I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Friday, May 20, 2016

Pansies, Herring Moon, Horseshoe Crabs



Hello! May is rushing by, isn't it. Next week, summer begins, ready or not!



Here at the beach, May is pansy month, their little sweet faces filling garden corners as the tulips and daffs fade into memory.






I've always adored pansies and their dear little cousins, violas, or Johnny Jump Ups as we called them when I was a little girl. Every spring I'd beg my dad to plant pansies...."No, too hot, they'll bolt." He was adamant. Until we lived in Cape Cod, where, as here, the cool salt air Spring is perfect for growing pansies.






I usually get a pot or two, they do make me smile. I'm happy when I find assortments like this, I have such a hard time choosing. I like to put them in my funny old pink crock.


I bought my pansies at least a month ago, but they've just been huddled shivering on my deck til this week. It's chilly and windy but there's been enough sun for me and Mo to sit outside and sew on Summertime and Dotty, an hour here and there.





Enough blooms now for some tiny bouquets.


I tuck the flowers into little seaglass bottles I've beachcombed over the years.


I especially love this bottle.


It's actually a 1930s-ish art deco salt shaker. Like from a roadside diner. It's wonderfully sand blasted on all the ribs.  I imagine  it, long ago, being tucked into a picnic basket to salt the fresh corn and tomatoes, or even the watermelon. Then it rolled off the beach blanket, into the sand, and was left there on the beach for maybe 80 years, until I found it and brought it home. To me a treasure. [but is it happy to be back on my kitchen shelf? Or did it love the freedom of living wild and unfettered all alone on the beach? Oh dear. Maybe it wants to go back?]


Summertime's borders are going steadily but slowly.




A learning curve here, it's good to learn new things [Itell myself hopefully]--like how the flowers and birds have to be sewed before the long garland stem, because they must tuck under; the baskets' stars have to go on last---and must be lined with opaque Pellon so they don't shade through and look messy, because the stems go in behind the baskets, which must be left open. Then the yoyos!? They will wait until everything is done, even the binding and washing, after the quilting is done. Only then can I sew on my adorable yoyos from from Sue, and the birdies' eyes and the stamens in the morning glories.
Not pressed because the stem line is drawn in Frixion pen....


Patience is key.


Are you a patient person? Do you think it's a needed trait to be a sewer or a quilter, a cook, a gardner, a mom? Do you value patience in others? Or is it just...boring?

love


lizzy

gone to the beach.....

PS full disclosure: I am very patient with a project, or with animals and children. I'm okay with traffic delays even. But I won't wait even a  minute at a store, to pay for something. Grocery store excepted. LOL.


Tonight the Moon is full. The May moon is called the Flower Moon, though I have always known it as the Herring Moon, when the herring swim from the ocean, upstream into the freshwater creeks, to spawn.





Tonight and tomorrow at low tide, the ancient horseshoe crabs will crawl ashore and lay their eggs. They slowly rotate and dig a hole that they somehow line with a sand and ''glue'' substance, and the females deposit their hundreds of eggs. Some will be food for the plovers and terns, but many will become crabs, big as a trashcan lid! Life's circle.

google images




Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Quilt Show and Farmers Market



Hi! It's Wednesday! Already. I hustled out today to the first Wednesday farmers market, all excited on a sunny day, my head filled with visions of fresh-cut lilacs, bright green scallions, itty bitty fiery hot baby red radishes. You know, springtime. Maybe a couple pots of herbs? Now this year I was very happy to read that the market has returned to [almost] its original hours, being open from 10 to 4. I'm not a person who wants to contemplate cooking dinner before noon! So today I headed to the market, was there by 1 PM or so.
What!? Just a solitary pretzel guy's cart and a few hungry seagulls lingered in the empty town square.


Huh. More investigation is needed. I was pretty sad.
..
Last Saturday went better, I'm happy to report. The quilters' guild show has returned to the hockey rink over the bridge on the mainland, in a sweet little seaside-y town. The big draw for me to get to the show is to visit the fabric vendors. I never get to shop for good quilt fabric in person, it's quite a thrill to choose from something besides a screen monitor.




Not many vendors. Long Island is not a hotbed of the sewing arts. But even the half dozen or so sellers had great selections.







I found so many pretty things!


These fat quarters...I think I am inspired by Val's palette in my swap doll quilts. I chose soft pinks and browns with touches of blue.





Love the thimbles! They can mix w/ the pink/ brown Civil War repros or be used alone somehow.


 I always admire this local basket maker's work, though I can't afford to buy a basket from her. Really beautifully made and so functional.



And I picked up some fun things for Humble Quilt's new sewalong , Jan Patek's Front Porch Quilt, herein now referred to as Porch 2 or P2 until I decide on a cuter name. [we made another Front Porch quilt a few years ago, you may recall.]


I'll write more about the new project in another post, but here's the picture so you know what I',m talking about.


I picked up a few additional fabrics for P2 at the show. I know it's a bit trite and I have other ''watermelon'' fabrics but how can I pass up actual watermelon print!?


And all porches that serve lemonade and cookies, as mine does, might have a few ants,lol. I have NO ants though! Thank goodness.


The pattern has these large lollipop flowers in pots.



I pictured one large flamboyant print for all the circles [4 1/2'' - 5" wide? Teacup saucer size, anyway.] and was happy to see this Kaffe Fassett print in person for the flowers.




When I got home there was a package from Hancock's of Paducah waiting. It had all the off white background fabrics I need for Porch 2 [P2?] and other applique ideas.


I'd like to think I can use only my stash but P2 needs large blocks of fabric, and I just don't have the yardage on hand. I already pieced my house and am not thrilled. But okay, because those shirtings are from my friend BJ, who is making the Farmer's Wife quilt, top of page here].


Now back to the lollipop flowers: in my mind I kept picturing a vintage fabric I knew I had somewhere. Instead of the KF print? It's the most beautiful shade of orange-y red and lovely printing job, lightly chintzed finish.


I found it in a basket on a high shelf, with a whole bunch of other great red and blue fabrics. These are vintage calicoes [1970s?] from a friend of my parents, who passed away years ago, and from my friend and mentor Olga B. I kept them together because they're pairs of red and blue prints, and quite generous yardage too mostly.




I haven't looked in that basket in 15 years, I don't think.
It's early days of course but I am thinking the lollipop blocks' flower choice may need to be done when the whole quilt top is completed. Only then will I know which floral print is best.





love

lizzy

gone to the beach...


PS Mo in pink ''snow''......