Summer Glory and Opie's School Shirts

Good evening! It's just after 8 PM and it's dark out! Mo and I are sad that his bedtime walk will be in the dark now for months to come. The days are noticeably shorter now, but hot as blazes finally here at the beach. No rain today again, but a few drops and then a rainbow.

I have been feeling tired, something happened to me Saturday. Not a big deal, but I went scampering off to the beach, Sunflower in my bag. I thought the temp was around 75*, my phone must have been showing Some.Where. Else.

Instead it was, I discovered later, 86* with 94% humidity. I made it to our beach spot, only to discover that I had left the embroidery threads for Sunflower at home. So upsetting. I hung out for a while, used Bitty royal blue silk thread for one word of the block's caption. then finally trudged home over the 3/4 mile sandy burning Sahara of the summer beach. I was feeling awful, lightheaded and strange, but the prospect of  needing embarrassing rescue attention kept me going, plod, plod, plod. Fine once I was home and sat down a spell.

The coral floss was hiding on the deck, camouflaged on a pineapple printed tablecloth, the black nowhere to be seen.

 Ever since I've felt exhausted, hence my Monday post here, on Thursday.

But  I do have finishes to share. Here is Sunflower, from A Country Year.

Its real name is Summer Glory, which I may change because I don't like it, it sounds oddly religious to me, lol. In an inappropriate way.

Otherwise I love it, isn't it cute! So retro, not at all what currently is happening in prim sewing, which is stylistically much more sophisticated nowadays. Of course for me, its cute naivete and simpleness are is what I love.

I also really finished-finished Opie's School Shirts.

This was a top I found online and had quilted by my wonderful quilter Lori C, in Baptist Fans.

I wish you could see and feel the textures of this quilt in person, just perfectly crispy crinkled, thin drapey and soft.

The triangles are LARGE!

And many of them are many-pieced ''poverty patches''.

Up close the colors are quite vibrant, they fade and soften in the photos, as they are ginghams and plaids.

All hand pieced. I have no idea of the date of this top. Originally I had dated it as 1940-1950s; the fabrics look much older in person. And it is sewed with odd heavy white twisted thread, almost cord that could even be recycled thread from old feed sacks; it looks like the thread used to close those bags, heavy and easily removed. But then, look at those homespuns---still made today! So who knows.

The top looked clean and had no spots or odors, but after washing it was so much brighter. The Color Catchers in the wash came back dull tan/brown.

The back is a pretty coral-red print added to a semi-vintage [1990s?] Alphabet print, that in itself is harkening back to early 1900's,

 I am guessing around 1930, judging from the car,

And that whatever inspired the print was British, as it has the Queen and Our Navy and other England-y references, such as the spelling of airplane as aeroplane.

The letters and image choices are so amusing. F for horse [foal], M for mo-car, motorcar?

The hilarious radish shaped Kite, whose face reminds me of early 20th century Yellow Kid cartoon/ comic.here

W for Moon?

F for Horse [foal].

And I do wonder who Gilbert was!

The photos look butter yellow but the fabric is really a pale green-yellow citron shade.

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Meanwhile, I am feeling better just oddly exhausted. Our regular dogwalker is away, so I must go out early with Mo for his most energetic walk of the day. This is a challenge for me bec my AM pain meds do not take effect as quickly as Mo wants to GO! But the walk in the pretty mornings is so fun. The downside is, after he has his run and potty time, he wants me to carry him home! OMG, so not gonna happen.

"You woke me up too early, mommy.
I need you to carry me,
my feeties hurt. I'm hot, I'm tired.
Wah! Wah.!" 

Have a good week!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Just in case you are asking yourself, Who is Opie? Old b & w TV series , often shown on cable reruns. My ex loved it, could binge watch for hours. Days. Me: "What, no Seinfeld today?"
 Opie Taylor, played by Ron Howard

Mid-August Lull

Hello, friends! It's been a quiet time here at the beach, a brief lull before the End of Summer excitement and celebration of Labor Day. The weekend at the beach with friends was glorious. In a gale wind and chilly sort of way.

Mellow and relaxing. People read books and Kindles, and buried toes in the cool underneath sand.

I'm making eggplant parm for a friend's birthday, for the weekend ahead, and meatballs in the same sauce. Not the enormous trays I sometimes make, just enough for my friends and maybe a bit for us here at home. I'm trying a new way of pre-cooking the eggplant,  roasted in the oven, instead of standing for hours deep frying. Not sure how long that will take! Today I made the marinara sauce and the meatballs, also oven roasted instead of fried. I just tested a meatball, mmm, yummy.

I haven't accomplished as much deck sewing as I had hoped. I finally realized that the current deck chairs are not as comfortable as the old set.  I get up from an hour of sewing and can barely straighten up, let alone walk Mo. Too bad, maybe cushions will help.

I've been working on my Year in the Country "August" block. Love the sunflower.

I decided to do a prim running stitch to give the petals dimension and texture, This was fun and fast but not a good choice for a very windy beach day---I kept sewing the corners into the back, like folding in and catching. Much snipping and redoing.

The background represents my view of ocean and sky.

I added a heart shaped leaf, one of a sunflower's subtle charms. [but yes,, this is a morning glory,lol.]

And I found a ladybug button to hide some bad machine sewing.  (Something is wrong with my good machine, it spits the fabric off to the left side! Cannot sew a straight seam or smooth curve.)

Next month's block is an empty birdhouse...I am thinking it should be an empty nest instead, but then the eggs I want to put make no sense. I just hate when the kids go back to school, I enjoy having them home and the September beach is so beautiful. Hence, ''empty nest''....?

Gully--we were worried, he'd been dragging a wing.
Maybe just molting?

Another day--or days---I experimented with ''tea-dye'' aging for this small quilt.

No tea, which tends to appear pinkish; I tried two kinds of coffee, instant and boiled grounds of espresso. Dingy but no real impact. Then I used RIT dye in brown and lemon yellow. Closer to what I'm looking for but not wonderful.

Here is the antique I am using for inspiration. HERE



I wanted that golden aging look. I was also surprised and saddened by the green squares' overall loss of color. No more bright poison green, but just dull green, after the first  no-dye wash. Not a real FAIL but not quite what I wanted.

I do like the back I chose, though those fabrics faded a lot too.

I finished the top of a baby quilt today. Can't show you yet, though I doubt the mom reads my blog. It is simple and modern, not a Lizzy look but maybe they will like it and use it?

The Christmas Tree Shop sale flyer came today, online. They're showing my fave Tiffany aqua [that they call teal, even though teal is a deep green with a bit of blue: TEAL]. I love this look. Immediately texted my friend L:"Roadtrip!" I hope we can go. HERE

Mo got wet today during our dinner walk. He was so indignant.

"WTF?

Tomorrow I have to go buy a bushel of eggplants! Wish me luck.

Full Moon tomorrow! The Corn Moon.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Beach Cottage ~ Midsummer Re-dos and Style Changes

Hi everyone! The past few days I've been changing things around just a bit here at the beach. I love summer but it drags on endlessly through October, so by mid-August I am ready for a change. But not a PUMPKIN change.

My bedroom is simple and mostly white except the blue painted Shaker blanket chest and blue six-board chest. So it lends itself to any color I want to feature. Here I have veered off my usual blua and white runway into a bright and cheery tropical look.

 Pineapple coverlet, flamingo pillow cases, Beach Umbrellas quilt, bright roses throw pillow. Plain white linens on the bed.

This textile is a recent thrifting find, a butter yellow washed twill, with a classic Ralph Lauren flag tag.

I think it's a tablecloth, but it could be a bed topper, used on top of my white comforter to collect Mo-hair.

Usually I use a white ruffled flat sheet. This allows me to lift off just the sheet to wash or shake out, and supposedly keeps dust bunnies of Mo down in check. [hahahahah]. Or I may cut the piece up for pillow shams that go on my stacks of pillows. 

In the living room I put away all the red/white/ and blue patriotic accents. Everything is simple, cool blue and white.

The coffee table features a white ironstone platter with lovely candles, tropical scents.

Pineapple board for clutter, like remotes and wine glasses.

Nothing took much effort and having a small change can ward off the August doldrums. Though I imagine the bedroom will be back to blue and white by the next sheet change.

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Friday Flea report: The tent had darling dishes for a quarter, but no. Inside a row of wonderful prim stoneware jugs, very large, 10.oo each. Not particularly old-old, but HUGE, like 10 or 15 gallon. Maybe Red Wing,c. 1920-40? They would look really great on my pine bride's bench but they were very dirty and I just couldn't pay 50.oo or cope with what might be luring inside. Jugs have those closed tops, unlike crocks. So, no. And---no  coffee tables! I even had a few guys around ready to help me bring them home.

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Mo had a sleepover last week. I got a text: " He insists on belly rubs!"

Later, "He took my space in the bed!"

Have a good weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach......