Gone To The Beach

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Baby Steps

Hi! I am so pleased to tell you that I have ''graduated'' from sitting sadly on my deck,

to being able to take small teeny tiny walks outside! Hooray. Most days I can even pull on my swimsuit [not so easy with painful wrist/ hand!] and dip into the cold pool.
The pain is hovering still, waiting to pounce if I so much a bend the wrong way, but the cocktail of biologics, pain meds, rest, and prednisone devised by the rheumatologist has worked well enough that the excruciating pain is ''gone''. Sort of. I guess ''less'' is a better term? I can sleep a little now, without waking from the sudden jerks of pain.
I am so hopeful and my little daily walks and swims are my baby steps to rehabbing myself, looking forward to being functional again.
Let's all cross our fingers! I took some pics on today's adventure round the block:

Not a great hydrangea year, too bad.

Crape myrtle?

Cinnamon Sunflower.

My lavender has rebloomed!

A nice shady bench for me and Mo! Someday.

My faithful little friend! I bet he misses our walks as much as I do.

Mo led his dogwalker to his beloved bench by the beach entrance. She said he hopped right up ans smiled! I hope I can join them soon. Another friend brings him there most evenings. Mo jumps up, doesn't even need his leash!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Summer Still Lifes

Hello! Summer is a time for sorting treasures. A starfish, a special stone, favorite shells, a bit of old rope.
I arrange, rearrange my best finds, on my favorite pieces of blue and white or black and sepia and white English china.

I fill my old pitchers with summer flowers.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Dotty 365 and other July Projects

Hello, everyone. Hard to imagine, but, yes, it's August. Time to show off my Circles or Dots for July.

July 31 Dot is block 269.
96/7 left to go, or a few more than that if I make my quilt 19 rows of 20 Dots. Anyway, the end is in sight.

This month I mostly focused on fabric scraps from blocks I am making for other projects, like P2 and Wild Geese.

Mixed in a few special days, a birthday dress, a bath day for Mo the Pug.

Only a few dark Dots, with thimbles to recall sadly the long painful yet empty days of this summer. [I am somewhat better now, thanks.].

A few lighthouses and beachy things, remembering fun summers in Cape Cod.

I always do a little drawing in my Dotty Journal. Haha. This one was not enhanced by my finally finding my fave red Sharpie!

I'm still enjoying this project, enough that I have at times mulled over the idea of ''next year'' done in Japanese indigo fabrics, blue batiks and antique blue cottons. Though I haven't seem my Japanese blue fabrics since I moved into my little craft space this past year!

My fill-in ''just for fun'' project is When the Wild Geese Fly. This quilt is made with thrifted shirts and leftover felted wools. Some snowy day I imagine myself making the 200 or so Geese blocks. Huh.

The School Children, a Basket, a Pumpkin.

The Pumpkin is to fill up the empty memorial block on Patek's pattern. I commend her thoughtfulness but for myself I'd like something happier there. I did a layered pumpkin, wool and calico. Maybe will put dates or initials in the corners?

Though this Basket is also a perfect space for a date or name, I think.

I plan to do all three of the quilt's buildings using the strip piecing logs, so this quilt will be put aside for awhile til I can machine sew again.

*** *** ***

I have a question for you guys--quilters, but anyone can weigh in with an idea. I am wondering how you all store your completed quilt blocks?

I ve been hanging my projects up on these cool clipboards but it's not a great long term solution.

On the other hand I don't want to fold them up in a Baggie: out of sight, out of mind. I use a pretty storage box for Dotty 365, but it's too small for a full size quilt's blocks. A friend gave me this cool tin for my quilt blocks---but big blocks like P2 won't begin to fit.