Gone To The Beach: 2021/06

Friday, June 25, 2021

June Garden Peeping Let's Take a Walk

Happy Friday, everyone! Did you see that gorgeous full moon? It brought the horseshoe crabs up on the beach to lay their eggs.

. Now today on the last Friday of this 2021 June, let's take a look at gardens around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, due to major roadwork to correct the constant flooding I have mentioned over the years, some of our usual haunts are inaccessible right now. Instead Mo and I are heading in a different direction, though I hope to go alone to get some pics of our fave beach alley an grey fences at some point.

Summer near the ocean is all about hydrangeas. The cool temps and occasional drizzle seem to have produced some glorious blooms this summer.

A quiet shady public area with a nice bench. Mo and I sit for a while some afternoons.

Then we have the daylilies, just beginning. They should peak by the Fourth of July.

Pretty mixed with the blue bells of the hostas that are allowed to bloom here.

Foamy blooms on euonymus:

People enjoy gardening. I find pretty plantings in the tiniest corners sometimes.

Beach roses everywhere, on the dunes and in gardens too.

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A few weeks ago I visited my former neighbors, to see my friend's beautiful yard and garden. Very reminiscent of Cape Cod. And that grass! This shed was once an outdoor beach shower.

A driftwood whale and wildflowers, rose campion.

A newly constructed veggie bed.

Pretty pots on the deck, a nod to their love of tropicals.

Hibiscus grown from seed, year two.

These borders will be filled with hydrangeas and beach roses in a week or two.

This is their herb garden, made from a beachcombed find, painted their distinctive robins egg blue.

When I stopped by this past weekend, there was fresh baguette and goat cheese flavored with their home grown herbs. Delish.

Back home Mo is waiting for his daily spoonful of ice cream!

But later he is sent to his bed indoors, naughty barking at helicopters as they fly by on Friday evening, headed to the Hamptons, we surmise. Must be nice! No train, no jitney, no Long Island Expressway traffic. Just a 40 minute cruise over the shoreline. How cool is that! [Mo doesn't look at all sorry, does he?]

Have a great weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

beautiful light, golden, and a rainbow after a storm earlier in the month.

Monday, June 21, 2021

Summer Begins! ~ Spring Quilt Wrap Up

Hi everyone! On this Monday the first full day of summer, the Sun has been battling with the fog, with help from a gusty wind. Now as I type this, in a quiet half hour before Mo's dinner walk, it has turned into quite a lovely day.

I managed to load *some* photos to show you what's been happening in the little quilt room. Yes I am over my snit of "nobody loves [me] my quilts''. And of course have carried on with both ongoing projects and some finishes! Because, in the end, I make things to amuse myself.

I finally got two projects off to the quilter! Blue Pineapples and its mad, wild, unsuitable but we love it tropical print from Kaffee Fasset.

And also though it is a secret exchange, ''one for you , one for me'' so I can't show it here, we can take a peek at the backing and the quilting plan.

Not appropriate to the time setting of the design, but I loved it, so I used the Pins print for the backing.

I asked for Feather quilting!

That may not work so I offered the alternative of miniature Baptist Fans [Rainbow Arcs].My quilter, Lori C, of Quilters Imagination is wonderfully competent and I always love the results of our endeavors. But I find when working with another person, the results are best if I clearly state my ideas, while keeping an open mind to suggestions.

Each quilt gets its little write up.

One thing I have learned is to let Lori choose the thread colors. I used to specify and made some fairly unattractive mistakes in my early years of using longarm quilters to finish my tops. And I often ask for her suggestions as to quilt patterns. In this case I have NO idea for Blue Ps, she can hopefully weigh in.

Those went out last week! Always so exciting.

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Lucky Brown Hen

Then this past week for no discernable reason I made this tiny doll quilt. Why? I was tired of this scrap of poorly pieced, very old, 16 patch blocks wafting across my sewing table. The piecing is absolutely awful! I made up a story about a very little girl who'd rather be out feeding the hens, or playing with the baby goats, anything! But the tiny 1 1/4" ish squares are finely, minutely whipstitched together, as in English paper piecing, which seems odd considering the poor quality of the piecing. !860-1880?

I put the rosebud border to try to contain the wonkiness of the blocks. Looking at the finished project, I see the border is too formal--but I figured the little girl in my story would love the roses.

I have hand quilted in an X in each block so my quilting looks awkward too. But has the feeling I wanted.

And I bleached and overdyed some of my red Horseshoe fabric for the binding. It came out an interesting dirty cheddar color, not the pinky-brown I wanted, but it works and so, okay. The use of the Horseshoes was so that this quilt could be part of my Lucky series: little and not so little quilts that are make do and unintended. I was also practicing my tiny 1/4" single fold binding; need to to on that technique though.

Brown circle dot backing. I just couldn't bring myself to use the cocoa brown Tiny Stars I was gifted by a friend.

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And last, Mo has been insisting on his deck time every late afternoon. Besides Lucky Brown Hen's handquilting, I worked on the Snowman for Silent Night's border.

Lots of finicky details! And maybe not as perfectly sewed as one might wish. Friend Sue mentioned on Instagram that my use of wool was very forgiving, lol. In truth the wool was easy to work with despite some fraying as I am out of Fray Check, but the white body fabric, Grunge Dots, was very difficult to use. It's a bit stiff and heavy, almost poplin like, and every time the iron hit it, it shriveled badly and all my stitching showed and shrank up. I redid it twice then gave up. Once quilted and washed, it'll be fine, or good enough anyway.

Here is this week's applique, The House, prepped not sewn. It too is all Grunge fabrics. I never learn, sigh. [I like Grunge for appliques because there is no show thru, as happens with many light solids.]

And I started making HSTs for my next Pineapple project, a very prim wall quilt by Jan Patek, book with pattern sent to me by Penny all the way from S Africa.

I began making a few of the triangle squares each evening after dinner. Then I trim them during Mo's deck hour.

You can see how large the project is. I will make it at 75 or 80%

I think it will be a very fun project. My dream is to finish for Thanksgiving and hang it on the wall in the dining room, as I gather my loved ones around my table again.

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Here is Baby Mo supervising Lucky Brown Hen's final photo shoot. He voiced no opinion.

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In other news, here in NYS almost all Covid 19 restrictions were lifted. My county has 75% vaccination rate. We had unexpected fireworks to celebrate. Brought tears to my eyes, the end of a dark year and a half.

Welcoming Summer, these are my 2021 summer bracelets. The Rainbow celebrates the end of the pandemic in the USA. The white Pearl is a friendship bracelet. I'll wear these all summer, into the Fall. Woman Shops World