What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

This is my 

Christmas Candy Striped Sampler Afghan ~ Started Here

It is a monthly BOM kit and I am catching up as I had been focused on other projects. I know this month's kit is on the way, so I may or may not be ready for it when it arrives, but I am making good progress.  Crocheting is a no stress zone for me.  I find it very relaxing. 

Over the weekend I was able to complete ...

Blue-eyed grass, mayapple, Atlantic camas /wild hyacinth. Mayapple leaf, crane's bill/wild geranium, golden ragwort. Canadian anemone, star-of-Bethlehem (an invasive garden escapee), golden Alexander. 

The beavers are active in the evening and the early morning when the forest preserve is closed.  I'd love to catch a glimpse of them!  (Lower right photo shows fungus neatly lined up in the grooves of the tree bark.) 

This is a phenomenon known as witches' broom. Left: left over from last year. Right: this year. 

This explains the cause ...

It's been a slow down and rest kind of weekend. I definitely needed it. This is the first weekend in over a month that I've not had to drag out the work computer and look at data.  I was under the weather on Saturday, all the stress and late nights at the computer finally caught up with me, so I  slept most of Saturday afternoon. The sewing room was calling my name by Sunday afternoon. It was nice to get to spend a few hours playing on the sewing machine.  

A bumble bee on wood betony (also called Canadian lousewort).  Wild geranium, Virginia creeper (with horsetail in the background), false Solomon's Seal, golden Alexander, horsetail, fleabane.

This one is about a foot long. There are three ...

Wildflowers at Lyons Woods:  trillium, yellow rocket, garlic mustard. Bristly buttercup, forget-me-not, cow parsnip, white and purple violets. (It's a great year for violets -- there are a lot in our yard, too.)

Apple ("eating apple," the app called it), crabapple, brand-new oak leaves. 

 The memorial service for our good friend Bob was Saturday morning.   Such a wonderful tribute to a long life, well-lived!   (Here is his obituary.)  There were many people -- his widow, four daughters, most of the 17 grandchildren, and many of the great-grandchildren -- and so many friends.  Bob and Liz hosted more than 30 exchange students through ...

It was past time to get back to our normal weekend activities. We managed to have an uneventful and laid back weekend. I wasn't able to scale mount laundry, but we all have enough clean clothes to make it a week. More importantly, I actually got a solid afternoon of stitching in on Sunday.  It's been awhile since I was able to spend more than a few minutes in the sewing room. It definitely felt good to spend some quality time in the sewing room for a change. 

It was so wonderful to be in-person for the AAUW-IL convention!  (The 2020 convention was cancelled. The 2021 convention was by Zoom.)   I picked up Karen and Erika for the drive to the Doubletree in Naperville, about 75 miles away.    

 

Waukegan Area Branch attendees were Karen, Jo-An, me, Jolanta, and Erika. 

Tra la! It's May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev'ryone goes
Blissfully astray.  

 I did say, "Rabbit, rabbit!" first thing today but I also remember listening to Julie Andrews sing The Lusty Month of May on our Broadway cast recording of Camelot.   

We are over the Covid sniffles and sneezes and out of the five-day isolation.  I took a follow up test at the walk-in clinic and was given the same advice as online, but so much better to hear it in person:  for the next five days (to Wednesday), wear a close-fitting mask ...

There was a Covid outbreak among the church choir members after the Easter service.  No choir this morning and we were back to alternating pews and masks required ...

We enjoyed the Kiwanis pancake breakfast. I bought raffle tickets and won a $10 Amazon gift card, a $25 Hobby Lobby gift card, and an ice cream sundae basket (all the fixings -- just add ice cream).

In home improvement news, the 50-year-old windows were replaced this week.  (The exception is the five-pane bay window in the living room which has to be custom-ordered.)  My bathroom remodeling is finally done with the last wall patch plastered over and painted.  

We had to bundle up on Friday to plant blue pinwheels for Child Abuse Prevention Month.  It's one of the GFWC-Illinois signature projects.  

Sad news:  two Zion Women's Club members passed away last week at age 91 and ...

Saturday was pretty much a nothing but sewing day. A treat to myself since I may not get another chance to do that till May.  Sunday was laundry and taxes. (Is there a worse combination of chores?)  But those chores were finished early enough that I was still able to work in a few hours of stitching in the afternoon.  

Unity: Bonnie Hunter 2020 Sew in Place Quilt Along

Chilly but sunny, no breeze this afternoon for a walk in the ravine at the end of our block. The skunk cabbages are in bloom -- this one has leaves beginning to unfurl.

Here are my new socks from Zkano, made in Alabama. Not only do they have great designs, but the socks are very comfortable (nonbinding tops that stay up).

On Thursday I enjoyed the luncheon meeting of the Clara Cummings Book Club. The entertainment was a reenactor portraying Princess Diana. She cleverly began, "You know I am dead, of course," so we the audience knew that she knew what ...

It's the last Monday in March, so we almost a third of the way into 2022.  It's warming up, but it's still pretty cool in the mornings.  My allergies have definitely let me know it's spring.  I just have to remember to take some sinus medicine if I'm going to be outside for long. 

 

The St. Patrick's Day soda bread turned out better.   We're still enjoying it and leftover crock-pot corned beef.  . 

# # # # #

Spring Comes First to the Willows is a young adult novel from the time I was a young adult.  I think of that phrase every spring when the willows green up.   I don't remember anything about the book other than its title so I've put in an ...

Sadly, spring break is over.  It's back to work for me this week.  The Scientist in Training is back at college. We both had a good week of hanging out and spending time in the sewing room.  She finished two embroidery projects and I got Potions sent out for quilting.  Cabins and Fans (Fluorescence) and Potions have been my focus projects since December.  With Potions out for quilting, it's time to refocus and identify the next project to move towards completion.  

Unity is the next quilt on my 2022 quilting plan.  I finished and attached the last pieced ...

Though it was a chilly, windy 19 yesterday, today it got up to 52.   I snapped a photo of just-emerged skunk cabbage along the trail in the ravine at the end of our block.  Spring is in the air!

# # # # # # #

I'm up to the binding on the Double X / Old Maid's Puzzle quilt.   (I did correct the mis-turned hourglass block....see Wednesday's post.)

With all the craziness going on the last few weeks I didn't get photos of my first finish till last Monday.  Our house is on the dark side, so you need both a sunny day and a free afternoon to get decent inside photos. Cabins and Fans, renamed Fluorescence by the Scientist in Training, was finished on February 24, 2022.  

Fluorescence (AKA Cabins and Fans), self designed Started Jan 6, 2017: Finished Feb 24, 2022

 Two years ago this week events were being cancelled right and left, there was a run on groceries and supplies (toilet paper and hand sanitizer), and a great deal of our daily routine took a sharp turn in an unknown direction.   What a long road that's been!     

LCWC awards two "returning to learning" scholarships to the ...

Early in the week we saw the new version of Death on the Nile.  It was the second in-a-theater movie we've seen since the pandemic began.  Now I want to re-watch the 2004/David Suchet version and the 1978 Peter Ustinov version to compare them.   We've watched (or re-watched) nearly all the Suchet Poirots on BritBox and enjoyed them so much.   

The 1978 film had Maggie Smith, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, David Niven, George Kennedy, Jack Warden, and Jane Birkin.