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







Friday, July 23, 2021

Mid-Summer Quilt Progress


 Hello hello! This was on my weather feed most of this week: "There will be mostly sunny skies. The high of 84 will be carried in on some breeze." 

What a perfect description of a perfect summer afternoon. It's just past mid-July! So if your summer is June through August, summer is halfway over! [get out your pumpkins , ladies! We start Christmas right after Labor Day! (not).]  Here summer begins on the Fourth of July and runs through late September, maybe even to Columbus Day [or the poor thing's current iteration Day]. The days are sunny and breezy, not too hot this year. The bad news is the Big Trucks have invaded, trying to fix the ongoing flooding, making it hard and scary to get to the beach on weekdays. And the dirt and noise are rather spoiling our deck days too. But I persevere, of course.

Fall Pineapple:

In the end I went with the festive gold coin dot on grey grunge for the ground.


This time I even remembered to do a grey-tone image to check value and contrast. Not that I pay much attention to my results---as you can see I used the low contrast but brilliantly awful green for the stem star and leaves.


Next week we'll audition the corners' fabric. I have two good plaids but they don't really sing to me.

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Silent Night Is HUGE! Luckily I just happened to spread it out on my queen sized bed, planning the Tree placements.





It will have to lose a vertical row of stars on the left:





As well as the already planned removal of one or two rows of stars at the top.

Very glad I didn't spend all winter making the second batch of stars. I have a note, 3 years ago!, I needed 11 more or 15 if I did the full length. That is 44 or 60 Flying Geese blocks! not as easy peasy as it sounds. Plus they're all the same and rather ugly. [the blue is too dark].


Here is how I will narrow those down. 


Plenty of room for the trees and doggy; the sled baby was always going to be above left on the border if I use her. 


Earlier this week I removed the excess stars and border, next up is needle turn appliqueing the trees.



I haven't chosen a color for Kitty my feral sweetheart, who in real life is all black, but won't show up. Maybe grey for Stripey, her ex mate, and my childhood tabby toms, Pixie and Charlie.  Doggy will of course be Mo a pug.


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Lately I've been a bit despondent and when I'm sad I shop! Maybe should not, but it really does cheer me up and so much more fun than say, a therapist, lol. I think I have mentioned this wonderful online fabric shop before, 1000s of Bolts .HERE


Almost all the fabrics are $5.39 a yard. Quite a bargain, when most quilt cotton fabrics are pushing $11.00 a yard. The web site is easy to browse and fun. The thumbnails are small but when you open a pattern's listing, there's good information and a function to click and see a very enlarged view of the fabric. Many TQC Bygone Browns are there, for example, as well as some of TQC  Special Scraps line. And many more, all from reputable, well known manufacturers. Even if you do not like choosing a random refresher for your stash, this site is a fabulous source for yardage for quilt backs and border yardage..


[the blues and teal didn't photo true to color. Best view is the stack top of post.}


below, actually a beautiful faded turquoise.


This is an odd worm/ vermicelli/ seaweed. In some lights it looks lavender [its stated color], in most lights it looks puce tinged brown. "fugitive lavender"? Many mid 19th century quilts have a lot of faded browns that were once mourning lavenders or purples. Half-mourning I think, year two. It was a weird fashion fad.



Love this chrome yellow, even though the scale is a bit oversized. Quilt back!


Great pink, also could be for a quilt back.


Modern and so cute: sewing tomatoes , but the look of a traditional conversational shirting.



Autumn-y cheddars, with picotage.





below in top right corner, a wonderful small true cedar with a tiny motif, 
and another, not shown, TQC's Special Scraps cheddar.


French Provençal style, again a bit large but I like it. The red could work as a 19th century turkey red. The blue is actually a deep cobalt sky blue.


There is a one yard minimum and at 5.39 a yard, that's not a problem. I probably will go back to order yardage for backings. The stock changes fairly quickly. If you like it buy it when you see it.

So fun! Beautifully folded and packed, unlike the linen from Fabric.com which arrived in a wrinkly wad.

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I do gravitate to brights! Here are my little posies of the past few weeks, cut form my Cut and Come Again pot of zinnias.



Each flower is different and so adorably old fashioned.


This week I added the cut field roses 4.99 to my food delivery. I asked for ''any color except red", not a  fan of red romantic roses. Look what the shopper chose! I was in heaven. Made a summer display w more zinnias in a found seaglass jar.


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Mo is home from his sleepaway vacation. He was very miffed with me. And exhausted!



He sulked for three days but is improving now. In his defense, on his way home he had to go to the vet for his annual checkup and vaccinations.  And I understand why he would feel betrayed, poor darling.


Looks like a great weekend ahead! Have fun. Also full moon tonight, be sure to take a look. The moon is actually a brilliant red-orange but the camera washes the color out. Color is caused by the forest fire smoke out west, we are told.



love

lizzy

gone to the beach......












9 comments:

  1. Oooh, what excitement - LOTS of new fabrics to plan and play with. Love the works in progress too. I was sewing curtains for the Library (one finished and up) but then we had a heat-wave and I've found myself deep into my husband's Manx family history (Isle of Man, between Britain and Ireland).

    Lovely roses. My new ones here have been flowering happily - just two still growing and may not flower this year.

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    1. Your roses, all your garden! are lovely I am looking forward to seeing your curtains and roman shade on your blog!

      lizzy

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  2. Great fabric additions!! That is a great site--I have that seaweed fabric--waiting for the right place for it..spending a lot of time "looking" at my fabrics [since I can't sew or bend over my table as yet] and trying to figure out why I got some of them..time to de-stash a bit, I think.
    Your quilt is coming together really well...it will be so pretty....
    Hope your weekend is lovely
    high hopes for lovely coolish weather
    hugs, Julierose

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  3. Such pretty fabrics! And the price is great, too. I can hardly believe how expensive fabric has gotten.

    Your cut flowers are so cute! Nice to have your own small cutting garden. Also really nice that you can get flowers delivered with your groceries, how cool! And they're such a pretty color, too!

    Poor Mo, I'm sure even if he had fun that he got a little homesick, too - never mind the shots on the way home! LOL, in the picture he looks like I feel today - I just want to stay in bed myself!

    Starry Night IS HUGE! LOL, I guess that size would make a good bedspread... It's going to be so pretty, though!

    Enjoy your summer days - hopefully the big trucks won't be there TOO long (and that they fix the flooding problems). It is hot here today and I don't want to do anything, even though it's cool in the house. So I'm going to be a bum and read, lol.

    Thanks for sharing!!

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  4. Hello! Sorry you're getting our smoke. Hopefully we'll get some rain and it will help us all. I hope Mo has forgiven you. 😊 Kit

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  5. You have a great new collection of fabrics to play with! I'm especially in love with the second cheddar print. I'll need to check out that fabric source next time I need something especially backings. Poor Mo, hope a weekend on the deck and walks with mommy will cheer him up. Your shopper did a fabulous job choosing those roses, love that color!

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  6. Love the pineapple, and the applique on the quilt. Very smart of you to make it the size you want now before it is quilted. I too have comment moderation to avoid spam from showing up on the blog.

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  7. Definitely the Zinnia Queen, you are! Such delicious colours.
    The giant pineapple works for me with your subtle tones of Queen Pineapple green - those huge green/light yellow ones. Perfect.

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  8. Your weather sounds lovely! I think today, here, is similar. Beautiful day for the beach, if I had the afternoon free.

    I'm sorry you're feeling down. Maybe your medical treatment coupled with Mo being away...then Mo coming home in a mood himself. Take the happy moments where you can.

    Fun new fabrics! I like the chrome yellow, and also the one with the tomatoes is so cute. Look forward to seeing what you decide your quilt kitty will be.

    You take care of yourself. Sending hugs.

    Kel

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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.