Back to the Beach

 

 

Hi everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holidays so far. Here at the beach the weather has been amazing. Almost 60* for the past four days and no wind, brilliant sunshine. Mo and I sat out on the deck! And I was able to begin hand quilting my Peace and Plenty [Cascadia] quilt.

The beach however was the big draw.

 

It called to me, Come out, come out and play!

I'm determined to find time for my daily beach walks this winter, despite walking Mo as much as 4.5 miles a day. The ocean soothes my soul and nourishes my creativity.

One day I went to the surfing beach which is about two miles west of my own beach.

I had not been back, except to walk on the shoreline, since before H Sandy, so about two years. For awhile this area was inaccessible; the boardwalk still has not been rebuilt.

It's a lovely beach, narrower than my beach. A good place to walk when I don't have the time or energy to hike all the way down to my shoreline.

Despite the darkness, these photos were taken at about 3 PM on a sunny day. Darkness comes early still.

 

Many years ago---75? 100? these giant granite boulders were brought here and formed these jetties. The rocks look black but up close are beautiful if functionless glittery bejeweled granite. They are the reason the beach is narrow here, jetties do not ''work''..but they also create the waves that angle smoothly to shore for surfing, so not a total fail, but a serendipitous result.

These are more of the manmade dunes. Maybe 20 feet high?---forming a new cliff of sorts.

This used to be a wide expanse of rolling dunes covered with sea grasses, scrub pine bayberry and bittersweet.

May 2011

 

Same view, December 2014

 

Now a wasteland. This is a narrow, low lying section of my island and here H Sandy's storm surge swept over these dunes all the way to the bay beyond, filling the schools nearby and destroying the school admin building across the street here.
So peaceful now.

Below a few Christmas pictures.

All went well...gifts were good, Santa did a good job. Both dinners were okay.

Here is Mo in his newest jacket, a Puppia parka halter combo!

And riding in his new car seat.

My premature narcissus are so pretty. In full bloom, a hint of spring.

How about you guys, was Santa good to you?


love

lizzy

gone to the beach............

Below: an anonymous beach drawing. What a wonderful folk art Mr. Sunshine. You guys know how much I love Mr. Sunshine images, and I was thrilled to discover this on my own beach. A favorable omen for 2015. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

inspiration for the artist? same day.

 

 

this isn't fun.

town beach in distance...
all those people!
on ''my'' beach!

Hi guys, cranky blogger here today. It is a beautiful cool and sunny Sunday at the beach.

I was sitting there under my umbrella, working on a future block for the Flag quilt...and I had a revelation. I really, really really do not enjoy doing appliqué work for quilts.

It is just so hard, and I don't think my work is good enough. Or good at all. I get so upset and irritated. I am thinking Why bother? My kids will never want these quilts, as they will someday lead slick NYC lives of stainless steel and sidewalk grey. It's not like I am enjoying the process. Maybe I need a break?

This won't affect my sewing the Flag quilt, for Lori's quilt along, which is always a fun thing to participate it. There's plenty of pieced blocks in that project.

Not so sure about Mr. Sunshine. The zillion leaves in the Tree of Life block didn't defeat me, but perhaps all the tiny stars in the Oceans block will emerge victorious. (They are so tiny. And very hard to do.  Ans so not there yet.)

My friend here, Hunter, quit the Dear Jane quilt about 1/3 of the way through. All those tiny hand pieced blocks. And I don't think she plans to start it up again or even put together what she has in a small quilt. Credit for stopping when she decided enough is enough.
And that's not my only gripe---this week, the last week of official summer, I have to go buy a new car. Hardly anything [well, dentist] is as awful as buying a new car. Did I not just buy the one I have? Can it really be three years?
Tomorrow I shall channel my grumpiness and go into bitch mode, and take it all out on the poor sales guy who does not wish to sell me a new Jeep* for nearly nothing.
Maybe this:

Budget. Right.
Okay, I'll end on a cheery note. The first morning glory bloomed yesterday!

"Flying Saucer". And the sweet peas have sprouted and are about 8" tall.

And look what Mo and I saw on our walk:

A swallowtail butterfly. It was so big and ---hover-y---[I'm terrified of bugs, okay?]---that even Mo noticed it and tried to take a sniff.

Have a good week! Wish me car karma and good luck.....



a few nasturtiums
and a mini cinnamon sunflower...

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

*Why a Jeep? Well 1- I've always owned Jeeps and except for one lemon [its computer] I've never had a bit of trouble. 2- You get a lot of goodies w/out paying for ''extras"--like roof racks come stock. 3-They are 100% off road so when we have floods and crappy weather, they go anywhere, everywhere. 4- after H Sandy, of all the cars owned by friends and family ONLY the Jeeps made it through the storm and were drivable afterward. So---I am hoping for yet another Jeep. I've never had white, it's pretty, isn't it.

 

And No, Jeep did not pay me to say that.

What Am I Doing!?

 Hi guys! I hope you went out to see the full moon this past weekend? And, off topic, how is your To Do List going?
 

The summer is whizzing by and I feel like I am getting nothing done! Between puppy care, sand sweeping, beach towel washing---and lots of cooking and company---it seems as if I never get a moment to sit down and sew or make things for my etsy shop.

I need to manage my time better? Tell that to my little helper here. He thinks puppy pads are for weenies, he wants to ''go'' outdoors. Good boy!

 

And see my worktable aka the dining room table, covered with Things To Do? You can imagine my dismay when a wind storm blew in last weekend and I had to relocate all this stuff to set the table for my indoor BBQ.

 

This is my current take-it-to-the-beach Mr. Sunshine panel. It gets a lot more stars. Hmmmm.

This is what happens when I sew rainbows on the beach in gale winds. Crooked rainbows. Third try so it stays for now.

 

A tiny sewing box and pincushions for my etsy shop. Unfinished, need I say that?

 

 The black blob on the left is Mo's snout. He thought this was very interesting and yummy looking.

This is the antique quilt top from this spring. I have gotten as far as soaking the extreme grime out in Orvus Quilt Wash. (A big disappointment. It does nothing much, I think the surface dirt would have soaked out in plain water just as well. It's clean enough to quilt though, so---okay. And anyway, I spilled the Orvus bottle and it's all gone. The floor where it spilled isn't especially extra clean either,lol.)

 

  

A few of the blocks are really ugly. Replace or consider them charming? While gritting one's teeth. {Chimney Sweep variation, Mel.)

 

My kids bought me a new real ironing board at IKEA, yay. I've used a small table board for many years. I hope this is not a hint? They gave me a new broom for Christmas so ya never know, hint hint hint?....

 

Now I can gently press the top and order backing and binding, audition fabrics below:

 

 

I am restoring this beautiful late 19th century Log Cabin runner, using antique fabrics.

 

 

 

I want to use it on my autumn table this fall. Just two of the blocks are very damaged. And again as you can see the special quilt soap did nothing to clean it. I'll soak it in mild Restore when it is repaired and quilted. Don't you love the forgetmenots?

 

 

I am trying to teach myself to crochet scalloped lace pillowcase edgings.

 

I am reading this book.

(Plus all the old "Butch Karp,NYC DA" series by Robert Tannenbaum. Whoa. Repetitious, indeed.) And knitting hats, a pattern from my friend here , Hunter, who recommended the above book but that's another post.

I saved the seeds from my Sweet William volunteer flowers, as Mel suggested. What a mess. I just left it for later, lol.

For fun  I escape and go thrifting. This week's finds:

A beautiful if pale sepia transferwareplatter.

 

 I love the delicate botanical design, perhaaps simple poppies? Arts and Crafts era, maybe 1890? Japonaise/ Aesthetic Movement style.

 

Here's the imprint on the back.

And I found this Susan Branch for book 99 cents. Christmas in July? Yes, yes. A few years ago I got rid of all my books, in a de-clutter binge and regret the loss at least once a week. Included in the discards were ALL Susan Branch's books, gifts from my mom. And now that I follow SB's lovely blog www.susanbranch.com of course I want the books back again.

 

On a possibly more focused, more productive note, I downloaded Map My Dog Walk onto my iPhone. (It's available for Android, too, and it's free. The maps are very fun!)Mo is up to 1/2 mile almost, 4 times a day! By fall I think he will be able to walk down to the beach, though I may have to carry him home.

learning "Come"

 

What do you all have planned? I know Lori at Humble Quilts is going to do a new quiltalong! Flags of the Revolutionary War, by Jan Patek. Fun.

google images

 

I got the book on eBay for 9.95, instead of full price of 22.99. I'm not sure I will be able to keep up, and all those star points!? sigh. But I am gonna try. In honor of my dad, who loved flags and made these Thirteen Colony wooden flags. The big one hung on the grey shingled side of my parents' Cape Cod house for years. If you look close you'll find his flag on Jan Patek's quilt.

 

 

As for me, right now, I need a swim and a beach walk! So ...

 love

 lizzy

 gone to the beach.............