Mist and Fog

Ah, May...the month of mist and fog at the beach.

And yet, there is a certain monochromatic beauty, a serenity, as  a hint of expectation.

Summer is just around the corner, waiting to burst with endless hot sunny days... 

 So, come! Walk with me...be sure to check out the little film at the end!

 

                                  

love

                  lizzy

......gone to the beach

And a wonderfully odd little treat from Dylan Thomas, all about a springtime night in a seaside town. Long ago and ...far away?

To begin at the beginning:

It is Spring, moonless night, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters and rabbits wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea.

Hush, the babies are sleeping, the farmers, the fishers, the tradesmen and pensioners, cobbler, schoolteacher, postman and publican, the undertaker and the fancy woman, drunkard, dressmaker, preacher, policeman, the webfoot cocklewomen and the tidy wives.

Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glow-worms down the aisles of the organplaying wood. The boys are dreaming wicked or of the bucking ranches of the night and the jollyrogered sea. And the anthracite statues of the horses sleep in the fields, and the cows in the byres, and the dogs in the wet-nosed yards; and the cats nap in the slant corners or lope sly, streaking and needling, on the one cloud of the roofs.


You can hear the dew falling, and the hushed town breathing.


Only your eyes are unclosed to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep.


And you alone can hear the invisible starfall, the darkest-before-dawn minutely dewgrazed stir of the black, dab-filled sea where the Arethusa, the Curlew and the Skylark, Zanzibar, Rhiannon, the Rover, the Cormorant, and the Star of Wales tilt and ride.


dylan thomas

 

Flea Market Blue and White

Hi! Did you all get to the flea market this weekend? Any treasures?

On Sunday the weather was glorious, that soft, puffy seaside air, not hot at all.
Sadly the flea market---this time the "big", or original market, was also crammed into the tiny new location that has all the charm of a, well, run-down asphalt train station parking lot. I guess these changes are permanent, as the nearby storefront church has been complaining about the market taking its parking spaces for years.

But really? It's a huge public train station and I for one do not see why this small church's wants/needs are more important than the rest of the tax paying world's. Besides the new fume-y shade-less cramped conditions, there is now nowhere legal to park since the market is on the parking lot! Again, not much fun to shop when you're thinking about a ticket, or worse, a towed car.

(Do towns tow on Sundays? Who knows?)

Can you imagine hiking to your car, toting your treaures, hot, thirsty, tired..and oops, No Car!!? Not good.

Probably after this coming week I won't be going back to these markets, it's just not fun.

I did get a few small goodies. More because I felt it was my last trip than because of the wonderfulness. The dealer count is way down, and the ones left are the sock and tool merchants, not the real antiques dealers.

An annoyed lady sold me these adorable tiny toy pitchers. The one on the right, below, is one I've had for years, it says Japan. So now I have three, I guess that makes it a Collection?

Late Victorian to mid-20th century? One is marked Japan, on the left.

I don't know much about toy dishes, I just like them because they are such cute minis of the large Staffordshire china I collect.

This one, from Japan---notice the fairly complex multi-shaded design. (The small plate behind it is very old Wedgwood.)

And this one is such a perfect tiny version of the bigger ones. I think it is perhaps

older?

 The same woman sold me these chandelier crystals.

If my etsy clients don't like red Christmas icicles (eeew?)...I 'll resell these. The dealer held her prices very firmly and assured me these are very valuable! Huh. She also snapped at me "Do you work?!" as if my offer, only 5.oo less had insulted her career as a flea market seller?

Then, because the road home was due to stay closed til 3PM I had to kill some time or go home via the very long route.  I went to the thrift shop...it was busy but airconditioned and calmer than the flea market's overcrowded chaos. A few finds:

Nantucket basket....

From the 1990s but so pretty, nice color, and well made ( and American, not from China). For knitting or sewing carrying.

And this pretty Haviland-style large platter. It says Austria nor France.

I mostly bought it for a photo prop for my lavender hearts..and it can go back tot he thrift shop when I tire of it. There the price was right !

Sorry the pix aren't too good, my camera hates dull dark days and nighttime shots.

love

              lizzy

gone to the beach>>>

Quilt Day

Hi! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
The beach has been so empty, so  pristine...which means no treasure.

But when I got home from my long fruitless walk---oh, my! The mailman left me treasure instead...my quilts are back! I just threw them over the sofa for a fast photo or two....

I was so excited!

The quilting is just gorgeous. I found Lori on eBay...and her work is amazing.

I can't wait to finish the Baskets. I repaired and reworked and remade that baby for years! Then I couldn't find anyone who understood my ideas for quilting it. Til now. I am so pleased. I guess it should have traditional turkey red binding? Or, blue?

 The baby quilt may go on etsy...it can have the baby's name added in the center section. Or maybe in my stash for gifts?

Other projects:

The little brown quilt from Cheri's blog is ready to be handquilted [on the summer beach]. And I made her next miniature quilt too...hers is of course much cuter. here  I may machine quilt this one. I'm a bit disappointed in my version because I so loved the little quilt that was the inspiration. So...I'll see.

 It will have the bright blue, rather crappy JoAnn's calico on the back. The JoAnn's calicoes fade terribly , in a streaky way.

Then, new projects: Lori [different Lori] at Humble Quilts is doing a quiltalong, or block of the month, here on this neat primitive quilt called "A Little Porch Time" by Lynda Hall at Primitive Pieces link is here.....

One of the great things about the internet is that we can write to these artists and hear right back, what a thrill. And Lynda gave me permission to show her quilt and my version as it is made. I hope I am up to this challenge. I have very few plaid homespuns! I'll have to tea dye and/ or use dark calico instead.

And the book is quite fun, as Lynda tells why she used each motif...but her world is so not my world, and here I am dithering: should my house be grey Cape Cod shingles? And be a lighthouse? Will my blueberry blue door look okay?

And...I don't have a porch! Or a cat!  

Just a deck and the seabirds and the beach!!! Should I make her world, or mine?

And, most important: Can I applique such a big project?

High anxiety here,lol.

But I decided to take it one block at a time, just as Lori will be doing on her blog.

I foresee a LOT of do-overs because doing the blocks one by one, to me, may be a disaster. (Fun. But well... the no porch thing?)

Yes the door is crooked. And the chimney thing is just to remind me it needs to go there...plus I have nothing whatsoever in my fabric stash for that star. It can, of course, wait awhile...

Then another idea! I've been loving this quilt, and yes it looks much more like "me"...I also heard from the nice folks at Glorious Color who gave me permission to show their photos.

That envelope came Friday! Lots of planning going on here at the beach. My friend Mel suggested, as I was oohing and aaahing about this design, that I get the pattern and start gathering the very extensive complex fabrics. And plan to begin it next January, when ski season means I have many weekends home alone.

Great idea, Mel! I'll shop in my fabric closet, mostly. I have plenty of brights. I think.

I'm finding it somewhat discomforting that I'm becoming involved in using other designers' plans. I was always taught to make my own designs and never use a pattern that I did not make myself. My dad taught me to sew and quilt and that was his...aesthetic?---even though in his own art he made exquisite museum quality   reproduction Chippendale and Shaker furniture. Not his own designs exactly, but he did make his own plans, usually on a paper napkin or old receipt. And alwayshis own secret drawer or niche....Yet the quilts his mother and my aunt made, that he treasured and used to teach me to quilt, were all "kit" quilts. But for me, he emphasized originality. So these projects will be a new direction for me.

We'll see if I can follow the directions, not my strong point.

Now, should this be a lighthouse or what?

And that heart shaped beard has GOT to go. (And odd hair/halo?]

and, um, the whale needs to look more, ah---whale-ish?

Flea market finds tomorrow, then a beach day! Busy week, stay tuned.

love

              lizzy

gone to the beach

Thanks again to:  Lori at Humble Quilts, Glorious Color, Cheri at Quilts by Cheri, and Lynda at Primitive Pieces! You are all my inspirations. Photos reprinted with their permission, links are in the text above. enjoy!