NYC Flea Market

channel buoy
photo by LK, thanks!

Hi everyone! So today while we wait for the Verizon phone repair guy, let's go back a week and check out the famous 6th Avenue Flea Market in Manhattan. It is actually on 25th between 6th and Broadway. I found it on the Saturday we went to the green market and returned the following day.

Hmmm. Fun but not fabulous, very urban, kinda, well..crappy? Cool. though.

It is billed as NYC premier antiques flea market....and true to the Paris origins of flea markets [old clothes w/ fleas back in medieval times] there are a LOT of racks and even piles of old clothes.

Not so tempting.

On the plus side, a few real dealers, with the things I like.

I promised myself no more brown Staffordshire china! So I passed that booth up.
Then there are a lot of bead sellers, mostly African beads/ dealer but a few vintage sellers too.

The African beads are fabulous! Expensive though.

I can make an upscale I survived Sandy necklace,

 or bracelets...

I loved the large recycled-glass beads....

Also a man who had neat tiki amulets...

And the African textiles are amazing!

I loved them and had hoped to return to buy one or two to incorporate into a quilt, but that didn't happen. [next time?]

They also had African bead work items, even chairs! And chests and ottamans. I so wanted one of those chairs, far right, [so sad the pix aren't great, sorry...]So fantastic...

These were long strips of all white tiny beads, about 8" wide. I wish I had captured the texture better. They looked like heavily quilted white work.

Then a familiar face! A dealer I have been buying from for years..on Long Island, has relocated to the city. As always his was the booth I loved, filled with graniteware, mason jars, butter crocks, and old dump dug bottles and buttons. My eyes latched onto this crock and I knew i had to have it.

It is BIG! And old.

I love the way the brown slip glaze on the top third is warty and spotty,

 and the prim stamped blue 2...

Great find, great price, fun to see an old friend---see, I told you YC is a very small town, in its own way.....

Lucky for me I was with a guy who was willing to tote around the big heavy crock all day, once I bought  it! Thank you, M!

PS Many thanks to everyone who has asked me about hurricane relief donations.
I hesitate to endorse any specific charity, but pet relief / relocation is always so needed. These poor creatures do not understand what has happened to them; one moment they were warm, fed, loved and cherished/ the next the icy dark water took away their people and homes! And need our help and love.
Large organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army do a good job, so maybe this holiday season toss a dollar into the SA guy's pot and think of us here in NY?

Red Cross/ Sandy Relief

North Shore Animal League/ Rescuing Sandy Pets

[a very fine no-kill shelter organization here on LI]

If you are a sewer/ quilter: here

                                         

I have no personal interaction with any of these groups and am NOT asking you to donate. Follow your hearts and brains...

love

           lizzy


      gone to the beach.....

our red channel buoy
Usually it is out there where the big ships travel.
one each-red/green/white
photo by LK



sunset
photo by LK



Today's beach pix were taken by my friend LK. Thank you, L! NYC and flea mkt pix by me....

Fall Flea Market

Hi! Remember I was all excited that the first fall flea market was happening this past Sunday>
Well, the flea market was fun, but junky! The new venue has attracted the garage sale sellers but the antiques dealers with  ''real'' stuff (primitives , Americana, linens, quilts, sepia photos, Staffordshire transferware] were nowhere to be found.

Hardly worth the drive for a hot dog and a five dollar chrysanthemum. Lucky for me the thrift shop is just one highway exit south...really just two or three very long blocks ---quarter mile?---and I stopped there on my way home. A handful of fun things!

This adorable woodland mushrooms embroidery.

I will take it out of the frame, carefully wash it, and incorporate the small designs into fall lavender sachets. Natural linen hearts or little bags, maybe?

See the tiny ladybug!? How cute is that, I loved it.

Then my first bee hive, or bee skep.

It's a jam server. (Or honey server, I suppose?)

I knew it would go great with my yelloware bowls...

And is inspired by the bee skep on my Porch quilt:

LOL, yeah that's a bee skep!

Also, yes, another mixing bowl.

Perhaps LuRay? 1940-50s, anyway.

I tried to resist! But it is wonderfully crackled and is the soft grey lavender-blue of dried hydrangeas...

This is the color I am trying to use this fall, instead of orange....

A tiny German bottlebrush Christmas tree [2nd from top photo]---99 cents!--- which I needed for my annual Santa doll's sack of  goodies.
From an earlier buy, a nice brown transferware pitcher/ jug. I was happy to find it. I thought it was an older piece [Meakin/ England] and a smaller version of the pitcher I already owned.

 But no. They are identical except the thrift shop jug is a paler printing of the transfer design...

One of them can go on etsy, maybe?

And last, I filled my wire heart shaped basket with my collection of carpet 'bowls'..balls.

These are pottery, also Staffordshire. Often very expensive! hereI love them because they look like enormous marbles...and also like double pink [or blue or black] calico or pinafore gingham. They are the size of baseballs, up to softball size.  [a couple are repros.]

So it was a good day. Can't argue with a sunny fall day, a brisk wind, and a hot dog or two!

love

       lizzy

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

Why I am Not a Famous Artist

Yes! It's true...I've always wanted to be a successful artist [not designer, been there, etc]...like my idol Susan Branch. Her wonderful blog is  Heart of the Home .

I so admire how she has made a business and a huge success out of  living her life as she pleases...on Martha's Vineyard!--- and sharing her lovely artwork and charming writing. I wish I could do that! But in her post last week...she says she gets up every day at 4AM!
OMG! I couldn't do that. I am a night owl...I see lots of 4 AMs, and yeah, it's nice. Love mid-summer when the sun is rising 'bout that time. Or snowy dunes under a full moon. I love to find Orion, and the planets, watch the nightbirds fly overhead.

But c'mon! What person, self employed, would actually choose to wake up at that hour? hmmmm...? I'd mope the day away waiting til my creativity kicks in, never earlier than ...4PM?

Now I know.

  

That's depressing, isn't it...[4! A! M!.]
Maybe she fibs? Goes back to bed?

Anyway here's my fun fall project, undertaken at yes, midnight, most nights.

I got these orphan "Baskets" blocks on eBay. At first when they arrived I was dreadfully disappointed. They're huge..13 1/2 " And weird coarse fabrics! Ugly!

But then they grew on me...a certain graphic yet primitive charm? I carefully washed them in Retayne. As I ironed them afterward I began to admire how this long ago quilter [an early riser, I have No Doubt!] so wanted to make orange and black Halloween blocks that she dyed all her odds and ends orange. She dyed cotton sateen and  lovely linen a pinky-tangerine. One of the sateen blocks still has writing on it [above left lower corner], a big scrawl, like it had  a weight or price scribbled on it. A couple of very pretty old calico black-and-whites, good black linen, and some truly awful coarse maybe wool? or linen/wool? tangerine orange dyed fabric. It looks like the layer of wool interlining once used in hand tailored coats...or upholstery! Gotta admire that lady's effort.

The blocks are hand-pieced, quite nicely.

So I decided to make a small quilt.There were a couple bad stains that I removed by replacing / reusing the damaged pieces; I left the written on square, I like it!

I used some of my cherished feed sacks for the backing, keeping the make-do theme going....

Some patches needed on the old feedsacks...

I sit and sew and think about that long ago lady, the early riser...would she be happy her Halloween blocks are being loved and used? What would she think about using purple binding? [What do you think?]

Would she like my quilt design?
I hope so....

Collectors' note[below]: stunning Halloween quilt currently on eBay. Wow!

Happy Autumn!

love

lizzy

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