Little Random Bits of August

 

Hi everyone! This is a Seinfeldian post about nothing, or nothing much.  Summer has hit a lull punctuated by one catastrophe after another it seems. Yesterday I was so pleased a cleaner finally came to make the house, especially my sewing room , presentable for houseguests. The AC is replaced. Deep breath---the handle of the bathroom shower came off in my hand this morning. The good news is the water wasn't running, the bad news is last time it broke it took weeks to be repaired. I have another bathroom with a tub and handheld shower gadget, not ideal. Oh and the kitchen sink is stopped up. Woe is me.

Today the gale winds drove me and Mo off the deck. I think my new umbrella is broken [too]. 

I did manage to sew one Star. Crumpled from humidity and wind.

The wind blew down the painted coreopsis. I rescued and brought it in.

Later I added a few pink roses from the grocery store, six for 5.oo.

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

Here is what I wrote in my regular nature diary the other day: 

"This morning was hot & still and there were dragonflies

and a beautiful swallowtail butterfly 

swarming around the zinnias.

 Sweat bees, too, I hope they are good pollinators?"

And my weekly drawing, original

and colored.

In the collection dish this week. 

The eggs are faux, out on display because a small friend visited one morning and she asked where my Easter eggs had gone. She loved putting the eggs in a little basket last spring.

Mornings while I wait for the dogwalker I read a chapter of this book. Very enjoyable and well written, as if walking along the Thames by the author's side. Her childhood memories are charming too. A very good read. The pen is my fave Pilot gel point not a drawing pen but works for me. I think I mentioned this previously.

In novels I have been reading Ruth Ware's The It Girl. Then an oldie by Ware I had missed. Both a smidge predictable, the current one is a slick modern take on the old [I think] Agatha Christie Ten Little Indians / And Then There Were None. [shocking original title so I didn't post the link.]. Both of Ware's books were claustrophobic, especially the second one. 

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

I never got to a craft store, finally Amazoned some elastic bead thread to repair my summer bracelets. 

Every summer I make or buy a special bracelet for that year, these are a few.

I lost my glass rainbow bead bracelet from last year, odd bec I rarely lose things. It celebrated the end, we thought, of the Covid pandemic. The white rubber and pearl was my other 2021 bracelet. The multi African bead one is at least 20 years old, retstrung. Influenced by the bead jewelry I see on IG, I restrung it to enjoy again instead of buying with money I do not have.

These are older, made with recycled "seaglass" beads. They need constant restringing, very heavy, but I do love them still.

I think the African trade beads and the giant seaglass beads came from the NYC flea after H Sandy; the other was beads my daughter gave me.

In my bedroom I have layered the Blue Pineapples quilt with a summer favorite, a rescued top I had finished, I call it Sea Urchins:

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

I had to clean my fridge today. Mo was miffed at my busyness that didn't include him but sometimes things must be done. The huge grocery order came, replenishing some supplies. The power outage the other night got me to organize, use, discard, replace. No pics but on the menu: steak kabobs bec the delivery included a big bucks mistake by them of three large shell steaks???; fried rice w leftover rice and fresh vegs; a tomato / goat cheese puff pastry tart. Retro ''crudités [cauli/ tiny tomatoes/ cukes] with Knorr veg soup/ greek yogurt dip. So Cape Cod! And lots of salads. 

Tomato goat cheese tart   [photo is from internet]

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

Mo's check up and ear appointment are tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

love 

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Gorgeous beach pictures--winter in South Africa. From blog friend Penny. Isn't the lighthouse lovely? Her views of SA have been a revelation to me, more mediterranean coast than wild jungles and big game safari. enjoy. Thanks for sharing, P!

And hibiscus photos from a friend, my tropical gardener friend. He grew these lovely hibiscus from seeds given me by blog friend Mel! Third year, they wintered over so well.

Did you make rose of sharon/ hollyhock dolls as a child? How I loved making them, with toothpicks or old long corsage pins my mom would produce like magic. here

a keeping it real pic for Mel who likes to see everything including not yet stored supplies and wet swimsuit:

and XL journal page:

Summer Sewing ~ TQC Little Quilty and other Projects.

 

Hi everyone! August is flying by, pumpkins are proliferating on social media. Too fast for me, I like to savor every moment ---as you guys know. 

Today is I think the hottest summer day so far. I don't care what the weatherbug says, it is sooo hot, sooo humid, not a breath of air. Supposedly we had rain [you blinked, you missed it]; just enough to send the humidity soaring. The ''cool front" is just someone's imagination taking flights of fancy. The past few weeks though, as the rest of the NE sweltered, Mo and I enjoyed lovely summer afternoons, as seabreezes from 60* ocean keep things nice in the shade.

July was sadly rather a lost month for me. I had a medical treatment, that went well but left me with the worse after-effects of pain and aimlessness/ depression; then pushed up too fast afterwards was the 4th Covid booster. I also was very pressed to have sleepover beach company, like I am a bed-n-breakfast, and was/ am being shunned by those persons when I said no. Then there was the broken AC. Car probs, you name it. My big project for July was a king-size duvet cover and 6 pillowcases for the friends who generously  drove me to all my post surgical appointments after my first eye surgery.  I really wanted to repay their kindness and worked hard to get the set made for summer use, only for my friend to say she didn't plan to use it til next Fall or winter.

A king duvet has 12 yards of fabric! Hard to wrestle around with painful shoulders. I worked on the items for about 2 hours a day for a week or so.

Isn't the blue batik beautiful! I had to reuse a perfectly good 75" custom zipper though, as I couldn't seem to source XL long zippers post-covid.]

...

Then the fun if challenging project: TQC Little Handsewn quilt. Made in summery zinnia colors using a TQC scrap bag mostly.

I always love trying something new!~ I had never handpieced an entire quilt, not even such a tiny one. [finished size: 12 1/2" x 16 1/2"]

I gave up marking the seam allowances bc the Frixion pen's heat erase lines were fading in the hot sun. One's eye gets pretty accurate anyway.

Tension on the stitches was my worst flaw, not sure how that could be corrected? The loose stitches did pull up when the project was washed.

I used an old saved flannel sheet remnant for batting, hoping for nice drape, then stupidly spray basted with an ancient can of poor quality spray, dregs of the can. Turned the little quilt hard and plastic, not easy to needle through. The good news is, again, when washed, it softened back up, all the stiff nasty spray adhesive washed right out.

                                        

Small template of Baptist Fan quilting. Another new to me thing, I had never hand quilted Fans. Lots of stops and starts, no flow, unlike, say, wreaths or cables, or even just cross hatches.

You can see I went with the bubble gum pink and yellow for the borders. 

I liked the brown/  neutral choices but last summer I made a brown/ brown bordered little quilt. This time i wanted something new.

Binding: I chose a second chrome yellow calico. Its touches of blue seemed to pick up the Tiny TQC block colors. I recently have noticed quilters who are very proud of, preen a bit? about their tiny narrow bindings. I thought this was a good place to try that idea. I cut the binding 1 5/8 " length of goods, pressed in half then trimmed away the excess on one side to form single ply narrow binding. It finished about 3/16", less than a scant 1/4".

 I like it ok, no real opinion. What do you think, should bindings be very tiny? [as a sometimes quilt restorer who almost always has to replace worn frayed bindings, I have seen that doubled binding  about 3/8" - 1/2" is sturdiest. Not that it matters on a little show quilt, mini.]

                                          

And just for fun I used an anachronistic 1930-1950s embroidered tea towel. No reason, just cute, and also TQC always posts project updates on Mondays.

And it makes this tiny quilt fit my Lucky series of little quilts, a few below.

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

As I sewed I thought about a post of a quilter I follow---she talked about how years ago she was asked to be a quilt show judge, how hard it was. But also she mentioned quilts where the quilter left threads or loose stitches and wondered why they were not more prideful in their work. But since my eye surgery I do see much better, and oh my, a shocker at times, now seeing things i thought were beautiful, just fine, good enough. The corrected eye noe suddenly sees every thread, every chopped point, every crooked seam, every flaw. I felt a sisterhood with the ladies in that long ago show. I bet they had eye issues too...

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

On deck, I am hand appliqueing some of the stars for Winter Marsh. I don't think it matters in what I consider a utility quilt, if I mix methods. Grateful Pineapple's central section is sewed, revealing a giant issue where the branches meet. As you may know Jan P gives no layout or hints, so I neglected this issue, am regretting it. I have no idea what to do, more on that later. It was to be my August thru October handquilting deck project! Now I am scrambling for handwork, poor planning on my part.

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

Today I just had to stay inside for a change. Baby Mo is not happy but he has a chew and afterwards he heaved a big sigh, went back to bed. I am training him to sleep here near the head of my [ugly] bed, because under the computer is too cold and drafty during winter storms

His ear is still bad, it may be cool enough for a vet visit, or so I thought. But I got an email from them saying their street and area is closed due to water and sewer pipe replacement. They suggest parking quite far away, much further than Mo can walk [in heavy traffic too] on scorching blacktop. So I am treating his ear at home. Not pleased tho, poor little man.

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

And the first nature sketch of August. Experimenting with pens again. I'll get back to @roomportraitclub and the tiny watercolors but the past few weeks the challenge photo has been one sofa after another. yawn.

Have a good week! Reminder: Full supermoon tonight and Perseid meteor shower peak. Take an evening walk and enjoy the heavens' show. Sunny day rainbow, below.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

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