Tiny Baskets Update and a Heat Wave

Hi everyone! It is such a beautiful evening! There is supposedly a heat wave, but it is dry and breezy and really quite delightful now at almost 9 PM. I know I keep saying that, I guess it was so cold and so dark for so long? I just put away my down parka I wear for late night dog walks. EDIT: I was WRONG---91* now before 10 AM. HOT.

I don't want to jinx myself but when we talk about heat waves here I think, Oh those people never lived in Cincinnati or St Louis in the summer---ugh, the heat the humidity and not a breath of ocean breeze, lol, I remember it well from living there.

I did have to keep Mo in today. Not happy!

So I finally let him lie on the deck for like, 15 minutes, twice. Mo can't speak English but he certainly makes himself very clear.

Baby Pineapples is in the mail to my quilter Lori C., so this past week and weekend I focused on my Tiny Baskets.

As mentioned before this has been a FB sewalong, one of my fun groups on Facebook. I chose to use all fabrics given to me by friends. Most were from blog friend Penny, so I asked her if she'd also like to sew along. She said yes, and with the permission of the designer Julie Porter I sent along the patterns to Penny. Her work is so pretty! I'll show you her Tiny Baskets first:

Please don't compare my embroidery to hers, she does lovely work!

Now for my TBs. First I redid and touched up the embroidery.

 I wish I had realized ahead of time how challenging the tiny designs would be. I should have planned for, and taken! much more time and care in transferring  and sewing the designs.

Oddly for such shoddy work the stitches were very hard to pick out, again so tiny. I knew some remedial work was needed when I posted the progress on the group and got very tepid, though kind, reassurances that the embroidery wasn't all that awful, LOL  And up popped, three, four times!, that old dreaded saying about if you can't see a mistake from a galloping horse [!], etc----color me NOT a fan of truisms. With quilting, I guarantee all work will be inspected up close and personal, no horses required.

I think I did better on the applique, I do so love doing applique.

I did a mix of raw edge/ running stitch and needle turn.

Now the project is resting for a few days while I prep the applique borders for Year in the Country. I am thinking Tiny Baskets will be enhanced by a narrow border and most previewers agreed.

Over the years I have tried to get away from always adding borders---they're hard to quilt and often not necessary. But I think this time it is a pleasing touch .[your thoughts?]

I also want to improve my embroidery skills. Embroidery was the first sewing my dad taught me, aged about 5 or 6: Lazy Daisy and stem stitch on his white hankies, so funny. He carried right on using them with my floral embellishments. Years later when I had a very long train commute and worked with a woman  who was a master embroiderer and member of the national guild, I did many embroidered projects---crewel, tiny petit point, counted cross stitch [all of which I threw away in a declutter frenzy recently, but that's another story]. My work was nice. But now! Awful. Chicken scratches. Partly I am having eyesight issues and with Covid-19 isolation cannot just run to the optometrist for sewing glasses, as I'd normally do. Not sure they are even open???.

With the idea of doing some more simple stem stitch and back stitch I downloaded these darling free designs from group member Deborah Cade. Her work is so primitive and very charming. We've been asked not to show whole line drawings online but you get the idea. If I accomplish these, no rush, will  make small pillow "bowl fillers'', a new goal.

Nancy asked me about my continuing quilting since I'd been so discouraged earlier in the year. I am still more or less not starting many new things, and except for Tiny Baskets, No More Sewalongs!  I do intend to finish what I have in work, which could keep me busy for years. Finishing the commissioned project of Baby Pineapples was important to me, so that's an item to check off.

I must say, during this crisis, in this odd, lonely, stay at home new world---having a craft--a hobby [hate that belittling word]--like quilting has been a true blessing, a lifesaver, a reason to go on, to get up each day. For that I am grateful and will tune out naysayers who question why I, we, make one quilt after another. "What for?".

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As we sew we gather our tools: Here is Penny's lovely dish she uses for her needle and thread, in her larger project basket.

And here is my current ''dish'' a big clam shell my daughter brought me to paint and add to the community art installment on the beach.

Time for Mo's walk, as the blue sky fades to violet then indigo now.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

beach pics from Penny's daughter Nicky, lovely South African winter beach, including above.

And a rainbow from my brother out west.

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