Mid-August Lull

Hello, friends! It's been a quiet time here at the beach, a brief lull before the End of Summer excitement and celebration of Labor Day. The weekend at the beach with friends was glorious. In a gale wind and chilly sort of way.

Mellow and relaxing. People read books and Kindles, and buried toes in the cool underneath sand.

I'm making eggplant parm for a friend's birthday, for the weekend ahead, and meatballs in the same sauce. Not the enormous trays I sometimes make, just enough for my friends and maybe a bit for us here at home. I'm trying a new way of pre-cooking the eggplant,  roasted in the oven, instead of standing for hours deep frying. Not sure how long that will take! Today I made the marinara sauce and the meatballs, also oven roasted instead of fried. I just tested a meatball, mmm, yummy.

I haven't accomplished as much deck sewing as I had hoped. I finally realized that the current deck chairs are not as comfortable as the old set.  I get up from an hour of sewing and can barely straighten up, let alone walk Mo. Too bad, maybe cushions will help.

I've been working on my Year in the Country "August" block. Love the sunflower.

I decided to do a prim running stitch to give the petals dimension and texture, This was fun and fast but not a good choice for a very windy beach day---I kept sewing the corners into the back, like folding in and catching. Much snipping and redoing.

The background represents my view of ocean and sky.

I added a heart shaped leaf, one of a sunflower's subtle charms. [but yes,, this is a morning glory,lol.]

And I found a ladybug button to hide some bad machine sewing.  (Something is wrong with my good machine, it spits the fabric off to the left side! Cannot sew a straight seam or smooth curve.)

Next month's block is an empty birdhouse...I am thinking it should be an empty nest instead, but then the eggs I want to put make no sense. I just hate when the kids go back to school, I enjoy having them home and the September beach is so beautiful. Hence, ''empty nest''....?

Gully--we were worried, he'd been dragging a wing.
Maybe just molting?

Another day--or days---I experimented with ''tea-dye'' aging for this small quilt.

No tea, which tends to appear pinkish; I tried two kinds of coffee, instant and boiled grounds of espresso. Dingy but no real impact. Then I used RIT dye in brown and lemon yellow. Closer to what I'm looking for but not wonderful.

Here is the antique I am using for inspiration. HERE



I wanted that golden aging look. I was also surprised and saddened by the green squares' overall loss of color. No more bright poison green, but just dull green, after the first  no-dye wash. Not a real FAIL but not quite what I wanted.

I do like the back I chose, though those fabrics faded a lot too.

I finished the top of a baby quilt today. Can't show you yet, though I doubt the mom reads my blog. It is simple and modern, not a Lizzy look but maybe they will like it and use it?

The Christmas Tree Shop sale flyer came today, online. They're showing my fave Tiffany aqua [that they call teal, even though teal is a deep green with a bit of blue: TEAL]. I love this look. Immediately texted my friend L:"Roadtrip!" I hope we can go. HERE

Mo got wet today during our dinner walk. He was so indignant.

"WTF?

Tomorrow I have to go buy a bushel of eggplants! Wish me luck.

Full Moon tomorrow! The Corn Moon.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....