2 finishes and a trip to Chicago

While I have not blogged in a while, I have been busy.  In fact I am not sure how the time has flown by so quickly.

First, my finishes:

This was my rainbow scrap challenge from 2017.  There are 99 blocks made, no 2 of them the same fabric.  Each month was a different color: and I made country shades rather than bright colors. Most, but not all the fabrics are Thimbleberries or similar.

Here are a couple that I made so you can have an idea what one 6 inch block is like: ( These are 4 put together.

Taking pictures has been a challenge due to the reoccurring rainstorms we get.

The top was put together in January, and the border in March. 

I finally sent it off to a quilter and got it back this month: a beautiful feathery all over pattern.

My back is a Kansas Trouble red as is the binding. 

TA DAA!!!!!

Second, I quilted and bound another tree skirt. 

It is almost identical to the one I made for the wedding in March.  

And I am so glad to get it off my plate, much overdue. 

It is mostly made of a batik jelly roll called Jingle. 

Drum roll:  Crash (can't you just hear the cymbals!)

Here is some of the back with it: 

A  gold polka dot on bright red background

And for my trip to Chicago. My daughter had a business trip and offered her room to share right downtown near Grant Park.

We walked lots, had fun seeing the sights and ate good food>

 This is a reflection at Millennium Park on the Bean of my spouse and I who just had our 39th wedding anniversary.

Here is the Apollo space craft that returned to earth following the moon landing. 

We toured the Adler Planetarium and saw lots of history and loads of information:

astrolabes, telescopes, pieces of the moon, and more.

 Perspectives by important astronomers and how they were proven. 

Additionally we toured the Art Institute of Chicago. Amazing pieces of work from paintings to sculpture, jewelry to swords, modern to ancient and all across the globe.

My favorite work though was found in the Chicago library: 

This is merely a portion: but is was a huge display hanging from the ceiling. 

Little did you realize until you got to the top floor that it is all recreated dog tags of soldiers who died in the Vietnam War: some 68,000 of them. 

Wool applique

 School is out for SUMMER!

Which means time to do lots of fun things like:

Go to the zoo with my grandsons: We had a fabulous day at the FREE  Henry Vilas Zoo and park with the boys. A picnic lunch, a beach, and playground were highlights as well. We treasure each day with them. Of course, they were out cold sleeping on the way home.

Sew, sew sew. Here is the last blocks of week 4 for Kim Diehl's QAL mystery.  These blocks are 4 inches. Now to put it together

Stitching galore:   But I thought I would share the wool applique I have been doing.  I joined a small subgroup of my guild devoted to wool. And I am enjoying it a great deal.  So here are 2 blocks from a Bunny Hill BOM way back to 2012. You can still buy the patterns called Henrietta Whiskers. It has some nice patchwork between the blocks.  I have 2 more of the 9 to prepare. And these couple to put the finishing touches to. 

 We are doing a sharing hexie project which passes to each member in the group:

This one is based off of a Sue Spargo pattern. I learned several stitches for this. My bullions need more practice. There are tiny beads around the edge where the blanket stitch is.

 Here is it added to the starters.

 And the month before, I had a grand time with beads I had.  Funny how most of us chose spring themes. We were just so frustrated with the long continuation of winter weather.