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December 3, 2022
Friday check in: heavens, it's blue + stash report + OMG December from With Strings Attached

 A quick check in post today.

We revisited Sedge Meadow along the Des Plaines River on Tuesday afternoon.  

Right: interesting fungus, busy beavers.


This is a phenomenon called witch's broom. Wikipedia says it is “a deformity in a woody plant, typically a tree, when the natural structure is change. A dense mass of shoots grows from a single point, with the resulting structure resembling a broom…It is sometimes caused by pathogens.” I’ve only seen it in this forest preserve on the river willows. 

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In the studio:  I finished all the units for My Blue Heaven and I ...

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November 26, 2022
Friday check in: so much to be thankful for + a finish + OMG from With Strings Attached

 

Four days of mild weather (as high as 58) and sunshine = four afternoon walks. We'll have another this afternoon.  

(Three forest preserves -- Rollins Savanna, Lyons Woods, Van Patten Woods -- and Hosah Park along the lakefront.)  







The path really rocked on Thanksgiving Day.  Once I started seeing the painted stones I kept seeing them -- 18. There were probably a few that I missed. 







We enjoyed our traditional favorites at our just-us dinner.    The pie is made from the Halloween pumpkins.  The cranberry relish is Mama Stamberg's from NPR.   It's an acquired taste that we acquired long ago. 


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In ...

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November 4, 2022
Friday check in: beautiful days, ladder stars, the stash report, OMG from With Strings Attached

 

Halloween sky: quarter moon
We had an extraordinary run of beautiful weather this week -- temperatures in the low 70's, abundant sunshine. 
 It was ideal for trick-or-treating on Monday (we had about 25 kids).



The AAUW Reflections on Reading book group met outside on Wednesday.  [Yes, I will write a Books of the Week post soon.]






Zinnias are still in bloom in the garden at the library.  (Will that bud at the lower right get to flower?)







And it was shirt-sleeves on my lakefront walks. (True, a flannel shirt. But still!)  

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In the studio:

Three rows yet to be sewn ...

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September 26, 2022
Friday check in: welcome autumn! vintage finds, OMG all set, and something new from With Strings Attached

 It's gotten so that if I don't take a good walk at least every other day I really feel it! This week we went to Sedge Meadow/Des Plaines River Trail and Illinois Beach / Camp Logan.  

Top: compass flower, snakeroot, false Solomon's Seal (b.erries). Center: goldenrod, fungi, riverbank grapes. Bottom: white heath aster and skyblue aster, New England aster, butterfly weed (can you see how the spent stems make a whorl?).

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Isn't this the coolest souvenir tablecloth ever??? I got it for $3 at a church rummage sale.  The midcentury graphics are terrific! 











It has ...

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September 5, 2022
Friday check in: stash report, a finish, and OMG from With Strings Attached

 


A blue-eyed bunny for the September Rabbit Rabbit good luck charm.  (I do remember to say it first thing on the first of the month.)

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Stash report:

August fabric in: 99 yards, $15 (I got some great gifts)

August fabric out:  26-1/4

YTD fabric in: 1520-5/8, $8.70.  That's $1.86/yard.  (Imagine if I'd paid today's going price (say, $13/yd) -- $19,760!)   Remember, I've gotten several destashes in 2022.

YTF fabric out: 146.   

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It's nice to begin the month with a finish.  Here is It's Not Ohio Star. 










The back ...

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June 1, 2022
Midweek: the stash report and a continued OMG from With Strings Attached

 

Rabbit, rabbit!   

(Here is the explanation of this good-luck tradition.)

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Stash report, May:

Fabric IN  152 yards, $26.  That's .17 -- seventeen cents! -- per yard.  (110 yards from the guild rummage sale and 42 yards received as a gift.)

Fabric OUT  68-5/8 yards

Year-to-date fabric IN  232-5/8 yards, $254, $1.09 per yard.

Year-to-date fabric OUT  272 yards.   

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I'm co-chair of our guild Block of the Month.  We're alternating months and June is my turn. Here are the samples.  The gray background will be given to each participant.  The flower centers are fussy-cut.  Unfinished size 12-1 ...

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May 2, 2022
Weekly update: It's May! stash report, asterisks, OMG -- and good books from With Strings Attached

 


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 ...

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April 25, 2022
Weekly update: turtles, music, sewing UPDATE!, and reading from With Strings Attached


It rained all day Friday -- 1.8" accumulation, which helps compensate for the severe drought we had in 2021.  Saturday was glorious:  80 degrees and sunny!  I walked the entire 2.5 mile trail at Pine Dunes.  I saw two turtles and three hawks.  






The Lake County Symphony Orchestra's annual jazz + classics concert was Saturday evening featuring five compositions by Dave Brubeck followed by Dvorak's New World Symphony.   Wonderful music!

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 ...

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April 1, 2022
Friday check in: birds have perched, OMG for April, and a new start from With Strings Attached

 


Rabbit, rabbit! Happy April to all! 


 

I appliqued three birds to the quilt. 








Look at the dates on the two fabrics in the pieced back.  Sometimes I remember where and when I got a particular piece. The daisy-print was a purchase when I spent a weekend in West Virginia in August, 2001.  There was enough left (after chipping away at it for years) for a 10" insert.  

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My OMG for April is to make a daisy-themed tote bag.  It's for the chair of the Illinois P.E.O. Home Fund committee.  

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I have a complete run of American Patchwork ...

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March 31, 2022
Midweek: OMG success + the stash report from With Strings Attached

 

The bird houses are all set!
I wanted a busy setting and that's what I got.   Both the sashing and the border fabrics were purchased at Quiltagious last week. The sashing is Art Gallery (Bari J) and the border is Kaffe's Antwerp Flowers.  Both prints pick up all of the colors in the blocks.

5-1/4 yards by weight.  Approx. 72 x 84.

I will add two or three appliqued birds.

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I know I won't have any completions tomorrow nor do I foresee purchasing any fabric so here's the March stash report:

Fabric IN  14-3/8 ...

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March 1, 2022
Weekly update: another finish, OMG report, and reading from With Strings Attached

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.   
Saturday evening we enjoyed the Lake County Symphony Orchestra performing Mozart and Tchaikovsky.  Illinois is lifting ...

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February 8, 2022
Midweek: stash report, RSC, OMG, and a new project from With Strings Attached

 Welcome to February!  I remembered to say "Rabbit, rabbit" when I woke up yesterday.    Since the Zion Woman's Club meeting is the first Tuesday I was busy getting ready for that meeting with no time to write a blog post.

(Here is an explanation of the good-luck charm.)

The January Stash Report:  Fabric IN  52-3/4, $127, average $2.40/yard.  (I received a generous destashing gift.) 

Fabric OUT: 53-3/4    I'm ahead by one yard.

 

The "fabric out" count includes 20 teal/aqua spinner blocks for the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

There are two parts to my ...

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January 26, 2022
Weekly update: hurrah! and on to new creations + reading from With Strings Attached

 



Kathy and I took a shift at Feed My Starving Children on Tuesday as the Zion Woman's Club's "day of service."  FMSC packages a fortified rice mix that is shipped worldwide.  Though it would be easy to automate the entire process their model is to get people involved and motivated to donate by inviting them to pack the product.  

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WHEW.  I finished the two big projects that have preoccupied me all month.  

One is the annual reporting for the GFWC (General Federation of Women's Clubs). That documentation not only qualifies our club for awards but also helps ...

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January 3, 2022
Weekly update: a good start to the year from With Strings Attached

 


I made a few extra units of each step of the mystery just in case.  I didn't count the  HSTs, which became HSTs with wing triangles, which became corner units -- all sets of 4.  

It turned out that I made *16* extra sets.  I went ahead and made them into blocks (setting aside three sets of four -- one per Bonnie's instructions and the others just in case!). 



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My One Monthly Goal for January is to complete the Modern Quilt Guild mini swap.  I showed photos of the initial fabric pull last week.  




Well, all those batiks have gone ...

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  • omg 2022
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