Tree Trimmings ~ Diamonds and Ice

Hello and Merry Christmas! As we count down the days and excitement grows, we check each item off our To Do list. [outdoor lights! door wreath!.... politically correct holiday cards!, gifts that must be mailed!/ stamps? / cooky dough! . Gifts and donation for local animal rescue shelter, that's a big one.] 
For me tomorrow will be Christmas Tree day.

I will decorate my tiny tree and wish again, secretly, that we still got a mammoth  real tree from the firehouse. I am celebrating by sharing a new selection of my upcycled  chandelier crystals,  all shiny and bright and carefully wired onto beautiful spiral hooks.

These are from a large box I got at the flea awhile ago. They're in amazing condition and the glass must be of the finest quality as they are so clear and skillfully faceted.

I love the big drops! They're best on artificial trees or strung along your fireplace mantel on ribbons. They're not as heavy was the long prisms I sometimes offer but they have a bit of weight.

The small to medium drops are equally gorgeous but somewhat lighter, so they're nice used on real trees and smaller table trees. I was thrilled when sorting and washing to see what a fine selection I had snapped up one fall morning.

I do like to add a small twist of silvery ribbon sometimes. And I can add the bows for any friends here on my blog. Pls email me to request though as etsy convos attached to orders quite often go lost.

You are welcome to come visit me, just to enjoy my shop! I hope to add a few more pretties before it's too late for Santa's gift bag.

Hope you're having a fun December.

PS I mixed up dates and rushed off to the Christmas market held by the flea market church ladies, earlier today. I found an empty parking lot and locked doors. Puzzled I knocked gently and a lady poked her head out.

"Isn't the Fair today?" I asked.

''No! Tomorrow, 9 AM."

Hmmm. I didn't expect the fair to be on a Sunday morning, but that's okay.  I hope I make it back, plus there's two more fairs on my list. I just love hokey old fashioned Holiday fairs. Do you?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Lavender, Lemon Balm, Bergamot

Hello, friends! Do your closets smell delightful?[ Or are you like my mom, always with the closet doors ajar to avoid the odd musty smell of stored linens and clothes?]

I have the answer! LOL, I have been working on a lot of lavender herb sachet hearts for the past week, and as I sew I imagine-audition  copy to use when I post the sachets in my etsy shop.

Mo and the big lavender bush

The hearts are always fun to make! But not something I can just churn out in bulk*. Each heart is carefully designed, each is different. I start by sorting through the special shelf  in my fabric storage area, a shelf devoted to not-quilt projects. There I keep white and  ecru linen fabric, embroidered tea towels, antique fabric, white cutwork dresser scarves and tablecloths, remnants of quilts, ribbons and lace. I sort though, refolding and considering, choose a special few.

 I cut the hearts by hand individually. Sometimes I make a cardstock pattern [old birthday cards or the paper from Joann's fat quarters], but sometimes I cut the hearts freehand. I group the hearts by color, so I can re-thread my sewing machine as little as possible. There. that's a good start, for now, I think, and walk away.

The following day I steam the hearts, then I load them on my tin star tray and Mo and I go outside for trimming, turning and stuffing day.

 Mo likes to supervise. The deck is his outdoor world, he loves it there.

The turning part is tedious, everything must be clipped, poked and prodded and pressed just so. Back outside I do the messy task of filling each heart with herbs, in this case my current blend of lavender, lemon balm, lemon verbena; lavender essential oil and bergamot oil.

I collect these large old silver plate serving spoons, fun two dollar flea market finds. Each heart gets two or more scoops of herbs, then a bit of additional polyfil or cotton batting. I sometimes meka all herb sachets but I truly prefer the addition of the fluff, it keeps the hearts' pretty shape and helps guard against the herbs retaining too much moisture from the air.

The next step, each heart is sewed closed by hand, using the ''ladder stitch'', invisible and strong. A bit of a press and I close the workroom door for the night.

When I return I dig out ribbons and strings, fire up the hot glue gun. I pour out Mason jars-full of mother of pearl buttons/ vintage fancy buttons, pawing through them imagining how they will add to each design. Often I will dye ribbons or lace to fit my vision.

Oooh. Pretty!

Then--photo day. I am struggling with my only camera, in my dying old iPhone. Today Mo was extra helpful. Every time I set up a backdrop or moved a chair he plonked himself down center stage.

He was so happy to be outside that he ignored the fog and driplets of rain showers, watching my every move. (But afterward, when I set the old quilt I was using as a white background on his chair in the sun, he was sulky and refused to go there, choosing an empty chair instead.

Next I'll package each set or single heart in its own little cello bag, often tied with ribbon, lace, raffia, embellished with buttons, shells, seaglass. I think the fun of making the hearts is playing with all my flea treasures! I love sorting through buttons. I am thinking the very Fall hearts in this group may get an acorn or a silk autumn leaf on their bow.

And I almost always ship in recycled/ reused boxes. So if your box is oddly large or obviously reused [though clean and perfect!] you'll know why; I am giving the box a second journey, a longer life.

Tomorrow I plan to start a group of square tiny pillow sachets. Honey colored silk with embroidered honey bees! And  a sweet woodland print in sepia. I am dying to instead work on 1880  quilt, the fabric auditions are calling me. And a nice woman on FB gave me the instructions for the original zigzag setting. So kind.

The other good news is that  this month's SG Album block HERE is very charming and interesting, though again, Mary Todd [Lincoln] is not the most charismatic woman in history.

It's a windy foggy evening right now. Mo is hiding, hoping to avoid his bedtime walk. We may get a chilly night soon! I think...Saturday?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

* I do take custom orders for larger quantities of hearts, sometimes assorted, sometimes all the same. People love them for wedding shower/ baby shower favors, party favors, gifts to groups of friends etc. 

Out and About ~ Part One: Emerging

As April draws to an end I am thinking back on how excited I was, looking at my calendar notes in late March and planning ahead to April. The weather is pretty awful but the world is stirring, fun things to do and see after winter's hibernation. The big flea opened! Sadly it poured rain, but I am still hopeful for a visit or two this spring.  Instead I have been back to the church flea which has proved interesting.
I've gone on Friday and also on Monday:  is it worth getting there early on Friday?;  do they restock on Mondays?, and so on. (No they don't restock or mark down on Mondays, too bad; it's okay to be early on Friday but not necessary, the ladies unpack all afternoon.)
I am limiting myself to $10.oo budget. Prices are high and they do not allow haggling. Looking for materials for etsy  items mostly. I got the green glass candlestick, for a velvet tomato pin keep.

Very pretty delicate etched glass, 1910-1930s?

And this damaged doily with perfect pansies, for a set of white linen, lavender-filled hearts.

This past week there were no inspiration bitsies. I did get treasures, though. Beautiful blue rustic jug or pitcher, probably Uhl.

The embossed motif is a little obscure or blurry. I think it is an open rose, with buds and leaves?

I have wanted a pitcher like this for many years. Usually they run about $ 75.oo, [though this is unmarked]; this was only 5.oo! I just knew it had to be filled with red tulips!

Off I went hunting for red tulips, found these amazing red parrot tulips, wow!

How fun.

Another find, an overpriced but lovely collectible seashell. A spiny whelk. For me or for the shop, not sure.

And a wonderful papier mache German Easter egg.

Too bad thechurch ladies taped it shut and the tape has damaged the surface, so stupid.

It is a classic style, unusual for its deep shiny chocolate brown color. Darling bunny and classic German storybook red toadstool.

The inside, once pried open, shows that this is a modern, new egg.

Not exactly a repro as it is made in/ by the German holiday resource of Erzgeburge that has made these eggs for over a hundred years.

I have a big collection but have not displayed them in recent years. I still buy though, I love these---full of dear childhood memories.

*****

Another much awaited event was the Quilters Guild biannual show. They discouraged photos so I only got a couple of shots of the display room, not any quilt photos.

The venue was very cool for me, at a rec center in my village! There is no parking there though. I had a friend drop me off. When we got there we found out that the marina had lent its big parking lot and opened a fence to allow access to the rec center. It was expensive to see the show, $10.oo each day, so I only went once. The quilts were very lovely, but very slick and professional looking. Such perfection, oh my! The guild seems small and the ladies older. There were only about 5 small scale vendors and not a single one with Civil War/ 1800s repro fabrics or even much to offer in fun fat quarters. Disappointing because I love to actually get to shop in person, in search of fabric and also small sewing gifts for stocking stuffers for friends. But no. Lots of big buck sewing machines though.

The only display quilt I liked [though not to make!] was this dainty  30s inspired embroidered doll quilt.

The embroidered designs were very cute and much smaller than  original embroideries of that era. The vendor gave me permission to take to photos, she was quite pleasant.

As mentioned it was a small show. I imagine the guild will fade away, and especially this show will; it is not a thing young people do here, make or buy quilts. Both my kids know how to sew,
but they have no interest in my hobby or collections.

******

Off topic: here are some close ups of the purple toile I'm using for Hideous. The toile is by Laura Ashley. I have two remnants, purchased at different times; both could be as much as 20 years old?

The boys look Up to No Good, in my opinion. Look at that slacker on the right. So funny. I guess hthey will be the fussy cut on next month's SG block. It will be published on Wednesday, tomorrow. Yay.

"Thief, thief!"
 purse snatcher on the far right.

Part two of Out and About on Friday, be sure to stop back.

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach...

[other springs, later, with roses, below...]

PS
At the quilt show, there was a set of challenge quilts called By the Sea, which oddly---and to me, offensively, seemed to be promoting the idea of wind farms off our beaches, in our ocean. Shocking to think the natural beauty here may  SOON be ruined by the need for electric power. There is a lot of empty interior space that could be used instead, though the windmills are a huge hazard to migrating birds, killing thousands [millions?]* of birds each year and we are a coastal flight path.
Imagine this view filled with hundreds of enormous wind towers. Disgusting. Makes me cry.

baby piping plovers

*Edit: Lori is correct: many more birds are killed by cell towers than by windmills. Approx 30,000 migratory birds are killed annually by wind turbines; the figure in total for cell and antennas is about 6 million. One of the main recommendations though is not to place the turbines in major flight paths.

Someone else mentioned that we would not even see the turbines. However they would be placed 5 miles from the coast. The ships you so often see in my photos are more than ten miles away, so the towers would be relatively close and very visible.