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June 8, 2026
Weekly update: finished + acquisitions from With Strings Attached


 Wildflowers at Greenbelt Forest Preserve on Sunday afternoon.  A good 2-mile walk.

Beardtongue foxglove, wild flag iris, oxeye daisy, feverfew, Japanese rose.  



June goal #2:  10 placemats. All finished.  The average fabric in each one is 3/8 yard so 3-3/4 yards for the batch.  

I used up two ziploc bags of triangles. The hourglasses (top right and lower left) were made from 4-1/2" triangles cut diagonally and repieced. 


Some fabric in the "used" column but more fabric in the "acquired" column.   

A guild friend said that her church rummage sale (Thursday-Saturday) had gotten a quilter's estate ...

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June 1, 2026
Weekly update: convention, stash report, OMG from With Strings Attached

 


The 123rd convention of the Illinois State Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood was wonderful. 

 "Live Like Lulu--Be a P.E.O. Builder" was the theme for Fran's presidential term.  Fran is a historian with a specialty in women's organizations and Lulu Corkhill Williams was an influential early P.E.O. 


Fran, Lulu, and me 
 Lulu chartered Illinois chapters and the state chapter. The eponymous Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund provides emergency financial assistance to Illinois women and men.  My involvement at the state level began with a term on the Lulu Fund. 

 I introduced Fran to ...

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May 25, 2026
Weekly update: lettering and a shower, and more stars from With Strings Attached


It's a warm and sunny Memorial Day in northeasternmost Illinois.

  Stevens often recalled the Memorial Day weekends that he'd go with his father from their home in Summit, NJ, to the cemetery in Williamstown, NJ, and clean up around the family graves. 



Yesterday I drove to DeKalb for my nephew and his wife's baby shower.  My sister and her husband and my niece and her husband were there and we were so busy talking at our table (and playing baby shower games) that I didn't take photos of the three-tier cake or the cute "little sprout ...

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May 18, 2026
Weekly update: spontaneous scrap stars from With Strings Attached

 


Warm on Friday, warmer on Saturday.   Clockwise: blue-eyed grass, skunk cabbage in full leaf, golden Alexander, field horsetail, star of Bethlehem (a garden escapee, very aggressive).   

It was much cooler on Sunday and I took a nap instead of a walk. 

# # # # #  

Several months ago I made string X blocks into a flimsy and added a border.  I didn't like the border but it was the only fabric on hand that sort of worked and that I had in enough quantity.  I put the flimsy in the box and hoped I'd like the border better eventually.  It still didn ...

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May 4, 2026
Weekly update: Wildflowers, Bunco, and placemats from With Strings Attached

 


Two walks in two days!  Lake Carina on Saturday (lower left) and the south unit of Illinois Beach State Park on Sunday.  Upper left: crabapple. Upper right: hoary puccoon (which sounds like a Shakespearean insult). Center; Sand cherry.


But before that:  Zion Woman's Club spring Bunco was Friday evening.  We've done this for 10+ years and have a group of regulars.  Though fewer people came than last fall the preliminary income is $1402 (thanks to club members who aren't asking for expense reimbursement).  

There are four raffles:  50/50 cash, a gift card tree ($195 value), a ...

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April 30, 2026
Weekly update: anniversary, convention, and a little sewing from With Strings Attached

 


One year.  How I miss him!

I'm grateful to everyone for their love, support, and kind thoughts.


# # # # #


The 101st  AAUW-Illinois convention was in Rockford this past Friday evening and Saturday.  (I didn't go last year because (see above).  The last time it was in Rockford was 2002 and I didn't go because my mother passed away.  Hmmm...)   Helen drove and we roomed together. (It was a test because in October we will travel together. We got along quite well.)  


The Rockford Women's Suffrage Monument was unveiled in 2020 for the centennial of the 19th amendment.   The ...

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April 21, 2026
Weekly update: quilt exhibit + finishes + reading from With Strings Attached

 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 . . . 


On Friday Leslie and I met at Concordia University in River Forest to see an exhibit of quilts by Modern Quilt Studio (=Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr).  Leslie and I met at a P.E.O. convention and we immediately hit ...

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April 15, 2026
Weekly update: exhibits and celebrations + two finishes + reading from With Strings Attached

I took a little excursion Friday afternoon.   Every year the Racine Art Museum hosts an exhibit of Peeps art.  Entries come from studio artists, kids, city/county departments, and every day people.  Such punny fun!  


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."  



In the upstairs gallery at RAM:  paper cutting. Exquisite!

  The top left and center right are Polish (or Polish-style).  Upper right:  Japanese.  Lower left:  I think ...

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April 6, 2026
Weekly update: Easter, two finishes, and a six-part challenge from With Strings Attached


Easter Sunday was cool but the sunshine was abundant. 

 I went to church in the morning and had a nice long walk at Van Patten Woods in the afternoon.  

Sumac, fungus, mullein.  The place names Des Plaines and O'Plaine are corruptions of "eau pleine" meaning "full of water," which is how the early French explorers saw the river in flood. You can see why.

I had to work off some of the gustatory delights of the day.  I made a half-batch of pancakes, our customary holiday breakfast.  The pancake mix (Christmas 2024 gift) still had enough baking powder oomph ...

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March 30, 2026
Weekly update: nine patch progress from With Strings Attached

 Monday morning has rolled around too fast!  This needs to be a quick post.

Three luncheons in three days (Clara Cummings Book Club on Thursday, retired library directors on Friday, GFWC District 10 on Saturday) plus the 5th Sunday potluck after church on Sunday -- good company at all.  



Palm Sunday origami!  Did you (or do you still) make a cross from the palm frond?  


 




Every year at this time I look for skunk cabbage along the trail in the ravine at the end of the block.  The “horn” is the flower. It is so named because it has a high ...

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March 26, 2026
Weekly update: an evening out, walking again, and finishes from With Strings Attached

 


On Thursday evening the Waukegan Historical Society hosted "Extraordinary Ordinary Women" by local researcher Meg Goljenboom. Kathy rode with me and we met June and Joann there. (I knew many of the other attendees, too.)

Meg  talked about aviation industry executive Olive Ann Beech, cabaret singer Ada “Bricktop” Smith, candy maker Ora Snyder (who had more than 30 Mrs. Snyder’s Home Made Candy shops in Chicagoland), hotelier Maria Ramirez Kramer, and Mildred Johnson who founded an air express package delivery service in the 1920s.



The weather was cooperative on Friday and Saturday. I enjoyed walks at Lyons Woods Forest ...

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March 16, 2026
Weekly update: quiet weekend, RSC, batik blocks from With Strings Attached

 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 ...

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March 9, 2026
Weekly update: celebrations, a binding resolution, and remembering from With Strings Attached


The Lake County Women's Coalition annual Women's History Month luncheon was on Saturday.  Each LCWC member organization nominates an honoree who exemplifies the year's theme.   


I'm on the LCWC steering committee as the rep for the Zion Woman's Club but I am also a member of AAUW.  AAUW's honoree was Nan Buckart (bio on left) who was director of education for the Lake County Forest Preserves.  ZWC's honoree was Wendy Driver (bio on right) whose many interests in community activism include gardening (seed-saving, monarchs, zinnias, and more).  


Top:  the ZWC contingent.

Kim Sigafuss ...

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March 3, 2026
Weekly update: SAHRR and another finish, stash report, goals + reading from With Strings Attached

 It was a puttering-around kind of weekend.  Too chilly to go for a walk, no major errands to run, nothing much that needed attention.  So I sewed!

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






The back uses two book-related fabrics.








I made the courthouse steps flimsy in 2023.  Barb quilted it in an overall Baptist fan.  I bound it last evening.   It's 72 x 84.  

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 ...

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February 24, 2026
Weekly update: placemat delivery + MQG swap reveal + a flimsy and a finish from With Strings Attached


My trip to New Zealand was wonderful! You can read all about it in the post right before this one.

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.


Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning were ...

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January 26, 2026
Weekly update: SAHRR, the answer is 42, scrappy souvenirs + reading from With Strings Attached

 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 ...

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January 12, 2026
Weekly update: goal met, onto the next + reading from With Strings Attached


The last batch of placemats!  The units and blocks are from the orphan box/parts department.   Some are recent (the three at the lower right); some are middle-aged (the green/blue hourglasses are from Indigo Way (which itself is blocks-in-a-box); some are elderly (the hard-to-see scrappy trips that are the background for the two feathers in the upper right).  

Choosing layouts and coordinating fabrics was a great design exercise.

Each is approximately 13 x 20.


All 121 in the bin.   Each placemat averages 3/8 yard, so 45 yards.  (With thanks to QuiltDiva Julie who sent a set of four ...

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January 5, 2026
Weekly update: first finish for 2026, placemat progress + reading from With Strings Attached

 

Lazy Goose, the January top-along, is finished!  I quilted it in parallel lines with the serpentine stitch.  The back is a print I've had since the 1990's.  

5-7/8 yards used in all. 











One of my January goals is to make 20 placemats.  I've finished six.

 


Six more are underway.

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 ...

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December 8, 2025
Weekly update: parties and scraps + reading from With Strings Attached

 




Friday evening:  the 151st annual Carthage College Christmas Festival.  The college chapel is a beautiful setting for the splendid music.  










Rotary friends and family had dinner at a Kenosha restaurant beforehand.   

Kaylynn, whose family is in the top photo, is a freshman at Carthage this year and in the orchestra.  Donna and I (lower photo) have known her since she was born. 



   

Saturday began with the funeral for our Rotary friend Nate at a church in Waukegan.  It was a chilly service because the church furnace was on the blink.  (Ironically Nate was a long-time trustee so just a few ...

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December 5, 2025
Weekly update: a snowy end to November from With Strings Attached

 


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.


The rest of the nutcrackers are providing a backup chorus for the Christmas tree.








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 ...

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  • weekly update
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