A King Size Finish

Tonight I finished my friend Eleanor's Christmas quilt. A quilt fit for a Queen, but sized for a King, a king-sized bed that is. A reminder from your friendly blogger to ALWAYS find out what size bed your friends have BEFORE you offer to make them a quilt...I mean a table runner is a nice gift too...

The center of the quilt was a kit that I purchased from Starr Design Fabrics at the Houston Quilt Festival back in 2004. Starr Designs doesn't offer this kit anymore, but check out their website for  lots of other beautiful things. Once I finished the center of the quilt, I went back and ordered some additional fabric to super size the borders.

Behind the quilt, Judi, me, and Beth. Photo by Pat

Details
Pattern: Trip Around the World.
Fabric: Hand-dyed batik from Starr Design Fabrics
Size: 102"x110"
Quilted by: Terri Bearer

Here I am with Eleanor at my rehearsal dinner the night before my wedding in February 2012. Eleanor spent many hours shopping with me to find the perfect wedding dress and the perfect wedding shoes. I think we went to every bridal store in a 100 mile radius. On the morning of my wedding, she also got up at 6 am and took me to have my hair and wedding make-up done.

One of my very favorite wedding photos. My Aunt Marcia started a conga line "to get the party going." Here I am with my husband Mike. Eleanor is right behind me. We are all "conga-ing" and Eleanor is also holding the train of my wedding dress.

Linking up tonight to My Quilt Infatuation. On Friday, I will be linking up to Richard and Tanya Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict and CrazyMom Quilts.

Come back and visit the blog tomorrow to see some of the Thursday Girls' new projects.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Keep on reading if you want to go behind the scenes of the blog...

How do you photograph a king size quilt? With a little help from your friends,
even if they like to fool around. Pat, thanks for this lovely photo of my a**.

Thanks Beth and Judi for being willing to climb on chairs...

Don't try this at home. We are trained Stunt Quilters.

Life in the Slow Lane

Greetings and salutations from the Pug Pack. Hope you all had a splendid Thanksgiving. We went to Connecticut and spent the holiday with our friends Matt and Mary Kate and their dog George. My husband Mike has been best friends with Matt since they went to Brandywine High School together back in Wilmington, Delaware. Matt was the best man at our wedding in 2012. He is a great guy. Mary Kate and I share the same birthday and we both love pink.

The pugs enjoyed Thanksgiving in Connecticut and meeting their Cousin George.
From left to right: Elvis, LarryPug and Romeo enjoy a snooze on the sofa.

Mike was the executive chef for our dinner, ably assisted by Mary Kate and Matt. They made a wonderful turkey dinner, including home-made stuffing, sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Mary Kate also made a green bean casserole. I baked all day on Wednesday before we left, and made brownies, cranberry bread and maple cookies.

Dinner in progress.

My handsome husband in his Space Vixens apron.

George kept a lookout from the front window.

We had a nice relaxing day on Thursday and Friday just hanging out with the dogs and watching the Macy's Day Parade and a couple of movies. On Saturday, I passed up a day of sewing with Marion and Joannie and spent the day at home in my pajamas. I made the binding for Eleanor's quilt and did a little bit of cutting in The Studio. I also cleaned out the hall closet and I did some more decluttering in the basement. I collected some scarves and gloves for Sue to bring to her ladies at Rosie's Place and I put together nine bags of books to go to new homes!

Mary Lou likes romance novels and Marion likes mysteries.

Joannie got some more eclectic novels that I thought her book club might enjoy.

I've stopped pushing myself with deadlines for my various and sundry quilt projects and am just taking a break and working on what I feel like. The only thing I'm committed to is finishing Eleanor's quilt for Christmas. On Sunday I got it back from my friend Terri who is a wonderful machine quilter and I sewed the binding on one side. Only one side left to go! I also put together this ancient UFO from 2000. These are Birthday Blocks from my Brown Bagger group.

Hopefully it won't take me another 13 years to add the borders!

Initially I had color sorted the blocks and was just going to make a table runner with the ones that were predominantly blue and purple. My Brown Bagger friends convinced me to use all of them and the bright colors that I had initially cast aside really make the quilt pop! I really like it!

Kim P. finished two more circular play mats at our Sunday Brown Bagger meeting. They are made using a wedge ruler. If you click on the photos you can see all the different novelty prints that she used. They came out great!

Have a great day!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Brought to you by the letter "S"

Today, my Saturday involved sewing, shopping, and sushi.

Marion came over this morning to sew with me for a few hours. She was working on a ballerina print tote bag for her granddaughter. I took the plunge and started a new project, my Modern Maples Quilt. (Note: You can download this pattern for free on Lark Crafts' website here.) I decided I would make one block to check out the instructions and to see how I liked the background fabric I had selected.

One completed giant Maple Leaf.
How do you like my polka dots?

I'm using autumn-colored Kaffe Fassett fabrics from my stash for the leaves. I found a really funky taupe with polka dots on last weekend's shopping expedition with Joannie and Marion to Fabric Corner in Arlington.

I think the brightly colored polka dots will help give my quilt a modern feeling.

I was really surprised when I pulled the bolt off the shelf to find it was a border print, fortunately only on one side.

There are about eight inches of birds along the bottom.

I am trimming off the birds before I cut my background squares. Guess there will be bird place mats, bird table runners and bird tote bags in my future--I bought six yards of the background fabric because I wasn't sure how much I would need for a queen size quilt.

After a few hours of sewing, Marion and I headed out to Natick. We met Joannie for lunch, then headed to our true destination, Fabric Place Basement. We had Living Social vouchers to spend! Nothing exciting to show you, I bought some Kona black and some Kona grey for a quilt that I'm planning for my Dad.

Tonight, Mike and I went out for sushi to his new favorite place, Genki. They feature all natural and organic sushi. Their food is excellent.

Dining with my handsome husband

I don't care for raw fish. I had these yummy California rolls.

I think sushi is so beautiful. It is definitely an art form.
Mike won the admiration of our waiter by eating these
two trays plus the one below.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Enhancing the Stash

I've been buying fabric again! Since fabric prices for quilt shop quality cotton seem to have gone through the roof, I've been trying to cut back on my shopping (well, at least a little). While I love to buy fabric, paying $12 to $14 a yard is A LOT of money, especially when a large quilt can require six yards of fabric or more.

So lately, I've been making pillowcases. They satisfy my urge to create. They only take about a yard of fabric. They are quick and easy to sew. And, they make great gifts, for everyone young and old.

Unbelievably, my blog post last week on pillowcases was my most popular blog post so far. I got 600 hits and received 8 comments. Thank you! If you didn't read it, you can click on the link above. The post also has a free pillowcase pattern and video tutorial link.

I bought these beauties at Sewfisticates last weekend on the remnant table
for $2.49 a yard. They are mottled cotton solids. Not quilt shop quality fabric,
but more than adequate for a pillowcase end or an accent stripe.

These little pretties came from the red tag section at my local Jo-Ann Fabrics.
They were 50% off the red tag price, so I paid between $2.49 and $3.00 a yard.
Again, not what I would use to make an heirloom quilt but great for a pillowcase.

I spent some time this week cutting up my new fabrics for pillowcases.
From each of the solid colors, I cut two 10" pieces (for pillowcase ends)
and two 2.5" strips (for accent stripes). I'm not planning to use all of these
fabrics right now, but everything will be cut and ready to sew.

Here are some of my focus fabrics that I'm using. Aren't they fun?
I bought the bacon fabric at Fabric Place Basement to make pillowcases
for my two nephews, Sam and Josh. Ben, my youngest nephew, doesn't eat
bacon, so he is getting a pillowcase with money fabric.

Here is my own pillowcase factory this past Thursday.
I am starting to invade Pat's sewing space.

I currently have 21 pillowcases in progress...is there one in your future?

Have a great day!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Shamelessly pandering the pug pack (again)!

This week, Quilting Gallery is sponsoring a Thanksgiving Quilt contest for their weekly Quilters' Show & Tell. Won't you vote for us? Click on this link here. You can view all the quilts (there are only 19) and vote at the end by putting a check mark next to the name of the quilt that you like best. The name of my quilt is Tom the Turkey. It is lucky number 13 in the show. I hope that by putting my cute little pug pack in the photo, it will help garner votes.

Romeo, Elvis and LarryPug say "Vote for PugMom!"

I linking up (and begging for votes) to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and CrazyMom Quilts. 

Thanks for your support!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Quilting night with my Thursday girls

The Thursday night girls are sorely under-represented in my blog. I've decided it's for the following reasons:

1. I have a limited amount of time to sew, usually 2-3 hours, so I need to buckle down and not lallygag around taking photos.
2. A number of the girls appear to be in the Witness Protection Program and don't want to show their face, or else they just don't like to have their picture taken.
3. Doesn't it always look better to have a list of at least three reasons? I can't really think of a third one...

Beth and Ginny were both making duffel bags. Ginny made this gorgeous one last weekend and brought it in to show us.

Here is Ginny modelling her lovely duffel bag.
She is rocking the paisley shirt as well.

Vera Bradley, eat your heart out!

Ginny is making a second duffel bag as a gift.

A view of the inside in progress. Ginny added
contrasting pockets to the bag.

Our resident bag expert, Pat, gave Beth a little help with a difficult part of the pattern.

Project now under control, Beth was pivoting
those pesky bag corners like a pro!

Here is Beth's finished bag. Isn't it pretty?

Judi, at left, and Toni are hard at work.

Judi assembled the top of her snowman
lap quilt. It is made of yummy flannel.

Toni was cranking out some Christmas gifts,
including this table runner.

She also made this cute little basket which she is
going to fill with DVDs and popcorn for her son.

I was busy making more pillowcases...

...here are the next 12 pillowcases in progress.

Pat has her next diaper bag almost finished.
She just needs to add the handles.

Nancy Q. is making this adorable wall hanging for her
grandson Ethan for Christmas. It is all appliqued by hand.

Here is a close-up of the cute little mice.

Karen brought in her block of the month quilt.
She machine quilted it herself. It came out really great.

Don't I have a nice bunch of talented friends? A productive night of sewing for all! I will miss my Thursday night gal pals, since we won't see each other for two weeks, since next Thursday is Thanksgiving.

Hope you enjoyed seeing our projects!

I am linking up tonight to My Quilt Infatuation. I will be linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and CrazyMom Quilts.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Ten Little Pillowcases

Gift giving season approaches! Monday night I cut out nine pillowcases while Joannie worked on Dan's Christmas quilt, which you can see here. Last night I started sewing my pillowcases together assembly-line style. I'm deliberately only showing you the tube stage, since they are holiday gifts. You might be getting one!

I make my pillowcases using the sausage pillowcase method. You can find a free pattern here or watch a video here for more information. This is a quick and easy technique, plus all the seams are finished when you are done.

Too many to hold!

Nine little pillowcase sausages all in a row.

Here is pillowcase #10, which I made last week. I sent it to my
nephew Sam for his birthday. It has sushi fabric for the main panel
and the end panel is a Dr Seuss print -- it says, "Sam I Am".
Sam thought it was fabulous! I love that boy!

In other exciting quilting news, my friend Pat finished her
golf-themed baby quilt for her new nephew Colton.

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy