Blue Baskets and the Sidewalk Shopped Delft Bowls

 

Hello, hello---March is here. Those who think this means spring has come must live on another planet. Or continent, at least. January and February I was all about minimalism, not a quilt to be seen here [the try-out fragment doesn't count],

...except the subdued sorrow of Winter Marsh on my bed. It's ''busy'' but dark and very soft and warm, so it got to stay.

But now it's March. I extracted a few small quilts to bedeck the pine bench by the back door.

Old Blue Baskets,

layered with Julie Porter's Baskets of Blessings, a covid winter sewalong from that not so long ago  winter when we isolated and had only internet friends and online sewing groups for companionship and comfort.

I added  Blue and White Snowballs  mini, one of my earliest rescue and redo little quilts. Still loved, though it is fading badly.

I needed to move the amaryllis off the floor and onto the bench where I could see them develop each day. So far one has a bud. Maybe.

The delft style pots were dumpster scavenged over the years, the McCoy planter is from my dad. I think it had a small Christmas cactus or his giant one outgrew it.

The grocery guy finally brought me tulips yesterday! I ask every week, lol. These are from the NJ grower who does the delivery right to your home, anywhere in the US. These are a bit cheaper, 9.99 for ten stems--but the delivery ones are better quality, fresher. I was thrilled  when I found this bunch on my kitchen counter with the bag of food.

Later, when refolding my ridiculously huge stack of little quilts, I kept these two pretties out to enjoy.  I'll tack them up in the sewing room maybe for a while. [fear of fading]. They must speak to my German/ French/ Swiss roots.

Do you watch Dr Henry Gates' PBS genealogy show Finding Yor Roots. I always imagine if I was the person he investigates. But---my family is boring. The Swiss ones were  cheesemakers who came to the USA, recruited by Kraft to make Swiss cheese, late 1800s.  A French g-g-g-great aunt was brought here to make couturier ball gowns and wedding dresses. Her sister, a ggg-grandmother, was sent by their well to do father to keep the seamstress company, to go to college, and to find a husband. A cousin cousin's German-American dad was a jeweler in Chicago, 1880s? And so on--little lives, little people. Most of us are immigrant stock, aren't we? I see my ancestors' northern European roots in my love of what is so often called here in quilt groups, ''eye-popping color", though no one else in the descendants has displayed similar traits. My mom's fave color was chic beige/ khaki/ neutrals. Jeans were exciting--blue! And when i was very little she had a red denim skirt, oh my.

TQC postcard mini by me/ TQC colors

a FB Marketplace find, an unfinished top.

Today was drippy ploppy rain, chilly, but not frigid. The blizzard's snow in its tenth-ish day, lingers on. Ugly, isn't it.

The snow melted enough me to spy some snowdrops. It's too cold and soggy for them to bloom though.

I cooked before my IV day and weekend to follow.  Small amount of a new ham salad recipe I invented. Diced ham, bleu cheese, diced celery, dried cranberries, walnuts w olive oil mayo. Using up opened bags in the fridge.  I had a bite for dinner and it was quite delish. edit: the power went off when I got home from the clinic. It's 40* today, but the house gets very cold, very fast.

Talk to you soon.

Have a great weekend. (Springfield OH Flea treasures from my brother and SIL.)

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....