What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

It's been sunny and hot all week. We really need some rain!  But it's been great for walks:  three sections of Illinois Beach and one forest preserve. 

Here's a closeup photo of fringed gentian.  You can clearly see the fringes at the edges of the petals.  The blue is such a heavenly color!  I found several clumps at the middle unit of Illinois Beach State Park.  

 Left: blue wood aster.  Top: apple, primrose.  Center: New England aster, white heath aster.   Bottom: purple lovegrass, hairy aster. 

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In ...

Be sure to read the previous post about the Wisconsin Quilt Show.

The blossoms grow in tiers along the stem.

 

In the left photo you can see its rear poking out of the flower.  

Fringed gentian are also in bloom now.  These are behind a dune at Illinois Beach State Park.   I'll have to go back to get a better close ...

Wonderful wildflowers at Ethel's Woods Forest Preserve this afternoon.  

Clockwise from upper right: coneflower, teasel, false sunflower, rattlesnake master, ironweed, and a mass of monarda and more false sunflowers.

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I received notice that one of my quilts was accepted into the Wisconsin Quilt Expo!  

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Some of this week's wildflowers and other flora:

Top: smooth false foxglove, chokecherry, sand cherry.  Middle: few-leaf sunflower, limestone calamine (teeny flowers!), white flat-topped goldenrod (new one to me). Bottom:  sky-blue aster, mountain mint (it does smell minty when it's crushed), whole leaf rosinweed.

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I ignored the sign and walked through the puddle on my heels. 

Clockwise from left:  coneflower + monarda, mullein, pinnate coneflower, nightshade, betony, primrose, swamp milkweekd. Center: American germander.

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Our friend Mary Lou invited me to harvest a second batch of rhubarb.   Our only freezer ...

Monday afternoon:  a red admiral stopped long enough for a photo; a reddish mushroom 'protected' by poison ivy;  plantings on the restored beach.

The map: red arrow "you are here" and my finger shows where I walked on Sunday. That gives you an idea of the stretch of our lakefront.

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Used book sales, destashes, and publishers' warehouse clearance have been the source for most of the many, many quilt books I've acquired.   Just as with fabric--if I can't not buy them, then I need to get bargains.  

This year I am really and truly paring down all that creative potential.  I've gone through a stack, sorting them into "totally unlikely to make anything from this" and "review again just in case."   Why is ...

One of many bumblebees enjoying foxglove, aka beardtongue.

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Neighbor Mike worked on our refrigerator on Saturday. His diagnosis is that the relay that tells the condenser to cool needs to be replaced.  He has a call in to the repairman.  Meanwhile we are still 'camping' with two Igloo coolers holding produce and other food.  (I don't want to tromp into Mike and Jen's garage multiple times a day to use their backup fridge where I have more food stored.)

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I got reacquainted with the bin of bright prints when I made the butterfly quilt (see last week's update ...

Lupine, wild rose, spiderwort, cup plant, Canadian anemone, dame's rocket, daisy fleabane.  

Our favorite plant/produce shop is open for the season.  Susan always comes out to say hi to Stevens.  One of her customers made a stack of "hug blankets" to give away to other customers who might need a hug so she presented this one to him.

I got geraniums for the front stoop -- and, hooray -- FIVE healthy rhubarb plants that Susan started from seed.  I'll plant them tomorrow. 

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Left:  the bumblebee was intent on the liatris (blazing star) as I snapped several photos.  

A 2' long eastern fox snake was crossing the path.  It curled up when I stomped.  The snake is not venomous.  It warns predators off by shaking its tail to mimic a rattlesnake.  I saw the behavior as it swished the gravel on the path.  Then it slithered into the undergrowth.  

I found another fringed gentian ...

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

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.

 I went to the ophthamologist Monday for a cataract evaluation.  Yes, the cataracts are advanced enough for surgery.  However, because I've worn contact lenses for so long (since 1966) my corneas are misshapen.  I have to wear only eyeglasses for six months, one month per decade of contacts.  That means surgery in January.   Eyeglasses-only will be a big challenge.  Not only do I dislike wearing them, but more importantly the progressive bi-focal glasses correct my vision differently from the contacts. It's especially hard to get a good angle for reading.  (As you know, for me reading is like ...

Japanese rose, yarrow, common ninebark.

Meadow buttercup/ranunculus, daisy fleabane, salsify (gone to seed).  

First black-eyed Susan/rudbeckia of the season (early!), Canadian anemone, bladder campion.

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I made 15 daisy mug rugs.  I sewed right sides together and then turned out, rather than adding a binding.  

I hope to finish them this evening.

This is a tend-to-the-details day ...

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We had two good excursions, to Grant Woods Forest Preserve on Saturday and Chain O' Lakes State Park on Sunday.  (Left photo:  Fox River is on the horizon at Chain O' Lakes.) 

Wildflower medley:  spiderwort, yarrow, sorrel.  Cinquefoil, bird's foot ...

Top: Yellow sweet clover, meadow rose, false Solomon's seal.  Middle: Virginia waterleaf (also Shawnee salad), ox-eye daisy, dame's rocket.   Bottom:  Meadow buttercup, false white indigo, common nipplewort (really).

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The schedule has been rearranged to accommodate some unexpected in-patient medical tests for my husband.  So far things are okay and I hope he'll be home tomorrow.

In the studio:  it's been a while since I made a waffle stamps quilt.  I began with 2" strips cut to 8" or ...