A Cottage by the Sea 01-10-12

The word "cottage" always brings a beach cottage to my mind.  Perhaps it is the influence of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's moving 1955 memoir "A Gift From the Sea".  But most decidedly it is also the summer days spent in South Carolina with my late husband and his family at various rented beach cottages.   These "cottages" housed 8 to 10 people, so they were not small.  The days and nights spent listening to the soft shushing of the calm Atlantic are golden memories for me.  The Pacific is supposed to be "pacific", but the Oregon Coast which I visited as a child was anything but!  However, during our August visits to the Carolina beaches the Atlantic was always very calm.  When the current Surfside Quilters Guild President Joann Bishop requested cottage blocks for her quilt I decided I would do the Red House where the Thomas family most frequently stayed.   From the side it looked something like this, with a screen porch furnished with wooden rocking chairs that stretched the width of the house, looking out at the ocean (on the right). Heavenly.  

But when I finished the drawing and started figuring the piecing I had some doubts.  Then when I saw the blocks that have been turned in a the SQG meeting today I decided it was "back to the drawing board".  This cottage would look like a overpowering McMansion among the charming country cottages others have made.

 

This is my simple seaside cottage - representing the size of the one Anne stayed in and wrote about in 1955 - which will be a pale color and have embellishments in accordance with Joann's wishes.  It is due in February, but since Joann occasionally checks in on this Blog, I won't show a picture of the finished block until May or June.  Gosh, I hope you can wait!