What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The Fine Art of Fiber is an annual collaboration among Illinois Quilters Inc., North Suburban Weavers Guild, and the North Suburban Needle Arts Guild. It is held the first weekend of November at the Chicago Botanic Garden. I went on Friday morning.

Bur first, the fine art of friendship! A quick FB exchange with Erica P., a fellow Quiltville fan, led to a meetup. As she and I were talking someone said my name. It was library colleague Elisa T. Later I saw Mary H., an Alpha Gam sister. And then Barb G. from AAUW.

Here are some of the ...

Illinois grows and processes more pie pumpkins than any other state.  The variety shown in the photo is the hybrid most used. It is a cross between the Tennessee field pumpkin and butternut squash.   The array of apples are those grown in a heritage orchard here in Winthrop Harbor.  (It's not open to the public ...

Fall foliage is on display here in northeasternmost Illinois. We enjoyed walks to Illinois Beach State Park, Van Patten Woods Forest Preserve, and Pine Dunes Forest Preserve.

It's not as breathtaking as northern New England but it is pretty darned beautiful!

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 I need a better name ...

The weekend began and ended with concerts.   The Box Band played a lively set of bluegrass, folk, and country at our church on Friday evening.  The Kontras Quartet performed Haydn and Prokofieff at the season opening of the Lake County Community Concert Assn.  on Sunday afternoon.

A friend tipped me off to an estate sale on the west side of town (a street I didn't know existed).  She said there was a lot of sewing stuff.   I went mid-morning Saturday when everything was half off.  I bypassed the upstairs and garage and went to the finished basement which had ...

I was about 8 feet away from the deer.  Allegheny blackberry, tall goldenrod.  Leaves of compass plant (one green, one gold), more Allegheny blackberry.  Dogwood, asters.

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I finished quilting Go Scrappy or Go Home (see last Wednesday's post).  It didn't take long for me to start something new.

I used a lot of 6.5" squares acquired ...

The first weekend of autumn was great for walks at two sections of Illinois Beach State Park and Lyons Woods Forest Preserve.   

I found a big patch of fringed gentians just one dune over from the beach.  

I use the Picture This app to identify plants.  All it says about mushrooms is, "Do Not Eat!"  

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Though some rearranging and refurbishing had been done over the years, this was a full-scale reworking. New carpet! New furniture ...

The 19th Great Wisconsin Quilt Show was September 7-9 in Madison.  This was the fifth time I've gone and the fourth time I've taken a one-day trip by bus, chartered by a local quilt shop.     Irene picked me up at 6:15 a.m. Friday to go to the Kenosha County administration complex to board the bus.  We left  promptly at 7 a.m. and arrived at the Alliant Center (south side of the city) in time for the show opening at 9:00.  

I did a turn around the quilt exhibits first.  (I took photos of the ...

 This was an eventful week -- Labor Day Monday (covered in my last post) followed by Zion Woman's Club at noon Tuesday, then P.E.O. that included the state officer's visit with an officer's workshop, dinner, and the chapter meeting.  (The state officer is my longtime friend Fran.  Everyone enjoyed meeting her and her advice to us was very helpful.)  

The quilt guild met Wednesday evening.  Time for the big challenge reveal!  I was challenge coordinator.  The prompt was Check It Out. Each participant got a fat quarter of the same red-checked fabric and had to use ...

Clockwise:  Obedient plant, jack-in-the-pulpit, ironweed, hyssop, nightshade, yellow jewel weed. 

We recalled another hot August 23 -- our wedding in 1980 in Pittsburg, Kansas.  There was a drought as well as excessive heat.  This year we celebrated by going out for dinner.  

NOTE:  see previous post for wildflowers and forest preserves.

I went to the ophtamologist yesterday (hence this delayed post).  My corneas are reshaping gradually, which is good. My next appt. is in October.  

The back is a cheater cloth print from the 2022 birthday stash bash.   

I've gotten a slew of spam comments today.  I'll turn on comment moderation for a while.

Scarlet lobelia or cardinal flower.  I've only found it in one patch among all of the forest preserves.  It shines like a jewel in the sunlight that filters through the trees.

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When I was a child it was a big deal to have ONE Barbie.  Mine was blonde and my sister's was brunette.  We each had a few outfits -- Marcie M. who lived next door to us had ALL the outfits in the catalog, even the $5 ones!  

We had this knitting kit.  Efforts to make the garment were unsuccessful.    

 

This week's walks were at Spring Bluff (close to home) and Ethel's Woods. 

 Vervain.

Purple coneflower, meadow sweet.

Sawtooth sunflower, white monarda.

Tansy, pinnate prairei coneflower.

There are signs at both preserves that explain the history of the property. 

Coneflower, compass plant, brown knapweed. (Yes, the flower is purple, but  "The nvolucre below the flower head is brown” hence the name. Involucre = whorl or rosette of bracts surrounding an inflorescence, especially a capitulum, or at the base of an umbel. That explains it nicely.

Yellow jewel-weed, Mayapple fruit, hairy pagoda plant (aka woodmint).

Monards/bee balm, raspberries the birds missed (tasty!), Bouncing Bet/soapwort.

Our walks this week were along the lakefront and to Old School and Raven's Glen West forest preserves.  There were two or three rainy spells which have greened everything up nicely.

Clockwise from left:  butterfly on Canada thistle, vervain, false Solomon's Seal, wild avens, self-heal, milkweed, butterfly weed.   Prairie pinnate coneflower in the center.

The weather was great ...