Saturday at the Lexington Quilt Show

On Saturday, Joannie, Marion, and I headed out to Lexington for the annual Quilter's Connection Guild Quilt Show. In addition to the quilt show, they also had a bake sale and vendors, what more could a girl ask for? I supported the guild by buying some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (sounds kind of yucky, but they were very good!) and some chocolate mint cookies. I wish they came with the recipes!

This was supposed to be a photo of the three of us, but the girl walking by who took it for me needs to keep her day job.  Joannie's photo of Marion and me was much better.

Checking out the show.

We always enjoy seeing a local guild show because we come away feeling very stimulated, but not overwhelmed. There were lots of great quilts and garments to see. I found a quilt that I really want to make called African Coins, a derivative of the pattern Chinese Coins. I looked it up on my iPhone at lunch and found it was a free pattern  http://www.hgtv.com/crafting/african-coins-quilt/index.html on HGTV's website. I thought it was striking. Here's a photo:

I took about 50 photos, but that would make for a very LONG blog post. Here are a couple of our favorites.

Marion wore her beautiful quilted sweatshirt jacket to the show. It was a head-turner! She got a lot of compliments! This black and white beauty got added to both mine and Marion's future "to do" list.

Joannie is standing between two of my favorites-- a very cute Halloween quilt and a fun floral quilt.

This is a close-up from a baby quilt that was completely hand appliqued and hand quilted. The little animals had the happiest faces! It just made us smile!

I love the great colors in this quilt!

I also found a new vendor at the show that I really liked. The shop is called Sew Fresh Fabrics http://www.etsy.com/shop/sewfreshfabrics?ref=usr_faveitems&atr_uid=5204679. It's an online Etsy shop based out of Ipswich, MA, and she said that you could come up and visit if you made an appointment. She carries a full line of modern fabric, including a lot of Japanese imports. I bought two pieces of fabric that may become a jacket someday.

This is Peg, the owner of Sew Fresh Fabrics.

After the quilt show, we had Thai food for lunch. Here's what my fortune cookie had to say:

So naturally we went to Fabric Corner in Arlington http://www.fabriccornerinc.com/ to make our wishes come true! Fabric Corner is one of my favorite shops. They have a huge collection of batik and Kaffe Fassett--two of my favorite fabric types. If you sign up for their mailing list you get a 40% coupon each month. Plus, there was a ton of fabric already on sale for 40% off. Each of us bought some batik for our 2013 birthday block swap backgrounds: magenta for me, blue for Joannie and turquoise for Marion. Joannie also got some gorgeous fabric (also on sale, yeah!) that she is going to make into curtains for her bedroom and living room. If there is a little piece left, I get to have it for a vest (fingers crossed).

I have to admit that aside from sewing a couple of seams on Anna's quilt on Friday night, it was more of a fabric acquisition weekend, then a quilting action weekend. But I hope to make up for that this weekend, since the girls and I will be sewing away Friday--Sunday at our annual October quilting weekend. Tonight I cut out five bindings for some quilts that have been quilted for almost a year and just need binding to be finished.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Your New England Weather Report

The original title of this blog post was going to be First Frost...however as we say in New England, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute..."

Friday night we had our first frost. We turned on the heat in the house. Mike brought the house plants indoors (they typically summer outside on the patio). I cut my last dahlias and brought them inside to enjoy them. When I woke up on Saturday, the outside thermometer read 33 degrees, and I dressed the three pugs in their jackets for our morning jaunt to the park.

Larry, Romeo and Elvis are ready to take on the weather!

Here is my favorite fall tree in the park.

In the morning there was frost on the cars. It was crisp and cold and definitely felt like Fall. Not all of the trees have changed color yet. Pumpkins and mums are popping up around the neighborhood, along with Halloween decorations. Sunday was cool, overcast and raining until about 5pm, when the sun came out and and the rest of the day became sunshiney and bright.

The last of the dahlias.

Today, of course, being a work day, it was sunny with a high of 75 degrees. You could have worn shorts it was so warm. No sign of the "s" word yet (fingers crossed). It's going to be sunny and in the 60s for the rest of the week.

How's the weather in your part of the world?

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

New blog feature!

Just wanted to let you know that I've added a new blog feature--My Blog List, which you can find on the lower right hand side of my blog. This listing contains some of the quilting blogs that I follow. What I love is that they're arranged in order of blogger updates, so you can always find something new to read. If you find a blog that you like, you may want to bookmark it. I will probably change the blog listing around periodically, adding and subtracting as I find new ones. Warning--reading too many quilting blogs is addictive and you may find yourself sucked into blogosphere--you will be late to work!

Also, here's a fun website that I found through one of my favorite quilting blogs, called Zipit: http://www.etsy.com/shop/zipit?ref=seller_info_count . They have great prices on zippers. I confess that I have just ordered some to try and make some of those cute new zipper bag patterns that I've been collecting.

pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Rip it! Rip it!

It's a good thing that I don't have a live QuiltCam in my studio like my quilting idol Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/live-quiltcam.html. Otherwise, you might have learned a few new choice words last night! I am working on a quilt for my dear friend and coworker, Anna, who got married in May. When it is finished it will be just lovely--a symphony of blue and purple batiks radiating out from the center of the quilt. Purple is Anna's favorite color and we chose the fabrics together.

Anna's wedding quilt in progress.

It is set in diagonal rows and last night my plan was to try and get at least half of it sewn together. It is going to be a rather large quilt and it has A LOT of pieces. Unfortunately when I went to sew it together last night I discovered that I had managed to add two extra blocks to three rows, so I had to do some quilt surgery with the seam ripper. But at least I had Joannie to keep me company, so I proceeded to take the offending rows apart. And of course I had sewn them together with little teeny stitches.

It was just one of those weird nights when the sewing fairy is not on your side. Joannie and I had already spent a good half an hour proofreading a pattern for mistakes. She had made it before and we knew that there was an error in the directions, it just took us a while to find it. I plan to use the pattern, the one from Joannie's trailer quilt, seen here in an earlier blog, http://pugmomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/08/august-quilt-weekend-part-2.html, to make a Star Wars quilt for my nephew Ben. Then I discovered that Joannie's sister had managed to replace the blade in her rotary cutter with the guard in FRONT of the blade which would have probably resulted in Joannie cutting her fingers off if she used it more than once or twice.

We both emerged from our experiences unscathed. Guess I was feeling a little smug that I had actually finished two projects this past weekend and I had to be taken down a notch.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Fast 2 Finish Apron

Today was my monthly meet up with my Sunday quilting friends, aka the Brown Baggers. Marion and I spent the morning working on two t-shirt commissions for our Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/2PugsDesign?ref=si_shop but we got as far as we could right after lunch time, leaving us free to work on our own projects.

I decided to make an apron for my husband Mike. Mike is a great cook and makes most of our meals. The Cooking Channel is his favorite station. Lately he has been making a lot of recipes from Cooking Light magazine in an effort to help me lose weight.

I've made Mike aprons before. They are a super-easy project. First, I trace an old apron. I use two fabrics so it will be reversible. I cut the apron strings 3 inches wide and fold them under twice to make a finished strap. I pillowcase the whole thing and leave an opening to turn at the bottom. I think I was able to make Mike's apron in less than an hour.

Cool surfer dude fabric on the front...

...reversing to blue Hawaii on the back complete with guitars!

 Mike and I got married this past February over President's Day weekend and we honeymooned in Hawaii. I bought the fabric for his apron on our trip at Fabric Mart http://www.fmart.com/ in Oahu. They have a huge selection of Hawaiian fabric there. I also brought some fat quarters home for my quilting friends.

Tonight I came home from my quilting group to the delicious smells of a barley and beef stew! Lucky me!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

My Saturday night sewing project

Mike and I spent the evening in my quilt studio tonight. We'd had a quiet day, went out to lunch and ran a few errands and we were both in need of some creative time. He played his guitar and I decided to try out a new pattern that I bought a few weeks ago. Romeo, Elvis and Larry also joined us.

My friend Dianne at work recently painted these fabulous wooden letters for my quilt studio. I am going to hang them on the wall after I get the studio painted.

With Larry helping me...

Without Larry...

She didn't want to be paid, but she did mention that she would like me to make her a bag to carry her dress shoes to work in. I had just the thing! One of the quilt blogs that I read regularly, is called In Color Order by Jeni Baker http://www.incolororder.com/, and I had recently purchased her lined drawstring bag pattern http://incolororder.bigcartel.com/product/lined-drawstring-bag-pdf-pattern. The pattern includes eight different sizes of drawstring bags, plus she gives you information on how to design a custom size of your own. The pattern was an easy pdf download and was reasonably priced at $6.50. Jeni also offers a free tutorial http://www.incolororder.com/2011/10/lined-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html with just one size. Last month she created an additional tutorial featuring a striped version of the drawstring bag http://www.incolororder.com/2012/09/striped-drawstring-bag-tutorial.html.

Jeni's pattern was very detailed and easy to follow. It took me about two plus hours to make the bag, but I'm a slow sewer and I took my time. It came out great! I think that Dianne will like it, especially since her favorite colors are pink and purple. The size that I made is called the Artist Bag and it measures 16" high by 14.5" wide. It is fully lined and has a gusseted bottom. All the fabric came from my fabric stash.

I will definitely be making this bag again. It was fun and easy.  You can use your fabric scraps or yardage. I can see a lot of different uses as well as a lot of different options to customize it. I would like to make some shoe bags of my own for my luggage when I travel, as well as a larger fabric laundry bag. These bags would be great for over-sized gifts, instead of wrapping paper. You could also have a lot of fun using different types of fabric, such as denim or quilted fabric or decorator fabric. You could also embellish them with your embroidery machine or pretty ribbon.

Best of all--a finished project in an evening! That's a record for me!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Around the World in 80 Days

Ok, so perhaps I exaggerate a little, but September has flown by in a heartbeat. I meant to blog more (and even had lots of ideas), but was always too tired...I went back and checked my calendar.

In September, I went to five states. Two for work (Virginia and New York) and three for pleasure (Maine, Texas and NH). My work schedule was CRAZY. I went on two business trips, had two all-day sessions of training, had two days off for fun, plus two major Jewish holidays to contend with. Also, need I mention that my darling husband turned the big 5-0, and we entertained my in-laws?

Perhaps this explains why I am wide awake at 12:41 am and writing this blog!

Here is my September in photos:

One weekend, Marion and I squeezed in a visit to the grand opening of Quilter's Way. They moved from their old location in West Concord to a new space in Acton.

We started celebrating Mike's birthday early with brunch at Henrietta's Table.

Mike's whole family joined us for brunch, plus his best friend Matt and his wife MaryKate drove down from Connecticut (not pictured, they took the photo).

If you've never eaten at Henrietta's Table, treat yourself and go to brunch there. The food is amazing. It's all organic and a lot of it is locally grown. The selection is enormous! It's a little pricy (around $50 apiece), but Mike and I usually try to go there at least once a year, usually for Valentine's Day.
http://www.henriettastable.com/ They are located in the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

P.S. We've also eaten dinner there, which was ok, if you go there, make sure you go for brunch. And make a reservation! Almost forgot to mention that there is a beautiful quilt display of antique blue and white quilts hanging in the hotel lobby.

One of my business trips took me to New York City. I was traveling with my good friend Susie L., and we took an earlier train into the city specifically so I could visit City Quilter, http://www.cityquilter.com/

They have a lot of great fabrics, loads of samples and an adjacent quilting gallery, with an amazing rotating quilt display. I bought some more New York fabrics...

I took Mike to Austin, Texas for a special birthday trip. He's always wanted to check out the music scene there. We left for Austin VERY early on Friday morning and packed in a lot of sight seeing in three days, before crawling back into bed in Boston, early Monday morning around 1:30 am.

My friend Eleanor recommended the Driskill Hotel http://www.driskillhotel.com/, which was built in 1886 and is just lovely. I was blown away by the orange ceiling in our room (see below). It was really different. 

My friend Kim G., who is a professional foodie, gave me a huge list of restaurants. We thoroughly enjoyed Lamberts http://www.lambertsaustin.com/ (ate there twice) and Malaga http://www.malagatapasbar.com/! (Actually, the service at Malaga was terrible, but the food was delicious.) We checked out a couple of music acts on Saturday, and also walked around the city a little. We watched the bats fly out from the Congress Street bridge on Saturday night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1o2SQfAR_c. A lot of people had recommended that we see this. There is a huge colony of bats under this bridge and they fly out en masse around dusk. Although, at dusk, it's pretty dark, and black bats are flying out against a backdrop of black water, so there's not too much to actually see.

On Sunday, before we left, we went to a Farmer's Market and to two great museums. Coincidentally, it was Austin's annual free museum day, which probably made it a little more crowded than usual, but saved us some money. We went to the Mexican Museum of Art, which was tiny but very interesting. They had a special exhibit on personal altars as well as a demonstration of screen printing, which Mike was very interested in. Next, we went to the Texas State History Museum, http://www.thestoryoftexas.com/ which is located on the University of Austin campus. They had a special exhibit, called, Texas Music Roadtrip, that we both thoroughly enjoyed. If we'd only known that our flight home was going to be delayed, we would have stayed longer and also checked out the adjacent art museum.

It was very hot in Austin with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees for the weekend.

Mike is as old as the Austin City Ballet. They had this big sign in the hotel lobby because they were doing a benefit evening. I cropped this. Isn't it perfect?

Mike took me to the cutest quilt shop in Austin, the Stitch Lab. I was good and didn't buy anything.

Stitch Lab was located in this adorable little building!

We stayed at the historic Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin.

We visited the Texas State History Museum.

So, now you know why I'm tired. Perhaps now I can go back to sleep!

Pugs and kisses,
Nan