Staycation, The Wrap Up

Sorry dear blog readers, I feel like I've let you down by not posting for a whole week. I've left you hanging...whatever happened on the rest of my staycation?

Day 4, Thursday, was slotted to be Shopping with Eleanor Day. My friend Eleanor is the queen of shopping and bargain hunting and I anticipated a grueling, yet rewarding day of clothes shopping. You never know what you are going to find when you shop with Eleanor! Unfortunately, Eleanor had to cancel. So instead, I allowed myself two errands in the morning (one must not do too many errands on staycation!): purchase printer ink (long overdue) at Staples, and a brief trip to Joann Fabrics for polyester fiberfill and pillow forms. Then I headed back to the Studio for a few hours of bonus sewing.

Mike and I fortified ourselves with some sushi on Thursday night before we headed to the grocery store to stock up for our party. Mike ate EVERYTHING shown on that platter.

We bought groceries for the party on Thursday night, just in case the weatherman was wrong.

Mike and I had intended to have a cookout on Friday for the Fourth of July, but it rained all day, so we rescheduled for Saturday. This gave us a day to get organized and relax a little. I didn't do any sewing, but I ordered a few new patterns online to keep the quilting economy going. The pugs and I spent most of the day on the couch watching television. LarryPug had never seen Sex and The City before, so we had a mini marathon. He was slightly disappointed in Charlotte's choice of a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, when she could have had a pug instead.

Saturday morning, I finished Logan's Scottie dog. Sewing in the gusset, which makes the dog three dimensional, was a wee bit challenging. Actually sewing in the first side was tough, but for some reason, sewing in the second side was easier. The charm squares came from an ancient Millennium fabric swap from 1999. I decided to stop kidding myself that I would make a quilt out of them. Don't worry, I have enough squares left to make 101 Scottie dogs.

I wonder what Logan will name his new friend.

I cut out four more blocks for my Swoon Quilt. The cutting of this block requires absolute precision and I'm best doing it when I am alone. I purchased this quilt as a block of the month in 2013 from Waterwheel House Quilt Shop in Vermont. One of the block measurements requires cutting on the 7/8" line. The fabric provided is scant and if you make an error, you need to buy more. I realized that I last worked on this project over a year ago.

This photo is from last year to show you a finished block.

I didn't have enough time to sew the blocks, but at least they are cut and ready to go. On the bright side, I'm making this quilt out of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, the finished blocks are HUGE and you only need nine of them for a quilt top. On the minus side, the kit has the bare minimum of fabric in it, the pattern uses truly scant seam allowances, and the block has a million pieces and it takes me almost all day to assemble one.

I have finished half of my Scrap Wave quilt. I promised myself that I would make a scrappy back or even another scrap quilt for the back of this quilt. It will not even make a small dent in my batik stash.

Four panels sewn together!

I am really, love, love, loving these colors!! I'm debating between a turquoise or a fuchsia inner border and binding.

By the end of my staycation, I had finished almost half the blocks for Susan's quilt. I calculated that I need 240 blocks to make it king size. Although I'm sure the finished quilt will be lovely, the blocks are kind of boring to make.

This is a good project to work on with a friend. Mindless sewing with minimal room for error.

I loved my staycation and will happily plan one again. It was great to spend lots of time sewing, eating out and playing with my girlfriends. Mike and the pugs got some quality time as well.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up to Patchouli Moon Studio's Linky Party. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Staycation Day 3, Studio Time with Joannie and Marion

Marion, Joannie, and I spent Wednesday in my Quilt Studio in air-conditioned comfort.

Joannie brought her vacuum over and gave the rugs a good cleaning.

We spent the morning sewing then we headed over to Walpole to have some delicious Chinese food at Asian Deli, then went to visit our friend Margaret at All About Quilts.

Joannie's reward for a morning of sewing? More fabric of course! Margaret is seen in action.

 The store had lots of beautiful new samples to admire.

I love the brightly colored houses! This pattern is Suburbs by Cluck Cluck Sew.
You can get it as a kit at All About Quilts.

Margaret created a Halloween version, which I also love!

This quilt pattern is from a recent quilting magazine.

The raffle quilt from Bayberry Quilters was visiting the shop.
You should buy a ticket! Isn't it gorgeous?

 I bought these lovely fabrics at All About Quilts.

I'm in a pink and orange batik phase. I couldn't leave the zebra print behind,
and the purple fabric screamed my name from the remnant basket.

On the way home, we decided we would also stop and visit our friend Andy who just celebrated his one year anniversary of new ownership of Ann's Fabrics. They had lots of cute kits made up and ready to take home.

Marion celebrated with a fabric cocktail!

We were good little quilters and actually returned to the Studio after lunch and shopping and sewed some more. Marion finished a baby quilt. I sewed the satin binding on for her. Joannie worked on birthday blocks. I finished the owl blanket and pillowcase for my favorite five year old, my friend Lily. I just bought the fabric last week, so I'm proud of my quick finish!

The quilt has cute little ballerinas and butterflies.

Chief Quilt Inspector LarryPug examines the final products for softness.

Here's a better shot of the blanket.

Thanks for following my staycation stories!

Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Happy 4th of July!

LarryPug, Elvis, and Romeo wish you a Happy 4th of July!

Starting to rain now in Boston and it is expected to rain all day. We will have a cookout tomorrow. If you're in the neighborhood, please pop by!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Staycation Day 2, Art Wall with Linda

Today was originally supposed to be a double-header. Kim had invited me to go to a nursery specializing in day lilies AND Linda was coming over to do some organization in the Studio. Right before I left to meet Kim, I looked up the nursery location for directions. They were closed. Although this was a small setback in the plans, it meant I had more time for organization.

Linda arrived about 11am. She is a lethal combination of organization and intelligence. An engineer by training, she has spent the last nine years working at The Container Store. She is the most organized person that I know and she does a fabulous job of closet design. As a birthday gift, she gave me a day of her organization skills.

We decided to do an art wall in my quilt studio. Once Linda arrived, she auditioned some of my different pieces for layout ideas.

Linda's preferred method of organization is to measure the wall and create a schematic on her computer. My preferred method is bang a nail in the wall and see what fits. After Linda had measured each piece, recorded its size, and made a list of the hardware that we would need, sustenance was required.

After lunch, I helped Linda polish off this gigantic cookie sundae. We ordered the larger size by mistake. Honest we did.

Fortified by pizza and ice cream, we went to Lowes and AC Moore for the necessary supplies.

Measure twice and use your level! Linda even made a paper template so that she could place the holes in my coat rack accurately. I don't think that I would have thought of that.

I have a drill, but we couldn't find the 3/8" drill bit, so we had to call in the big guns! Joannie was playing golf, so we borrowed her husband Dan to help us. He has a lot of tools, including a 3/8" drill bit.

Some of our art installation required some precision acrobatics.

Here is the finished art wall. We purposely left some spaces so I can add pieces in the future.

The stairwell is too narrow for me to show you everything, so here are a couple of my favorite pieces.

Linda made me this beautiful counted cross stitch back in 1996. We only remembered the date because Linda had embroidered it on the piece. It hangs in a place of honor at the top of the stairs.

I've owned this funny sign for years, although it never made it upstairs from the box in the basement when I moved from my apartment to my house 15 years ago. It looks great on the art wall.

This was my first quilt block (and UFO). I made it in a quilting class at the Fabric Place (the original one in old downtown Framingham) when I was in high school in 1981. I only made one block. I didn't pick up quilting again for another six years. Linda and I bought a shadow box at AC Moore today and framed it for posterity.

My Mom painted this picture for me and I will love it FOREVER. It is not an original painting, you may have seen it in the Coldwater Creek catalog a few years ago...

Joannie took this photo, framed it in pink, and gave it to me for Christmas. In 2012, the town of Dedham, MA, sponsored painted rabbits for a fund raiser. This one was my favorite, aptly named Patch the Bunny. I really wanted to buy it, but it sold for over $6,000 at auction. It is enormous, at least five feet tall. It sure would have looked swell in my garden.

Thank you Linda!!

I am enjoying my Staycation! Tomorrow is sew with Joannie and Marion day! Hopefully this day will include Chinese food and a trip to the quilt store! I am suffering from fabric shopping withdrawal... I don't think that I've bought fabric in at least a week...

Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

July Quilt of the Month

This is one of my favorite quilts. Although my tastes have changed and I'm not much of a pastel person anymore, I love the fabrics in this quilt. They are happy and they make me smile. My notes on this quilt are sketchy. I remember that I was fabric shopping with Marion at the long defunct Quilted or Not. They had just received a tower of these fabrics. I had to buy it. I'm glad that I did. I never saw these fabrics anywhere else again. I believe the fabric line was called Chanteclaire, but don't hold me to it.

LarryPug and Elvis show off the July quilt of the month.

Here is what the quilt looks like without pugs on it.

A close-up of some of the fabrics.

This is how I did my border. I added a solid strip, then framed it with extra squares from the quilt. I also used the border fabric for the binding. I machine sew all my bindings. You may be able to see it in this photo.

My notes on this quilt say: Started May 6, 2001. Top completed January 20, 2002. Quilted by Monty Haubold in August 2002. Completed January 13, 2007. I'm not sure what accounts for the long gaps but I do like to work on multiple projects at once. This pattern is called Scrappy Bargello. I also refer to it as Scrap Wave or the 40 Fat Quarter quilt, although I typically use four more fabrics, so it is a 44 Fat Quarter Quilt. It is available for free on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville website, along with a zillion other free patterns. I'm currently making one in tropical colored batik. I love making these.

Romeo declined to participate in the quilt of the month photo shoot. Here he is at the park this morning. Pretty good looking for 12 and a half! He's a happy boy now that we got rid of his nasty ear infection!

This is what LarryPug would look like if he went to jail. This morning he was mugging from inside the batting cage at the park.

LarryPug! He loves to be in the blog.

Have a great day! This is Day 2 of my Staycation. Linking up with Freemotion by the River. Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Staycation Day 1, Sewing with Sue!

I've got a ton of vacation time left this year and no burning desire to do anything special except NOT go to my office. I took this week off with the intention of playing in the sewing room.

Today I spent the morning with my friend Sue. We got our day off to a great start by having breakfast at my favorite place, the Fifties Diner.

Sue and I both love pancakes. She had blueberry and I had chocolate chip (bet you didn't even have to guess!). After our delicious breakfast, we headed back to the Studio for a few hours of sewing. Sue finished the top of her nautical themed Lemonade quilt. Sue bought these adorable fabrics as a layer cake from the Fat Quarter Shop.

I worked on a quilt that will be a gift for my sister-in-law Susan. I'm using 15 different shades of green batik. I started this project at my May quilt retreat in the Berkshires.

I need to make 240 blocks in total for Susan and Paul's king size bed.
I'm going to sneak a piece of Boston Bruins fabric on the quilt back for Paul.

I'm assembly line piecing the blocks, rather than cutting the sashing to size. I think that it's easier.

I also started working on a Scottie dog for Anna's little boy Logan who will turn one next month. I accidentally "super-sized" it. First, I thought I was using my box of 2.5 inch squares, but they turned out to be 3 inch squares. Then, even though I thought I was following the pattern, I managed to add an extra row to the body. I don't think that Logan will complain.

Romeo was sad that he had to go to daycare even though I was home. Don't be fooled by his sad face, the pugs have a great time. There is even a swimming pool!

At first, LarryPug seemed happy to go for the ride...

Next, he contemplates the distance from car window to the ground... fortunately he decided to go to daycare.

I can't resist showing you another photo of my gorgeous clematis climbing the fence. I'm thrilled to see it doing so well. I had to cut it back to the ground this spring and I wasn't sure it would come back.

Mike made this delicious Greek-inspired quinoa salad for dinner on Sunday and we had leftovers tonight. I contributed by cutting up the cucumber and tomatoes and opening the can of chick peas. Then Mike worked his magic and made it all taste grand!

Joannie came over to sew with me tonight and I worked on the Scottie dog some more. There may be a trick to the side gusset panel. I will have to consult Kim.

Tomorrow, Linda is coming over to help me hang artwork in the Studio. We are also going to shop for day lilies with Kim. Should be a busy day!

Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Purple Reigns!

I really like purple and I use it often in my quilts. There is a preponderance of purple flowers in my garden, my front door and shutters are painted purple and LarryPug sports a purple harness. This afternoon, my friend Beth and her husband Jeff, brought over the latest purple addition to my garden.

Don't you love my purple bench?

Beth's husband Jeff is a carpenter and he made this for me. The paint color is from Lowe's and it is called Cleopatra's Gown. Jeff said that he thought it was the ugliest paint color he had ever seen until he brought the bench to my house and saw how beautiful it looked among all my flowers. You can't see it in the photo, but there is a purple clematis in the garden behind the bench, almost exactly the same color. Here are some more purple posies from my garden that is right across from the fence, along my driveway.

Clematis

The new variegated leaf iris

Columbine

Here is flat LarryPug. He is not dead, just stretched out on our patio. Even his tail is uncurled and flat.

I bet that Jeff is probably starting a bench for Beth's garden tomorrow, although I'm guessing it probably won't be purple.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy