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







Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Baby Pineapples Quilt



Good evening on this glorious summer day. Storm Fay has passed, my umbrella table and window wall survived the wind,  and the day has been very lovely. I'm writing ahead because I have a clinic thing early Monday and am not sure when I will be able to deal with  blog issues, which by the way, are issues on BOTH versions, so it is NOT a case of my being unwilling to learn or try. Later this week I plan to investigate Type Pad, may have to move on. 11 years in October! I don't want to quite blogging, but that is at the moment a serious option.



I finished Baby Pineapples yesterday during the rain storm.




Here it is hanging sad and limp and saturated with damp from the air, 100% humidity rain and dense fog yesterday.


I don't have a good design wall to take indoor pics, but I'm not worried. You may recall how awful Blue Baskets looked pre-quilting too. It will be fine.

I think BP is so pretty!



It is a little low contrast. I chose the mid-tone fabric group with its boho style, thinking the background would be white, but the person for whom it's being made requested the grey instead. Hence the value problem.


BP is soft, sweet, and a bit girly.


The project took quite awhile because of the long wait for the final grey border. I ordered the grey twice, with 5 and 6 week delivery waits, only to find both colors were not a good match. One grey was the original Bella solid "Silver"---it looked tan! And then I tried Kona Cotton "Platinum", it looked too blue. Oddly in daylight all three greys looked identical but under artificial lights at night were wildly different and really ugly. I was supposed to make the quilt as large as possible; it went from a wall quilt or crib quilt to a ''big girl quilt"or throw.


In the end I eked out just enough of the original grey  [I do think it was Bella Silver, sorry Nancy, who warned me off] and managed 4 1/2'' or 5" borders. They are sewed round robin or log cabin style instead of the traditional framing plan but probably no one who is not a quilter will ever know. It measures as a top now 57" x 63"
I love the sweet colors.











And the funny stems!




This is the backing print. I have enough extra to make two full sized pillow cases; I overbought. I think I'll go ahead and make the cases too. Surely by the time the child has her daybed, she will have pillows? I can't recall but am pretty sure my kids got pillows by age three.


I have to sit and de-thread the back seams for my quilter, a good mindless project for after clinic days. I must say solids fray horribly, all those grey strings hanging.

And then off to Lori C for her magic touch. Wish she had a hibiscus quilting design, but we'll find something cute.
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I picked up more seed packs at the grocery store on Thursday. Burpee---which are very $$$ and don't do well for me, poor germination if any. But I just need to try, so I maybe have late summer flowers.



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Today no sewing and no beach. I feel like I did food prep all day, getting ready for a week of not wanting to cook [too groggy, too painful].. I made a big casserole of the ground beef, macaroni and tomato dish that blog friend Kel's mom and my grandma called ''goulash''. Comfort food, nice and hot. Lots of salads--ham salad, roast beef salad, egg salad, pitas stuffed with roast beef and tomatoes. Sliced and seeded cukes to also stuff in pitas, but not ahead. And I made the quinoa salad I mentioned two posts back. It is really delicious!


I used 90 second prepared grains:


The quinoa and brown rice is especially good and both types cook up nice and al dente, chewy and nutty. I love quinoa but it's easy to have it overcook and be mushy.


The avocado is a really nice subtle touch. I didn't put bacon but it would be good and I forgot to add the corn. Skipped the beans. Needs lots of lemon juice and seasoning. Delish!




Have a good week.


My bed is too hot ,mommy,
the floor is too hard. Wah! Wah.



love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....



Mo at the finally reopened washing spigot. He has been very sad not to get his drink after bench treats.







PS This is for those who asked me what a button flange was, when I said I wanted to try one on my Basket Collage, see sketch below.




15 comments:

  1. You persevered and the pineapple top is terrific!! Nice work! It's such a happy quilt too.
    I hope you are feeling better soon!
    I'm not noticing any blog difference when I post, but maybe that is because I use my desktop.

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  2. I do think the pineapples are totally charming. Finding "just the right" solid can be such a huge challenge. I hope you keep blogging!

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  3. Beautiful pineapples--this is really a wonderful quilt'))) I love the fabrics you chose...as usual your :eye" is right on!! Isn't it great to get it to the flimsey stage?
    This morning was a grocery run day for me; got lots for salads here too...and scored a good looking steak...but no paper products in sight...
    The rest of today will be resting...phew glad that's done for another (hopefully) 2 weeks...
    Hugs from afar (just over the Sound;}} see me waving??)
    Julierose

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  4. Well, I sure hope you stay with blogging. Your posts look fine! The main issue I've seen on my blog and have seen others reporting similar issues is that some comments aren't showing up in our gmail. What I've noticed is that most of the comments not showing up in the gmail inbox are being sent to the "promotions" tab but can still be responded to, thankfully. Love BP, can't wait to see what your quilter will do to really bring it to life with the added loft and dimension quilting brings. So pretty. Hope you're feeling better real soon.

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  5. Baby Pineapples came out really cute, I am really looking forward to seeing it quilted! I never really paid much attention to pineapples before but now I see them everywhere. Looking at some cute print little girl sundresses, and 2 or 3 of them were pineapple prints. Made me think of you!

    Glad you (and your windows and patio table) made it safely through the storm. I hope you have nice weather now for a while.

    I sympathize with Mo - sometimes the bed IS too hot to sleep! And OMG, if I got down on the floor I'd need major help to get back up!

    When you get ready to plant your seeds, either soak them overnight or fold them into a damp/wet paper towel. They may germinate better.

    I hope your treatment went well. Have a good week!

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  6. Your pineapple quilt is lovely and I do like your string pineapple very much.

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  7. Sending good wishes for you to feel stronger soon.
    The pineapple quilt is so light and airy. You're a master at choosing and combining fabrics with that turquoise border framing and holding everything together brilliantly.
    Your salads always make me peckish - delicious.
    I like the addition of avocado with the grains.
    An excellent tip about seed preparation Mel. One of the great things about your blog Lizzy; one learns something new everyday as my Gran would say. You and your comment writers Keep safe. Penny

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  8. Great job on the baby pineapples! Such a sweet, summery look quilt!

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  9. Wishing you to not feel too crappy after your visit to the clinic. Hope nightmares weren't too awful.

    Love seeing the pineapple quilt. It's going to live a cheerished life :)

    Wow! Eleven years already! We sure would miss your posts if you decided to not continue. You wouldn't be able to escape us, though ;)

    Hope the flower seeds produce for you. Would love to see pics, eventually.

    Take care, be well,
    Kel

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  10. Sorry you're having blog problems. And I hope you don't feel too crappy after your treatment. Take care my friend! Kit

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  11. So sorry you're having blog problems. I hope it gets worked out. I would hate to lose you. Nice quilt! Take care after your treatment. Love, Kit

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  12. What type of iron would you recommend?Also which batting would you recommend for a baby (my first one) quilt? I have been reading your blog for years.

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    1. Hi! You are a no reply blogger so I haope you check back here. I like inexpensive Black and Decker irons, from Target. That said my currently new one has a very short cord which I dislike. I also love my baby Sunbeam mini iron, also from Target, I have it right nct to my sewing machine with a small pad for ironing as I work. It gets hot, has steam etc. I think there's a pic of it last post. Also from Target.

      Normally I use Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting. For this quilt I want it fluffier---I'm waiting to see what my quilter suggests, perhaps a Hobbs or Quilters Dream batting with some but not mostly , polyester?

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  13. Your Baby Pineapples is delightful, Lizzy. I especially like the fabric in the second column top one with viney stems and coral/pink/rose flowers.

    I wonder why solids fray more than prints. I guess the fraying is a small price to pay for using them.

    I'm so sorry for the blog problems -- for you, me, and everyone else. I thought having to use all photos in the upload cache was just a one-off problem but no, it continues. I still haven't really used the new blogger from writing to uploading photos to publishing a post. Ugh!

    Great finish on the quilt, Lizzy. I love everything about it!

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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.