New Beginnings

Is that redundant? Let's say: planning summer projects?

Hi everyone, hope your weekend has been good! It is still chilly here and the few trees we have are just beginning to show leaf buds. But summer will be here soon and I am looking forward to deck time and beach time.

I enjoyed the Porch quilt so much, loved having the handwork to keep my hands busy while enjoying the summer days.

So...a new applique project!   From Glorious Color I try to call it the Dream quilt but usually I say "Mr Sunshine" quilt.

"Celestial Dream"
by Susan Powell

I hope it isn't too ambitious for my skill level and attention span.

This pattern is the real deal ! Not a book but huge tissue paper patterns.

They're harder to work with, as I usually just run applique designs through my printer onto freezer paper cut to size. Maybe I can find a copy place that makes large scale copies...

And of course first thing I had to do was change it! That whale looks like no whale I've ever seen! And it is red? I will change it to a humpbacked Nantucket style whale,lol...maybe, um, grey? Lavender?

Here's all the bright blue plaids I collected for the Porch quilt back then did not use.

[still waiting for the purple, sigh.] They will make beautiful backgrounds for this new quilt.

Then I have a couple of machine sewing projects for late spring. Because I am getting a new sewing machine! Yay! A gift from my family, have not chosen it yet....[all I ask is fast sewing and needle-down ending! Can't spend a fortune...any suggestions?]

These embroidered blocks were gifted to me by my friend LDF. I've had them for awhile and keep changing my mind about how they should be used.

This is the current inspiration antique quilt.

I want to do more with these classic blocks than just a sewed together plain top.

Then a small quilt.

These are pre-Civil War era [1840?] star blocks I bought for the America Hurrah quilt.

I decided they were much too special and should have their own showcase. The old fabrics are fantastic.

I made a mistake though...I wanted to make a strippy quilt [setting is vertical rows or bands, for you non-quilters] and strip quilts often used large prints in the wide spacer bands. But I hate how this looks and laboriously removed this fabric. I'll go back to the brown pansies/ rosebuds I originally planned to use, above.

And here...far far in the future: Lori of Humble Quilts shared this antique quilt and her pattern so I can make a Big Top [Circus Stripe] quilt too. Her post is here
Thank you , Lori!

And from Collector with a Needle blog ,  this Pennsylvania Dutch applique  quilt.

If, like me, you love folk art and prims, you'll love it---Gaudy Dutch colors and all.

It is rather colorfully wild---so much energy and joy. Cool new techniques, like the Hawaiian-ish scherenschnitte [papercutting] center motif. I have many of the antique fabrics---and/ or vintage repros of them, in my stash. How could I resist!?

Click to enlarge plus onderful close-ups on their esty site: here

On the home front, the spring cleaning is moving slow...the wind kicks ups so much dust! I am wiping everything down daily, so tedious. But my deck is all cleaned, and the grill is ready for burgers. Optimism! Summer will be here soon?

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach....

all pattern photos reproduced with permission. Lori's Big Top quilt pix reproduced with permission. all links added with persion.
Thank you all!

A New Beach...and a Pink Moon!

Hi! A new beach today...new in more ways than one.

I've never photographed the big town beach that is to my far west...it's ''urban'', public and busy at times.
There used to be a real boardwalk here...wonderful for bike rides and street fairs, concerts, baby stroller pushing...

Built in the very early years of the 20th century, a city landmark and prized tow resource. [c.1915?]

The carnival rides were long gone, no arcades or tattoo parlors! [same or very similar view, c. 2012]

Just a lovely access to the Atlantic, best enjoyed midwinter when no one else is around.
But always there..
So when I went to the doctor in early March I couldn't believe my eyes.

His office is right on the beach here. There used to be ramps---to the boardwalk!

Still H. Sandy sand on the street when I took these photos last week...mid-April.

These are the pilings where the boardwalk used to be.

 

 

 

 

Like some sort of odd Egyptian ruins, aren't they?

These enormous fake berms or dunes were bulldozed here to protect the  town after Sandy, since a further winter or spring nor'easter could have again brought floods.

 

 

People are venturing over these mountains!

And there it is, the beach! big and white and waiting for summer...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

love

 

 

           lizzy

 

gone to the beach.....

 

 

 

 

 

note: first 2 pix by MH, thank you!
other aerial views and antique postcard via google images.
All other pix by me...click to enlarge!

PS Had to add..just now, 8.27 pm, "Pink Moon"/ April full moon, rising over the beach.

 

 

 

Supposedly called The Pink Moon because wild pinks [flowers] were earliest spring wildflower to bloom in chilly April. BUT it really looks, well, pink! So cool.

 

lizzy

 

 

 

 

Flea Market Finds

Hello everyone!
Yesterday was  Opening Day! No, not baseball, but the first day of the big flea market! Yay! I've been waiting all winter for this...but dubious because the Lions Club [sponsors] website said they'd still be at the awful spot under the expressway. But No! This market is now in the same spot as the alternate market, which opened last weekend.

It's nice to be able to park and not worry about being  chased by a church lady or ticketed/ towed. There's a lot more space, some shade once the trees get leaves, more dealers, and they aren't as cranky.
There's even a hot dog guy.

It was a gorgeous day, cold and windy but that's okay. (beats hot and humid!).

Have you seen that show on HGTV called Flea Market Flip? here The hostess person always reminds us to go around the flea market at least twice, maybe three times. (like she's such an expert, in her 5" heels? c'mon!). But I do go around three times usually. The first time is a very fast walk-thru, then I go back slowly; last I return to see anything I liked but didn't snap up.

However. I find that if I like something enough to buy it I see it the moment I walk into the market. The 2nd and 3rd rounds are really superfluous.

Not that that'll stop me! Last week at the alternative market my pedometer said I walked 1 1/2 miles. So..hat's a good thing. If I was at a gym on a treadmill it wouldn't be as much fun, would it?
I also buy from the same five or six dealers, never anyone else...similar taste and style, I guess.

So...The finds:

Great quilt, a rescue. Found last week at the alternate market.

It was so sad and soiled.

Looked like water stains or storage stains...

Had to bring it home. Soaked it overnight in "Restoration Quilt Soak" here which is probably the same as Oxi-Clean, but supposedly gentle on old textiles.

I was pretty amazed when I washed it the next day.

It is nearly pristine. So pretty.

I bought it with the idea of reselling it but maybe not. It looks so cute layered with my unfinished Beach Umbrellas quilt? So I am not sure.

I think it was made by the same person who made this blue and white rescue quilt, which I love and am slowly repairing. I bought it from the same dealer, I am sure , but he said he didn't remember the blue quilt. Same era, same style, same quilting. I wish I knew...

I also got this ironstone pitcher, how cute is this! Rosebuds, hairy rosebuds, like beach roses. And, happy sigh, bluebells.....[note: my reader Carol tells me this pattern is called "Moss Rose"..thx!]

Five bucks! From the very cheapo English china guy. The other English china guy told me earlier he'd had a wonderful c.1810 blue and white bowl: SOLD! I'd rather have not known, yeesh. Sure, he'd saved me a set of plates, but I wanted the bowl!

I love old china that is crazed and aged...

and I loved the funny strange rosebuds! They remind me of picotage printed fabrics, though the dots are not here, just the crosshatching...[definition at end].

And as I was paying for the pitcher, when I moved it over, I saw this great dish.

A big glass heart.

What is it? A dresser tray or a condiments tray?

Hairpins and safety pins, or olives and celery?

It will be perfect for sorting buttons, beads, shells as I am working...

How about you? Any good yard sale or flea finds this week?

love

             lizzy

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

picotage: when fabrics were printed with hand carved wood blocks, up through the 1800s, the artists could not make fine dots  in the carving process. Instead they implanted hundreds of tiny wires or nails, all by hand, to form the shadowing dots of the dainty designs. Such floral patterns also often used crosshatches.... similar to the lines in the pitcher's design. [click to enlarge]

 Restoration Quilt Soak powder for antique linens here