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







Wednesday, November 30, 2022

As Beautiful November Ends....


Good evening!As November draws to its ever darkening end, I am looking back on this favorite month. We have had sunny days and winds, and storms, but it was finally Autumn, that sweet finale of the year. Today the sky was filled with puffy grey clouds and the horizon maintained a sunrise/ sunset apricot color all day.  The month goes much too fast, perhaps like for many of you, October does.

The Welcome  Pineapple is all done except the final applique of the hearts.

Probably I will not send it for quilting until after the expensive holidays have passed.


I also finished the sweet little TQC October quilt. As it's a present I'l l post more detailed pics after it has been gifted.
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Encouraged by the long awaited arrival of Fall, Mo and I took many slow sunset walks as I gathered leaves to press and draw.





These will prob just go into a blank notebook or folder. They are fragile once dried, and they fade.




I finally found found some oak leaves in Home Goods parking lot. Dry and dessicated, probably blew in from the marsh behind the store. Two species, pin oak and white oak [swamp oak].
 

I loved this idea of many tiny leaves, but the glue would not stick, not for nothing.







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I found a few sweet books on an international used book site. I was charmed by this Autumn Flower Fairies book. It was old and foxed and falling apart,


but so sweet with its faded illustrations and carefully pressed--in just the correct spaces---leaves.




Most of the trees are familiar to me from a Midwestern childhood, where woods and old orchards filled afternoons with secret spaces to explore and study.  Others are very English. We had buckeyes, not chestnuts.


Then from my bookshelf, inspiration from a tiny book by Dutch artist Marjolein Bastin.









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I've mentioned the large flocks of black birds we see each evening.


This is the early winter pages of the children's nature book I got this summer.



Starlings, at least sometimes---though today's unraveling skeins of black were sea ducks over the ocean.

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More nature drawings in the scribble journal. Nancy asked what the little notebooks are: they're just Mead grocery or jotter/ list books, I buy a stack of 5 on Amazon . 5" x 7". I did find a couple of lovely unused watercolor notebooks one day last week as I was hunting for special jewelry tool. But maybe that would spoil the fun, the spontaneity?







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In my Santa Workshop moments I've been repairing the old wooden toys that turn up in my dad's Shaker boxes. The little horse cart is almost repaired, so I began work on this minute brass band.


They are so finely painted and so cute, each little man is different. Not marked but I estimate c.1880-1900, Germany. Perhaps 1 1/4" tall.


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In the cottage, all traces of Fall have gone; the red and white quilts are out and airing in a big stack, to be distributed after the monthly cleaner works her Dyson magic tomorrow. 


I hope to put up my tiny tree and finish a simple sort of decorating over the coming week. 

Tonight, again, a nor'easter storm approaches. 60 mph wind, one site said 70 mph off the ocean. Much as I love it here, sometimes the storms make me weary; I yearn for a sheltered place with gentle weather. But I suppose I'll be here forever, sand in my shoes, the wind in my hair.

A sweet cocktail napkin from Thanksgiving, its design echoing my found leaves. To be pressed with other memories.

Mo enjoyed Thanksgiving very much!


Have a good week.

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....


pics from a friend, early one morning, his beach.






for Bonnie, a pic of my small collection of real agate marbles, early 20th century. Called aggies and highly prized.





19 comments:

  1. What pretty leaves. In our town, Maple trees have been planted, and many houses and bungalows have planted Japanese Acers in various hues. They have been so colourful.

    Loved the pineapple quilt, nearly finished now. Kittens allowing (I may have to lock myself upstairs!) I have to button-tie the backing on a little lap quilt for a friend, and then bind it. I cut the binding out last week and that's ready to go.

    It has been a mild but somewhat wet and then foggy November here.

    I have a complete set of those Flower Fairies books and used to read them to my girls every night. Now we have a step-grand-daughter through our son's girlfriend, and so I shall read them to her too.

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    1. I love the Flower Fairy books, I look for the older editions. This book seller ships from the UK.
      Looking forward to seeing your quilt. I commented on your blog about it and the pretty foggy hills of Wales, but my comment never appeared.

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  2. Good Morning Lizzy. I love your blog and your drawing exercises. I have some things here that I would love to share with you. If you could email me? My name is Valerie Champ and dispatchervalerie@gmail.com is my email.I have been reading your blog for a long time and simply want to share some things that came to me when my artist Mom died.

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    1. Thanks so much! I will email you, hopefully tomorrow.

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  3. Lizzy, I have never posted before, but I just to say how much I enjoy your posts. I live in Maine, in the Western mountain region, so not too near the sea, but somehow I feel a kin ship with you. I too, am a quilter and my decorating style is very similar to yours. Well, probably more than you needed to know, just really wanted to thank you for your lovely thoughts and images. Judy from Maine

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    1. Hi Judy, I love it that you commented. And that you enjoy my blog. Thanks!

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  4. Your thanksgiving Week page is just a lovely storehouse of your memories. Love your "wind" drawing....The pineapple piece is just so pretty...
    I always feel that when November fades away it becomes truly Winter even before the winter Solstice....the greyness of our skies today is palpable! Hugs Julierose

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    1. Thanks about my scribbles. It's the early darkness that says winter for me.

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  5. I went for a day trip to Lancaster for thrift shop and antique shopping....found 3 very old quilts in great shape for $25/$35 each, quilt patterns for 50-75 cents, quilt cottons,etc...wish you were here to go with me!

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    1. How fun! We'd have a blast, it would be great. Would love to see your quilt finds.

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  6. This is Melody, trying again...

    The Pineapple little quilt has come out very nice, I will look forward to seeing it on your wall sometimes!

    Love your leaves - maybe there's some scrapbooking trick to sticking them? Like that clear gummy adhesive they use on credit cards? LOL. I *LOVE* the flower fairies - one of my friends had a book that may have had the entire collection and I borrowed it for a while. Interesting that someone pressed the correct leaves in the book!

    Talk to you more soon!

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  7. Your nature pages are beautiful and I'm glad to know the size of paper. It helps me guess proportions of the things you draw. I love Marjolein Bastin's paintings, too, and also the Flower Fairies. At one time some company made greeting cards with the fairies on them. I still have one or two that I didn't send.
    It's too bad the dried leaves don't stick to paper. I wonder if a different glue might work? My mom used to press autumn leaves between two layers of wax paper, using an iron to dry and seal them. I remember having them but don't remember doing anything with them other than hanging them in a window. For a person who wants a colorful, nature-themed Christmas tree, they would probably be great.
    Your dad's little wooden toys are so wonderful! It's so good you've been able to repair/restore them.
    Welcome Pineapple looks so good (but I still think the other option for border fabric would have been better). I really like the flowers and stars at the corners.

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  8. So many interesting and lovely things to wonder at in your post.
    The pasted leaves take me back to biology projects in my first year in high school. Pehaps white wood glue that comes in a smallish plastic container with a nozzle would work as both leaves and paper have the same fibre origins. Just a thought.
    What a special gift to find leaves stored in a book by a kindred spirit!
    I can never have too many hydrangea or splendid sea shots. A real treat.

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  9. I love how your new pineapple quilt has turned out, and can imagine the lovely texture the quilting will add. Flower fairies, we gave a couple of those books to our granddaughters when I made their fairy quilts 10 years ago. There are still some tiny fairy fabric squares around here, should turn them into a tiny doll quilt. Rain and high winds here yesterday, snow today but thankfully not much accumulation. Happy December!

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  10. Loving your Welcome Pineapple quilt. Looking pretty special to me.:)

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  11. Delightful, as always. I love the collections of dried leaves, the books, the art. Marjolein Bastian is one of my favorites

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  12. A fun mini... so many delightful connections with nature, beautiful leaves, artwork. Fall is indeed a "sweet finale" and to be savored.

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