Merry Christmas!

To all my friends here at Gone to the Beach...

 

....may your days be Merry and Bright!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

lizzy

 

     gone to the beach.....

Cascadia Doll Quilt Mystery Quilt--Times Two

 

Hi everyone! Happy Solstice, Welcome winter. The days are getting longer now. (LOL). Today I have two Cascadia mini quilts to show you. I am so excited to show you my friend BJ's version of Cascadia.
It's not put together entirely but it's wonderful.

I love her colors.

BJ makes beautiful quilts and has recently been making Civil War repro doll quilts, below, so when Lori's mystery challenge started I talked my friend into her first quiltalong. It's so fun to have a friend hooked on Lori's quiltalongs.

one of BJ's doll quilts, complete

Now my quilt---I do love it, it's adorable. But a bit of a rush job here at the end has left me with rippled borders. To rip out or quilt out? Not sure yet.

 I added the border because I did not use white or cream spacer triangles as instructed.
 No I had to use cheddar, and while I like the look the result is a trifle chaotic. I thought it needed a border to contain all the action and to keep it from looking like a fragment of a large quilt. [see end of post]****

I rummaged through my stash for a backing. My first choice, an antique cadet blue, was too small. I found this interesting large scale Lady Liberty toile.

 It's been in my stash for years; it has all the colors. (I hope I don't regret using this up.)

As I was cutting the backing I was studying the print. It is a Millennium print, dated 2000. I was thinking to myself, "Huh, funny to see the Liberty lady with bee hives and cornucopias, what's with that?...'' Then, ''Oh, it's a Peace and Plenty toile!", a post Civil War motif, I believe. Sure enough, when I looked closely at the selvedge, that's exactly what the name of the design is.
Sadly, since 2000 when it was printed peace and plenty has not been much seen in our world. But it's a lovely, comforting thought.

The pattern as I made it always reminded me of the harvest and Indian corn, so I think I'll rename my mini Peace and Plenty...and use the selvage , here, as the tag.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has done! Here is the link: Humble Quilts

Thank you, Lori, it was challenging but fun. [Those corners were just---a mystery to me. But here they are. Wonky but sewed.]

Happy Holidays to everyone!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

 

 

 

****
large strippy postage stamps, Google images. I even think I have a fragment in my bits-n-pieces collection of antique remnants, but I was too tired to dig it out.

 

 

 

 

Cooky Day / Folk Art Antique Tin Cooky Cutters

 

 

Hi everyone. Today is Christmas cooky day here at the beach. I thought I'd share my collection of antique Pennsylvania handmade cookie cutters. Actually this is not exactly a collection, I bought a big old tin with all these unusual cutters inside. I believe the designs are rare and unique, so many wonderful shapes I've never seen anywhere else. (There's a camel too; the dealer had him for me the following week!)
I like to display them in my biggest wooden bread dough bowl.

Here are the backs. You can see how crude and homemade they are. And dating from a time when I suppose a farmwife would make cookies often? Perhaps late 1800s.

 

 

Household items



scissors, my favorite



scissors back

 

key

 

People




man

  

lady

 

baby! Or what?
Ideas gratefully considered,
this one's a msytery to me.
 

animals

horse

 

fox number One



fox number two

wonderful kitty

 

 

Rabbit number one / jackrabbit

 

Rabbit number two / Bunny

 

lion

 

whale

 

 

 

 

Birds and Easter egg



 

easter egg / damaged

swan!



chicken
 

crow
 

robin
 

storebought hen

 

Eagle or Christmas turkey


Stars
 

Star with tulips

 

 

 

open star

 

Miscellaneous

holly leaf?

cracker

There were hearts too but  keep them with my rather large heart cooky cutter collection.I don't make cutout fancy cookies anymore. So each year I look at this collection and think, Should I sell them? I know they're collectible. But someday---far in the future, when I have a new little grand-helper?---I hope to make a gingerbread Noah's Ark.

This year I made simple shortbread cookies. No one here eats sweets [I threw out 3/4 of the Thanksgiving cheesecake, so sad.] but I feel a holiday dinner needs---something?
I used my grandmother's springerle pin.

 

It's hand carved, I think pearwood?  And it needs a handle repair.

 

Nothing special but they'll be something to offer on Christmas Day with a cup of tea?


 Mo thinks they'll be delish!

 

love

 

lizzy

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

cold but sparkling