Out and About ~ at Home Goods it is Halloween~

*Second rain squall has sent us scurrying indoors on this beautiful August day! Mo is so puzzled....*

Hi everyone! I had a mid-August post all planned but an impromptu girly out and about takes precedence.  

Have not been out  shopping at all this summer really. We missed Home Goods Summer Coastal event. No, HG is all about Halloween. Not Harvest, not transitional--just spooks and pumpkins abound. I love the huge painted signs.

Pumpkins aplenty!

I kinda love the pink glass pumpkins, pink is always an eye appeal for me. Best are bottom shelf, below, good butterscotch glass pumpkin and a butternut squash.

Not a fan of the metal stem on so many tho.

Interesting wooden punks and funny Squirrel. Below, cut off, are really great basketweave pumpkins like my pineapple.

You'd think I'd love blue and white pumpkins but they just don't do it for me.

He is VERY cute. And big.

A few other fun things: This small oven safe covered dish with the mushroom handle. Def a yes! 

And behind it were similar small crocks for baked brie, one for me, one for friends who do Thanksgiving now. Brie size pumpkins with darling acorns and 'shrooms for lid knobs. Useful glass cloches/ cheese covers too, I like to put them over small bowls of tomatoes or berries to ripen.

A Friday afternoon in a beach area is probably not the best time to shop. The lines at Home Goods was almost out the door, much too long to wait, and sadly left I left my full cart and walked out. Must have been 30 or 40 people ahead of me in line.

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Next up, a few blocks east, Trader Joe's. The flowers look like a giant meadow don't they.

I couldn't find a price for the tropical bouquet, center. It even had tiny green bananas, looked $$$?

Beautiful tropical plants, orchids, hydrangeas.

I loaded my cart with  my fave frozen spring rolls and vegetable fried rice. Plus ''cocktail time'' snackies, hoping for sunset visitors:

Aren't the itty bitty tomatoes the cutest thing!

Tiny zuccs too, it said For Dipping? Maybe stir fry whole w garlic instead?

And flowers, flowers. I only go to TJs for cheese and flowers, really.

Note the blue sea holly!

It was super hot there away from the water. A far cry from 2020 when my friend stood in the snow and wind in this parking lot, only 6 shoppers at a time due to Covid. She called it the Hunger Games.

Now the stores don't even offer wipes, let alone one way aisles and distancing. Luckily my friend and i have always used cleaning wipes, and we had brought our own as always. Maybe that's why so far, knock wood, we have never had the illness? It is returning here in NY [city? state?]. I read almost 1000 new cases per day.

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Blog friend Penny and I have been exchanging Happy Mail or as we call it Sparrow Post a la Tasha Tudor, for a number of years now. The once or twice a year exchanges are always an event, especially since the gifts go to/from New York to/from South Africa, via kind friends who travel. To me it was Christmas in August!

A generous stack of maybe almost vintage Nantucket fabrics from Minick and Simpson, and these darling special treasures and finds. The internet and social media have granted my childhood dream of a pen pal from far far away.

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The sun has reappeared!
It is ice cream time? For those who say Mo is spoiled, who wonder why I indulge his special treats and demands, just look at this darling expectant face.  He brings me such joy.

Have a good week ahead! I'll post the other installment, journals, gardens soon. As always I am so sorry people have issues posting comments. Pls know I value every reader who visits and I love comments. 

love

lizzy

gone to the beach.....

 💖💖💖beach photos also from Nicky and Penny in South Africa,. I especially love the lighthouse and secluded beach.

Cartwheels Quilt

 

We had strange weather blow through the other evening: Odd clouds, yellow sky [eeek, tornado?], the a brief but violent downpour. Like a wet blizzard. An hour later the night sky was all black velvet and HUGE moon like a spotlight, shining in. Bizarre. Now today, huh. Let me just say this: 86 and windy is better than 79 and still. The biting flies and gnats chased us off the deck. The still air has generated dragonflies, butterflies [small, rusty/ Painted Lady?], swarms of small bees and other biting critters. I have to look online for bug repellent for Mo. The flies bit him terribly in moments.

And now it is August, long awaited July, first month of summer, is gone. 

One of my planned-ahead summer projects was to complete the binding on Cartwheels and give it a gentle wash. Last stitch the other day, as July came to an end.

I bought the circular blocks during the darkest times of Covid lockdown, either on eBay or Amazon Marketplace.  Oddly they were perfectly 14 1/2" square, all of them. [trimmed] but the piecing was was/ is wild and wonky, especially the cheddar circles around the spokes.

Unlike some ''finishers'' I do not ''fix'', or remake, wonky blocks. At most I repair holes or areas of bad stains. I feel that the original maker's work, bad, good, excellent or awful, is worth saving and valuing, studying.

The new but old red sashing, from a small yardage I had of 19th century turkey red  matched a lot better in low winter light and before I had my eye surgery.

I got up the nerve to wash the quilt. The final texture is amazing and well worth the anxiety. Maybe there was an overall fade in the old blocks but looking at the before and after pics I can't differentiate, so it must be okay. Beautiful Feather quilting by Lori C at Quilters Imagination.

before wash

after wash

Only one spoke shredded and can be replaced at some point. Washing settled the very badly pieced cheddar rims, too.

Amazingly the red solids---and old prints too, ya never know--did not run or bleed. I had tested the antique blocks w a damp Q-tip and got a lot of red residue. Uh oh.

Wash was gentle , cold, lots of Retayne [as label directions of volume to yardage estimate] and maybe 8 Color Catchers. One tee-shirt added as a filler turned ugly pink but everything else seemed fine. Color Catchers were slightly dingy but not much pickup. Dryer on normal/ medium to get the crinkle and dry it enough to allay mildew worries w high humidity.

This project's backstory has an odd synchronicity for me. I owned a lovely Southern provenance Wagonwheels quilt early in my quilt collecting years. It was cheddar ground with black tires or wheel rims and many tiny pieced scraps as spokes. The back was a  beautiful blue plaid homespun. Black thread utility quilting! Prob dated around 1890-1900? At that time I was more focused on lighter brighter quilts, as I moved from Brooklyn where I displayed my most primitive dark quilts on the 14' exposed brick walls. The quilt languished in my cupboard, but the dealer who sold it to me from his personal collection always asked about the quilt and wished he had not parted with it.

Needing money I finally sent it back to him to either keep or sell. But I too regreted parting with it. I made my current Cartwheels in its memory. The dealer sadly passed away this year, never having sold my quilt---and his family understandably had no idea about its whereabouts. Gone into auction no doubt. [I lost my stoneware crock collection in a similar manner---lent to my dad, auctioned with his own crocks when he passed away. You'd think I would learn.]

Last note: The final result is not quite what I imagined, the cheddar bars and accents were added, a way to widen the quilt. I'm not a fan of long rectangular quilts. I love the result. And happy that it is washed and fresh so it can be a bed or table display quilt, maybe late fall.

How about you---do you use old orphan blocks? Are you a fixer or a keeper? And why?

Two quilts from IG:

Pansies bec it is so adorable!

And ---NOT mine!---from IG, great ''someday'' project idea, knowing how I love making Flying Geese blocks. Love the subtle color play and neutral bars.

love 

lizzy

 gone to the beach.... 

Sturgeon Moon, August Super moon: