Finds

Hi! I started this post about the flea market and realised it is a little same old! I guess a person buys/ finds what they like or collect or can use?

Anyway, here goes. The flea market was nice, maybe 75% of its summer height of a few years ago before the church and parking issue forced it to be tiny and awful. Now it is in its new spot and on a grey and foggy but warmish Sunday it was busy and fun. I actually prefer it when it's 60* not 90* but I guess the dealers don't so much.

I got a giant safety pin full of teeny tiny keys..

Aren't they adorable?

Someone's collection?
Some are only 1/2" long and all have a nice honestly rusty patina.

Then chandelier crystals for Christmas ornaments...

Icicles.....

And I was thinking these were strings, ''strands of diamonds'' but most are loose.

I probably won't get them made for this year, times is going by so fast! And with no mail service here still, it seems hardly worth the gas to drive over all the bridges to the  only post office that is working. Hard to know what to do...things are a bit difficult here still.

Then a few beach finds. The sand is quickly reclaiming the driftwood debris from Sandy and as it smooths itself out, a few bits of seaglass have emerged.

This is a neat very purple bottle neck. Newly broken. How I'd have loved to find the bottle in its unbroken state!

I thought it was a milk bottle but the big 4 on the reverse has me stumped.

The additive that allows glass to turn purple was discontinued in approximately 1910, so we know this bottle is hundred years old..

And then a useful bit of plastic. A Disney something? It will be a perfect template for some of the border flowers on the Porch Quilt. So I brought it home.

The best find did not come home with me, sigh. It was at a Marshall's, one of the ones that isn't closed and plywooded up. The find was a huge mercury glass heart Christmas ornament! Like a kugel repro, silver inside, very heavy. It was maybe 12 or more inches long.
Oh I loved it!
But it had no price tag and the sales people at Marshall's just shook their heads in confusion, no clue how to find the price.  LOL, I even braved the very dense fog today and went back to see if it had been priced and put back on the shelf. But no, either not yet or some other lucky person loved it too...

We always remember the one that got away, don't we?

love

          lizzy

.........gone to the beach

PS Speaking of debris, this is the view from my back deck!

That is a mound of garbage about a mile away! It is the size of a football field or even bigger!--- and many stories high.
It is...people's homes.

I feel for them. But I don't really want it in my ''backyard''.

the hidden swale, used by migratory birds.
It is a secret  and invisble pond
high in the dunes...
now filled with sand, no water.



apocalypse sky



Project Update

Hi! Oh it's a hot chocolate night, brrr.

November is almost over, it went too fast! Darkness comes so early now...I am having my beach hike at 2pm. And the sun is setting by the time I head home. The beach was very chilly today...and look how peaceful it seems....

11.28.12

I want to stand out there and yell "How could you!!??" uselessly at the gentle blameless waves. So silly to feel betrayed, isn't it...

Anyway!

Some quilting updates [all links at end of post]: I couldn't post my October Porch section for Lori's quilt along, because the photos got left behind in the storm. Here it is.

I made changes...I wanted to do a stoneware crock [just like my NYC find! [sort of?]....and probably no butterflies, they seem kinda clunky/ boxy to me.

The start points were killer, so hard to do. I believe the original quilt was raw edge wool applique, no turned points!

Then November....The group assignment was to do a block with an enormous watering can. Um, no. So I used other ideas from Lynda's book [Primitive Places : "A Little Porch Time"], including the long skinny black kitty, my wild Kitty, and her hollyhocks.

Her husband Stripey will have his picture on the far left, up near my blah / boring house block.
Parts of this section I've shown you before, I worked on it all summer..and doing this / freestyling it, really gave me a deep respect for a designer like Lynda whose wildly unrelated blocks all work great in the end.  I juggled a LOT of hollyhocks here. The unfinished stems and flowers will, if they look right, trail onto other blocks/ borders.

This is another November section, it is a filler strip for the far left side. I love the pieced blocks, in this case Flying Geese.

And here are my two completed quilts. I did the handsewn bindings [one side] during the storm. You should have seen me as Sandy approached, madly machine sewing on bindings to be finished by hand in the event of No Power. Boy, I had a lot of time! Too bad it was so freakin' dark. But I lugged them off to NYC and here they are. I often leave bindings half finished on my quilts, some mindless handwork to have in the project bank. I am always terrified I will have nothing to do...no handwork, I mean, in this case. And yes I do knit, but it just isn't the same, in my case.

For the Baskets I hurriedly chose the blue in the end. It was the most traditional choice, for a traditional antique/ recycled top.

I still love this quilt with its tiny baskets. I am pleased  that my subbed blocks are not noticeable.
And I especially love this all white block, below. You can just barely see the handle....the color of the original is so totally gone.

 ''Baskets'' was a top from an antiques show. It was very damaged, had once been a tied quilt, well used, well washed. Someone ''rescued'' it, resold it. I sewed the replacement blocks by hand, patched the holes in the white ground..using only antique fabrics for all the repairs.

And my Halloween quilt!

 I think it came out so cute! Below is the actual colors

Here is the back, made with old feedsacks....

There's a saying about ''quilting makes the quilt"" and that is so true. Beautifully machine quilted by Lori Cangemi at Quilters Imagination [not the same Lori s Humble Quilts Lori!]. The quilting, binding and subsequent washing and drying add so much texture and dimension, I think.

I have yet another quilt quilted by Lori C., but I'll save that for another day.

love

         lizzy

gone to the beach...



what a find!
It looks just like I pictured, with the dried chinese lanterns
from Olde Farmouse Simples!



Links:

Quiltalong:  Lori's blog "Humble Quilts" here

Primitive Pieces by Lynda Hall here

Machine quilting by Lori Cangemi Quilters Imagination, here

Drieds, and inspiration always, Michelle at Olde Farmouse Simples here

both Lori C. and Michelle have shops on eBay and do beautiful work.

Autumn in NY

 Hi! Before we get all crazy with Christmas, I wanted to share some photos of autumn here....

I've mentioned before that fall comes late to the east coast, the ''height'' of the season being from Veterans Day through Thankgsgiving, sometimes on to mid-December.

This year of course I spent those weeks in Manhattan. It's a litle colder there than at the beach, but we had lovely crisp Auntumn days to enjoy our visit. This is the corner by my temporary home. Very quiet and charming...

And the view across the street---enormous cruise ships chug by, big as skyscrapers, close enough to almost touch! Quite a sight...

And the promenade...

This is the roof top garden! So pretty!.....

and the amazing view....

  

love

            lizzy

gone to the beach...