November Weekend on Cape Cod in Pictures, Part 1

Our annual November weekend on Cape Cod

We got off to a fun start... Kim G. had a special birthday and we had made her a quilt! I think she was surprised...

Kim's birthday quilt.

This is Kim's Trip Around the World done in Kaffe Fassett fabrics.
The colors are even prettier in person.

Here is one of Kim's WIPs (works in progress) featuring animal prints.

Kim and Cordula mug for the camera.

This is Cordula's Kaffe Fasset quilt top, from the book Quilt Romance.
The colors are very autumnal.

Cordula adding borders to her quilt top.

Here is the finished quilt top! Zing!

Here is Marion hard at work.

On to the final round of the Monteray Medallion!

Sue working on a batik bag.

Sue and Carol in the groove.

Carol's workstation. Do not disturb...genius at work!

Pat and Jen

Pat makes the most gorgeous bags.

And her quilt top is also gorgeous!

Pat put pedal to the metal and also finished this Little Twister Table Runner.

Jen was busy making baby gifts for a friend.

Sisters Karen and Kim are prolific quilters.

Karen is a talented quilt pattern designer. This pattern is called Sheep Jollies and
you can purchase it here on Karen's website http://quiltlily.com/index.html.

I followed the progress of Kim P.'s quilt all weekend. It is from the book, One-Block Wonders.
The fabric underneath is what the blocks are made from.

Here are the blocks in progress.

Kim added a black background.

The finished quilt top! Eye-popping!

I'm afraid that there are so many photos in this entry that it may blow up your computer, so I'm going to publish a Part 2 (and maybe even a Part 3)...to be continued.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Happy Howl O'Ween!

Elvis, Larry and Romeo

The Pugs wanted to wish everyone a Happy Howl O'Ween. It's become a neighborhood tradition that every year I dress them up in costume and take them for a walk. A couple of the neighbors have dog bones or a piece of cheese ready and waiting. The neighborhood kids get a big kick out of it. Our neighbor George also dresses up his golden retriever, Toby. Contrary to popular belief, I am not collecting candy.

This will be Larry's first Halloween with us. Hopefully it won't rain tonight. Not sure what they're going to wear, we have lots of costumes to choose from.

Here are some costumes from previous Halloweens.

This is the first year we went Trick or Treating.

Romeo's friend Roscoe, a big yellow lab, ate Romeo's angel halo at our first stop.

Mustard or ketchup with your hot dog?

New and improved "pugkin" costumes

One of my favorite photos of all time! Love the looks on their faces.

 Enjoy!

Pugs and kisses,

Nancy

Riding out Hurricane Sandy

It's 8:08 pm, here in Boston and the five of us have spent the day hunkered down indoors listening to the storm rage outside. I had to shut the blinds because the view was so depressing. The storm is getting progressively worse and I've been told to work from home again tomorrow. Mike got the day off and his cooking class was cancelled. Truth be told, I think everything in Massachusetts was probably cancelled today. We did manage to take the dogs outside this morning for a quick walk. The three of them did their business in record time and we all headed back home. I also managed to do a quick turn in the yard with them around 5pm, when it wasn't raining and the wind wasn't too bad. Must have been a lull in the storm.

I put in a full day of work and Mike was busy in his home office shredding documents, then he practiced his guitar for a while. When I finished my virtual work day, I ran a load of laundry, baked some brownies and embroidered some dog bandannas. Here is Larry in his new finery. Please note that Larry does not have blue eyes, it's the camera flash, apparently the equivalent of human red-eye.

I also made a pair of bandannas for our cocker spaniel friends in New Jersey and still need to make one more for Joannie's Boston Terrier, Alli.

Now we have clean underwear, batteries, and brownies, so we are prepared to ride out the storm!

While Mike cooked dinner, I hung up some of the fall quilts and put out some of the fall decorations. I'm a little late.

Ever wonder who buys that stuff from the Danbury Mint?
Yes, that would be me...but only if it has a pug on it.
I love the black pug on the bottom left, he looks just like Elvis!

I don't go too overboard, just a couple of glass pumpkins, a pair of turkey candlesticks, bought inexpensively at Joann Fabrics and The Christmas Tree Shop, respectively, and some seasonal placemats and quilts.

I made this table runner/wall hanging in a class with Deb Tucker a couple of years ago.

This is a very old Debbie Mumm pattern. I made it at least 14 years ago, because it used to hang in my Newton apartment before I bought my house.

I forgot about this Leaf quilt until I went to look for my Halloween quilt. This was a kit that I purchased on a trip to Minneapolis back in 1999, but I only finished it a few years ago. I think I  bought a pumpkin quilt kit too. I'll have to search the UFO closet and make it for next year. There is also a Turkey quilt, but I will hang that (and post a photo) closer to Thanksgiving.

Elvis would like you to know that he already HAD a bandanna. Doesn't he look handsome? Romeo also has a bandanna, but he was camera shy today.

The storm has claimed the top of our Pug weathervane... let's hope that's the sum of our storm damage. Hopefully one of our neighbors will find it and bring it back.

Come back on Wednesday for a special Howl-o-ween photo (that's a clue)!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

October 2012 Quilt Weekend

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this post written. I think I was worn out from my big weekend of sewing bindings onto quilts http://pugmomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/10/to-finish-line.html. Seven old UFOs finished, plus two fleece blankets. I already gave the dog blanket to my friend Cindy who was quite thrilled to get an early birthday gift. I gave one of the Asian wall quilts to my friend Susie at work who has spent the past week auditioning it in every room of her house.

Anyways, I digress. We had 14 people at our quilt weekend. It is always a lot of fun to see what everyone is working on. Karen E., who was part of our defunct Natick quilt group, joined us. It was fun to catch up. She was pregnant the last time I saw her, and now her little boy is 2! He is just adorable and came to visit us on Saturday with her husband. Jennifer and the Divine Miss J also came to visit us.

Kim P. clocked in with the first finished project of the weekend on Friday morning. She made this beautiful black and white Schlep Bag as a birthday gift for her friend Carol. If you look closely you can see the cute daisy print she used for the lining.

Kim spent the rest of the weekend working on her Orca Bay Mystery. Isn't it stunning? It has a zillion pieces! This pattern is in Bonnie Hunter's newest book, String Fling http://quiltvil.startlogic.com/store/page5.html.

Here is a close-up. The quilt is just chained together vertically right now. The next step is for Kim to sew the rows together horizontally. Next weekend, we are going to the Cape for our annual November quilt weekend, and perhaps Kim will have it all put together.

Kim G., below, clocked in with the second finished project of the weekend -- a cute little Dr. Seuss print zipper bag. When not sewing with us last weekend, Kim kept busy by taking conference calls (she runs her own business); hosting a dinner party (boo hoo, she didn't bring us any left overs) and ferrying her high school age daughter back and forth from various social events. When I first met Kim, Clio was an infant, today she is in high school. My how time flies!

As usual, a couple of the girls were working on the same project. Great minds think alike! Or is it imitation is the most sincere form of flattery...

Here is Valerie working on her Monteray Medallion.

She got her top finished by the end of the weekend. FABULOUS!

This is Debbie's finished Monteray Medallion. Also FABULOUS!

I think that it is so much fun to see the same quilt made up in different color ways. Often times they look completely different. Marion is also making this quilt. She just finished making 40 star blocks and is now ready for the last step. This quilt is from Terry Atkinson http://www.atkinsondesigns.com/. Please note that I couldn't find the book on her website. Perhaps it is out of print, but you could contact Terry or try your local quilt store.

The next pattern to sweep the room was the Tankini table runner, also by Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs. http://store.atkinsondesigns.com/stores_app/browse_dept_items_ws.asp?Shopper_id=29021012102172902&Store_id=913&Page_Id=17&Categ_Id=2&Parent_Ids=0. If you've never tried a Terry Atkinson pattern, you should! Her patterns are fast and easy! And very well-written!

Joann E., Debbie, Lexine and Nancy D. were all making Tankinis. Marion liked it so much that she bought the pattern on Saturday when we took a field trip to the Quilters Stash http://www.quilters-stash.com/

Our field trip to Quilter's Stash. From left to right: Kim, Joannie, Pat and Marion.
Smiling faces anticipate lots of goodies waiting for us inside the store!

Lexine and Debbie with Tankini in progress.

Here are some Tankini table runners in two different sizes. The mini, shown at top left, will fit on top of your toilet tank, hence the pattern name.

Debbie was also working on this cute little witch quilt. The witches have dimensional legs. Valerie and Lexine are making it too, but they didn't bring it to the weekend. I think that Lexine's may be finished already.

Pat could only join us on Saturday, but she made these two cute pillowcases for her yoga instructor.

Marion finished two quilt tops. The first one is called, Nest. We started this in a class at the Button Box http://www.buttonboxsewing.com/ a couple of years ago. Mine is in a box somewhere. As usual, I like Marion's better. Maybe I should just have her pick out my fabric too. I think the second quilt is called Asian Magic. Marion bought the pattern years ago when we were at a quilt show in Connecticut. Yep, I've got this one in a box too. What was that I was saying about imitation...

I love BOTH of these tops. They are so lovely and so different from each other. Great job Marion!

Does this next quilt look familiar? JoAnn S. took the Kaffe workshop the day after Marion and I did http://pugmomquilts.blogspot.com/2012/10/my-weekend-with-kaffe-and-brandon.html. Here is her beautiful quilt top in progress. I bet Kaffe liked HER quilt.

JoAnn finished her quilt top by the end of the weekend, but I didn't get a photo! I am quite annoyed with myself--it was divine. Maybe she will bring it to the Cape...

Here is one of Karen E's projects. She bought this as a kit a couple of years ago.

Sally spent the entire weekend working on cafe curtains for her sun room. She was making them out of painter's drop cloths that she bought at Lowes. I think this is a cool idea. I had seen this idea on a quilt blog somewhere where the author slipcovered a bench. It is an inexpensive way to buy fabric! And you could probably paint them or dye them since they are 100% cotton.

Sorry! No finished curtains to show you yet! There is a lot of cutting and measuring involved!

Joannie must be planning to host a Halloween Banquet--she made 24 Halloween placemats! She still has to sew binding on them. Keep sewing Joannie--Halloween is next week!

Joannie is making this Yellow Brick Road quilt
(again a Terry Atkinson design) as a
Christmas gift for her Mom, Pauline.

Joann E. kept changing the projects on her design wall faster than I could photograph them. Here she is working on a photo memory quilt for one of her husband's army friends featuring photos from when they served in Vietnam.

This lovely quilt top belongs to Debbie.

Here is Joan S. working on a flannel quilt.
This will be nice and toasty when it is finished.

Here is Lexine with her diamond quilt in progress.

I love quilt weekends! I am so fortunate to have found a group of people who enjoy making quilts and shopping for fabric as much as I do!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy