Redo's and Make-overs ~ April Projects

Hello, hello on this chilly but brilliantly blue April day! It's too windy for the deck, Mo and I had to come inside. Mo has a new giant chew toy from the Easter Bunny, so he doesn't mind. Earlier we investigated pink and white April "snow".

First up today, we have Fall Festival blocks. I have decided I will not try to match the fast pace Lori is setting on her sewalong. I had pictured FF a slow and pleasant hand applique thing for sewing on the deck--even the beach!?--during the spring and summer. To start off I redid the three Pineapple blocks I showed you a few weeks ago. They were terribly crooked. I redrew the pattern and straightened things up. Not sure what went wrong with the first set, maybe my printer is wonky? --because the designs were originally printed right onto the freezer paper templates.

Anyway I'm much happier now, even though I also had to piece the backing of Aqua Pineapple. It got brighter leaves too.

Then I did the March Basket blocks. Fun and simple.

The April 15th assignment was to do the House block. I love House blocks but I'm a little bored by Jan Patek's use of exactly the same house---and doggy!--on every quilt. Sneak peek of the alternate block I have drafted. I am hopeful! It's quite large, 24" square, and there will lots of lovely hand applique. (If I hate it or it doesn't ''work'' in the design of the whole quilt, I'll come back and do House and Dog.)

The other April sewalong blocks are the Jack o' Lantern and Vines...planning them for early summer, can you imagine? The winter went so fast, didn't it. I have a LOT of autumn quilts, I'm in no rush for Fall Festival to be done for this year. I'm just gonna slow stitch and enjoy. I know Lori would agree, whatever works!

Then I did quite a bit of tweaking to When the Wild Geese Fly. Maybe this is really complete now? Just needs de-threading and a good press. Instead of [ugh] embroidered names and dates I did wool applique. I like it, a little graphic touch.

I blanked out part of the initials, also wool applique---we never know what initials on a quilt might mean, do we?

The bottom right border bothered me. Despite careful measuring it looked wavy/ ruffly. When I tried to rip out the seam and resew I found out the blue shirting was very thin and delicate. I was only able to rescue a small section; I put a nice framing deep blue on that edge instead.

And while I was redoing that area I decided to redo the not-orange pumpkin. The pumpkin on the right was a dull brown-ish tweed. I liked it but it went lost visually when the top was complete. I chose a soft  duck egg turquoise instead, like the dusty blue Cinderella pumpkins we admired last Fall.

The turquoise picks up the turquoise that appears in some of the blue shirting plaids. And it draws the eye to the bottom of the quilt.

I loved working with the thrifted blue and tomato soup red/ orange shirts but I did learn that some shirts look great but are very loved and worn and fragile.  Even a good starching can't really make them usable again.  I'm already planning my next two shirt quilts so this is good to know. (And a thrifting outing Monday! Yay!).
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PS I must show off this year's Devilled Easter Eggs! Always a hit in my house. This year I changed the recipe a bit, using finely minced scallions, a mashed avocado, tarragon, a new horseradish-dill sauce I found on the Passover food sale shelf, and a bit of mayo. Blend everything with the yolks of a dozen eggs. Fill the shells. Sprinkle with scallion circles and more tarragon. Delicious! The avocado adds a hint of sweetness, almost.

Hope your spring is nice! It's hard to know what to wear, isn't it? Shorts at noon, parka by evening.....
Have a good week.

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach...

You can see other versions of Fall Festival on Lori's blog: Humble Quilts

Thrift Shops and Snow Days

Hello! It's March! March blew in the other day with a strange wind squall, blew open all my doors! And scared me and Mo in the late evening quiet. Today we woke up to snow,

a Hokusai / Japanese print kind of morning. [Google images]

the frozen koi pond

I always think of march as our snowiest month. The ocean is finally cold and the soft wet snow sticks to the beach and the bare branches.

My friend and I went thrifting. I'm still penny pinching, but I had a small list and actually found what I needed.
Some men's shirts for my Wild Geese quilt project. I'm using my friend's shirts but he tends to be very conservative in his choices, so I added a few plaids. XXXL. On sale for a whopping $5.67, which I suppose is a bargain now that cotton is 14.oo a yard.

Beautiful soft fluffy flannel for my quilt backings stash. 4 yards, 1.99. Much nicer once washed. I wish I bought the other two pieces.

An expensive but pretty white on white quilted pillow sham. 10.99. Machine quilted, probably would cost the same at Home Goods.

A candlestick for a velvet fruit pin keep. I'm thinking a big fat classic tomato, maybe.

Awesome / amazing Alpine hiking boots. I just love the Tyrolean accents, speaks to my Swiss roots, I guess. I 've wanted these classic boots for years as I pore over the ski clothes  or Sundance catalogs.

Oiled leather and look at these great grip-y soles, for me, the one who is so clumsy on ice and snow. A good buy but no bargain, 39.99. [But my size! never worn!]

And I could not pass up this small Blue Birds china platter. I love the crazed, crackled glaze and old funny 20's cottage effect.

I knew I had a similar platter from the Fall flea, though, so one or both may go onto my etsy page, to share.

I think the little birds and roses are so sweet. Like Disney's Snow White birds.

I was surprised to see the new platter is by a different maker, not Homer Laughlin, of Fiestaware fame. I thought Blue Bird china was always Laughlin, so that was an interesting note.

We then tried to find a supposedly new local quilt store, but only found an empty building with For Rent signs. Too bad. And a quick stop at Joann's, my sole live fabric resource. Ugh! What a chaotic place that is. Took me an hour to find spray baste...and they stock only a few types of basic ''sharps'' needles, what's with that? Hello, I sew, I need needles. Hard to order needles online, I need to see them, being partial to very thin long milliners or straw needles. Hard to find.

Back home I have my 1.49 thrifty daffodils. [Trader Joe's] They do brighten a grey snowy day, don't they?

And a new candle, exceptional fragrance, called Bergamot Water [from B&BW]. Bergamot  is the scent of Earl Grey tea, so the candle's perfume fills the house with a cozy smell.

I also ordered two Georgia Peach candles, my all time fave, and another with bergamot scent, called London---tea and lemon ''flavor". Bath and Body Works Candles, free shipping HERE

Have a great weekend! I hope to finish the borders of Pokeberry! And prep some thing for hand sewing, because believe it or not next week is supposed to be 70*! Beach days! Yay!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

no shops or items mentioned were sponsors, just sharing my resources w/ friends. Japanese print images form Google.