What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 I had a meeting Friday morning (good to get out and be sociable) and the rest of the weekend I was at home with just a couple of errands.  We're on the southern edge of the huge storm with only 4" of snow.  We're under a blizzard warning because it's quite windy.  I cancelled an appointment this morning and plan to stay in today.   Sewing and reading and, just maybe, catching up on a few no-time-pressure tasks.

In the studio:  I made red "coin" panels for this year's RSC project.  The pattern (shown in the photo ...

Kim Sigafuss ...

The Stay at Home Round Robin is quilted and bound.  Hooray!  

I've scheduled a quilt a month with Barb.  Whether I take something from the box of flimsies or create something new will depend on the month.

STASH REPORT, February ...

It didn't take long to recover from jet lag but I caught a cold on the way home (15 hours on three airplane flights means a lot of exposure).  I can finally be more than a foot away from a box of Kleenex.

When I left the amaryllis had one bud. I took it next door to Mike and Jen who watched the house for me. It liked its vacation home!  Four blossoms.

 Brrrrrrr!   I hope you are keeping warm during this storm.  I've been mostly indoors since Friday.  I went to two memorial visitations on Saturday (the son of a Rotary friend in the morning and a quilting friend in the afternoon) though I didn't stay for the funeral services.  I overrode the thermostat so the heat stays at daytime temperature overnight. Otherwise it would take all morning to warm up.   Snowfall was about 2", no wind.  

wrapped up in the Magpies' quilt with another quilt at my back

I appreciate all the people who braved the cold, wherever they ...

Choosing layouts and coordinating fabrics was a great design exercise.

Each is approximately 13 x 20.

5-7/8 yards used in all. 

They all use units from the orphan blocks box.

(The fine points of terminology: a patch is a shape cut from fabric. A unit is composed of one or more patches sewn together. A block is composed of units sew together.) 

# # # # #  I have a fear of running ...

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 thrifted shirts quilt is finished. 

  I made the rounds of local thrift shops and scored two twin sheet sets (flat and fitted) and two flat sheets.  They're all cotton.   I can usually differentiate between microfiber and cotton with just a glance (something about the sheen?) though some 60/40 blends can be deceiving.    

I put one of them to use right away for the shirtings quilt.  It's the paisley.  I had to cut around some small stains.  I added the blue floral to make it wide enough.  

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 I enjoyed two programs sponsored by the Waukegan History Museum in honor of Indigenous Peoples Month.  

Thursday evening was a showing of "The Negotiator."    Billy Caldwell,  

(c) Susan Kelsey

I made time for only two walks this week, in and around meetings, when it was still warm and sunny.    The front came through Saturday night.  We had a dusting of snow and the Sunday high was in the mid-30's.  

Left: Mr. and Mrs. Crane out for a promenade at Middlefork Forest Preserve on Wednesday afternoon.  I was that close to them.

I stopped at Middlefork on my way to Lake Forest Place where the AAUW book group meets.  This month we discussed Horse by Geraldine Brooks.  I listened to it earlier this year when Diann/Little Penguin recommended ...

 There were about 20 trick-or-treaters on Friday afternoon.  The little kids are the cutest.  And most said "Thank you" without any coaching.   Three 11-year-old boys were wide-eyed at the bags of popcorn I gave out.  "You are the WINNER!!" one of them said.

 Autumn colors and a wooly bear caterpillar at Illinois Beach State Park yesterday.   Bottom left:  two mullein sprouting new green leaves.  We haven't had a frost yet.

As so often happens, it takes an obituary or a funeral to reveal all of a person's accomplishments and how many lives that person touched.  Saturday afternoon I ...

 I'll add this post to the Monday link ups because it's quilt design related.  I hope you'll scroll down to read the travelog post and leave a comment. Design Wall Monday  Sew and Tell Oh Scrap! Monday Musings

I could not resist taking pictures of the tile floors in Rome, Florence, and Venice.  My quilter's brain went to work right away figuring out how they were put together.  

Don't turn me in!  Photography is strictly forbidden in the Sistine Chapel, but I covertly snapped photos of the floors.

Capitoline Museum, Rome

St. Mary Major (Santa ...

Wealthy Chicagoans in the Gilded Age (1890's) bought Impressionists as modern and avant-garde, and relatively inexpensive.  They were patrons of the Art Institute and thus the museum developed its Impressionist collection.  

"Paris Street, Rainy Day" was acquired in 1964 and has become one of AIC's most famous paintings.  Caillebotte painted it in 1877.

I had hoped to go to this famous intersection (Carrefour du Moscou) when ...

Old School Forest Preserve

At Van Patten Woods on Friday:  sulfur butterfly on New England aster, viceroy butterfly, yellow wooly bear caterpillar.

The viceroy is a monarch mimic. The visible difference is the black band across the lower wing. (Read about other differences in this article)

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View of the lake from a second-floor window.  Podgaji "flags" guided visitors to the front door.

There were 75? or so quilts on display.

This was fun!  Each visitor got a clipboard with a scavenger hunt sheet.  ("How many points are in the star in quilt #70?" "Which quilt is named Daniel?" "What color is the center pinwheel on quilt ...

 Last week Wisconsin Quilt Show returned to the Alliant Energy Center in Madison for the 21st year.   It was begun by Nancy Zieman and Wisconsin PBS as the Wisconsin Quilt Expo, hence my blog label.   This was the seventh time I've attended and the first time I've stayed overnight.

We set up the sewing machines in the hotel breakfast room / lounge.  That attracted other hotel guests and we had good conversations.  

Both the FW ...