Treasures from the Sea and Scrappy Stars #10-12

As turbulent as the ocean was and as boisterous as the waves were, I expected there to be a wealth of shells and other "gifts" from the ocean when we were there the last week of September after Ophelia's visit.  There were few shells and not much else.  These the only treasures I brought home.

I was pleased to find a mermaid's purse (the black shape).  It is an egg case for a skate, shark, or ray.  (I can't imagine laying those egg cases would be very comfortable because of the sharp horns on the ends.  Ouch!)

The reddish piece looks like it might have been a piece of brick, now tumbled to roundness with smooth edges.  There are pieces of two golden, shiny shells, a white shell, and a white pebble, plus a yellowish disc.

This is a kind of seaweed, too interesting to leave behind.  It's been drying for a week and a half and the sea smell has gone from it.  I may cut open one of the bulbs just to see what's inside.  I think my daughter looked it up and said it was edible, either fresh or dried.  I'll have to do a little more research but I will definitely not be eating this.

The most unusual find was this disc.  I couldn't decide if it was an egg case or possibly a bead from someone's necklace, or something else. 

When I found it on the sand it was milky white, pliable, and about 1/8" thick.  It's dried out now, but it was more box-like than pouch-like.  It had flat surfaces top and bottom with a rim around it, and it was about the size of a quarter.  A little research just now tells me it is probably a whelk egg case.  It would originally have been attached to a long strand with a series of discs connected to the strand.

The ocean has so many treasures!

And now my Scrappy Stars #10-12 from the week I was gone.
I am enjoying making these blocks for ReproQuiltLover Taryn's Scrappy Star Stitchalong.  They are fun, but they are also a challenge, particularly because I don't have many fabrics similar to the ones the original quilter used (and I'm trying to reproduce the blocks as closely as possible).  More than once I've thought of visiting the fabric store, looking online, or even looking for shirts at a thrift store to find fabrics that are closer to the originals.  But I finally decided to resist the temptation and just use fabrics I have that are as close as possible to the originals. I'm making peace with that decision....   Mostly....

More about each star, and the original stars with Taryn's photo of the star and then my interpretation of the block.
Taryn mentioned somewhere that the green in the corners of this block was poison green.  I have none so used the green I have that looks the most similar to the one in her photo.
And the center block....  I might change out that plaid to a tiny red/pink print that I think would look closer to the original fabric. 
The goldish fabric in the center squares top and bottom....  The original fabric is used in several blocks and each time it looks slightly different, which makes me wonder what color it really is.  I think the fabric I used stands out a little strongly, so I may change it.
Otherwise, I'm happy enough with this block.


The fabric in the corners was in one or two other blocks.  I used it again for consistency, even though it's not really very similar to the fabric in the original.  I just discovered another fabric that's closer to the original so I may replace the corner squares.
Left block, center row, inner triangle:  my purple is just barely purple, much subtler than in the original.
And the lower triangle in the center block, bottom row--sometimes it reads blue, other times grey.  I went with grey.
Here's that green again....
In the original block, center row, right block, inner triangle....  It looked grey, it looked green, I wasn't sure the color.  And I didn't have any similar fabric for either of those.  I chose green.  Not great, but in the end, I don't think anyone will compare.

Stars #12-16 are finished and #17 is in progress.  I'll post them another time.  After #17 there are only three more stars to go.

Thanks to Taryn for creating and hosting this stitchalong.

Our weather has been more like late autumn than early October with 50s and 60s during the day and lower at night.  I understand some warmer weather is headed our way.  We have little autumn color, just an occasional tree or even a section of a tree has bright leaves.  Most trees still have green leaves.  When I was at the dentist's last week, she mentioned that unless we get some rain the leaves will just dry up and drop off.  I'm hoping for rain and that it's enough and not too late to give us bright autumn colors. 

--Nancy.

P.S.  Blogger is still not sending comments to my email.  I'll respond to all comments here and if I have your email address, I'll respond directly to you, too.