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







Sunday, March 17, 2019

Happy St. Paddy's Day





Happy St. Paddy's Day!



Mo says "Kiss me, I'm Irish!"






when you drank too much green beer


Seven things that happen on St Patrick's Day: Pansies, daffodils, and artichokes appear in the stores. The Oystercatchers return. It often snows. Rivers and beer turn green.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach......

Monday, March 11, 2019

Sunday Quilt Finishes



Hi, guys! What a great rainy weekend I had! Home alone with Mo and I accomplished THREE finishes. Goals set and met. The two quilt finishes are long term projects from 2018, so the finishes [tops only] are especially sweet. Plus I love them which is unusual.

First ~ 1880 Sampler from Temecula Quilt Company. One 4" block made every week from mid-January to mid September. This was so fun, the tiny blocks are adorable, I think.



The quilt is approx 34" square. Somehow I expected a much larger quilt but in the end I  love its smaller size and can imagine actually hanging it on a wall someday.


The back will be pieced from two ''poison" yellow fabrics, aka chrome yellow. [ a deep lemon yellow, no hint of schoolbus orangey yellow.] One of the yellow prints is very similar to the setting black fabric I chose.



I did the zigzag setting, which I love.






I think the original antique is well captured by the TCQ design.

mine



Quirky Sampler Quilt: Circa 1880; Pennsylvania
c.1880 Sampler

Original at Stella Rubin Antiques here
.........

Second ~ La Grande Sajou, the quilt formerly known as Sajou Doll Quilt or Little quilt, from Lori at Humble quilts. My Sajou [a shop in Paris], grew and grew. And grew. 54" square.





The red border, a classic Provencal style is from the "Lorraine" line by American Jane for Moda Fabrics. I was very surprised to discover that the American Jane like is not just retro 40s-ish youth prints, but also these French inspired designs.


Sajou is not a scrap quilt. Each bit of fabric was carefully chosen from my fabric collection.



I have more fun finishes planned for her, including backing made with  a small tablecloth or large scarf/ pareo my mom brought home from the south of France (The Riviera! St-Tropez, Cannes!) long ago.

Her Souleiado

 

tablecloth is fine white cotton lawn, with handblocked flowers and picotage.



......................

And finally, my PomPom hat!


This was a kit given to me at Christmas by my children. It took me a long time to make it because I started over SEVEN times. The pattern is simple but I was reading it wrong so the swirl knit design never would form.This is supposed to be a beginner pattern [I've been knitting since I was 9]  but it is very unforgiving of any mistakes and required careful, constant counting of stitches, even when the pattern was finally decoded.

Stitch & Story USA HERE


The kit is perhaps from UK, given that measurements are in centimeters and maybe they write patterns differently there. [Thanks to my friend for modelling!]


Once I got the hang of it, it went fast and I love it! Softest yarn, barely spun almost like  wool batt or roving [unspun wool]. And the cutest pom ever! I plan to make this for my daughter and friends for next Christmas. Wish me luck changing the instructions to circular needles.



Today was a lovely faux-Spring day. Mo sat out on the deck in the sun.





Indoors the Costco forced tulips have grown like crazy and are in full colorful display.















This week: a doll quilt with TCQ leftover blocks, another cutie? And some velvet strawberries for the handsewers out there. Tomorrow, the annual Flower Show! I can't wait!




love 

lizzy

 gone to the beach...

PS I have added some fairly large bits of red, from Sajou's borders, to the Scrap Bag Giveaway box. Perhaps as much as a fat eighth, if that entices anyone to add their names to the drawing next Tuesday on Mo's birthday. Antique and vintage fabrics mixed in, plus some old blocks, late 1800s. You can comment on FB if you prefer.












Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Out and About March ~ Houses Peeping.and The Beach


I woke up March 1 to No Trucks on the beach! Was it a union holiday or are they abiding by the rule that all trucks stop on March 1st due to the returning endangered birds? I'd love to think they have quit for the year and I can again safely walk out there.  The flocks of sanderlings are already here, on the way to the Arctic tundra nesting grounds. They are oblivious to humans, they live to scurry, to eat.


The Oystercatcheres return in exactly ten days, March 17, followed by the plovers by April 1. The terns and skimmers come much later, and despite their endangered status the terns not really welcomed as they are vicious little birds. [Skimmers are gentle but enormous and somewhat scary if they fly close.]









Not captured on camera, but there were ocean ducks and  and a few large heads that were possibly seals [or debris of some sort?].


More sandpipers.


Found washers this week.





A little plastic vet nurse and puppy to live with the troll lighthouse keeper, in my wooden Nauset Light. [they look so forlorn on the winter beach, and so cold; I have to bring them home.]




No coins. Gull eye and bill shaped driftwood, a pretty scalloped pearl button, above the pebble.


One errand day last week I was with a friend who obligingly double parked while I took photos of new or reconstructed houses in the area. Hurricane Sandy was six and a half years ago, yet many homes are still being restored or demolished and the land reused for new and bigger homes.



We've been watching this house for years, as it was completely devastated during the storm, then it was slowly raised, a concrete block foundation built. Later the lower level was finished and windows and a porch appeared this winter. It's on a busy corner but it now is quite lovely.


Ghostly figure at the front door, how odd.


Watching this house get raised was nerve wracking. It's an amazing feat of engineering that is being done everywhere now. But oops do happen. HERE   and HERE

What if if your already storm destroyed home's pathetic shell got, well, dropped. Boom.

...

Then there are new houses being built in the village to the east. The smaller houses on this bayfront street were torn down after the storm. Both homes are built on two lots, yet have no yard, no garden, no pool! I am guessing they're in the two to three million price range, with waterviews on four sides.


This is my favorite. I love this house. [It's not finished....]






Look at the little staircase up to the roof deck! How cute is that. Imagine a bright summer morning, going up there with your coffee, the bay in front of you, the ocean just behind?



These homes, across the lane,  are finished and occupied. Not fabulous from the street but the bayfacing facades , not visible here, are lovely. One house I didn't get a picture of is enormous, taking up perhaps four lots. It is big and square with glass walls and oddly unbeachy pink granite bricks and looks like a boutique department store or a museum.



Today is cold, but bright. The dreaded Daylight Savings thing, fall forward? arrives Sunday. Another  bureaucratic abomination. Like someone's wall.

I'll leave you with a link to read. I loved this story, picturing the dad  drawing a picture every single day for his little girl.  I hope his heart doesn't break some preteen morning when his love, expressed on a brown lunch bag, is no longer wanted. Enjoy.   here

love

 lizzy 

gone to the beach....

PS The trucks are back today, Wednesday, frantically plowing in large numbers.