Sunday, April 17, 2016

As Seen at the Worcester Sewing Expo: QuiltCon Special Exhibit

As the grand finale of Joannie's 2016 birthday road trip, we visited the Worcester Sewing Expo. Marion, Sue, and I have been to the Expo before, but it was Joannie's first visit. Sadly, the Expo conflicted with the Machine Quilting Expo in Manchester, NH and since neither event was open on Sunday, we could only pick one. It was Joannie's birthday, hence it was Joannie's choice.

We hit the show late in the afternoon and just saw the exhibits and shopped at the vendor mall. The vendor mall was a lot smaller this year. We did not take any classes or attend any of the demonstrations. I have enjoyed their fashion show in the past. This year, though, the Expo had the best quilt exhibits I've ever seen, so I took A LOT of photos.

The first exhibit I saw was a special exhibit from QuiltCon West which was held in Pasadena, CA earlier this year. QuiltCon is a quilt show devoted to modern quilting. It is on my bucket list to make it there one day.... perhaps another road trip?

Seeing the show late in the day was great. There weren't a lot of other people still there (most were in the vendor mall), so I could take photos freely and stand in front of the quilts as long as I wanted. While I do take photos of every quilt label to keep track of the quilt artist, I don't usually post them. Let me know if this is something you would be interested in reading/seeing. I don't think I took photos of every quilt in this exhibit, but I did take a lot. Enjoy!
Fossil by Nancy Purvis
A close-up of the quilting.
Under the Radar by Corinne Sovey
Horseshoes & Hand Grenades by Rebecca Burnett
Collection by Carolyn Friedlander
Release the Geese II by Sarah Bond
A close-up.
Zag by Kari Anderson
Flounce by Melanie Tuazon
Twisted Sisters Quilt by Stephanie Ruyle and many others. Quilting by Wending Bermingham and Christine Perrigo
Pine Burr Quilt by Tara Faughnan.
This quilt was one of my favorites. The photo isn't doing it justice. It reminded me of a Navajo rug and the colors were brilliant. Plus the points were dimensional and begging to be petted. See the close-up below.
A close-up. This is all dimensional, kind of like prairie points and I really just wanted to run my hands all over it. But that's NOT allowed at a quilt show!
Embers by Stephanie Ruyle
Jungle Abstractions: The Lion by Violet Craft
Bias 4 by Alissa Carlson
Tessellation 4 by Nydia Kehnle, quilted by Gina Pina
Did you pick a favorite? Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

A Hand Made Birthday

My sweet friend Joannie turned 29 (again) last week. I finally got my act in gear and finished some hand-made birthday gifts for her. Joannie has made me so many lovely things over the years, including my gorgeous Double Wedding Ring quilt, lots of place mats and pillowcases, and a wedding tote bag.

Naturally I made her a Chubby Charmer tote bag! For more blog posts on the Chubby Charmer tote bag, click here. I should really get a commission on this pattern, because I recommend it so often!
Joannie is partial to blues and greens, and I've been saving this batik charm pack for her bag for over a year. I just had to find time to work on her bag when she wasn't sewing with me in my Studio. After quilting, one of my other favorite hobbies is second guessing myself. I must have bought at least four different blue batiks to use for the trim and handles before I could find just the right one.
I am the Pillowcase Queen of the Brown Baggers quilt group and Joannie is the Place mat Queen. I made her a set of golf-themed pillowcases because when Joannie isn't quilting, she's golfing!
I really like the colorful fabric with the golf tees that I used for the end of Joannie's pillowcase. I even found some golf tee-shaped pencils to include with Joannie's gift.
In addition to her two human children, Joannie is also a dog mom to Ali, a feisty little Boston terrier. So when I found this fleece blanket kit at Joann Fabrics last year, it went into Joannie's birthday gift pile. I finally finished it last month. Fortunately I did not cut a hole in it...
Joannie and Ali can snuggle together on the couch and watch TV under her new blanket.
I could only find one of these kits, or I would have bought a second one to keep because it was so cute.
Naturally, we took Joannie out last Saturday for a birthday road trip. This is becoming one of our annual traditions. We  visited three of the shops from our itinerary of last year. As a bonus, we also went to the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo in Worcester.
The sign in the window says it all! Still a good deal at $2.99 a yard, Auburn Discount Fabrics.
I LOVE this shop. They have a wonderful selection of batiks and tons of patterns. It is less than a mile down the road from Auburn Discount Fabrics, so why would you skip it? Apple Tree Fabrics is a must on my list.
Charlton Sewing Center has the largest selection of thread I've ever seen in one place. A must for machine quilters.
We treated Joannie to a birthday lunch at the 99 Restaurant. I had the most delicious cheese burger. Because it was Joannie's birthday, the restaurant gave her a free dessert and even sang Happy Birthday to her!

Sue and I share a bench while Marion and Joannie share the other side of the booth. We are all color coordinated, quite by accident.
Joannie requested four spoons with her dessert so we all got to enjoy some chocolate chiffon cake. Yum!!
The Original Sewing & Quilt Expo was lots of fun and deserving of its own blog post, which I promise to write soon! There were several outstanding quilt exhibits there and I tool a lot of photos. I managed to refrain from buying the unbelievably gorgeous vintage buttons but did purchase two clothing patterns for some really cute tops.

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

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Monday, March 21, 2016

Stupid Sewing Tricks




Must have forgotten to wear my special hat yesterday while I was sewing.
On Saturday, Marion, Joannie and I celebrated National Quilting Day with an orgy of fabric buying. Ostensibly, it was a celebration of my birthday. In reality, Joannie had found two great sales to go to. I took NO photos on Saturday but if you're interested, I could possibly be bribed with Cadbury Eggs to post a few photos of my new fabric acquisitions.

On Sunday, I slept late and then I sewed in my pajamas most of the day. After spending 20 minutes looking for the project I intended to work on, I gave up and trimmed up Sam's quilt, which came back recently from my friendly machine quilter, Terri. After I trimmed off the excess batting, I very carefully separated the fabric and batting into usable larger fabric pieces, scraps for my friends Janet and Sandie, and pet pillow stuffing. I almost never do this, so I was quite pleased with myself. I also found the leftover backing pieces from my brother Jeff's Star Trek quilt that I gave him last October and did it to that fabric as well.
Sam's quilt. This pattern is from Jo Kramer's book, Country Girl Modern.
This is the back. The middle which looks like three pieces of fabric is actually one piece. I found this in the remnant pile several years ago at Sewphisticated not knowing what I would use it for but it was too crazy to pass up. The fabric designs are flames, flowers and frogs.
I have the binding made and ready to put on Sam's quilt but I decided to put it on another day. I still hadn't found the project I was looking for, so I opened the box of four fleece blankets that I had pinned together in January when I had a large table to work on.

I started sewing together the fleece and minkee blanket for my friend MaryKate, who is my birthday twin (we share the same birthday). She likes the Baltimore Ravens, so I used Baltimore Ravens fleece and purple minkee for the back. If you haven't used minkee before, it is soft and delicious to cuddle with but it slips and slides when you are sewing!

After I finished sewing the right sides together, I turned the blanket right side out and got ready to top stitch it and close the opening. While I was trimming it, I managed to cut a large hole at the top of the blanket. The minkee moved underneath while I was trimming the fleece. I did NOT take a photo. After saying several choice swear words, I moved the seam line over and resewed the hole closed.
Here's the finished blanket without a hole in it. Everything looks good on my purple bench!
Finally I found the bag with the project in it that I had been looking for. I am making a purple patchwork Chubby Charmer tote bag for Anna, one of the girls that works at my veterinarian's office. I had finished most of it at our late January quilt weekend at the Cape. I top stitched the handles and attached them to the bag. I assembled the bag. Then I went to put the velcro on the sides. (You can collapse the sides with the velcro and make the bag smaller, it's a nice feature.) I've made this bag at least a dozen times. The first two pieces of velcro went on without a problem. I put the third piece of velcro on and when I looked inside the bag I had somehow folded the lining over and made a wrinkled mess. Again, NO photo, but more choice swear words were uttered. I forced myself to unpick the stitches and resew the velcro. What a pain! But I couldn't leave it looking like that. Fortunately, the fourth piece of velcro went on flawlessly.
Here is my friend Cindy modelling Anna's new bag. Cindy liked it, so I'm going to make a bag for her birthday in November. I better get started now!
All's well, that end's well.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

P.S. The hat is available for purchase on Zazzle if you need one too.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Row by Row Reveal

Time for another Row by Row Reveal! Eight intrepid Brown Bagger quilting friends exchanged the first rows at our October meeting. In this post, you can see the start of our quilting adventure.  At our March meeting, the finished quilt tops were revealed.

The people in my group were Joannie, Debbie and Kate.
I started my quilt with the bottom row of coral, fish and an octopus. My theme was In An Octopus' Garden.
Joannie started her quilt with the row of dimensional peppermint candies. Her theme was Christmas Treats.
Kate started her quilt with the top row. Her theme was Welcome Spring. Youngest Brown Bagger Emma wanted to be in every photo.
Debbie's started her quilt with the second row from the top. Her theme was A Tisket, A Tasket.
The second group of Row by Row swappers consisted of Sally, Kim P. (our fearless Row by Row organizer), Nancy D., and JoAnn E.
Sally's theme was Halloween and she started her quilt with the top row of witches.
Kim P. decided to do a vertical Row by Row and her initial row was the Funky Roosters.
Nancy D.'s theme was Autumn as shown in her starting row, which became the third row in the finished top.
JoAnn E. started her quilt with the second intricately appliqued row. Her theme was What Season Is It?
Everyone had a lot of fun. Give me a few months to rest up and I'll be ready to do another Row by Row!

We also celebrated the March birthdays and exchanged birthday blocks. Happy birthday to Sally, Pat, me, Terri, Jean and Emma!
Pat brought us this amazing chocolate cake with white icing, my favorite!

Terri chose 1930's prints.
Sally chose Red, White and Blue!
I chose black and white prints with a bright accent.
We surprised Emma with several bags full of gifts.
Good to the last bite!
Linking up on Friday to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Happy Birthday to Me!


This photo was sent to me by my co-worker Lauren. These are not my PugBoys. They like dressing up in costumes but they don't like to wear hats.
A belated Happy Birthday to ME! I took myself to Florida last Saturday night for a whirlwind trip to spend my birthday with the three humans who love me the best!

Dad, Mom and Mike!
We spent Sunday afternoon with my dear friend Anna, her husband Ben, their adorable son Logan and their two cocker spaniels, Jasper and Frou.
Logan did NOT want his photo taken. This is the best one I got.
On the morning of my birthday (March 14th, aka Pi Day), Mike took me here:
Yes, I went back to StitchCraft! I went there last January.
I was the first customer on Monday and I got to pick the Bolt of the Day! You're not surprised that I chose fuschia batik, are you?
I didn't buy the whole bolt, but I did find some other goodies there as well... sorry no photo but the nice ladies at StitchCraft mailed my purchases home so I didn't have to worry that my suitcase would be overweight on the flight back.

My friend Kat who blogs at Made with Love and Ladybug Hugs joined us for dinner at Rosalita's for my birthday.

Mike and I also took my parents to the indoor flea market and we squeezed in a quick trip to the beach on Tuesday before we left.
We enjoyed lunch alfresco in Delray Beach.
There were some delicious birthday rainbow cookies!
I arrived home late on Tuesday night to beautiful roses and a pugs and kisses birthday card from my Mother-in-law, Bobbie and Father-in-law, Norman.
And here's a St. Patrick's Day greeting for all my pug-lovin' Irish (or Irish wanna-be) friends and blog followers.
Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy