What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Wednesday's guild meeting was the annual ice cream social and the 2026 mystery quilt reveal.  A guild member designed  Big Bang.  

Mine is the one with the gray background, middle row/far right. 

 I've been taken by all the red/white quilts that Lynn/Klein Meisje has made recently. Since I'm in between projects I pulled out all the scrap triangles from the box where I toss them and made HSTs (1.5"-3.5").  While I was at it I sewed some blue/yellow HSTs as well.   

The guild charity challenge qilts are due at the ...

Wildflowers at Pine Dunes (Saturday) and Ethel's Woods (Sunday).  Top: monarda (bee balm), purple coneflower, pickerel weed. Center: compass plant, Queen Anne's lace, false sunflower.  Bottom: butterfly weed, Culver's root, swamp milkweed.

Monday:   Prickly pear cactus are in bloom at Illinois Beach State Park. Each petal is tipped with a sharp spine.  They like the sandy soil of the dunes.

Tuesday:   I put the camera on selfie to take this from-below photo of a Turk's-cap lily.  (In another section of the state park with 'regular,' not sandy, soil.)  I love the turned-back petals and the freckled faces.

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In the studio:   

Design adapted ...

I typically stay at Holiday Inns, and when I arrive in the room, it is COLD, so I have to turn the thermostat up a couple of degrees to turn the fan/air conditioning off. I have no issues putting on a sweater, but I am not a fan of cold rooms when I'm traveling, since I don't typically have my warm clothes with me. 

Something very unusual happened on my reading lists. I typically have an e-book and an audiobook on the go at the same time. BOTH books I'm currently reading are related to a ...

Mid-June wildflowers on my walks this week. Clockwise:  coneflower, purple meadow-rue, beardtongue foxglove, wild indigo, more beardtongue, clover, field bindweed.  Center: the trail at Lyons Woods.

Spangled fritillary and what I think is celestrina echo (I enlarged the snapshot of this little blue butterfly). 

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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 ...

Wednesday:    Sophie hosted the online Block Lotto for many years.  I joined BL about 2009 and enjoyed the monthly block designs.  I won the Lotto several times. 

 Sophie is now traveling the country in an Airstream Sprinter van.  The last couple of weeks she's followed Route 66 but in reverse, meaning that she ended in Chicago.  She headed north and we met for lunch at a newly-renovated cafe in downtown Zion.   

I showed her Illinois Beach State Park where I take so many walks.   

Leftovers for two more dinners

 Amazing how quickly time flies by these days.

Been 2 weeks already since I last wrote, and I have so much to tell you about. 

When I last spoke to you, I spent that following week helping my youngest daughter move to a new home in the town she lives in. I was very surprised that after 4 days of packing, moving, and unpacking, I felt great. I figured I would be sore and worthless for the next week, but that wasn’t the case; just tired. Thank goodness because while at her place, I got the call that the ...

The rain forecast today will be most welcome. I planted tomatoes, beans, and lettuce earlier this week.  

 Why, yes, I can write a blog post on Saturday!

I'm making it easy on myself with RSC this year.  15" x 5" Chinese coins blocks in each monthly color.   The pattern that you can see in the photo is from an old issue of Quiltmaker.  

I used some orange batik to make a fabric box  to hold the mug rugs for next weekend's P.E.O. convention.   The box, or is it a bowl?, uses fusible Peltex to make it flexible but firm.  The exterior fabric is also batik.  

I used to have the Fast Fun Fabric ...

Let's start with the puzzle stores - actually, there are many sources of puzzles, but here are the main ones that I know of. 

Puzzles Canada - Georgetown. A warehouse of puzzles that is open to the public, and they sell MANY brands, sizes, and offer free shipping over a certain amount. You also get 10% back in reward points, which you can apply to any future purchase. They also sell The Occurrence puzzles, which are made in Merrickville, Ontario. HIGHLY recommend visiting the store or the website. Check the website for hours as they do NOT open until NOON. 

Puzzle ...

 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 am glad to hear I'm not the only one who lived through "hardships" as a kid. Life was certainly different if you lived in the country or a small town, and probably also the geographical location. I think it developed a certain resiliency in us!!! 

Also, I do not expect everyone to be able to stand up and sit down without using their hands at this point in time. Maybe you are recovering, maybe you are building your strength, so you have to start small and build up your strength in your legs, your core, and your upper ...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only space nerd who also enjoys quilting. We live in an amazing world. People like my parents went to school in horse-drawn cutters (like a sleigh) and wagons, or they walked several miles. No electricity for my parents when they got married in 1954. No TV, no running water! And now, from the comfort of their Lazy-Boy chairs, they are watching the Artemis 2 circle the Earth while we hear everything they are saying in crystal clear voice communication. 

The last 100 years have been amazing. 

Not to disappoint my students ...

I got sidetracked big time yesterday!! I was supposed to be downstairs sewing, but the night before, I started reading a thriller, and well, I needed to know what happened. So while I did get some things done, I finished my book before I went to bed last night! 

And you know what? Every once in a while, we need to do that! The book was called "A Death at the Party" by Amy Stuart. Oh boy --- an interesting concept! Now today, I need to get some work done!

I grabbed a few pieces of paper from the floor beside ...