October ~ Colors and Textures

Hello! Another Friday is here. I hope you all had a good week.  I've been busy! I am having unexpected, exciting guests next week! Family who have not visited in many years. I'm thrilled but scrambling a bit to get my home looking presentable. All the white slipcovers are off the sofas so I can't show you any big picture views.

I'm having a cleaning service come next week. The head woman came and looked over my admittedly not pristine house and she shook her head. The estimate for a ''deep clean''---team of 5, from 8 AM to 3.30 PM , TWO consecutive days , was $400.00 for each day; or $800.00. [and my friend L advised me I should tip each cleaner at least 25.oo more per day!]
Um. No. 
We haggled and bargained to $200.oo for noon to 4.30, one day. "It will look good!" Polish Kate the cleaner promised. But the look on her face said, but it won't be truly clean. Do I wish I could afford the thousand bucks? Sure. But even 200.oo is a huge budget crunch for me. If my guests look under the fridge drawers or behind the big Shaker chests, they deserve what they will find.
Why even bother? I am so hoping if they have a good time they will come again, stay longer. My family is very small and I miss having family around.

This cushion is my color inspiration. I love it. The cheddar cushion behind it is very old, my mom chose the fabric when we were in Cape Cod together. She had a great eye.

These large velvet throw pillows are a gift from a friend. Her boyfriend hated the brilliant blue velveteen, they of the pale grey house. 30" square. So far I've not found affordable fillers, just used other sizes for now. My friend kept the original pillow inserts; I made her grey batik covers instead.

These cushion covers [right] are thrift shop finds [they look squishy bec Mo helped by sitting on everything I fluffed up]. They look very Ralph Lauren to me but on close inspection as I put them out, I found they're Target. Fine. I love Target too.

Out came my mercury glass pumpkins.

Jars.

 Other pumpkins and drieds; Shaker boxes dusted off.

Blue autumn vignette.

The magnifying glass paperweight holds a tiny woodland scene, an acorn bird's nest, moss and twigs.

An early 1800s candy jar filled with tin heart cutters and molds. [handblown, Sandwich MA, c. 1820?]

Fall pitchers. Oddly I cannot find my black and sepia transferware. What is there will have to do.as switching to the brown is too  much effort.

Funny old time jacks.

The swan has a small quilt and a turquoise pumpkin.

Scented candle, candy corn in an heirloom covered dish.

The little acorn sugar bowl, from last summer's thrifting. Next to it is the tiny Dresden ladybug I've mentioned, from my grandma.

This is a huge basket with almost ALL of my little quilts, many from Lori of Humble Quilts sewalongs and swaps.

In case my guests would enjoy seeing them, one is a quilter herself, so maybe. They are really packed in too tight tho and I'll refold and store them afterward.

Next week the white slipcovers will go back on and the big quilts will be draped over the stains that I couldn't remove. Time for new covers!? Yes! But the set I ordered on eBay arrived in khaki, not white, so no.

Even Mo had the groomer/ spa van. He is all sweet smelling and manicured.

Here he is snuggling on the warm laundry freshly folded on my bed. He enjoys colder weather, loves to cuddle and snuggle.

Today at the grocery store I got mums and the first fresh pressed local apple cider. I love fresh cider. And I got honey crisp apple hummus???!! I tried it earlier for a snack. Quite odd, but nice.

The mums will brighten my doorstep and my deck. I didn't get a big pumpkin yet. I couldn't bend down into the crate to lift a 30 pound jack. Maybe my kids will help with that closer to Halloween?
I didn't see these planted bushel baskets til I was leaving. Is that--kale? Cute!

I'll take better pics when it all comes together. Hope you are enjoying Fall too. Hot here on Sunday, I better get Bitty [sewing] ready for the beach!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Parmateer Point Little Quilt, Bitty Update

Hi! Oh my, the little quilt sewalong went by so fast. Every fall, Lori of Humble Quilts designs,, shares, hosts a little quilt mystery project based on an undisclosed antique quilt she has found. The sewalongs are always FUN and always a twist or surprise. Mystery quiltalongs, for my non quilter friends, are a series of steps or clues in the project that all come together in a final post. Lori excels at this. And it really is a *little* quilt, this years finishes at 21" square.

other years' tiny quilts out for their fall airing

Why Parmateer Point? Lori loves to hike her beautiful Oregon mountains and this was a summer destination for her. Here is the info: "Palmateer Point is the unofficial name of a high point above Palmateer Creek and Palmateer Meadows. The name comes from Jack Palmateer, a herder for the Wasco County sheep men who used the area for summer grazing in the 1890s."
Go to the web page page HERE, the view of Mount Hood is stunning.

Often I rename my quilts as I sew on them. The only name this one has so far is Mudslide. It is so icky and muddy in color, nothing like the inspiration quilt, which you can see on Lori's blog post, link at the end here. And the diagonals remind me of playground slides.

I'm particularly annoyed with myself because for a whole year I had planned to use my childhood inspired 1930s repro print fabrics for this year's project. But then Lori talked about soft sweet colors and low volume colors [this means pale, non-q friends], and I wanted to try that!
Fail!

Often I love these projects when they are all done so I am reserving judgment til it's quilted.

The back will be the very pale peachy pink from one of my thrifted men's shirts.

Always have to have a corner cupboard shot or two. I use this instead of a design wall, good natural light and distance to contemplate the results.

Speaking of low volume, here is my blog friend Penny's version!

Penny doesn't blog so I'm showing hers here for her, and so that you can have the fun of seeing another version , side by side. Penny said she too struggled with ''low volume'' but I think she did a fabulous job.

.....................................

Now about Bitty: I just could not bear the ink marks another second the other day! I sat down with my Carbona Ink Remover, 2 bottles, and a pile of Q-Tips and scrubbed away.
All the ink came out except this one circle! I think it's okay, it'll be hidden in the quilting.

Then I washed the entire top in regular ALL, to also remove the awful purple Crayola lines, the turquoise fabric runs and the Elmer's Glue stick. Isn't that a scary moment, when you plunge your quilt top into he sudsy water! Gulp.
It washed beautifully.

Mo supervised as it dried in the breezy afternoon sun.

I love it! It still needs I think 3 center small quarter sized circles, and possibly a border swag. I plan to try out the one from Black Lovage by Cheri Payne, scallops and little buds. But I also like how it looks now with just the narrow tiny calico edging.

I plan to hand quilt in and around the appliques, then if that gets tiresome I'll machine quilt the rest. Right now I need a hand sewing project for Fall deck time with Mo! So Bitty gets hand quilted.

I've been loving seeing everyone's Parmateer Point little quilts on Lori's Linky party show and tell. You can see them all, plus her quilt and the inspiration quilt on Humble Quilts

Thank you, Lori!

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....

photos this week from another friend with a better camera than I have. The birds are sanderlings, arriving for the winter from their nesting grounds in the Arctic north of Canada or Alaska.

see the churned uo sand? That;s from the tiny feet and beaks of thousands of the tiny birds!

Churned up sand/ footprints

sanderling

weird filter, my sand is not yellow!
Blue blue sky is exactly right however.