Out and About ~ Magpie* Junk and Daffodils

 

[magpie* in the meaning of collector of weird junk; we have NO magpies here at the beach!]

Hello, hello, another Friday as April in its grey cold glory trundles along towards spring. I have only trivial things to report, I must say. It was a not-good week, with recurring health issues and fails, very hard to be positive and upbeat.

Not to mention it rained and rained and rained.

Of course Mo and I I must venture out at least twice daily. As you can see  Mo is underwhelmed by spring walks.

This week the forsythia has bloomed, and a few spots of daffodils.

Pansies and crocuses in pots by front doorways:

Last fall I offered the HOA a donation of spring bulbs to bring us some April pretty but my idea was firmly shot down and rudely refused. "We employ a gardening service, no freebies or butt-in wanted.'' How sad, how rude.

This is an area of benches that Mo and I enjoy in the summer when the hydrangeas bloom. It has two meagre daffodil groups, nothing else. It would be nice planted up with early crocus, daffs, tulips?

Rudeness seems to be in ascendence in my little world. I ordered new rain pants from Eddie Bauer, end of season sale. Fleece lined! Cozy, yes/ fit ok, yes. BUT they fall off  and the waist tie won't tie tight enough to remedy that. I wrote asking about a refund / credit, as in:  shouldn't pants stay ON, please? And was promptly told only unworn garments can be returned. sigh....Anyway back to our travels.

 Recent odd "magpie" finds:

Yes I picked them up and brought these home. 

What are they? Tiny computer components? Both have moving parts but are minuscule and mysterious.

And then there was this little religious statue, poking out of the mud along the road. It's tiny maybe  1.5", quite heavy. Silver pot metal, the turquoise is a reflection of my phone case.

I left it for a week, in case someone had lost it, even though it was quite buried, just the bottom rim showing. 

I don't know who this is, I thought St.Christopher, but the bottom says, "a little bit of luck" which sounds more St-Patrick. Will it bring me luck if I give him a home, I wondered.

I am not comfortable with random religious items in my home, not sure what will happen to him. Maybe back into the ocean? Or a freebie on etsy, ''just pay postage'' giveaway, my usual way of passing such items on. 

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One rainy day I pressed this PA German looking top. Look at these seams, this lady never heard of perfect yet scanty 1/4" seams allowances, did she. And the orange solid bleeds like crazy.

And I bought these blocks on FB Marketplace, rather hurriedly. I thought I was buying a small Chinese Lanterns top! [I planned to add the black handles that are missing]~ But no, just these 2 blocks. Cute though. I have another baby bunny block to go with the Elephant/Balloons 9 Patch too.

And last~  my tiny painting of the week IG art challenge, @roomportraitclub. UGH! I knew it would be hard, but decided to try. Isn't it awful....though do keep in  mind how tiny the paper cards are.

Below is a photo of the inspiration room, a UK shepherds' hut similar to a gypsy wagon/ guest house.

I lacked motivation to repaint ''the Chair'' from a few weeks ago. Maybe tomorrow or never.

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Hope your weekend is great, filled with egg dying and Bunny Egg hunts; matzo ball soup and family time planning. Or just a few minutes out in the elusive springtime sun.

Easter post midweek, come visit again.

love 

lizzy 

gone to the beach...

PS. My new crucial glasses are a fail, I cannot reconcile the double vision yet , can't safely drive. Just a horrible disappointment, please forgive my not too cheery post. [They do work well enough to improve walking around, so may get out to the shoreline soon.]

view from my chair, out to the beach...

This goofy mini-monster of a plant is a Vidalia onion heel, now regrowing. Gotta get her out into a pot soon.

April Arrives - Looking back at March Quilts and other Projects

Happy Friday, welcome April. Looking at March and the winter gone by, it has not been my most productive winter.  I did complete my goal for work on Winter Marsh [name keeps changing!]. 

The goal, small goal, was to prep the blackbird blocks that will be subbed for the embroidered lyric blocks on Jan P's Morning Has Broken. 

Three are wool, two are linen. 

Over the past couple years I have collected a number of crow and blackbird designs for inspiration, 

I love this one, even though the birds appear to be mourning doves, the bane of my kids when they were babies, as the doves moaned outside every morning at dawn, terrifying them---haunts! ghosts!

...but in the end I kept the original shaggy blackbird/crow, only perhaps eliminating the starry eye that is a trademark of Jan's work. My marsh has many redwinged blackbirds, starlings, and ospreys [who are checkered brown and cream, not black], much more rare are real crows, usually the small fish crow if seen. (Just now, as Mo and I had deck playtime, we watched a newly arrived Osprey as it soared slowly over the dunes, on the hunt for dinner.)

I can already see the black is going to be a pug fuzz magnet. 

I also finished appliqueing the February Moon blocks.

Machine stitched, this is an anything goes project.

And I made a Man in the Moon who may fit in somewhere. 

For April I want to make some Flying Geese blocks--will this wonderful fabric fit in, in small bits? Both the dunes and marsh verges have mushrooms though usually in the Fall, not winter.

And I'll work on the crow appliques. Not looking forward to doing the giant stars, mostly bec I made them once already, in a disastrous colorway.

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I also am almost finished with HQ Antique block challenge! Two more borders to sew. Which fabric will it be?

I was so tempted to keep adding border blocks, but it will be about 30" as is. I don't want it to grow and grow into a not-useful size, like Sajou, our HQ French inspired project we did a few years ago.

But it's already too big to be hand quilted, so off to the quilter as soon as the backing arrives.

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I'm reading this 1980s design book, found when I looked for books to donate to Lori's missionary fundraiser. Fun to revisit---a book my mom so loved, even though my dad wanted primitive/ colonial style. I was surprised so much of the photography is in black and white. In its day, it was a hugely influential design book, a look that has long since gone out of style but lingers here at the beach cottage.

And I had this on the donate stack:

I figured I'll never make this big quilt! But when I looked through it it has many wonderful smaller projects---aren't the prairie flowers/weeds delightful!, so I'll keep it for now.

The rest of the books were packed, and I hope to send them soon, but the bundle is so heavy, my poor shoulder joints are so painful and  I can't wrestle it onto the scale to get it in the mail.

[another fail, sadly].

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And a new little diversion, an amusing challenge, an IG site that posts a challenge each week, a room to paint or draw or otherwise render in a creative way.  @roomportraitclub  https://www.instagram.com/roomportraitclub/ I have chosen to just paint excerpts not the entire rooms.

You can see I am not very good at the moment. My idea was not to allow redos but the chair is so ghastly, I may make an exception. The organizer was kind enough to acknowledge my post, but not impressed enough to add it to the ''reel'', LOL.

Tiny, size of a credit card.

Once upon a time I painted much more competently, but like many skills it needs constant practice. Perhaps I will improve, or lose interest?

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Walkies with Mo: it has been dreadfully, painfully cold!

Here Mo is eke-ing out the last winter sun's warmth as best he can. 

This week's storm blew hard off the ocean. My windows are clogged with salt spray. 

May try to wash them tomorrow, but it's very cold and the gale is still blowing. Plus those pesky shoulder issues, sigh.

Have a great weekend! 

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....[or not! brrr]

Latest weird Lizzy collection is growing, so to speak. Seaglass bottles, filled with tattered silk, paper, and plastic spring flowers I pick up on our daily walks. Faux as can be!

But I love them.