Keeping On

 

Hi guys! Just because I have a new ''baby'' in the house doesn't mean life  can just stop entirely while we all adjust to our new routine.

Mo was a big help today during my photo shoot!

I finished a custom order and also made just a few new pretties with the rest of the linen pieces I used for an etsy order. (baby shower! For party favors I made 40 white vintage hearts with pink and blue antique buttons. Really adorable.)

 These are large lavender sachets.

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I picture them hanging with your/ their/ whoever's favorite winter coat when you store it until next winter.

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I keep the lavender scent light on these, adding some polyfil for plumpness. You can also add a spritz of your favorite perfume, if you'd like.

 

 

Last week on the beach I finished sewing the binding on this crib quilt, made from c.1830-1860 fabrics. A good wash plumped it up without ruining the aging or old dyes.

 I love looking at the prints in the stars.

And on Sunday, as we waited endlessly for time to go to the airport for Mo, such a long day!---I finished sewing all the d-#-%-n  leaves on this Mr. Sunshine block. It isn't well-pressed because it's very humid today, but the tree is supposed to be very symetrical, a notion that didn't dawn on me til about a week ago. [a year too late!] Oh well.

Mo thinks it looks okay....

I am treating myself to the whale and rainbow block next, hope to get it prepped tomorrow for the beach weekend.

And I haven't been neglecting my beach birds.

These are plover nests/ cages. The plovers are there, but highly camouflaged and sand colored.

There are three plover cages in this photo, one to the right, and one waaaaay back in the dunes. click any image to view large photos

This is/ was the oystercatchers' nest. In the flotsam just above the piece of driftwood.

She was on her nest on Sunday the 8th, gone, with her chicks, by Tuesday 10th. The babies stay only till all the eggs hatch, then the parents hide their little families back in the high dunes, coming down to the shore only at sunrise and dusk to teach the babies how to feed on the tideline's tiny organisms. I was sad that I didn't see the babies hatch this year....
 My wild kitties are finding Mo off-putting,lol. Stripey looked so supercilious when we met him earlier today on our walk. The twin here just wants her dinner!

Have a great weekend! Any special plans?

love
 
lizzy
 
gone to the beach

 

 

 

 

 

Farmers' Market Strawberries, Blueberries

Hi guys!

Ha! I thought I'd come home today from the farmers market with a wonderful picture story about luscious juicy bright red just-picked strawberries. But NO! Seems the crop is very late because of the chilly spring.

But I do have strawberries and blueberries for you, in my etsy shop.

Made from a single Civil War [?] era quilt square!

The faded rosy red print looked like strawberry vines to me.

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Some patches were soft sage-khaki. Another square in this group of old blocks shows the calico print pattern was once pansies. sigh. I didn't cut that block up.



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Strawberry gelato, creamy/ tan and pink now, 150 years later.

Blueberries--or should I call them blue strawberries?

This one has lots of black, with tiny pale pink-y flowers.



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This berry is all cadet blue, obviously a stronger fabric or dye here. [And its presence makes me think these blocks are worked on through the late 1800s?]

 

 

 

 

This quilt was my photo prop today. I wanted to show it to you---it too is a rescue quilt, from my flea. For some reason any quilt that appears there is unloved, tattered, dirty. I feel compelled to bring them home and save them.



''postage 9-Patch'' or ''Single Irish Chain''

Like the blue polka dots quilt I showed you a few weeks ago, I intended to sell this baby but just look at the adorable tiny 1" pastel squares.

 And fine if simple quilting.

Too sweet to end up a ''cutter'' on eBay, right? (I say that as my quilts cupboard bulges like a fat guy at a pie eating contest, lol. I have taken to hanging newer purchases in my winter coat storage closet. The coats can go to storage at the dry cleaner....)

Back to the market: asparagus is still very in season. I made fresh pasta with asparagus, lemon and feta cheese for dinner. Just those simple ingredients , no recipe. Add some butter, lots of black pepper. Yummy on a foggy night.

And peonies were the flower of the week. Peony season---just a short week or two in early June.

 

The display was very creative, all kinds of old milk bottles and pickle jars. My thrifting heart just went a-pitter patter.

 

I loved her twig chair.

 

This grower's flowers were so beautiful, though pricey at 15.oo for 6 stems.

What's blooming in your garden?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach......




still waiting June 4, 2014



piping plovers doing a mating dance

Pictures from the Weekend: Summer

Hi guys! Before I fire up the barbie for today's classic burgers and corn and hotdogs BBQ, I have some first weekend of Summer photos of my beach to share. Just in case you're tired of crafty stuff!

The first beach roses are in bloom.

The long holiday weekend started out rainy. See the sheets of rain, off to the far western horizon?

 

Then it was cold. With a very low tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 Today was breezy and pleasant.

 Look! The crowds came. All clustered around a lifeguard stand at a section of the beach with village access, maybe a 1/4 mile away?.

When the people disperse in the late afternoon, the birds return and begin to feed. Only the piping plovers will run along the shoreline when there are a lot of strange people present.

 

Here's a plover nest, in its cage:

 

 

 

My birdies:

 

Gully.

 

 

A very pretty Laughing gull who did not want his picture taken. I love these beautiful small gulls, rare here.

The pair of oystercatchers who nest on the western dune of my beach, whether the dune is there or not.

 

I was very worried about this pair, they must be 10 years old or more. And I had only seen one of them all spring. Today I found the nest, with the pair trading off to watch the eggs and/ or feed. OCs are very good parents. The male also chased away a group of least terns, which further endeared the OCs to me. (We know how I hate the terns, right?)
One of the western open beach pair, below. They are also quite old, I think, and nest right in their exact spot each summer.

And always a thrill---the US Navy Blue Angels overhead!

Gotta go! Beach-hungry folks await their first summer dinner here at the beach. Hope your holiday was good.

love
 
lizzy

    gone to the beach

sheets of rain, a squall out at sea.