Sunday, April 19, 2026

In and Out, Out and About ~ Spring

Hawthorne or ''shadblow'' on the dunes.

Good evening, friends. Things are perking up here, what a good thing! Even a diehard spring-hater like me can enjoy warm days and sunny blue skies. Okay the wind is howling, but still. I even got very brave and took down some of the storm windows and bubble wrap insulation and Opened The Windows. Crash! Today, barely forty degrees, w a freeze warning, 30 mph wind, bloppy rain. I must trot out my favorite spring quote, slightly edited by me:

Dorothy Parker: "Summer makes me [happy]. Autumn makes me sing. Winter's pretty lousy, but I hate Spring!"

Still, it was nice to be out and about with my friend L, just like old times. We went to local jeweler to pick out a special charm in Mo's memory. It will be added to the fine chain necklace I always wear, never take off--that represents my children.

I did love the dog bowl, so very Mo.

I also ordered via Etsy a lovely memory bracelet to add to my bangle collection. The words are from ''our song''...

Quick run to Old Navy again, got some everyday pants to try. No pics, way too big. Then on to the little crappy Trader Joe's for fresh veg and flowers. I love spring radishes and these bags of small single serving avocados

Mixed nut and dried fruit trail mix, endive, asparagus, tiny red potatoes, ciabatta and cheeses. And this decadent sauce. Soooo good.

Spring flowers to brighten the house:

Don't they just shout, Bramble Berries!

And ''pink'' daffodils, too.

Switched the dining sideboard display the lovely blues.

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A change from Boardwalk, I started pulling fabrics for Posies:

My colors! Inspiration from my deck gardens and tiny bouquets:

Andy Warhol's Flowers.

Fabrics....

For the flowers. The black and cream ditsy [tiny baskets] is the probable background.

Flower cents and leaves/ stems.

This is the soft neutral I had intended to be the background, but as so often happens w stashed fabrics, I don't have enough and it must be 15, 20 years old. I found nothing equal and went [in my mind] w the little baskets instead, for a more modern look.

"Tiny Baskets''
, from TQC:

I didn't order but I bookmarked this darling little print, so cute for a border or backing?

Okkkay, that was fun, choosing fabrics is my favorite part of quilting! You may recall I hate to machine sew, lol.

Have a lovely week, enjoy the flowers and the birds.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

other friends' beaches a mile to the west...

and mine, look at that blue sky! And goes on forever, not a soul in sight, just me.

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A final amusingly grumpy Spring quote, from John Updike:

be warned of rather crude use of language

“Some people find fall depressing, others hate spring. I've always been a spring person myself. All that growth, you can feel Nature groaning, the old bitch; she doesn't want to do it, not again, no, anything but that, but she has to. It's a fucking torture rack, all that budding and pushing, the sap up the tree trunks, the weeds and the insects getting set to fight it out once again, the seeds trying to remember how the hell the DNA is supposed to go, all that competition for a little bit of nitrogen......”

― John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Context But No Roadmap

Hi everyone. Mid April, ups and downs, we had a frost we had torrential rain, we had sunshine and one--!--no-wind/ warmish day. [golf course driving range]

The sunshine makes me want to fill my deck pots with red geraniums or at least pansies. I do know better.

I've worked on Boardwalk most afternoons,---it is far more time consuming than I imagined; must stop after an hour or so or risk severe back and hip pain. Reminder pic of the inspiration quilt, maker unknown.

Context: on my walks I 've been noticing the inspiration boardwalks that we have here.

Mel asked why do the different angles though, so I found this picture online of our big town boardwalk. It has always charmed me with the careful placement of the now weathered grey wood boards. [rebuilt after H Sandy, 2012]

This is a simple town boardwalk, as of course are the smaller ones. It's not Coney Island below or the Jersey Shore kind of boardwalk, we have no arcade games or carnival rides.

There's an ice cream stand, a hot dog stand, that's it. But it is big, long, 2.5 miles? and much prized. These are some older shots I took on an icy January day in 2019. A rare chance to find the walk empty.

These are all inspiration for a quilt, I hope this quilt.

If not here's a delightful Boardwalk quilt. I'd love to make it too someday, so fun. HERE

Meanwhile, back to my own improv journey. The other day I had the sense to lay the made blocks on my actual bed. Oh no. Too big, too dull.

The original, by eye stripes looked better than the low contrast low volume look I was working towards. So dull. Too wide, too long. Clumky.

I dithered, I measured I trimmed. The segments for now are raw edge 7.5"/ 6.5". 5.5". Today, all organized.

Omigosh the amount of threads to trim, I must do it as I go, a hated task.

Note: my floor is NOT dirty. It is bleached and weathered and worn, but not dirty.

So far, though I get attached, I get engrossed--this is hard work. Tiresome. Tiring.

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Here's another project I pulled out, A Covid lockdown eBay find. Chocolate Milk At Poolside.

When my kids were small, the plan was morning camp then poolside lunch: tomato and American cheese with peanut butter or mayo on Wonder Bread. One summer it was all the littles ate besides pizza. Lunch, rest/ read, was of course followed by an afternoon at the beach. Best times.

This eBay top w its odd colors is, I think, delightful. It needs only borders. I think it will make an awesome finish!

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On Instagram I've been following an account called...@until.found until.found

The person sidewalk searches daily ''for the real diamond"--but instead finds tiny chamring treasures. Sometimes he recasts them in silver to sell on Etsy.here I so want the Balloon Dog charm.

The artist is in the Netherlands, do we still have Trump tariffs, or we can buy from Europe again? His prices are in EU currency.

The guy finds a lot, a LOT of beads and actually just a lot of stuff. At day 55-ish, I am dubious--are the finds, well, planted?

I've been looking again at my lanes and sidewalks since these posts began. [always, really]This is all I've found this year January to April, plus another penny and a nickel.

But maybe sidewalks in Netherlands have more to find? Here pavements are constantly swept and cleaned; the beach is mechanically raked/ sifted twice a day. So I put aside my suspicions and looked at this a different way...How wonderful it must be, would be, to set out every day, looking for that real diamond! But finding joy instead in tiny trashies. Or in symbolic life diamonds--love, peace, health, optimism, happiness. A smile, a kind gesture. Life diamonds. It's a lesson to be learned.