A June Mix ~ Walks, Quilts, and Wine

 

Hi everyone! June is half over, as is this year almost. Imagine that. The cottage is morphing slowly into its blue and white summer state.

I'm reading a book series, "Inspector  Banks'' by Peter Robinson---and though they don't US bash a lot it does creep in now and then. "Americans are loud! And talk about the weather a lot!" to paraphrase the denigrating tropes in British books and online. Yet I notice in this British series every single scene change describes the weather---and ugh it mostly rains.  Well anyway, this week has been lovely June late spring but today is grey and drippy and May-like in its ugliness. Oddly one of my weather feeds says on the mainland it is 90* and thunderstorms, yet in the towns nearby it is similarly grey and and 65*--those poor people in that one hot town, lol. [An error I am guessing.]

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This is cheery. Out and about my friend and I did the very traditional summer run to the wine shop, to buy wine for summer moon rise evenings to come. And I am still hoping to talk her into a little "sip and sew'' get-together now and then.

Isn't this bottle gorgeous. Another of my friends fills the empties with beach sand and uses them for door stops.

Wolffer also does a lovely white, but my budget wouldn't stretch to both.

This is pretty too, a reising from 2017, pre-pandemic. I am not one to open a bottle alone. I don't know if Riesling keeps, must look into that.

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In recent weeks I have not been finding any strange found objects, but the other afternoon after a big rain, all these pretty clear drops were glistening on the sidewalk. 1/4" diameter.

Whatever could they be? Not sequins. Nurdles? --- which are plastic pellets for manufacturing, or maybe from a filter of some sort. [ plastic pollution/ocean ]

Blog friend Julierose told me recently about a new way to tea dye, a fun project to look forward to, plus on FB a woman was rust dyeing. I mention this summer project just so you know all my rusty bits I have been collecting have a future planned now----bolt and washer polka dots, how fun.

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Art Challenge on IG: not a good result these last weeks. Below was a sketch with a supposedly waterproof pen.

And I am in love with the fabulous perpetual art /nature journals shown on IG. [you can google] I so want to begin one. Hahaha. Here is my version, actually a doodle done while texting intermittently with a friend. I can go for the comic version, as the fine drawing work for an exquisite book seems to have deserted me. On the other hand, maybe by January I will have re-found those lost skills?

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My ''heirloom garden seeds'' seem to be AKA crabgrass! This was marigolds. Eeeew. Blog friend Nancy did warn me!

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I was looking for a worktray for decktime and came across Yes It's Yellow, a pieced project I worked on during the 2020 lockdown. Mindlessly perfect for a musty mind, I thought. Only to find out I had pieced the 25 square/ 5 x5/ patched blocks wrong! I set it aside to rip out and that was its demise, 

or long furlough anyway.

After I do the Hourglasses for Giraffe in Egypt, I will go back to using it as my pick up project. I do hope to complete it someday.

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On ''good days'' I find myself full of enthusiasm for new projects and new  [or return of old] life habits and endeavors--but some days are hard now post pandemic---aimless, worthless, lonely, sad. So, just saying. Maybe no one is a ''positive'' person every minute of every day. 

I do have somewhat good news that my most recent RX glasses have made my vision good enough to drive again. For now very local, as I must be sure that all is safe. But exciting progress and perhaps next surgery will not have to be as soon as September after all. Good news or not so, tell me what is happening in your world?

Have a great week!

love

lizzy 

gone to the beach....

The Strawberry supermoon was indeed Super!

online: '' The June full moon is also known as the full strawberry moon because this is the time of year that strawberries ripen.

Weather permitting in New York, it will be quite a treat. AccuWeather.com forecasts possible showers on Monday and a mix of sun and clouds Tuesday. The National Weather Service says the region will likely be partly cloudy on both Monday and Tuesday.

Look toward the southeast just after sunset any of those days, and watch as the moon rises over the horizon. “There,” The Old Farmer’s Almanac wrote, “it will appear large and golden-hued.” ''

             

And remember the Summer Solstice this coming Tuesday, 

light a candle,

 set out a favorite feather, or pebble or flower

 if you wish.

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And last, off topic, remember my fun Mushroom fabric? Both Penny and Mel I think figuratively gave me eyerolls about its turquoise toadstools. [I of course, adore turquoise, Tiffany blue, 'shrooms!]. 

Mel said, No way they exist in real life, which would be fine with me! But well here ya go, [though --photoshopped?] You guys decide. HERE

May-June Quilts and Mo Had a Party!

 

Hi everyone. I just can't seem to get away from posting on Fridays, can I?  And for someone who feels like not much got done recently, I seem to have a lot to share. But first---ugh. Spring chores--like cleaning the air conditioners, putting in the screens and so on. I try to do one chore each day.

Quilts: first up is this fun doll/ teddy quilt, mde for a friend's little girl.

I was inspired by friend Julie who makes adorable doll quilts for her granddaughters.

I had fun with the fabrics, no rules. I just couldn't make it the requested grey.

Used a few special to me fabrics. It was a smidge hard to actually use up the paperdolls and the honey jar bears.

And I've been saving the tiny seashells ''ditsy print'' for ages. Wish I had a lot more of it.

I tried to make the quilt nice but not too precious to use.

Worked on Cartwheels, but it is not pressed yet. 

Still piecing the backing. Ironing and pressing are  difficult for me to do now.

Mo approved both projects.

Streak of Autumn Lightning is complete! 

It's 50" square, a good size for me to handle and useful for display and stacking.

The quilting is so beautiful, by Lori C. of Quilter's Imagination.

I decided not to wash this quilt. I know the orange border has unstable dye. 

It's really very clean except for this one stain that looks like a needle prick bloodstain. I wish I had cut that section out before I finished the quilt.

I  had a woman on IG tell me to put the bloodstained quilt in the freezer for 24 hours to remove the stain. How would that even work? And my frozen foods go where? I was baffled.

Note the subtle color changes with the various double pinks used.

Previously when I have posted pics of the vintage PA Mennonite [?] top, I have gotten verbal eye rolls and shrugs because it is, yes, extremely bright. But it is a genre colorway of that area and period. And it is going to look fantastic in the fall with pumpkins and gourds in my big wooden bowl. Trust me. No shabby white or minimalist grey Autumns planned here.

I have finished the hand applique of my Marsh quilt's crows. Just have to machine sew their branches.

Deck sewing time is always productive. What will be next? [I have not touched my May planned stars though. I think the sheer numbers of 8 big stars and 4 giants put me off. I will now tackle one at a time]. I can work on my Gathering Love Pineapple quilt*; or knit? I haven't cut my TQC Tiny Handsewed project at all. I am held back by the notion of marking the seams, color me Lazy. Here is blog friend Penny's adorable version. She does such beautiful work always.

*As with my long-ago set aside lighthouses quilt, I may never get back to Gather Love, I can't at the moment imagine a time when we will all joyously sit at my table in friendship and love. Changes and Covid have defeated that dream.

Every day I sew at the machine I try to make an hourglass or two for my next year's Antique Block Challenge.  if indeed Lori does one. see this year's, on Humble Quilts 

 https://humblequilts.blogspot.com/2022/05/humble-quilt-antique-block-challenge.html

I ''got gay'' as my dad used to say when one got carried away by reckless enthusiasm [nothing to do with LGBT / LGBTQIA+ , like rainbows...]. And so, besides the red/ neutral triangles, I decided I'd do a few other colors sprinkled in.

At first last week I thought omigosh, disaster, stop that! right now! But today taking the pics in different light I kinda like the other colors.

Here is just red/neutral for comparison.

I think Giraffe at the Pyramids is so funny and cute, I have been saving him for years.

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Wednesday was Mo's Adoption Day anniversary. Eight years! He has certainly been a dear companion and quilt advisor, if not the cuddliest pug.

There was a party hat, scrambled eggs breakfast!, jerky sticks, and doggy ice-cream. No guests, Covid has changed that sort of fun. Not that Mo cared.

And the day was gorgeous! [for anyone new, this is our view from my deck during sewing hour with Mo each summer.]

more doings soon!~

have a good weekend.

love 

lizzy 

gone to the beach....

PS I have to share this, poor photos and all. I was very thrilled to see that there is a new osprey nest near my house. I was out with L and I noticed a hovering ''hawk'' or osprey near the main / only/ road. Then I spied this nesting pole, now set up near decrepit power lines, either by the power company or county? The nest visibly had a mom sitting on it, daddy flying close patrol nearby. I hope we can get back for better pictures. Oddly it is so close to the road but somewhat inaccessibly located on the edge of a town beach park, for which we have no passes or access during the summer.

For some reason big nests like this make my skin crawl, seem icky, but I love that these once endangered birds are proliferating again here.

                                          

Beach, sky, flowers