Gone To The Beach

Friday, July 14, 2023

Quilt : Beach Cottages

Hi guys! The other day as I was redoing the cottage for high summer, I got out this old much loved, if rarely used, Beach Cottages quilt. The houses were inspired by designer Freddy Moran. Coincidentally Lori of Humble Quilts recently posted a selection of of Moran's more recent quilts,

seen at a quilt show.

Faces by Freddy HERE

This was I think the first quilt I made when I began quilting again. Prior to this time I had made traditional quilts at work, during lunch or after everyone else left. My ex husband didn't like seeing me crafting and hated sewing machine noise. Put that together with no free time, demanding job and two homes to run/ pay for, no sewing was ever done at home. Our loft in Brooklyn had such high ceilings that the loft had lofts, upper levels. One area was a guest room, the other a tiny sewing nook for me. Accessed up a steep ladder it was not a welcoming spot, and also was open to the main bedroom[ see note about ex hating whirr of the machine.] so it was never really used.

My parents though had other ideas and for a special birthday they gifted me with a new [quieter?] Brother machine/ $99.oo at Costco! And my mom included Freddy Moran's book that featured these houses.

Add in the unusual and brief bit of time when not one or two but three fabric stores were near my home here at the beach, two close to the Thursday pickers flea market that I went to every week---I was in bright happy fabric heaven. Added into the mix were Lily Pulitzer brights like this chartreuse sea life print, a treasured gift, again from my parents. [My dad was often in Florida in those years, working on hurricane structural preparedness, and though they didn't choose to move to Florida to retire later, they loved Florida especially the Keys and Gulf towns. The LP fabrics were my souvenir they'd send each winter.]

At that time the cottage here was not blue and white, just all white to show off my Fiestaware and bright Hull kitchenware, McCoy cooky jars, colorful ball ice water pitchers---you can see the color influence in this project.

Also I had no one influencing me, no idea what what right or wrong, no internet groups, no blogs. Just a random person having fun.

My quilts from that period [most sold], were I think beautifully made and hand embroidered and beaded.

Looking at Beach Houses to take pics I was quite surprised that it is a Millennium quilt. How fun and creative, a memory of a long lost time, a time of unfettered if sneaky freedom and creativity for me.

I love the label!

And the backing was to me Beachballs, even tho it obviously is really marbles, lol.

And note the scrappy pieced binding, again an idea I had in my creative solitude, uninfluenced by thrift or fads.

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I had pulled out the quilt to display it on the pine bride's bench but that didn't seem to work, it's a wall quilt with no empty area for things to be piled up. Instead I used this Hollyhock runner, made at a similar time, a design by Linda Brannock, a book from the Cape Cod fabric shop.

Carpet ball collection, since my glass floats collection is missing somehow. They are 2-4" diameter ''clay marbles", for a Victorian indoor game like bocce. There's a few modern repros , thrifted finds, mixed in.

Moving forward 20, 25 unbelievable years, this is a quilt from IG. Inspiring! How fun. It has that Australian happy slightly pastel vibe. It would be a fun long term pick up project.

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French General kit applique and embroidery finished. Are these tacky? Fun to make but, hmmmm. It will be a throw pillow.

Mo and i are off for deck hour, despite a gale wind off the water.

More soon/ journal update Monday-ish.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Monday, July 10, 2023

The First Zinnia Has Bloomed

Hello hello everyone, on a dreary late Sunday in July.

The oddly placed holiday has me confused, should have posted Friday, but I figure no one cares/ we're hot, tired/ busy, am I right?

The first zinnia bloomed just before the 4th. Planted June 1, flowers by July 1.

Every morning Mo and I hurry out to the deck for his pit stop, pre-walkies. [He has a potty station.].

We take deep breaths, check out the waves, the ocean, the ships---and in the summer, it is such a great joy to discover what is growing, what has bloomed.

I put up the umbrella and Mo naps, even though he just woke up. He is after all a Pug.

The coreopsis--volunteers in their fourth and third years, are, I think, g0rgeous. Just the happiest, free-est, most charming flowers I have ever grown.

I have classic yellow,

and now profusely, the cutie painted variety

Sadly the red lilies, 10 plus year survivors, and the cannas from last year that grew as perennials in these big old pots, have not reappeared. I miss them, both were Mothers Day gifts from my son.

But I'm very pleased with the early seeds of cosmos. Usually cosmos doesn't bloom for me til Fall, but these Dollar Store seed packets said ''early bloom''. No disappointment for 59 cents. Quite a few more, in assorted colors, have bloomed since I took these photos just a day or two ago.

In this corner I'm babying along the supposedly blue amaryllis bulb. It was very small on arrival last winter, may need a few years. Will it actually be blue?

This is my wildflower meadow pot.

I have a sunflower! Yay. And a pretty blue thing that I have no picture of. An herb of some sort.

And lots of this plant! Is it a weed ? an herb? What.

My zinnias, pots large and small.

Just starting, crisply green at this point.

Traditional marigolds:

And this very sweet very red tiny--zinnia?

I thought it is a Lilliput Zinnia, but today I was staring at the stalks and leaves. I thought, "Very weed-like for zinnias, not typical. How odd.'' And a moment of sudden realization. These are the hilariously named Tithonia Torch, sounds like a pole dancer in a men's club!--aka Mexican ''sunflowers". HERE

The blurb says they may grow 4 feet tall! And attract pollinators: butterflies, bees, hummingbirds. How exciting. Another Dollar Store find.

I like them a lot. . Aren't they adorable, tint and cute, NOT zinnias.

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We have had iffy weather and I'm not doing a good job of getting in the afternoon sewing groove. We went pretty much overnight from chilly and windy to too warm, almost hot. But worse: HUMID. I used to argue with my ex husband that we needed to air condition for the humidity as much as for the heat. I actually don't mind hot so much, but I hate when the walls drip and the beds feel wet. Most of my furniture has drip marks, salt and humidity [bec obviously ex won the AC battle, lol.]

So Poor Mo has had a few indoor days. This was a smoke alert day. He is sulking with his dollies. And you can see the creamy white worn floor gets much darker in the wood's grooves, when damp.

The house is blue and white again, though not really tweaked into summer vibe yet. I was gifted with a fabulous new vacuum, hint hint hint. This unpleasant sight is one run over the living room rug this morning. The cleaners came just over a week ago. Mo and his pug glitter have prevailed. The new vac is very cool.