Sea Shells

 

Hello! Happy End of Summer Weekend!

Lucky for me summer lasts at least til mid-October here, so I don't yet have to feel sad about missing so much sun and fun. Heck, school doesn't even begin here until September 9th, week after next! Here at the beach everyone knows the best of summer comes in September....

I am still not  up to beachcombing, so my brother and SIL, aka J and B, sent me the most amazing delicate fragile box of treasures from a recent trip they made to Sanibel Island.

The Sanibel-Captiva area, with its famous seashelling beaches is first on my "Someday List". Sure I'd enjoy Provence or Tuscany...the flea markets of London?..but what I really want to do is go to Florida's Gulf Coast and go beachcombing. here
(Second is to search for glass floats on the coast of Alaska. So amazing...check it out! be sure to scroll down... )

Just look at these treasures J and B found on the beach at Sanibel!

The shells in Florida are rather different than mine here...I love these calico scallops!

The tiniest one is only the size of my thumbnail.

All nestled in a perfectly graduated stack...

Another set, different scallops? The yellow is so unusual.

 

And more...

 

 

 

I am intrigued by the tiny ones that look like miniature paw prints. edit: these are called Kitten's Paws here

I've had my eye on this shell string mobile on my neighbor's fence.

At first I thought perhaps I will use the Sanibel scallops in a smaller version. But they are so tiny and delicate!

For now they are carefully nested into my shell specimen box...

 

Also tucked in the gift box was a fun vintage sewing item...

 

 

 

An advertizing tape measure.

B is starting a new collection of sewing implements...and she is gonna get me hooked too. (I never see sewing things at the flea market, wonder why? Was I just not looking or what?)

 

 

Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

ps here is my view from the deck this evening.

Remember that huge mound of debris that was on the left dunes,

10 months ago.

We are so hoping No Hurricanes this fall!

Angel Skies

Hi! We've had a rather cool summer here at the beach. (I missed the July heat wave in the hospital). But the other day it was a grey and sultry and not so pretty kind of late summer day. Good for outdoor sewing because there is no shadow cast by one's hands. But not gorgeous. A little bleh?

Anyway, just at sunset, a cool front moved through, first clearing the heat haze and then generating a rolling mass of ocean fog.

The sky---and ocean!--- lit up! I hardly ever see a pink ocean.

We call a sunset like this an angel sky....

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us,
and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us,
and we only know them when they are gone.

~George Eliot

 

 

I am striving to enjoy each day, to heal a little each day...to find pleasure in the small beauties again....

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach

 

Hi! I am Here!

Hi everyone! I am so happy to report that in the past few days I am feeling much better! Yay!
I have progressed from lying hopelessly in bed to [eew] watching daytime TV [or recorded shows--- I have become hooked on Who Do You Think You Are? LOL, I can just see my old ancestors...doin' nuthin'! I don't think they've plowed the land grant yet...from the Revolutionary War!]...to spending an hour or two each afternoon, enjoying my deck and the summer sea breeze while I hand quilt my doll quilt from last winter...

Okay, not the best hand work but progress? We can pretend a child did it?

I also dug out a project, a small hooked rug panel. I requested this as a Christmas gift a few years ago from my sister in law who is an expert rug hooker.

I love the idea but I can't seem to get the hang of hooking!

The hook snags when I pull the loops through to the front..why? I must need a class or a tutor.

It sounds strange..and braggy but it is odd for me not to be good at a hand craft. Even crafts I don't do, like crochet: if I have a pattern and a how-to book, I can produce a decent crocheted thing, if I must. But this hooking! Nope. Not to mention stupid mistakes, like using the ivory beard wool for the hat fur...a rip out. So back in the UFO chest it will go, for now.

I also am back working on Mr Sunshine. I ordered a batch of oddly cut fabrics [a jelly roll? 6'' x 45" pieces] of brilliantly colored Kaffee Fasset prints. I had to soak them in Retayne here (I ordered it from eQuiter) and I am glad I did because the presoak wash was very red when I rinsed the fabrics. But later when I washed them, the Shout Color Catchers showed no bleeding. Nothing worse than red stains on something one has spent endless hours on.

I had hoped to use all stash fabrics for this quilt but I needed  some vivid reds and textured  yellows.
I found this print with little ''stars'' to use for all the tiny appliqued stars the design requires. I just can't imagine sewing hundreds of 1/2'' stars....
below, right.

 

The fabrics were perfect for this redo, too. Remember how dull the big flower  was?

 

 

new

 

Here is the redo, not yet sewed....much better?  though I see that now the leaf on the top right needs to be repositioned ...

The beach is still out of reach...but I can enjoy these last muggy days of August.

These are my deck flowers, so carefully watered and cared for by my children, so I would have my flowers to make me smile.

 

 

 

So much nicer than my boring bedroom, isn't it.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach [if only in my dreams...

August Beach Day

Hi everyone! Today we have a wonderful photos essay brought to you by my friends MH and LK.

Today...at the beach:

 

 

the dunes regrowth, below

 

 

                                      a new secret path
                                      to explore next winter....

 

 

despite the signs!

 

 

 

 

 

the new, giant beach cart!

 

 

 

lazy days.....

 

gully's lunch

 

Sorry to say I am still home, indoors, recuperating. I have missed an entire summer. I have progresed from being in bed 24/7 to some time on the deck or on the sofa, watching "On Demand" and catching up on all my fave shows. I even began the restortion [just a soaking, cleaning] of a doll quilt I bought just before I got sick. So...Yay!?

 

love

 

lizzy

 

gone to the beach...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you, L and M! Love you!