The Final Flea

Hi everyone! Here in NY we know fall is approaching when the celebrations of San Gennaro begin in September.   I think maybe, mostly? San Gennaro festivals are an Italian-American religious festival that is fairly local. I'll put some links at the end so you can read about the events. The most famous fest is in NYC in Little Italy and was featured in one of the Godfather films.

The other celebration is in the tiny village where the church flea takes place, the town is completely taken over by the carnival and apparently the entire church congregation if not the whole populace, takes over the narrow main street for almost a week. And  the ladies who run the church flea on summer Fridays culminate their fund raising season with a big white elephant tent sale during their church's San Gennaro Feast.

The feasts are raucous and gaudy, though more or less family events which feature a parade with the Saint's statue, then a wild street fair with every possible space, indoors and out, filled with carnival rides, food stands--famous for zeppoli and eggplant parm, also Italian sausage and peppers. Stomach-churning loud carnival rides, a big ferris wheel, games of chance and skill, rewarded with cheap delightful plush toys.

A music tent! And yes, the Ladies' White Elephant tent, proudly located right next to the tiny church itself.

We had read the flyers last year but something intervened and we never got there, I think a storm?, so this year we made a point of going this past Tuesday on the first preview day before, the Festival begins on the 5th.

The town was a madhouse, the little street clogged to bursting with food trucks and trailers delivering the carnival rides.

Here is the little old church. I have been to weddings here and inside it is normally as sweet and peaceful and tiny as any village church you can imagine.

But we couldnt find the ''big white tent''! The first tent we found was the music tent, the second had the rifle range and the roulette wheels, all in a tizzy of set up work. We ended up going to the Rec Hall where the flea is usually held. Despite do not enter signs,

...we snuck in and asked the ladies where the flea preview might be?

"Look at that blue ladder!" I whispered to L as we dodged across the parking lot. "Quilt display!"

"I don't think it's for sale," L answered. "Have you  tried Home Depot?"

Indoors: Picture an entire basketball court filled with food. Dozens of church ladies and men hard at work, prepping the homemade food for the oncoming throngs.

They directed us to the tent back beyond the church, and when we must have sighed and looked bewildered,  instead of making us go out and around, they allowed us to take a short cut through the basketball gym where the flea is held. The gym was transformed! It looked huge and was filled with temporary tables and large cooky sheets piled high with cut peppers, meatballs, huge foil covered casseroles of eggplant parm; breads in sacks and so on. Air conditioned but no hint of refrigeration, hmmm.

It was amazing. I wish I could have taken pics but didn't dare ask. EDIT: On Friday night my friend who loves eggplant parm went to the fair and sweet talked the ladies into selling him an  entire giant tray of prepared eggplant! A generous donation to the church fund, was, I think, involved!  And they got zeppoli, in the greasy bag, which were not shared, too bad! [zeppoli are deep fried balls of sweet dough, like beignets or donut holes.]

We were hustled through and out the back door, and we found the flea tent across the street.

What a huge job it must be to pack up and move the whole usual flea market over to the tent!

Everything carefully curated and displayed. [No coffee tables.]

This plate was the only thing that caught my eye, not to buy but pretty. L bought a beautiful Waterford cut crystal decanter.

And that concludes my flea market fun for the year, unless I get a ride to the big flea on some lovely October Sunday.

Oh well. Even though I'll miss it, I tell myself I do not need anything.

But really--not the point of flea-ing, is it?No it is all about the thrill of the hunt! Just think of, remember, that two dollar green polka dot apron!, and the pleasure it provided me.

And the darling little hand-carved shorebirds. That is what flea markets are all about.

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Wednesday was the first day of school here. Early rising was met with resistance:

"Don' wanna, go away , mommy."

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

San Gennaro Festival, Little Italy, NYC :  HERE  and here

Local San Gennaro Festival: here

One of the Festival scenes from The Godfather: here

PS Trivia!---one of my first dates w my now ex husband was to the San G Festival that first year I moved to NYC after college. We had so much fun, I had never seen a street fair such as this! My fave thing was the huge tubs of corn on the cob, that the seller would dip into a bucket of hot melted butter, then hand it to you, with the stem wrapped in a fairly useless paper napkin. So delicious. Tho even back then, my eggplant parm was better! And I just had to show my culinary skills off making it a few weeks later. OMG I was so---hopelessly naive and shy and way too young to be alone in the city. LOL LOL.

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Storm effects:

* COASTAL FLOOD IMPACTS...Shallow flooding is expected in themost vulnerable locations near the waterfront and shoreline.Expect around 1 to 2 feet of inundation above ground level inlow lying, vulnerable areas. Some roads and low lying propertyincluding parking lots, parks, lawns and homes/businesses withbasements near the waterfront will experience shallow flooding.* SHORELINE IMPACTS FRIDAY THROUGH SATURDAY...High surf willdevelop Friday Afternoon into Friday Evening, peaking at 6 to 10kt for the ocean beaches of NYC and Western Long Island, and 8to 12 feet across Eastern Long Island beaches Friday Night intoSaturday Morning, before gradually subsiding Saturday afternoon.These large breaking waves will result in significant beachflooding and erosion. Areas of erosion to dune structures andlocalized washovers are also possible during the times of hightide, resulting in some flooding of roadways and vulnerablestructures behind low-lying protective dunes. Finally, verydangerous rip currents are expected during this time, posing adanger to anyone who enters the surf.Time of high total tides are approximate to the nearest hour.

Lori's Stringalong ~ Month 8

Hello! Welcome September, whose motto is: "It's still summer!" Popping in on this holiday evening to add my string project to Lori's linky, which caught me unprepared on Friday.

Month Eight? My post should be month 5, as I walked away from my sewing machine in early June and didn't really return until we had that nice rain day last week.

I did do some work on my Blue Baskets that day. And made some mistakes, since diagonal settings aren't the best ]thing to set aside, I know I forget what I am doing. Also the corner triangles I had cut went lost.The second row of five Baskets got make anyway. Hard to photograph.

You're looking, above, diagonally across the quilt. The Baskets will be upright when complete. This is the final orientation, below.

Then I did some border planning. I found a white shirting print, so here is my original plan, very traditional. A narrow white float* border, a narrow cheddar border; then a wider white border. Not sure what binding, either narrow cheddar, or scrappy blue plaid, or just one blue print. Cheddar binding is the most traditional .       
* non-quilter friends, a float border separates the pieced blocks from the main border, so the block points "float".

Then since trad isn't usually very lizzy, I have been considering this wild and lovely Kaffee Fassett toile for the cheddar inner board. I do love this idea! Solid cheddar binding,

OR, played with this idea on that rain day:
I had pretty much given up on finding a white shirting av as yardage for my borders. And a few months ago I was hounding blog friend Julierose to use a piano key border on her string project. She politely refused, but I had the idea, if you want a piano key border so bad, maybe do it on y our own project and butt out of Julie's. LOL. So I made some piano key blocks that would form a border.

They make up fast and are fun. When I laid the pieces out at first I was disappointed; thought they overwhelmed the rather delicate Baskets, But today in the photos, I kind of like them again.

This top is almost done. I need a few rain days is all. Not a hurricane, though, please. I am praying for folks further south, that slow moving Dorian is a fizzle. Then I'll decide on the borders, but opinions so far are welcome.

...

I've been sewing hard on Bitty, in my own slow way. I am seeing some bad stitching but I have promised myself I won't stop for finicky repairs until it is entirely done. If this baby quilt survives the dumpster purge which will happen when I have passed on, and Bitty lives into the future, I can see someone on whatever exists for FB in a hundred years: an expert saying, "Densely quilted but very poor workmanship." I am not trying for a tiny fine hand quilt look but a folky boro or kantha type of texture.

I do love how it looks, bumps and squinchy spots and all.

Oh speaking of spots, I discovered this spot on Blue Baskets!

Someone spilled soda/ Coke. My tiny sewing space doubles as a guest room in the summer. I know it was a guest because the same person spilled Coke on my counters and --ugh, so sticky!--dribbled on my kitchen floor. I can see not admitting you got Coke on the quilt block but who doesn't clean up a floor spill, geeze. I can't decide if I should replace the triangle or  spot clean with a Tide stick? [All that aside, I sure hope it's not mouse pee!]

Our weather today was odd. I live far north of Dorian's expected path but the air and clouds had, to me, a hint of hurricane to them, as did the long slow waves rolling in, not rough yet but heaving sullenly. I enjoy a good storm---but not a cataclysm. I hope everyone stays safe. And please, please evacuate if you are asked to do so and be sure to take your pets.

Lots of ships, 16 at one point.

Happy holiday! Happy September.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

BORO : ''the Japanese art of mending, called boro, is experiencing a resurgence. Originally, the quilting technique was applied to extend the life of ragged and tattered clothes and household items by sewing patches in place with sashiko, a simple running stitch.''  here

KANTHA: ''Kantha is a form of embroidery often practised by rural women. The traditional form of Kantha embroidery was done with soft dhotis and saris, with a simple running stitch along the edges.''
here   This is not a great definition of kantha, in Wiki. You may also google kantha images for a better idea. 
f[or my non-quilter friends]