Out and About

Hi everyone! Oh the fun, the joy, a freedom feeling! 

My friend L and I got out for a bit of fun girly shopping over the past two weeks. Stores here are open and very very clean; few customers, everyone wears masks. We planned ahead that if the shops were crowded or made us uncomfortable [as had Old Navy back in September] we would immediately leave.

First was a trip to the local shoe repair man; we are being asked to please patronize local small shops like this and my new LL Bean boots needed a stretching. L had to double park as I went in; maybe business would improve if there was anywhere to park?

Then onto the new Dollar Store. Keep in mind we have never been to a Dollar Store, lol. It did open, replacing Pier One. It has the rare attribute in our town of having a parking lot and good curb parking too.

The store was---okay. Not impressive. They did have a selection of holiday decor and on another day I might rummage through. 

I need pink, silver, rose, red, ornaments to fix my ornament wreath every year; my brother made it for me , one of my best holidays treasures. It's quite fragile and always needs a few replacement baubles. 

There were NOT all the crafts and usable house tchotkas that are featured in FB craft videos. And oddly nothing was a dollar---everything, even a card of hair clasp, $2.99 s was much more.

I was very happy to see the large sewing and knitting supplies aisle.

No more driving an hour to Joann's for thread or a zipper or knitting needles. 

I liked the doggy beds and the fry pans, and I thought the NYC souvenirs were fun to use for sewing kits for friends or swap recipients.

I bought nothing. L bought scrunchies.

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At the market the Halloween ales are now replaced with winter beers. Always fun to see, good marketing. I am guessing the beers are all the same, just different cases? But as a non beer drinker, I am not sure--I know varieties of beer abound. And I remember bock beer [though not a fall beer], prized by my parents, especially loved by my mom. bock beer

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And then. Over the bridges! Into the real world we went. Look at that blue ocean, softly amber marshes.

View as we waited out the drawbridge. These dense messy shrubs are bittersweet, and will be beautiful orange in a few weeks when the berries pop open at Thanksgiving. 

We only had a half hour to  spend at Home Goods. Poor planning as the store was absolutely stuffed with wonderful Christmas treasures.  click photos to enlarge for details

Mercury glass Trees of all sizes are very popular this year. Silver, but also red, green , pink, pastels aqua.

Mammoth red handblown Christmas balls for my window, but TOO red. And very large. Basketball sized!

More blown glass, orbs filled with snow and bottle brush trees. Not snow globe shakies, no water inside. L bought one to send to a little niece in Florida, who has never seen snow.

Snowmen...darling snowmen.

And a few mercury glass pumpkins too; I got a tall slim gourd.

Such fun. So much more but we ran out of time.

 L said too, "It almost feels like old times." We needed that joy!

Hope we can go back before Thanksgiving , while there's such a delightful selection. We'll see [ugh clinic Monday, a week wasted.]

Have a good rest of the weekend!

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

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Camera held up over a wall, whatever would my camera see?

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From Nicky and Penny in SA. Pristine defined.

Catching Up ~ Little Quilts Big Quilts a Storm and A Crow

Good evening. I am back but limping along with a damaged photoshop program tonight. Frustration is mounting, Mounting , MOUNTING!

My internet and phones went out last Wednesday, with intermittent returns until it died entirely on Thursday or Friday. Besides the usual panic of no communication, there was the frustration of not being able to easily follow the election results. 

TV was off then returned--but I for one do not ever sit and watch TV. With current events unfolding, I want to  turn on my phone and see what is happening, at yes, 3 AM, 4 AM, noon and midnight. Landline phone, retained for emergency use was, of course, out of service. 

A repairman arrived late Sunday as the early darkness fell. I waited from 8 AM, no shower for me, no real walks for Mo, we were desperate. My friend came from the beach to help oversee the repair which in the end we were told was not due to the windstorm on Monday, but was due to old faulty poorly designed wiring. The entire system needed to be repaired. [In my defense---the provider did the wiring, after H Sandy. If poorly done it was their fault, not mine.] He opened very closet, moved very piece of furniture. Dust bunnies everywhere, i was mortified. And a bit of a mess was left behind. My fabric bins all set in wobbling towers, my project boxes strewn across the sewing room floor. Old wires and modem boxes left hanging.

 Life just sucks sometimes.

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Being all tense and worried about our nation's future is not conducive to properly calm and pleasant sewing.

 I fiddled with some labels...You know I'm not a fan of labels! Baby Pineapples was delivered to the family with only a tiny almost invisible label: for XXXX * 2020. Fused, not sewed, in case the mom wishes to remove it. I had the lovely quotations printed fabrics, Amelia Earhart, Walt Whitman, planned for the that quilt, but in the end, sanity prevailed.

 My friend L kindly embroidered some labels for me, inspired by labels being created on my Cheri Payne quilting group on FB.

This is Tiny Baskets' label. I may add my name in Sharpie pen.

 And Julierose put a commemorative Halloween Blue Moon, very elegant, on her equally elegant chic Starry-eyed Jack! Mine is less art, more cartoon. But a memory.

 

As a break after finishing the two big summer project quilts, I worked on this small funky quilt.

 

The main Watermelon quilt came to me not quite finished in a box of scraps from a swap. Again this is a Cheri Payne design, Made by my swap friend MA. I loved the little quilt and actually emailed her, thinking she included it by mistake! But no, she said, All yours, have fun with it. I hope she is okay with what I did.

 

The watermelons should seem summery., but MA's dark prim palette made me think of Fall. And crows!

 

I also wanted to try a popular new to me way of applique for primitive quilts: a quilt is pieced and quilted, washed and crumpled, maybe coffee dyed to age it. And when all that is done, the wool appliqué is added. Huh. Fun?

 

I used a paper sew thru template for the cable quilting. Prob should hand quilt but this is supposed to be fun, I reminded myself. Removing paper templates? =Not Fun.

MA's darling doll dress style fabric for binding, tiny calico flowers, precious scraps from the same swap.

 

Additional cornerstones from  a gift package from Penny in SA!

Here is Crow audition One. It's the crow and Flag from another Cheri Payne Group sew along, done this October. 

 

But Jan Patek's Starry Eyed Crow with Flag, choice number two, won out. The sitting crow, # 1, looked so sad, I thought.

We don't see many crows here at the beach. Only in the fall, near the tideline, a small crow that is locally called a fish crow. They are only here in the autumn, I don't know where they really live.

 

The Flag she holds will remind me always of this election week.

Sneak peek: Shirley's Christmas quilt is ready for binding!

This plaid, ordered last winter, awaited through months of covid slowdown.

 

And I hung A Year in the front corner of my living room, just for a few weeks. It's the only free wall I had. Visual clutter--- hidden by the open door. I do love this quilt so much

Sending love and care to everyone, please be safe---the virus is bigger than ever. What a nightmare our world, our lives have become. Pray for hope and better days ahead. Love you all! 

 

lizzy

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

 The windstorm destroyed the kindness/hope shell installation. 

Obliterated.

I put out my last two shells on Halloween Eve. Perhaps this is one of them?

Even the Par Duck gaggle is half buried.

Mr Mockingbird, looking very fluffy and handsome, singing away in the ugly locust tree. Returned from his nesting area in the dunes.

Autumn blue sky above. And a classic Autumn sunset sky.