Gone To The Beach

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Brrrr! Winter Is Here

Hi everyone. Yeesh, it's so cold. I suppose I'll have to give in and put my shorts away. The other day this Weather Alert came up on my phone:
Ice Accretion Advisory from 1/7/2015 6:00:00 PM to 1/8/2015 6:00:00 AM
GALE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT...FREEZING SPRAY ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM WEDNESDAY TO 6 AM * WINDS...NORTHWEST 25 TO 35 KT WITH GUSTS UP TO 40 KT.* SEAS...6 TO 9 FEET

What the heck is a Spray Advisory?

FREEZING SPRAY...MODERATE VESSEL ICING. OPERATING A VESSEL IN GALE CONDITIONS REQUIRES EXPERIENCE AND PROPERLY EQUIPPED VESSELS. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT MARINERS WITHOUT THE PROPER EXPERIENCE SEEK SAFE HARBOR PRIOR TO THE ONSET OF GALE CONDITIONS.A FREEZING SPRAY ADVISORYMEANS THAT LIGHT TO MODERATE ACCUMULATION OF ICE IS EXPECTED ON VESSELS. OPERATING A VESSEL IN FREEZING SPRAY CAN BE HAZARDOUS. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT VESSELS BE PREPARED TO TAKE APPROPRIATE COUNTER MEASURES BEFORE PUTTING TO SEA OR ENTER THE ADVISORY AREA.

I love this huge old anchor.
Fishing boats behind, at their dock.

Things like this remind us that this is indeed a maritime community, with a fleet of commercial fishing boats, plus die-hard sport fishermen, and the large vessels. we see out in the shipping lanes.

And yes, the snow came and the wind howled.

Mo quite likes the snow!

He is not so happy about high winds. The gale makes his leash thrum and frightens him. He sits and looks so perplexed.

Now, in early January, my house is again neutral, currently in its winter garb of white, taupe and black with accents of deep turquoise and some bits of cobalt blue.

I always worry that my small space will look cluttered. But in the pix, it looks quite sparse?

black and white toile/ taupse suzani floral

black/ white/ turquoise batik.
How I wish I'd bought many yards of this beauty!

A big brown crock with wintery berries, a fragrant fir-scented candle in a rusty tin star dish.

A favorite blue and white quilt. It's a rescue and quite tattered but I love it.

The cottage is so quiet now, just the wind and Mo's snoring. All its glittery party finery is put away. I love Christmas's Scandinavian red and white, and the Tree, and the glittering glass ornaments...but by January it comes as a relief to return to the tranquil colors of the winter beach.

I haven't changed the transferware plate rack yet. It will soon have my blue and black collection.

I am liking this pine dresser done more simply.

For awhile I think I will keep it simple, with just my white ironstone pitchers and platters, and a few bits of mercury glass.

The tarnished mirrored orbs remind me of the icy winter ocean, gleaming coldly under the pale lemon yellow winter sun.

Now is the time to bundle up and walk briskly, time for savory beef stew simmering on the stove top, for hot chocolate and Earl Grey tea, spiked these afternoons with a thimbleful of peach Grand Marnier, a gift from a friend. Time for hand quilting--and knitting, if only Mo will let me work in peace sometimes.
Hope you too are home safe, and warm, and cozy.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Monday, January 5, 2015

Moving On

Twelve Days of Christmas

Hi guys!

Did you notice? "Everyone'' on line is posting lists and pictures of all they accomplished in 2014. It's inspiring! It's---intimidating. I do admire them all so much. But me? I don't think I finished a single quilt this past year and I am too lazy to go back and look.
Mo the Pug arrived on June 8 and somehow took over my world. [Not that I'd finish dozens of quilts/ samplers/ rugs/ cranes, Hunter! in year. Or in a lifetime...] Does training a puppy count on the scale of Things I Got Done?

Mo is potty trained and leash trained; he wears his coats and hats, sits nicely in his car seat. He obeys simple commands, though he does do that annoying pug thing of thinking about obeying---big lull---and then he comes or sits etc. He can sit up and ''beg'', fetch, shake hands, do high five. He is learning to dance on his hind legs. He does not Heel. Ever. It's on my to do list. Really.

Here he is napping in the basket where I keep [kept] all my quilt rulers and templates.

Mo takes up a LOT of time.
So anyway, moving on with life in 2015. During the hols I copied the instructions for Temecula Quilt Company's Twelve Days of Christmas mini quilt.here I knew I wouldn't have time to keep up and make a block every other day, so I saved the project for New Years Day while my family was away skiing.
Here is Mo on NYE, looking already hungover!

For the tiny Christmas quilt I wanted to use all my favorite scraps of red and green calico [with less than stellar results, what a hodgepodge in 3" squares]. The design wasn't exactly right for scraps however, lots of ''big'' squares, rotary cut, ha ha ha, into smaller increments. I don't rotary cut. I love my scissors.
Auditioning the results so far:
I love this larger scale print and had intended it to be the slashing or ''background''. It was a remnant found at Joann's when my friend L and I made it there in early November for our annual Christmas outing.

But no. Does not work.

I love this choice but I didn't want to waste one of my favorite fabrics in a so-so mini, chopped up as sashing.

Red is---too red, though I love this red holly leaf print.

I like this tan, looks ''prim".

I ended up eking the sashing out of this tiny square of tan and green ditsy print. Red cornerstones. Nope, the directions say 17 pieces for the sashing, but that doesn't include a border.

Back to the planning board, aka kitchen counter. I used this fabric because 1- I love it, I'm a sucker for prints with ''picotage"--- tiny dot ground; and 2-the design looks like splattery snow; 3- its larger scale and busy-ness counteract, I hope, the garbled look of the tiny blocks themselves. I changed block six to the tree, which didn't help the overall appearance, but made it fun, to me. What's a Christmas quilt without a Christmas Tree?

Machine quilting. The big holly pattern on the back. Red striped binding: "candy canes".

I'm not sure when Twelve Days will get done. Story of my life these days.

BTW- The mini is called Twelve Days of Christmas because each block has one more piece, ie, Day One = one, Day two = 2 pieces, Day three = four etc etc. My tree block has six pieces as required. I wanted to do a house block for block Twelve but I just couldn't make it work.

What do you think?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach

real, BIG, daffodils at the supermarket.
How fun.

Sunset is now about 14 minutes later
than in December...

"IT WASN"T MY FAULT!"

Twelve Days of Christmas here's the link again. Their quilt is adorable! And wonderful inspiring photography. Be sure to look.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year 2015

Hi everyone!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year!

Below: The sun sets on the last day of 2014. Looking back---it was a very good year.