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







Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Grey




Yet another Monday, friends! This evening it's 56*, foggy, with a 30 mph north wind blowing. The sky is dark, looks like it may pour at any moment, though experience insists that there is never heavy rain on dense fog days. Mo and I are cringing at even the thought of an evening walk.


June [and May] are perhaps the most unappealing months here at the beach, cold, grey and dismal. Excuse me for a minute while I put on warm windpants and dig out my parka again.
Okay, I'm back! Brrr. I've been busy in my sewing room but not working on quilts. Here's a pile of etsy things in work. "Summer Blues" and "Seaglass Hearts" collections, in lemon verbena and/ or lavender.


Mostly I've been working on a home decor project for good friends. I finished the bedroom pillow cases and duvet cover this weekend. Finally! The duvet cover was hard---king sized, 12 yards of fabric to wrestle through the machine, and partly because I ordered a very long zipper---72" ---and while I set it perfectly the first time there were a couple spots I had not caught the fold-back. Stupidly instead of just fixing  two 6" areas, I decided to redo the entire zipper. Downhill from there.


My friends' home is decorated entirely in shades of grey with white trim and a few accents of seaglass aqua. Anything I make for them has to be GREY. We looked for a good grey batik for months, then waited for a sale for a better price.


It's interesting to work in a different color palette, not my usual white  with accents/ blue. The light in my home is too harsh for grey but I love it in their home, so cool, clean, and serene.









Next I am doing sofa pillows, again batik from Hancock's, and a table runner in ikat from eQuilter.com. And perhaps linen napkins?  I found my little hemmer the other day.


..........

This weekend my kids  hiked out to their favorite seaglass beach, a small secret beach that is only accessible for persons using the golf course. My son discovered it years ago when his ball flew off the green, over the seawall, and he decided to climb down to get it. The beach is only visible at very low tide, so  beachcombers have to time their visits just right. You can actually see the glass shards in the random photo, if you look closely.


The beach glass is amazing. The kids said all this was found in only 5 minutes.







And here is such a sweet little family, also loving the tiny secret beach. Swans!






I don't think I've ever seen a standing swan, always see them swimming only


They let the kids get fairly close to take pictures. Aren't the babies precious! Grey puffballs.


But then the parents hustled the babies off into the water for safety.


.....

Speaking of precious [heheheh], here is Mo enjoying his daily brushing. He loves being brushed, especially likes his belly rubbed or brushed gently with the boar bristle brush. If he could purr he would.





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Tonight's dinner is Thai peanut sauce buckwheat noodles with red sweet peppers, scallions, and tofu. I love tofu, it's hard to now think it is not good for you, sigh. I still use it now and then for meatless Mondays.





edit: here is a fairly balanced article on the pros and cons of eating soy/ tofu: HERE

have a great week.

love

lizzy

gone o the beach......










16 comments:

  1. So nice of you to make a giant duvet cover for a friend! Gray really is "in" now... but I missed the memo about tofu and will have to look that up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I added a link w some info pro and con about consuming soy products.

      Delete
  2. The duvet looks pretty. It does sound like a pain to wrestle sooo much fabric. And the zipper!

    Ooo, I'm excited for the new Etsy stuff.

    I remember you mentioning the secret beach before. It's nice that your kids went together :) Quite a haul too. Beautiful swan family, what a bonus.

    I love buckwheat noodles. Hadn't gotten the memo on soy. Thanks for supplying the link. Food for thought ;)

    Oh Mo! He's not spoiled at all, lol.

    Thanks for the post,

    Kel

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    Replies
    1. Hi! The etsy things should be fun! Maybe ready next week. And I'm gonna do Dollar Days, sales on many things that have stayed in stock, so keep an eye out if there was anything you d like for a dollar,lol. [not the new things tho, or dolls, quilts]

      Yes, the secret beach! If you look at the last swan pic you can see the rather tall steep seawall of the golf course behind her. I ve never gotten to go to the secret beach bec the kids say I can t climb up or down that seawall, and prob they re right! And of course you have to be playing golf
      $$$, bummer. I d so love to go..and to see the swans.

      have a good weekend!

      Delete
  3. Mo looks like he was in heaven getting brushed! Spook likes a boar-bristle brush, too, he never gets tired of it.

    The duvet cover came out really pretty, I love that print. It looks really good in their room. I hope you'll show us the pillows and table runners when they're done, too. I'm happy to hear you've got etsy orders to fill! Always good!

    Love all the seaglass and the little secret beach guarded by SWANS! I've seen some cute little art projects to display a few pieces of seaglass on Pinterest. I know you don't hang things on your walls but most of them could be in a small table frame - or hey, use a larger frame and make it into a tray! LOL, don't you love how I'm always finding projects for YOU to do?!

    I've avoided soy for a while now, but never liked tofu anyway!

    Hope your gloomy foggy days give you a sunny break soon!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Your seaglass ideas are fun! We were thinking what could we do with the round bottle bottom disks.

      I d love to see the little beach someday. see above for why NOT!

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  4. That was quite the project! Yay you! I haven't sewn in so long, I don't think I could tackle even a 6 inch zipper...lol Been hot here, but some relief coming this weekend. 50's and rain. Love sea glass. Hope to find some in 3 weeks. :) Kit

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    1. Myabe sewing is like riding a bike? The skills come back. I know your beach trip will be lovely, I look forward to your blog posts about it.

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  5. It was a very grey day here today until the mail came,I received the cuties doll quilt ever!!! I love it,I promise to give it a good home. Thank you! You did a beautiful job on the duvet cover,love the sea glass, hello to Mo Happy quilting! Thanks again Cathy :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so happy it arrived so fast and that you love it!

      lizzy

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  6. I have never made a duvet cover. How pretty in the gray theme for the bedroom.

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    1. I make duvet covers fairly often but usually I use sheets, so they re cut to size / match and not seamed. I also usually put buttons/ buttonholes which hides and discrepancies of exact sewing. But my friend prefers zippers and I was tempted by the resource of very very long zippers. And I was a little lazy not switching sewing machines and used my clunky piecing machine that sews exact 1/4" seams but doesn t have fast speed or needle-down position, too bad.

      Delete
  7. Gray has become one of my favorite colors. Good thing as DH and I have been sprouting more and more on our kanoggins!. Beautiful workmanship on duvet. What a little Ham Mo is. Must try buckwheat noodles. Have not eaten that much tofu;however, I do like Silk brankd Vanilla Soy. Guess just like anything else, moderation. Blessings from S.

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  8. Love that duvet cover! I can't imagine affording and working with 12 yards of fabric! Ikea is great for purchased duvet covers. :) Mo is such a cutie!!

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    1. We waited for Hancock's spring batik sale, so the batik was only , I think, 5.95 a yard / 6 yards plus 5 yards for pillow cases/ 2 yards for sofa pillows. The back was an on sale pima cotton sheet in deeper grey, king sized, equal to 6 yards of fabric. So it actually was pretty economical. Oh and the zipper was under $4.oo, from YKK website.

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  9. What a good friend you are to your friends! The duvet and pillow cases are absolutely gorgeous (I can't fathom working a zipper that long much less installing one)!

    Swans at the beach? Gorgeous and so wonderful to see!

    ~Lisa

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Hi! I'm allowing comments from everyone, even anonymous for awhile, to see what happens. With comments moderation. Hopefully the awful porn spammer has gone elsewhere. Or you can always email me! I love to hear from everyone.