I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Thursday, November 29, 2012

Project Update





Hi! Oh it's a hot chocolate night, brrr.
November is almost over, it went too fast! Darkness comes so early now...I am having my beach hike at 2pm. And the sun is setting by the time I head home. The beach was very chilly today...and look how peaceful it seems....

11.28.12

I want to stand out there and yell "How could you!!??" uselessly at the gentle blameless waves. So silly to feel betrayed, isn't it...





Anyway!
Some quilting updates [all links at end of post]: I couldn't post my October Porch section for Lori's quilt along, because the photos got left behind in the storm. Here it is.
I made changes...I wanted to do a stoneware crock [just like my NYC find! [sort of?]....and probably no butterflies, they seem kinda clunky/ boxy to me.



The start points were killer, so hard to do. I believe the original quilt was raw edge wool applique, no turned points!



Then November....The group assignment was to do a block with an enormous watering can. Um, no. So I used other ideas from Lynda's book [Primitive Places : "A Little Porch Time"], including the long skinny black kitty, my wild Kitty, and her hollyhocks.




Her husband Stripey will have his picture on the far left, up near my blah / boring house block.
Parts of this section I've shown you before, I worked on it all summer..and doing this / freestyling it, really gave me a deep respect for a designer like Lynda whose wildly unrelated blocks all work great in the end.  I juggled a LOT of hollyhocks here. The unfinished stems and flowers will, if they look right, trail onto other blocks/ borders.




This is another November section, it is a filler strip for the far left side. I love the pieced blocks, in this case Flying Geese.



And here are my two completed quilts. I did the handsewn bindings [one side] during the storm. You should have seen me as Sandy approached, madly machine sewing on bindings to be finished by hand in the event of No Power. Boy, I had a lot of time! Too bad it was so freakin' dark. But I lugged them off to NYC and here they are. I often leave bindings half finished on my quilts, some mindless handwork to have in the project bank. I am always terrified I will have nothing to do...no handwork, I mean, in this case. And yes I do knit, but it just isn't the same, in my case.



For the Baskets I hurriedly chose the blue in the end. It was the most traditional choice, for a traditional antique/ recycled top.



I still love this quilt with its tiny baskets. I am pleased  that my subbed blocks are not noticeable.
And I especially love this all white block, below. You can just barely see the handle....the color of the original is so totally gone.







 ''Baskets'' was a top from an antiques show. It was very damaged, had once been a tied quilt, well used, well washed. Someone ''rescued'' it, resold it. I sewed the replacement blocks by hand, patched the holes in the white ground..using only antique fabrics for all the repairs.
And my Halloween quilt!



 I think it came out so cute! Below is the actual colors



Here is the back, made with old feedsacks....



There's a saying about ''quilting makes the quilt"" and that is so true. Beautifully machine quilted by Lori Cangemi at Quilters Imagination [not the same Lori s Humble Quilts Lori!]. The quilting, binding and subsequent washing and drying add so much texture and dimension, I think.



I have yet another quilt quilted by Lori C., but I'll save that for another day.

love

         lizzy

gone to the beach...












what a find!
It looks just like I pictured, with the dried chinese lanterns
from Olde Farmouse Simples!



Links:


Primitive Pieces by Lynda Hall here

Machine quilting by Lori Cangemi Quilters Imagination, here

Drieds, and inspiration always, Michelle at Olde Farmouse Simples here

both Lori C. and Michelle have shops on eBay and do beautiful work.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Autumn in NY




 Hi! Before we get all crazy with Christmas, I wanted to share some photos of autumn here....





I've mentioned before that fall comes late to the east coast, the ''height'' of the season being from Veterans Day through Thankgsgiving, sometimes on to mid-December.



This year of course I spent those weeks in Manhattan. It's a litle colder there than at the beach, but we had lovely crisp Auntumn days to enjoy our visit. This is the corner by my temporary home. Very quiet and charming...



And the view across the street---enormous cruise ships chug by, big as skyscrapers, close enough to almost touch! Quite a sight...



And the promenade...







This is the roof top garden! So pretty!.....



















and the amazing view....


  






love

            lizzy

gone to the beach...









Thursday, November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving





Happy Thanksgiving!









love


   lizzy

..............gone to the beach



Monday, November 19, 2012

NYC Flea Market



channel buoy
photo by LK, thanks!

Hi everyone! So today while we wait for the Verizon phone repair guy, let's go back a week and check out the famous 6th Avenue Flea Market in Manhattan. It is actually on 25th between 6th and Broadway. I found it on the Saturday we went to the green market and returned the following day.


Hmmm. Fun but not fabulous, very urban, kinda, well..crappy? Cool. though.




It is billed as NYC premier antiques flea market....and true to the Paris origins of flea markets [old clothes w/ fleas back in medieval times] there are a LOT of racks and even piles of old clothes.



Not so tempting.




On the plus side, a few real dealers, with the things I like.




I promised myself no more brown Staffordshire china! So I passed that booth up.
Then there are a lot of bead sellers, mostly African beads/ dealer but a few vintage sellers too.


The African beads are fabulous! Expensive though.




I can make an upscale I survived Sandy necklace,



 or bracelets...

I loved the large recycled-glass beads....





Also a man who had neat tiki amulets...




And the African textiles are amazing!



I loved them and had hoped to return to buy one or two to incorporate into a quilt, but that didn't happen. [next time?]



They also had African bead work items, even chairs! And chests and ottamans. I so wanted one of those chairs, far right, [so sad the pix aren't great, sorry...]So fantastic...





These were long strips of all white tiny beads, about 8" wide. I wish I had captured the texture better. They looked like heavily quilted white work.



Then a familiar face! A dealer I have been buying from for years..on Long Island, has relocated to the city. As always his was the booth I loved, filled with graniteware, mason jars, butter crocks, and old dump dug bottles and buttons. My eyes latched onto this crock and I knew i had to have it.




It is BIG! And old.





I love the way the brown slip glaze on the top third is warty and spotty,





 and the prim stamped blue 2...





Great find, great price, fun to see an old friend---see, I told you YC is a very small town, in its own way.....




Lucky for me I was with a guy who was willing to tote around the big heavy crock all day, once I bought  it! Thank you, M!





PS Many thanks to everyone who has asked me about hurricane relief donations.
I hesitate to endorse any specific charity, but pet relief / relocation is always so needed. These poor creatures do not understand what has happened to them; one moment they were warm, fed, loved and cherished/ the next the icy dark water took away their people and homes! And need our help and love.
Large organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army do a good job, so maybe this holiday season toss a dollar into the SA guy's pot and think of us here in NY?

Red Cross/ Sandy Relief

North Shore Animal League/ Rescuing Sandy Pets

[a very fine no-kill shelter organization here on LI]

If you are a sewer/ quilter: here

                                          Sandy Quilt Block Drive

I have no personal interaction with any of these groups and am NOT asking you to donate. Follow your hearts and brains...

love

           lizzy


      gone to the beach.....

our red channel buoy
Usually it is out there where the big ships travel.
one each-red/green/white
photo by LK





sunset
photo by LK


Today's beach pix were taken by my friend LK. Thank you, L! NYC and flea mkt pix by me....