Gone To The Beach: Joyous Christmas

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Good Morning ~ with Rainbows and Pink PomPom clouds!

Good morning on this dark winter day! The rain is slurping down, the wind is shoving my chairs around the deck for an early morning wake up call. Why are the deck chairs still out, you ask?.....Mo suns himself every sunny day, no matter how cold, so I haven't stacked and covered the chairs yet. No sun today though.

© Provided by Accuweather, Inc NE Rain Jan 24

''There can be gusts of 50 to 60 mph from Long Island to eastern New England with localized gusts to 70 mph. Such winds can down trees and wires, leading to power outages. Some roads may become impassible due to the storm debris.''

Mo is hiding on the heated blanket.

She can't see me if I am very quiet!"

''Puggies need their beauty sleeps,
rain is a very bad thing."

I had a hard time getting going on this post because we are just so over Christmas , even though the holidays are just a month past. Today I am sharing my finished little Christmas week project for 2018-19 season.

As you know each year I enjoy having a special small quilt project for the let-down week after Christmas. Something fun and pretty that can mostly be finished that week and entirely done by MLK holiday weekend, another ''home alone while the kids ski" long weekend.

This year I made Cheri Payne's Merry Christmas quilt. [If you belong to the Cheri Friendship Group on FB, the pattern is free in the files, "Joyous Christmas"]

I fell in love with this vintage pattern, found it on etsy last year but the seller took months to send it so I put it off til this year. I love the jigsaw puzzle of the funny letters, the holly sprigs, the bright reds and greens. I plan to hang it on an inner entrance door next Christmas.

Putting it together: all deep red prints, green shirt plaids, tea-dyed backgrounds. I did copy Cheri's design setting/ choices as closely as I could because it wasn't calling me to experiment, but instead to recreate her little charmer.

You can see a few flubs, the awful green E that doesn't blend, or below how the wrong border choice [though i like it] makes the M disappear, in Merry, below.

Here are photos auditioning border choices.
Grey green for an updated touch?

Plaid linen?

Red calico?

I went with the deep red calico--the print is tiny holly leaves and berries.

Unusual for me I used the same print as the binding; no more busy-ness, like a contrast binding, was required.
Everything was raw edge machine stitched applique, with black thread. The berries were added after the final machine wash and dry. They're freehand cut wool tiny circles held on with an iridescent bead.

The backing is fun! A faux flour sack, it is a Santa's sack from the North Pole!

Found on sale after Christmas, it was a kitschy gift bag that I cut up.

I also used a holly print that my sister in law used to wrap one of my gifts, and added onto with a sweet C robins and holly print.

These are the discareded tryout fabrics.

When I stacked them up to put away I noticed how charmingly they all go together! Maybe for a small quilt project someday?

Wonder what I will make next year!? Maybe the Belschnickle Santa from this pattern, in wool?

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

Then the other day a piece of blue checked quilt remnant caught my eye. It's been on my ironing board since October, was supposed to be a little bowl filler/ sachet, with a pumpkin and black kitty, but no. I grabbed some wools and made a little Valentine. Ha! I am not good at rushing or do-it-quick, the result was pretty awful, so I threw it out.

But you know...there it was, calling to me from the trash can. Plllleeeeze? I wanna be pretty,, I wanna be loved....Pllleeeze?"
OMG, shut UP, I mumbled.
I rescued the little sachet, fixed the sewing a bit; stuffed it with lemon verbena and rosemary that my friend and I grew last summer. I added this interesting button and one of my rusty keys I collect.

Now she is cute and can enjoy herself on Valentines Day with the other wool bowlies and and the tin heart cooky cutters. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

So--after a day of flood and rain, at sunset the sun peeked out. I could tell by the odd light...yes! A rainbow! A January rainbow, how rare is that. Not sure I have ever seen a January rainbow. And the aquamarine sky was filled with pink powder puff pompoms. Mother Nature reminding us June is on its [her?] way.

the pile driver

Monday, January 7, 2019

Quilt Finishes, and Almost-Finishes 2018

Happy Sunday! My house is almost put back to its blue self and now it's time to look over what I accomplished during 2018. Oddly I was less productive that usual, despite or because of feeling fairly well after my long bout of inflammatory hip/ joint pain. Because I was able to be active, not just go out, but also do things like walk Mo, go to the beach and flea,and even cook, my sewing time, especially hand sewing time was much less than in the past few years. But that's okay. Mo and family and real life come first for me.
So I don't have 4000 finishes,lol. (Seriously, one woman had 40 quilts done! That's about 9 days spent on each quilt! I can spend---years! on just one).

Another fun landmark was my 1000th blog post here! And in October 2019 I will have my 10
year blogging anniversary, imagine that. Might have to do something special for my friends here?

So finishes:

Westering Women top.

Fall Festival, quilted, complete.

When the Wild Geese Fly, quilted, complete [ my all-time favorite quilt].

The next two never had their own complete reveals, so a bit more detail on each. (My friends allowed me to photograph these quilts in their beautiful home and garden. I wanted to show my quilts in a more modern setting, for a different point of view. Thanks, guys!] My friend has a wonderful driftwood ladder! I am quite envious.

Opie's School Shirts: Vintage plaid and check shirtings in a thrifted top, c. 1920-1960.

I call it Opie's Shirts because the plaids look like a 1950s little boy's school shirts. Opie was a little kid on The Any Griffith Show, rural cops etc.

The backing is an ABCs print I've had about 10 years. I added a tomato soup red section on one end. To complete the school theme.

Closeup and you can also see the beautiful quilting by Lori C.

I love the subtle glow. Half square triangles are abut 5 1/2", biggest I have ever seen!

And the final reveal of Quilty 365, aka Dotty. Don't we love this one!

Works well in a modern room?

Last square is the label, describing the project briefly.

Close-up of Circles and beautiful quilting, and of the large scale text fabric on the back.

Pens and pencils border. This is after all a diary, though made with fabric and thread not paper and words.

Stars, Stripes, Geese: I wanted a small patriotic quilt for June and July. Antique Flying Geese from a friend; tiny flag. I'd love to make a large quilt with Flag and Geese blocks like this.

Small quilts, tops only so far.
Evening Stars in Madder, using antique c. 1875-1890s Star blocks.

This is the inspiration doll quilt, c. 1835-1850? Mine will be a closer color match when tea dyed.

And my Christmas busywork project: Cheri Payne's "Joyful Christmas".

A few more almost-dones. I am hoping for a February 1 finish on both tops, above with a March 1 finish of the two below.

TQC 1880 Sampler

Sajou [Lori/ Humble Quilts]

Last but not least Bitty: The hand quilting will resume at the beach this summer.

Of course there are way too many other projects in work, leftover from 2018 or even earlier. A Santa I can't learn to hook, knitting for me and Mo! The Antebellum Schoolgirls sewalong! You'll never forget Hideous!

Schoolgirls Blues

Then many more Stars for Silent Night maybe April? Feathered Star, postponed for hand applique next summer, piecing Winter 2020.

And though my intention is to resist joining every sewalong that catches my fancy. I do plan to at least make trial block of Blue Baskets, using strips from my thrifted men's shirts, for Lori's String Quilts Sewalong. I don't count it as a add because it has been on my list for a few years now. This will be the pattern, I drafted it for Westering Women and sure hope I saved it! The body of the Basket will be string pieced [more soon].

Maybe small starts on The Blue and The Grey and Yes It's Cheddar? Just for fun? Last, one more sweet project that I'll tell you about another time. Because we quilters always need something new! It looks like a fun and interesting year. I love the winter months, spent with Mo, in the sewing room. It need not snow or be too cold! I'm hoping for lots of winter beach walks.

Thanks to everyone for being supportive about my anti-minimalism. Thrifting and fleaing posts will therefore NOT be cancelled.