to have their feet wet so they grow in marshy areas. 

That was Monday afternoon at Illinois Beach State Park. 

 No walk yesterday because I joined AAUW friends for our summer luncheon.  There's a silent auction/sale for our scholarship fund. I brought books and a couple of miscellaneous items.  I also brought the box of placemats that I've made ...

Left: dame's rocket has become invasive.  Top:  balsam groundsel or balsam ragwort; fleabane.   Center:  shagbark hickory, chokecherry.  Bottom: strawberry, peppergrass. 

I used FQs from the Victoria show to add some variety for the bright colors.  

Blocks are 12" so 60"x 72".

I sewed all the cut-away triangles and trimmed them to 1-1/2".  (Eight per block times 30 blocks is a lot of HSTs.) 

Monday was sunny and warm.  Lots of wildflowers have sprung up!  

Upper left: white trillium. Upper right: red trillium. Center: bristly buttercup, crane's bill (geranium). Lower: chokecherry, mayapple. (I put the camera on selfie and aimed from the bottom to get the mayapple blossom.)

The Zion Woman's Club ended its 119th program year with a luncheon* meeting and officer installation.  Actually, it was a re-installation since we all agreed to continue in the same offices for 2026-28.   

*Lunch vs. luncheon: lunch is casual, luncheon is fancy.  Another distinction to trip up English language learners. 

The group posed with ...

 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 ...

 I managed to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve.   I watched a new movie and an old one on Netflix.  New: Wake Up Dead Man, the third (and best, so far) in the Knives Out series.  Old:  How to Steal a Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. A fun caper from 1966.  

As I watched I quilted and bound the golden bowties wall hanging.  (I left for Florida with it basted. I was afraid I'd make a mess of the quilting. But it turned out okay! I hand-sewed the binding to ...

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.

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 ...

The back yard at 5:30 a.m.  Monday.  See the shed?  That's where the snow shovels were.   I put on my boots and retrieved them.

It warmed up and here's the same scene this morning.   The temps will reach 60 by Friday so all the snow will be gone.

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 Every year the Lake County Forest Preserves designates 14 trails for ...

 I had three routine medical procedures this week. Two sets of results are in, one to come. I am not worried.  

On the other hand, the Janome is in the shop.  The ...

This is looking west from Spring Bluff Forest Preserve.

I love wild "flag" iris!  

Gator Party, the June installment of the Running Doe Quilts topalong, is now a flimsy.  I used shirtings (most of which I purchased at a rummage sale last weekend) and solids (from my overflowing solids stash . . . I don't purposely purchase them so how is it that I have two big bins full?).  

The patches are 5 x 6-1/2 finished. The accent pieces began with 3" squares.

2-7/8 yards.

Since ...

 Stevens is still in the hospital. The GI tube has been removed and they're going to start real food today.  He'll stay through the weekend (if not longer).   I toured three care facilities yesterday and found one that I really like.  

Our guild's annual Raffle Mania was Wednesday evening.  Members bring no-longer-loved quilt, textile, and fiber-related stuff (like yarn).  Each person gets free raffle tickets based on meeting attendance through the year.  Additional tickets are available for purchase.  I got six free and spend $20 for 35 more.  

Two beautiful days this weekend got us out for a walk at the state park and a nearby forest preserve.  

The dogwood is really red.   

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I made eight 9-patch blocks in yellow for the March Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   I have a pattern that will use eight 9ps in each color.

The Quiltville FB group has photos of many versions of the design with different colorways and different sashings or settings or borders.  I'm going to stick to the sashing as patterned but I may do something other than the checkerboard border.