Color "Stories" with Antique Fabric

Hello! Probably you all know I collect fabrics, especially antique fabrics....I use every tiny cherished scrap for quilts, doll dresses, and my lavender hearts.

I love putting together color stories or groupings, whether for my own inspiration of for for a customer who wants a special order and has a certain color or style in mind.

This was a BLUE or Indigo story I gathered up a few weeks ago....

I  loved the assortment of traditional indigo fabrics through the centuries!

The person who was ordering chose something else...but I liked the idea so much I made  a set of small square lavender "pillow" sachets...one in every  fabric.

I made them just for me, for fun, but I am planning to list the group on etsy, in case someone else loves my vision too. (I can always make another set, right?).

The many indigo blues fascinate me...

Indigo was used---is used today---as a beloved blue dye, by artisans worldwide...

                       

The brilliant silk "punctuation" squares have indigo batik on the reverse, continuing my theme.

Then I had a request for all red ticking hearts, for party favors! how fun!

These are/ were my selection of 19th century French tickings.

These are antique American calicos [below], c.1880-1900, rescued from the backs of tied quilts. And solid faded rose-red ticking. They became the backings of the red hearts.

Add lavender, antique suspender buttons---china and celluloid, some linen twine ..and quite a lot of hours hand sewing on the beach...

Aren't they so cute!

I tied them up in individual cellophane bags to preserve the scent.

Wouldn't these be adorable for a shower favor, in either white for weddings or in silk matching the bridesmaids' dresses...

Or--- pastels for a baby shower...

How about a group in reds and purples for a Red Hat party favor?

Old red quilt bits and cinnamon-cedar stuffing, maybe a cinnamon stick tied on, or a glittery button make festive tiny party favors/ stocking stuffers for Christmas too.

The possibilities are endless! There are wonderful modern specialty motif fabrics too

that add to the options and interest. You could probably have hearts/ tiny pillows in your fave football team's colors! Who knows!

Unscented versions are always available too---the hearts make adorable package tie-ons and I love them as napkin ring ties, a little treat for holiday meals. (no calories!)

It's so fun to plan and choose...special orders are aways available through my blog or my esty site. Come visit!
 
 

 

 

love

 

               lizzy

 

 

gone to the beach~~~~~

Linked toA Beach Cottage good life Wednesday!

Cold Front Coming? Finally?

Hi! Did you get some cool weather?
I woke up today to another hot, and more importantly very muggy day! You can see the white sky and humidity haze.

I hustled through chores and errands to get to the beach at low tide. The tides are especially low after a full moon (this past Monday) so I was hoping for some treasure.

On my out to the tideline I was thrilled to see this small flock of mallard ducks arrive. They come every fall.

And though I could not get a photo I was very amazed the other day to see a big fat white swan lumber across the bridge road! Not flying very high, he looked tired, poor guy.
Then on to the beach for my walk.

Right away I found this lovely old bottle neck, on a bit of pristine sand by a driftwood log.
c.1900?

Otherwise not much treasure---but what I found was cool.

The old roof tile or drain pipe bit, on the above right. Avery pretty cobalt medicine bottle base and a tiny sand dollar...

A string of glass beach beads, sea glass beads! Will they protect against "the evil eye"?

This large bit of frosted glass, looks like part of a Victorian lamp shade maybe? I tried to take a photo so you could see the stars embossed on it. See the storm looming in the background?

I barely made it home before the storm arrived! Windy and threatening but no lightning and only sprinkles of rain so far.

Wonder if the cool air will finally arrive?

...Yes! The temperature has dropped 20* even as I typed this post. I am smiling....I love that first hint of fall, even if hot weather returns  til November. How about you? Do you look forward to fall?....

Talk to you soon!

 love

                lizzy

           

.....gone to the beach

Birds of September

Shorebirds update...and a film! How fun.

A couple days of wind and beach overwash have sent many of my October departing birds off early.

Most of the terns (least, Arctic) have already gone. Yay.  Only a few strays...not even sure what these big guys are, Common terns? Not usual to my beach anyway.

I spent some time looking these big fellows up. I belive they are Royal terns! Certainly not part of our usual petite and angry tern population. {Least terns and Arctic terns are quite small, in comparison). The guys were very shy! Note that they are as big or bigger than the gulls calmly roosting behind them!

The nesting huge flocks of terns are usually the first big groups to  leave, in late September. The black skimmers [below] usually leave in three groups, one set leaves late September with the terns, another soon afterwards. These two flocks and the terns regrouped for just a day or so after Irene, then they were gone by September first.

The final third of the black skimmers, I believe the ones who had late second sets of babies, leave on October 2nd. Their beach is under water, flooded from H. Katia waves,

...but they are massed on the point beyond. Perhaps waiting for their young to be able to make the long journey south? They're the black specks below the surfline,

Still little piping plovers running below the dunes. They are busy eating and fueling themselves for their migration. Then there are bands of mixed peeps, or sandpipers...

Mostly huge flocks of sanderlings have returned from their Arctic nesting grounds.

They tend to stay all winter, to them this is south enough. Here is the eastern flock on their own share of that overwash area.

The gulls are here but not in huge masses. I had to stop feeding them! So naughty! Everytime I'd go for a wlk, they'd descend on my beachbag and hurl all the contents aside, rooting about til they found the Goldfish or Ritz crackers or the day-old bread I'd brought them. Then they'd stand and glare at me! LOL.
I see geese and ducks in Vs overhead almost daily...

Blackbirds on the standing flood waters in the swales, and crows. And in the flood puddles, I see tadpoles as I wade out to the beach. I wonder what they are, our spadefoot toads? And can they grow up and be big enough to hibernate in the dunes this winter? We'll see!

And now, the film! Be sure to watch, very cool. Look at those waves, awesome.

love

     lizzy

gone to the beach...