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







Friday, February 1, 2013

Porch Quilt : Winter


A Little Porch Time quilt
Hi! Oh my gosh, it is windy!


I hope to show you this very cool video at the end here. Despite the days' sunshine, I just want to stay indoors and hide.









Yep, the kitty has it right! I feel like I don't get much done but Oh I am tired.
It's the wind! That's my excuse.
And I need an excuse because I feel like a little kid who did not finish her homework. Today is the  day to show our progress on Lori's "A Little Porch Time" quilt along.
Actually we---I ---was supposed to get this baby finished, but no.


Lori said she'd love to see our quilts anyway, so here goes:


 

  

I did the stems on the borders. Partially. That is it. I figured out that dark brown birds will work on my mud border....and I patched together the ''remember me'' block ground for the backing, using my NYC fabrics. Pink beach combed template.
That's it...not a good show and tell :-(



I had estimated that the borders were about 25% of the total labor here...so doing the applique in one month, or even two was a [failed] challenge. I had hoped this would be a good January project but now I realize I rarely sit quietly and hand sew. Only on the beach, in the summer, where there are no chores, no calls, no post office runs.  I can't do fine hand sewing and watch TV, so it's senseless to think I'll sew during my favorite shows, the only time I sit and do nothing, usually.  For a few discouraged days I seriously planned to put the quilt top away, folded up with the un-stored as yet beach chairs [H. Sandy?] by the back door. I'd save the darn borders for next June, when I could knock them out happily in a couple sunny afternoons.

But I do love working on it and so I have been trying to pick it up some evenings when one of my kids is home, eating their supper...we sit in companionable, or so I believe, silence....he watches golf. I sew on my Porch quilt...for half an hour. Maybe we both think about hot carefree summer days?

 January is  a big month for me on Ebay and etsy, as I make and list many hearts and Valentine-y things. And you know how I love make-it-do  inspirations.


These hearts have little pockets on their reverse sides---a friend who wears gorgeous bespoke suits gave me a tattered suit jacket, for the fine wool. [oh his shirts!].....



But what I loved were all his fancy little hidden pockets in the ombre grey-rose silk lining.






A secret message to one's Valentine.....


And this was from a thrifting expedition that I haven't shown you guys yet. A souvenir shell box, once marked Miami Beach



I removed the writing...added a felted wool pad inside, for a pincushion. An old photo, a silk rosette [remember these, that awful vest?]...and we have a Sailor's Valentine of sorts.



Last make-do... an almost new but discarded bolster/ bed pillow. The child wanted memory foam, not primaloft. Instead of throwing it out, I took some unused batik  cotton , sewed a tube.


Squished in the bolster and tied the ends with linen twine.


A draft guard for my damaged deck door!



Good thing because here is the scene outside that door and window---

crazy guy on a sail surfboard, 50-60 mph gusting wind



love

           lizzy

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


 
 
there is a linky at the end so you all can see other quilters' versions of The Porch