Quilting - Antique Cheddar Baskets

auditions

Hi guys! A cold front and spitting rain blew through this noon, just as I was in the midst of my Monday photo shoot. I couldn't finish and so the exciting tales of weekend flea-ing will have to wait for a day or two.  I'll show the pics I took inside instead.

It's no secret that I love Basket quilts. I was thrilled to find a large group of Basket blocks in my recent purchase of antique blocks from my dealer friend.

An aha moment, I thought Oh these will be perfect for *this*:
below, two Basket quilts with cheddar grounds that I saved on Pinterest.

I particularly love the strippy one for this project. (I want to make tiny baskets for the other, maybe 3 or 4"? squares?)

In the new box of old blocks there were I think 13 simple blocks, plus I had another set of half square triangle Baskets from eBay.

I was surprised they are about the same size. The eBay blocks are prettier /  more colorful, so I'll intersperse them with the faded  plainer Baskets.

Fine. But what about the cheddar? [an orange cheddar, bottom.] Or poison yellow, aka chrome yellow  in the middle. I kinda love the awful chrome yellow!

I don't much like the main cheddar, below, at all. I bought 8 yards, sigh.

This cheddar or mustard, below right, is the best. But it's 25 years old and I only have that 8'' x 20" piece.

If I don't want cheddar I have a couple of very nice grey fabrics, including one that is a nature journal text print. For this sort of look.

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Other quilting projects to contemplate:
I love this greige , neutral quilt BOM that features Japanese taupe fabrics. link is here

 Serene, calm, reserved----It's different from anything I've ever made, though reminiscent of my Porch quilt, by Linda Hall.
The piecing looks simple and the  applique looks just about my level of easiness. (You should see me laboring over my Noah and Matilda blocks! I think maybe close-work/ reading  glasses are needed. Yikes!).The kit comes with a book and silk sewing thread. [extra charge] ; I'd like to try silk thread.

And I love flowers.

This taupe quilt would be a good beach sewing project, I think. I'll alternate it with Mr Sunshine, who came out of his winter storage basket and was contemplated yesterday on my briefly sunny deck. No good fairy or leprechaun snuck in and sewed all those damn 100 leaves on the Tree of Life block during the winter. Yes, they still await and as my friend Hunter says, I will sew love and blessings into each tiny ugly green leaf. lol.
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And I really really really want to make this new set of patterns  Common Threads that is being published by my favorite designer Cheri Payne. I had so much fun making my doll quilts during Lori's quilt along at Humble Quilts. This new set of designs by Cheri will be like making many doll quilts that combine into one big quilt! So much for my friend who years ago told me making doll quilts is a waste of time! Hah!---I didn't make another doll quilt then til I began following Lori's blog. But nevermind.
A great way to showcase my antique calicos and blocks.

My kids loathe ''cheddar'' unless it's on an antipasto platter! Is that influencing me to tone down my love of gaudy and garish, or what? I'll set my antique Baskets aside until the right cheddar comes along! Advice? Thoughts? 2 cents are welcomed.
:-)

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

Photos of completed quilts are from Pinterest, except the taupe quilt whose website is shown with a link. All other photos are by me.

Beach Treasures

 Hi! The ocean brought treasures..in a ''make lemonade out of lemons'' kind of way.

I love finding old bottles...

These are  NOT antiques but nicely seaglass-weathered...

One of the neatest finds is what we think is the ribs and keel? of an old boat! Very old, perhaps 19th century.

I had utilized the shipwreck as a photo shoot prop before I realised what I was seeing! Looks like a spine! The huge heavy nails once attached cross beams, like the one holding the bottles. A lower hold deck? Note that I am guessing here....

A larger ship was rediscovered on Fire Island after the hurricane.



from Newsday's Facebook page



Then there's all this great driftwood!

I am restraining myself but...

a fish?

Cool coffee table? The piece on the left?

And a pair of rusty jungle bells and striped angel-stockings knit fabric, for my winter-y dolls.

Amazing to find such a tiny bit of usefulness, isn't it?

Here's a little cutie captured at the edge of one of my landscape pics. I've never seen a squirrel this close to the dunes.

Other creatures:
ALL the kitties came to visit. First night only mama Kitty came, next day the whole gang. I was so happy to see them.
They don't like the kibble I brought them though!? I know...they are waiting for their Nathan's hotdogs, who knew feral cats could be so spoiled and finicky?

No mockingbirds yet, and no flock of spotted sparrows. I am enticing then with seeds and dried berries..and hopeful.
[I fed the kibble to the gulls and crows at the beach...]

love

      lizzy

        gone to the beach

Self portrait on dune

PS be sure to scroll to previous post for after storm hurricane pix! Below....

Flea Market and Toad Flax

Hi! Aren't these long summer evenings just the best! It's after 8PM as I write this and the sky has just a hint of pink...still daylight, really.

This Sunday I decided it was cool and cloudy enough for the June flea market. It's still in the cramped awful spot, but the dealers who remain seem to be more accepting now. Many of my favorite people are gone though.

I had great success anyway! I met a very nice guy who had boxes and boxes of old wonderful bottles.

Many were perfect and bright...he seemed a bit puzzled as I hunted out the obviously dug-up or beachcombed bottles that had beautiful [to me] iridescence, patinas, and imperfections....

Now I can make more of my seaglass bottles, fill some orders from the spring.

He even had some of the old hard to find glass disk lids for Mason jars....

 

When I got home I went right to the beach despite a sudden very windy rain squall.

                      

I walked back down into the swale which has filled with the early June full moon high tides and flooding. Earlier in the week I saw two bunnies there, and wondered if their nest had flooded.

No bunnies, but wonderful tiny, almost alpine wildflowers were blooming in the suddenly wet ground.

I brought this home, just a sprig.

(isn't the purple glass canning jar fantastic!)

 

I had never seen these flowers before.

From a childhood spent roaming fields and woods it's rare that I have no clue what a flower may be. Spent quite a long time on Google.

                     

Seems this is a native plant, called Blue Toad Flax. Isn't that a funny Ye Olde Englishe sort of name?

                                          

Too tiny and dainty to be invasive though the non-native yellow "Butter and Eggs" version is considered an evil weed.

And last, a long shot of my photo shoot the next day...I thought you'd enjoy seeing my view....

love

            lizzy

gone to the beach