A Visit from Susan

Mike's sister Susan came for a quick visit on Saturday. She wanted to check in on me after my surgery. It was great to see her. She showed us some photos from her family's recent trip to Amsterdam and Barcelona. She brought some new dog toys for her pug nephews. And she brought me some lovely plants for my garden, including violets, sedum and iris. I'm still supposed to take it easy, so Susan was nice enough to plant them for me.

Here are my lovely sister-in-law and my husband at work in the back garden.

Before she came over, I whipped up a quick Mothers' Day gift for her. A cute apron with Yoga ladies on one side and hot hunky camping guys on the reverse. I took Susan and Mike out for ice cream as a thank you and Susan modeled her apron for me.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! And happy birthday to my dear friend Linda (my friend since first grade!) and my dear friend Lorraine in Australia!

This year I found the funniest card for my Mom. This was one of her favorite sayings when I was growing up.

I have the World's Best Mom. There aren't enough words to express how much she has done for me, taught me, etc. She has always believed in me, urged me to do my best and been my biggest fan. Thanks Mom!

Here I am with Mike and my parents this past winter in Florida.
I get my good looks from my Mom and my zany personality from my Dad.

I am PugMom to the three cutest pug boys in the world. From left to right, LarryPug, Elvis and Romeo.
I wonder if they're making me breakfast in bed this morning...

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Slices of Grape Table Runner

Hello Dear Blogging Friends!

I'm recovering well from my recent gallbladder surgery, and after a week of inaction I really needed to sew! I headed over to my Studio looking for a project in progress to finish.

Slices of Grape Table Runner looks perfect on my purple bench!

I had this table runner half finished so I decided that it was time to "get her done!" The pattern is from the book, Set the Table. It is on page 41, called Slices of Sunshine. I assembled mine in a quilt as you go method, so it would be fully quilted when the top was completed.

The table runner measures 20" by 54". I had to buy the white fabric but all the purples came from Nancy's House of Fabric (aka my Stash). It is a much belated gift for my former co-worker Brooke. I had originally promised it to her as a housewarming gift when she bought a house, then it was going to be her engagement gift, and then a wedding gift. I figured it won't work as a baby quilt, so I better finish it before she makes her next big life change.

Here's a close-up. I love purple!

I pressed my friend Cindy into service as a blog model. Elvis is at lower right.

Here's an interesting fact about the binding. Normally I use straight grain binding which I cut perpendicular to the selvage. I had a large piece of left over 108" wide quilt backing fabric, that came from Anna's wedding quilt, but in order to use it, I had to cut it parallel to the selvage. This is the less stretchy grain of the fabric and I was wondering how it would work, but it came out great. My binding is super flat and super tight. Have you ever done this? I know that cutting this way is often recommended for borders.

Here is a gorgeous get well bouquet that my co-workers Elissa and Julie sent me.
The colors go perfectly with this blog post.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, Pink Doxies' Pet Project Show and Fort Worth Studio's Fabric Frenzy Friday. Adding another link to Sew Many Ways on Sunday and to Freemotion by the River on Tuesday. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

The Gallbladder Diaries

Just wanted to give all of you an update. Remember That Burning Feeling Inside? I was originally scheduled to have gallbladder surgery tomorrow (Friday), but my gallbladder decided it couldn't wait. I had my fourth gallbladder attack on Sunday night and my wonderful husband Mike rushed me to the Emergency Room. I had surgery on Monday afternoon and was discharged on Tuesday evening. The staff at the hospital took wonderful care of me. My surgeon visited me three times to check on me and my nurses were fabulous. I wanted to take both of them home with me.

I am feeling better every day.

Thanks for all your lovely messages, cards, and phone calls! Regular blogging to resume soon. Not much new to show you quilt-wise, but my garden is in bloom and LarryPug is always ready to pose!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

P.S. In case you've never had the dubious pleasure of having a gallbladder attack, imagine you are given three choices: A. Giving birth to quintuplets; B. Having Godzilla drop a small building on you; or C. Having a gallbladder attack. Hint: choices A and B are way less painful.

April 2015 Quilt of the Month

Sorry for the lateness of this post and the lumpiness of my bed. We're in between seasons here in Mass and since Mike is always hot and I'm always cold, there are a couple of extra blankets underneath the quilt on my side.

Better with the pug boys! LarryPug and Elvis make every quilt look better!

This quilt is a golden oldie, it pre-dates my finished projects' list which I started keeping in 2001. I made this quilt in one of my first classes with Charlotte Angotti. It was the first time I had ever seen batik fabric. I confess that I've never washed this quilt (hopefully it won't run) and this is the first time it's ever been on my bed. It has been living in the linen closet. I am afraid to keep a white quilt on my couch for LarryPug to pee on.

The machine quilting on it is lovely and it was either quilted by Lynne Godin or Mary Schilke. This quilt barely covers the top of our queen bed, so it's another "bed dressing" quilt. Sorry, I don't know the name of the quilt pattern.

Here are some more photos. Enjoy!

Here is my handsome husband Mike!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

That Burning Feeling Inside

Unfortunately, not that burning, yearning, kind of feeling (ala Motown), but the other kind of burning feeling, the one where you feel like you've digested an erupting volcano full of hot, molten lava...

After I spent most of Saturday night writhing in pain on the spotless white rug in my mother-in-law's bathroom, Mike and I then spent the wee morning hours on Sunday at the Christiana hospital in Newark, Delaware. We had gone to Delaware for the weekend to attend Mike's little cousin's Julia's Bat Mitzvah.

Remember my intestinal distress that I had mentioned in an earlier post? Well, it's lasted on and off for over a month. When I mentioned it to my primary care physician, she told me that it was probably a "food sensitivity" and that I needed to be more careful with my diet.

WRONG! My "food sensitivity" was a meteor-size gall stone that is lodged in the neck of my gallbladder. The kindly staff at Christiana hospital took great care of me and gave me something for my pain while they ran a battery of tests that revealed said gallstone. They wanted to take me right upstairs for surgery, but I begged to go home for treatment.

Today I checked in at my primary care physician's office which resulted in a referral to a surgeon for an appointment later this week.

I'm not in any discomfort (at the moment) and I promise to keep you posted!

Here is my mother-in-law, Bobbie, my husband Mike, and my father-in-law, Norman,
all dressed up for Julia's Bat Mitzvah. Mike got his good looks from his Mom
and his sweet personality and charm from his Dad. A pretty potent combination!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Quilt Appreciation Week

Recently I received photos from two friends that I had given quilts to and one friend that I had given a machine embroidered table runner. I'm always glad when people enjoy the hand made gifts that I give them.

Here is a photo from my friend Susie. Susie is one of my co-workers and I've known her for a really long time. I gave her this Asian wall hanging that I made in 2012. She decorated her guest room around it.

Here is a photo from my co-worker Lisa. I made her this purple quilt last year when she lost her house in a fire. Now she has a new house and a new bedroom for her quilt. She says that she doesn't put the quilt on the bed because she doesn't want to share it with her husband and her dog! She is looking for a special rocking chair to hold her quilt. To see a photo of the full quilt and for more information, go here.

Here is a photo from my friend Cindy. Cindy is my dog walker and a dear friend of mine. I made the table runner below many years ago in a machine embroidery workshop with Jenny Haskins. It's really pretty, but it has a beige background (and I hate beige, just in case you've never read my blog before) so I never found a place for it in my house. You can't see the embroidery well in the photo but it has very pretty pink flowers and it is made out of silk dupionni. The cute little dog in the photo is Sushi and he is a 12 year old Japanese Chin.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy