So I Went to the Flea Market and What Did I see?

Happy Monday! Today began as a lovely grey blustery Autumn day! Too bad it is June. And the nice fall-like grey turned to dismal spring drizzle. Mo and I have spent the day in the sewing room, hiding from blown in sand and dust bunnies. I began piecing my  Blue Baskets---using a schematic made for me by blog friend Penny. What a huge help---but more on that in another post.

Friday was flea market day. I wasn't going to go, truly I was not---the devil made me do it. I just drove by ''on the way'' , running errands, and there it was, a good parking space. New treasures too:

Since my happy successes with finding fabric items [sheets, apron], I made a beeline to the  household items corner. And found good stuff. An entire bin of sewing items.

Seam binding, which I wash and crinkle and use for bows on my sachet hearts and also on my little bags I use for packaging.

Pretty colors.

Needles! The long thin type I like.

Pins, useful but mostly I loved the little octagonal box.

And a nice tomato for my pincushion collection. It looks new but the packaging was old and dusty, 1950s? and its original price was 99 cents.

Then a Singer tin of buttons. Very much taped shut, so a pig in a poke, but bought mostly for the tin itself. This tin is quite large 5 x 6 x 5. I have a much smaller one I use for my sewing machine's extra feet and tools.

These tins are not old, not the age of the sewing machines pictured. But Fortunoff's closed years ago---and note that price on the old tag!

I did get it open finally, at home, fairly blah if odd assortment of plastic mid century buttons. Most big and ugly, no older treasures mixed in.

One odd aspect---there are a good number of various wood buttons. Wood buttons were never all that popular because they're not really washable or dry-cleanable and had to be removed for each cleaning. But obviously this sewer liked them and used many designs.
(If you're making the Cheddarback sewalong quilt, this TQC shirting might be good for the sashing?]

I was looking for tiny blue buttons for my Day in the Country June/ Rooster block, to be morning glories? and/ or greens for cat eyes. I want to make a bowlful of prim  black kitties for a whimsical Fall display. Kitties

The other weird thing about the button box was the huge amount of [useless] buttons crammed into the little tin! This is a big mixing bowl!

I'm not in the mood right now to sort them, am tempted to put them back in their tin, but they have expanded like the contents of a clown car. I don't think they'll fit, hahaha. Like putting toothpaste back in the tube! There were three even bigger cooky tins full of buttons too, but again taped shut, yards and yards of packing tape. Weighed a ton. Pass.

Last there was--and still is, I presume, a very sweet apron, in that ugly full cobbler apron style, like Aunt Bea wore on that Mayberry TV show, you know, Opie's gramma? Its appeal was that it was a tiny calico sprig of holly leaves and berries, red and green on white. So cute. For my annual Christmas mini quilt proj'. Ugliest red narrow binding you ever saw. It wasn't priced yet and the ladies refused to sell it. What the heck?

And my last find was this early 2oth century [1890-1915?] mixing bowl.

I went back a few times---three dollars!? Beautiful dark shiny brown glaze like bittersweet chocolate.

Made in USA.

It was labeled As Is, but the flaws seemed original---this odd tiny circle cutout in the bottom? So it came home with me, it can hold the bowl of black kitty dolls in October.

[I have a big collection of autumn colored brown and pumpkin bowls that I don't usually show, not in the corner cupboard. But--three dollars? Bittersweet chocolate glaze? Love.]

What I didn't buy: OMG! These are very large---16"?--- chalkware kewpie clown dolls. Aren't they awful! Scary.$$$$.

The boy on the left has a glitter mohawk do! And the guy on the right looks like Susan Branch's Petey doll's evil brother Chuckie, doesn't he!? If you read her blog you'll know about her weird doll who travels with her. Hmmmm.


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Saturday was Mo's Adoption Day anniversary. I made him a little party. Yes I know he has no clue but it's fun for me.

He loved his little cake from Chewy.

Healthier mix and much easier than his bday cake in March. This came with a cute bone shaped cake pan and was made in the microwave in 2 minutes, just my speed.

Five Mo years, five years since baby Mo flew alone to me here in NY from Cali. My little boy, and companion.

Chewy gifted us with a real oil painting portrait of Mo, from his 5th birthday! It's so "Mo".

my photo

Hint: I get Mo to look at me like this for pics by holding a dry doggy treat between my teeth,lol.:

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The weekend was beautiful to look at, 65, bright sun---and gale winds from the East sandblasting anyone stupid enough to venture to the beach. Mo and I and various guests enjoyed the deck instead. I spent ALL weekend [ok, 5 or 6 hours? more?] sewing this quilt block by hand. May/ Herbs. Not much to show for my effort and not done.

Hope your week is good! Here's my green supermarket roses, now in bloom, Love the ruffles.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

"Did you say Ice Cream , mommy?"

"Summer Afternoon"~ Hand Sewing

Good evening, everyone. The evening is lovely, cool--and light!, but the day was a sudden hot summer day.  Here, a few June roses, palest lime green with shell pink centers.

We went from parka weather to shorts overnight, isn't that so often the way? It's as if Spring never happened, and Summer suddenly woke up, saw that it is June, and barreled her way into our world here at the beach.

 I'm still feeling the side effects from my medical day last week, so I decided to postpone my big day out with a friend and instead stayed home for a quiet day with Mo.

I think Mo is a smidge bored? He was disappointed to get NO ice cream.

My deck still needs to dry out and get both scrubbed and vacuumed but it's together enough for sewing afternoons to commence. A perfect pastime for a hot sunny day.

My son helped me put up my shade umbrella the other day, much needed as I do avoid midday sun.
My pots are sprouting.

I was dismayed to read though that most seed flowers take 60 days to bloom. That means my late planting has me with no flowers til August!? That's not great.
Garden art will fill the gaps, my new lighthouse whirligig, an Easter prezzie---and others.

Seedlings:

Bad Mo tipped over my Green with Envy zinnias, I was mad. I think they're lost. Replanted with the State Fair Heirloom z's. The Pinwheel Zinnias are still missing.

Herbs:

This coreopsis was sown last summer, and the seeds grew, but only a little. It's a perennial, so it takes a few patient years. I am quite surprised at the early glorious school bus yellow flowers.

This morning the planter had attracted butterflies, one especially beautiful, a blue and black swallowtail of some sort. I looked in my Country Year, yes some were admirals? like these, but not sure what the blue butterfly is.

Here is my current nature book: by Celia Lewis. It's English so the seasons and familiar names are off, I read a few months at a time.

But here is a lovely June page, of what we call flags, or Japanese iris (we won't see dragonflies here til August):

Mo found plenty of the iris to sniff, no leg lifting allowed.

Back on the deck I worked on the embroidery segment of my Day in the Country quilt blocks.

I don't know why I feel so impatient with embroidery nowadays. At one point in my life, when for various reasons I couldn't sew or quilt much if at all, and then only in stolen moments at work---I used to do a lot of embroidery. I had a long train commute and would  work on embroidery projects, including redwork and counted cross stitch instead of simply endlessly reading. Maybe the fact that I threw away those projects a few years ago during a declutter? Broke my heart a bit.

Anyway, I am working on my patience level and rediscovering old skills. The names and dates are charming and fun.

We have a big summer beach weekend planned here so I better get busy and prep May and June blocks so I have lots of projects, along with Bitty, to bring to the beach.

Picnic: Lettuce roll-ups, with cold cuts and avocado paste inside; whole wheat pitas stuffed with cucumber/ dash of olive oil, squeeze of lemon; sides to add of lemon hummus and tzatziki here to dip in or drizzle on. Bags of strange chips/ snacks from TJs. Tiny tomatoes. Strawberries. Mystery organic brownies from the market. And Original Goldfish crackers, of course. Even if only Gully and I will eat them now.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.......