Gone To The Beach: 11.29.2012

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.