August ~ And July Project Show and Tell

Hi everyone! Welcome August! High summer....

The angle of the sun has changed, did you notice that?  The light is more golden. Days are now uniformly hot, blue, and breezy. Sunset comes a little sooner each day. I have graduated to floating in the pool with a Styrofoam ''noodle'' each afternoon. NO swimming, but just to float and relax is a joy.
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I was surprised when I gathered the pix for this post, I did more than I realized! But doesn't Fourth of July seem like it was just eons ago? A long but short/ fast July~
Here is what Mo and I worked on during July.
The ever present Summertime, only six more rosettes to go. OMG, the hours spent on this project, yeesh. I will be thrilled when this is done and folded away in the closet, yay!

In my bin of blue fabrics I found a perfect backing for Sand Pails and Starfish.

I was going for use a Beacon [looks like a lighthouse] feedsack but decided this is too perfect to pass up. It will get miniature Baptist Fan quilting.

 I finished the last of Fall Festival's applique blocks. This is  the banner that goes across the top of the quilt.

I have to make 40-50 Flying Geese and set them into the sashing, sew the whole thing together, add borders---maybe in January unless we get a rainy Fall.

I made some changes as always. A white crow. Oak leaves.

I wish my Jack o'Lantern was smiling, have to figure out what's wrong with his smile!He looks appalled.

Beginning Bitty. [Bitty's Quilt, from Minick and Simpson]. My friend Sue is making Bitty also.. Here is her background, very  pretty
:

And mine, rumpled as always.

This is the big blown up full size pattern.

 I don't have a light box so I had to use my window. It wasn't easy to do, standing there trying to trace and mark the designs. But something to experiment with.

This very simple design has a lot of things ''tucked under'' or layered. My hope was that tracing the design would make that work easier/ better. We shall see.

For the beach, I prepped the applique squares of Jan Patek's Midnight Clear.

I'll need a day to sew some of the white star blocks so that I can work out how to put only the bottom fifth of the quilt together, borders and all!, so I can continue the applique.

And my other Patek quilt, Pumpkins and Pinwheels.

I'm not happy with this at all. I think the big issue is that the entire project is very mingy and small? Looks like a full sized quilt in its photo but is only 49" square. I almost feel like Patek's original was bigger and the directions are for a reduced wall hanging version or throw.

Here are the little Pumpkin blocks also sewed at the beach, fine. BUT the pinwheel blocks come out bigger than the  little pumpkin blocks, which I stupidly cut to exact size. The little pumpkins are very wishy-washy small ovals, no bigger than my Dotty circles. And the stems should be green.

Look at the awful left side of this poor Pumpkin! The wind was howling. I picked out the stitches when I saw what I had done,lol.

So a complete do over? Or a set aside? Probably I will recut the Pumpkin squares larger, and redraw them so they're cuter. I am grateful and slightly in awe of the Half square triangle method Patek describes in the directions though. Two squares, face to face. Sew around the perimeter, then cut on both diagonals, and. voila`! ---you have four perfect equal half square triangles to form your Pinwheels. Easy peasy, and wonderful. The edges are then on the bias but they butt up to straight grain spacer blocks so may be will be okay.

I hate to just discard this project. I love the white pumpkins; I love the fabrics I have gathered for the quilt [yes, same palette as Fall Festival, but different fabrics], and Pinwheels is one of my very fave traditional blocks. Quandary. My feeling is to enlarge the design, to 150%, that would make it a 75" square quilt. 7.5 or 8" blocks instead of 5" blocks? Even 6" blocks would be an improvement, I think.
I'll work on Bitty for awhile and think about that. What do you guys think?

Mo says Hi!

love

lizzy  

gone to the beach....

PS oooh, I forgot to say I knitted half a mitten too! Mo lets me knit now, he only ''ate'' one ball of yarn.

Something for the Weekend

It's Friday! But oh no! Summer is half over, the days are flying by [and getting shorter]. This is the last weekend of July '17. Let's make it a good one? I am expecting fussy guests and have been cleaning like crazy for three days, ugh. Even things that do NOT matter, like my underwear basket and fridge door spice rack. If my guests check out those areas---well, I'd be speechless , I guess.
Did you get any Fall catalogs yet? I got a couple ''transitional" ones, like from LL Bean. You know, shorts plus sweaters?
Online this mini skirt is everywhere from Ann Taylor to Talbot to Gap and Old Navy. Big floral or camo. Fine if you're 14!




Time flies! Exceptionally chic cool watches, even though who wears a watch anymore? here




Kel asked me about this wine . In a photo the other day the beautiful bottle could be seen filled with sand on my friend's doorstep. It's a local NY/ Long Island wine called Summer in a Bottle. here



White or rose`, exceptional!

Avery fun link from Mel, if you have a few minutes to be amazed, inspired and charmed by this crazy artist: here

And in beach books: Nancy Thayer's summer offering: Secrets in Summer
I enjoyed it very much, despite Thayer's ongoing theme of cheating spouses and tacky sex. The heroine was an intelligent regular person this year, not one of Thayer's tedious rich bitches. And Nantucket itself was lightly but charmingly described, including some fun local things like having to jump on a plane to go mall shopping on the mainland, or being on stand-by for the ferry ride back to Cape Cod. The love interest was a bit blah, the guy was seriously boring and moody, who needs that? Get a dog instead, lol.

Michael Connolly's first in a new series [since poor Harry Bosch is getting past retirement into old age doldrums] The Late Show starts slow, no interest or connection to the young woman detective who is the new star of his book. As things go on, the book improves, though her lifestyle is seriously unlikely. I admit I lost the plot thread towards the end, not that it mattered. I always like Connolly's writing and will look for the next in this series.
Both good summer reads, despite my quibbling!
Have a great weekend! [pls let me know if links or photos don'y show up, this post is a bit dofferent, just experimenting here. thx]

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Farmers Market

Hi! I went to the farmers market today! How fun! The past few days have been rainy and very cool here, low 60s,

...but today the clouds blew off to sea and the day was what New Yorkers call a Ten Best Day. Truly delightful. Still cool, breezy, dry, not a cloud in the sky.  

I haven't been to the market since summer before last, but today I decided to give it a try, despite always disappointing parking issue.

I was so happy I went. The market is smaller than it was, but bustling and cheery.

As always the abundance and the colors of the produce delight my eyes and  appetite, inspire creativity.

I love the bandanna lined baskets.

No fruit though! I was hoping for fresh raspberries. [Inspiration recipe here. ] But I have arugula and romaine in my fridge and a bought an enormous bouquet of very spicy red and white long radishes. So I'll make do with store bought vinaigrette , I think Kraft?

I also wanted Kirby cucumbers for my dill pickle project, but again, no. There was a box of the cukes but they were huge, like overgrown zucchini. This makes pickles that are all seeds, not good. I still haven't found a good pickling vinegar anyway so I guess I can wait.

The other item on my list was field grown zinnias.

My own zinnias [and other seed flowers] are doing well and blooming,

but I hate to cut them and I was so hopeful that the guy who always has the zinnia posies would be there today. And he was!

Aren't they the cutest flower?

My favorite Italian seller from my old Brooklyn neighborhood was still there. Many fancy ravioli choices.

I wonder what one does with berry filled ravs?

Next week I think I'll try the blueberry ones, which I'll toss with fresh ricotta. Also some  special cheeses, like this scamorza, an aged mozzarella with a rind, very unique to Italian markets, mild but salty, so delish~Info here

The market has a new ''wellness'' feature, with ongoing yoga under the trees. Here are some people practicing/ meditating (and young woman enjoying an impromptu  picnic with her daughter).

And here is the yoga studio's booth.

 I love looking at clothes and textiles, especially Indian prints, some voile, some silk. They also sell tiny [store bought] muslin bags stamped "Breathe" or "Namaste" and so on, filled with lavender; plus small bunches of dried lavender. Enjoyable, but I'm a bit confused/ miffed because when L and I wanted to sell my lavender hearts at the market we were told [unofficially but by someone in authority] that the green market could only sell produce and things grown locally, no ''crafts''--and certainly not kimonos from India!??

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Back home Mo and I enjoyed the chilly afternoon on our deck. I think this makes Mo happier than anything else in life, even better than sleeping in mom's bed--a quiet afternoon in the sun on the deck, just us two, peaceful and relaxed. It must make Mo feel safe and loved.

I finished all but one posy of the outer rosette borders of Summertime. Four inner rounds to go, 24 more rosettes, then to disperse the extras. In birds' beaks, maybe?
I think the rosettes are zinnias, what do you think?

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...