Gone To The Beach: 07.14.2023

Friday, July 14, 2023

Quilt : Beach Cottages

Hi guys! The other day as I was redoing the cottage for high summer, I got out this old much loved, if rarely used, Beach Cottages quilt. The houses were inspired by designer Freddy Moran. Coincidentally Lori of Humble Quilts recently posted a selection of of Moran's more recent quilts,

seen at a quilt show.

Faces by Freddy HERE

This was I think the first quilt I made when I began quilting again. Prior to this time I had made traditional quilts at work, during lunch or after everyone else left. My ex husband didn't like seeing me crafting and hated sewing machine noise. Put that together with no free time, demanding job and two homes to run/ pay for, no sewing was ever done at home. Our loft in Brooklyn had such high ceilings that the loft had lofts, upper levels. One area was a guest room, the other a tiny sewing nook for me. Accessed up a steep ladder it was not a welcoming spot, and also was open to the main bedroom[ see note about ex hating whirr of the machine.] so it was never really used.

My parents though had other ideas and for a special birthday they gifted me with a new [quieter?] Brother machine/ $99.oo at Costco! And my mom included Freddy Moran's book that featured these houses.

Add in the unusual and brief bit of time when not one or two but three fabric stores were near my home here at the beach, two close to the Thursday pickers flea market that I went to every week---I was in bright happy fabric heaven. Added into the mix were Lily Pulitzer brights like this chartreuse sea life print, a treasured gift, again from my parents. [My dad was often in Florida in those years, working on hurricane structural preparedness, and though they didn't choose to move to Florida to retire later, they loved Florida especially the Keys and Gulf towns. The LP fabrics were my souvenir they'd send each winter.]

At that time the cottage here was not blue and white, just all white to show off my Fiestaware and bright Hull kitchenware, McCoy cooky jars, colorful ball ice water pitchers---you can see the color influence in this project.

Also I had no one influencing me, no idea what what right or wrong, no internet groups, no blogs. Just a random person having fun.

My quilts from that period [most sold], were I think beautifully made and hand embroidered and beaded.

Looking at Beach Houses to take pics I was quite surprised that it is a Millennium quilt. How fun and creative, a memory of a long lost time, a time of unfettered if sneaky freedom and creativity for me.

I love the label!

And the backing was to me Beachballs, even tho it obviously is really marbles, lol.

And note the scrappy pieced binding, again an idea I had in my creative solitude, uninfluenced by thrift or fads.

...............................................

I had pulled out the quilt to display it on the pine bride's bench but that didn't seem to work, it's a wall quilt with no empty area for things to be piled up. Instead I used this Hollyhock runner, made at a similar time, a design by Linda Brannock, a book from the Cape Cod fabric shop.

Carpet ball collection, since my glass floats collection is missing somehow. They are 2-4" diameter ''clay marbles", for a Victorian indoor game like bocce. There's a few modern repros , thrifted finds, mixed in.

Moving forward 20, 25 unbelievable years, this is a quilt from IG. Inspiring! How fun. It has that Australian happy slightly pastel vibe. It would be a fun long term pick up project.