Sarah Sporrer Vintage Quilt Designs

Welcome Summer! Midsummer, called Litha on the pagan calendar. A candle lit, some beach treasures set out---to welcome the good days ahead. 

                                        

I wonder what those ancient folks thought, still cold, but long evenings, let's celebrate! And then, too soon, the days are shorter again. 

Anyway, today is lovely, mid-60s, windy, sunny. I am supervising the installation of my new white canvas windscreens, much lamented since their removal in February when a new railing had to be installed. I missed their aesthetic value but was surprised that the wind and blowing sand has been much worse without them. Not just for pretty and privacy after all.

                                         

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Last week on eBay I found a nice set of c.1998 Sarah Sporrer pattern cards.

Aren't they so cute.

The seller had 8 cards,  I already have 2 more---the bee and the garden.

I also have a S Sporer book with some fun ideas. Must do Friends, and yes, another giraffe.

Love this blurry but sweet jar of marbles, how fun!

And Dish Ran away with the Spoon.

Look, in the eBay batch! --- a Pineapple, and a pumpkin full of sunflowers...

A white pitcher of Tulips, so Lizzy.

I had so much fun making Year in the Country here that I want to make another Sarah Sporrer quilt project, using an idea I saw to set the blocks in striped ticking and ecru rough linen. 

The patterns may seem to be just greeting cards, but there's an insert with detailed directions, plus a full sized layout page.  The design are very large, about 15" x 18", must resize smaller. Love the free and easy bumblebee's flight quilting and often raw edge applique. Sporrer's work is even more primitive than Jan Patek's, who does needle turn, or Cheri Payne's, who did whipstitch. Of course one could switch to all needleturn and no dark over dye, there's no quilt police in my world.

Beautifully done for 4.00 originally and 4.oo now on eBay. The seller was very gracious and adjusted the postage too.

There's also detailed tea and coffee dye instructions, dated 1998. This method is often attributed on FB Groups to various quilt designers, looks like it is not such a new idea after all. I may, or may not do this, as it does leave an odor and I don't care for that.

This project may reference the months and seasons but will not be a month by month "Year". If I end up with ten blocks---or 4 or 14, that's fine too.

In my research I find no history or current info for Sarah Sporrer. I wish I knew more about her. I remember when my dad and I used to go the quilt shop on Cape Cod every summer. One year they had a block of the month of Sporrer's designs, all of them beachy and nautical--lighthouses and seagulls in yellow fisherman boots, etc. My dad was a design snob and always said a sewer should make their own patterns, so I never bought that set. How I wish I had done so. Have never found any blocks to buy since.

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I started my TQC Slow Stitching handpieced little project. It is quite lovely to sew these tiny squares [2" sewed], the result is much softer to the touch that machine pieced sewing. The stitching is similar to my hand quilting which I always enjoy. 

The next batch looks harder, miniscule HSTs, etc.Here is Penny's sweet selection.

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Cartwheels top is finished and pressed. The backing needs to be pieced. My work in it was interrupted as I tried making a beach blanket for a little beach girl's end of school year gift. A mermaid panel and Minky, ugh. I struggled with the minky plush. I expected it to stretch a lot and instead it shrank! The cotton top was incompatible and bubbled up. Bin time. I knew better, but my quilter didn't seem like she'd do it, so I tried. Nothing ventured etc.

have a great weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

We are seeing the lovely blues of summer now--- hydrangeas beginning to bloom....

Clamshell garden edges and dark red roses, too.

A June Mix ~ Walks, Quilts, and Wine

 

Hi everyone! June is half over, as is this year almost. Imagine that. The cottage is morphing slowly into its blue and white summer state.

I'm reading a book series, "Inspector  Banks'' by Peter Robinson---and though they don't US bash a lot it does creep in now and then. "Americans are loud! And talk about the weather a lot!" to paraphrase the denigrating tropes in British books and online. Yet I notice in this British series every single scene change describes the weather---and ugh it mostly rains.  Well anyway, this week has been lovely June late spring but today is grey and drippy and May-like in its ugliness. Oddly one of my weather feeds says on the mainland it is 90* and thunderstorms, yet in the towns nearby it is similarly grey and and 65*--those poor people in that one hot town, lol. [An error I am guessing.]

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This is cheery. Out and about my friend and I did the very traditional summer run to the wine shop, to buy wine for summer moon rise evenings to come. And I am still hoping to talk her into a little "sip and sew'' get-together now and then.

Isn't this bottle gorgeous. Another of my friends fills the empties with beach sand and uses them for door stops.

Wolffer also does a lovely white, but my budget wouldn't stretch to both.

This is pretty too, a reising from 2017, pre-pandemic. I am not one to open a bottle alone. I don't know if Riesling keeps, must look into that.

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In recent weeks I have not been finding any strange found objects, but the other afternoon after a big rain, all these pretty clear drops were glistening on the sidewalk. 1/4" diameter.

Whatever could they be? Not sequins. Nurdles? --- which are plastic pellets for manufacturing, or maybe from a filter of some sort. [ plastic pollution/ocean ]

Blog friend Julierose told me recently about a new way to tea dye, a fun project to look forward to, plus on FB a woman was rust dyeing. I mention this summer project just so you know all my rusty bits I have been collecting have a future planned now----bolt and washer polka dots, how fun.

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Art Challenge on IG: not a good result these last weeks. Below was a sketch with a supposedly waterproof pen.

And I am in love with the fabulous perpetual art /nature journals shown on IG. [you can google] I so want to begin one. Hahaha. Here is my version, actually a doodle done while texting intermittently with a friend. I can go for the comic version, as the fine drawing work for an exquisite book seems to have deserted me. On the other hand, maybe by January I will have re-found those lost skills?

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My ''heirloom garden seeds'' seem to be AKA crabgrass! This was marigolds. Eeeew. Blog friend Nancy did warn me!

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I was looking for a worktray for decktime and came across Yes It's Yellow, a pieced project I worked on during the 2020 lockdown. Mindlessly perfect for a musty mind, I thought. Only to find out I had pieced the 25 square/ 5 x5/ patched blocks wrong! I set it aside to rip out and that was its demise, 

or long furlough anyway.

After I do the Hourglasses for Giraffe in Egypt, I will go back to using it as my pick up project. I do hope to complete it someday.

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On ''good days'' I find myself full of enthusiasm for new projects and new  [or return of old] life habits and endeavors--but some days are hard now post pandemic---aimless, worthless, lonely, sad. So, just saying. Maybe no one is a ''positive'' person every minute of every day. 

I do have somewhat good news that my most recent RX glasses have made my vision good enough to drive again. For now very local, as I must be sure that all is safe. But exciting progress and perhaps next surgery will not have to be as soon as September after all. Good news or not so, tell me what is happening in your world?

Have a great week!

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....

The Strawberry supermoon was indeed Super!

online: '' The June full moon is also known as the full strawberry moon because this is the time of year that strawberries ripen.

Weather permitting in New York, it will be quite a treat. AccuWeather.com forecasts possible showers on Monday and a mix of sun and clouds Tuesday. The National Weather Service says the region will likely be partly cloudy on both Monday and Tuesday.

Look toward the southeast just after sunset any of those days, and watch as the moon rises over the horizon. “There,” The Old Farmer’s Almanac wrote, “it will appear large and golden-hued.” ''

             

And remember the Summer Solstice this coming Tuesday, 

light a candle,

 set out a favorite feather, or pebble or flower

 if you wish.

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And last, off topic, remember my fun Mushroom fabric? Both Penny and Mel I think figuratively gave me eyerolls about its turquoise toadstools. [I of course, adore turquoise, Tiffany blue, 'shrooms!]. 

Mel said, No way they exist in real life, which would be fine with me! But well here ya go, [though --photoshopped?] You guys decide. HERE