Swoon Quilt: Behind the Seams...

My Swoon Quilt top is almost finished!

I brought this project to our quilt retreat last weekend in RI, and for once, it was the only project that I worked on from Thursday through Sunday. This quilt was a block of the month that I purchased online. This project dates back to 2013, but who's counting? I have UFOs much older than this one that are still in the box.

I brought four and a half completed blocks with me. By Friday, I had sewn one and a half more for a total of six finished blocks. I was motivated by my progress, so I pushed myself to keep going. Luckily, there weren't any near by fabric stores or I might have been tempted to go and buy a new project.

I changed the colors in two of the blocks from the purchased kit. In this star, I added the more vibrant red dots on purple as the accent color, rather than the anemic blue dots that had been provided. And then I paired the very pale blue dots with a pastel floral and that made a really pretty block. All of the fabrics are Kaffe Fassett.

My eighth block on Saturday night. I finished block number nine on Sunday before we left.

Here are the blocks laid out in my hotel room on a king size bed.

Next, I need to add white sashing and borders and the top is done. The finished size is 80x80, but I'm going to add wider borders so it will fit better on our queen size bed.

Here's the behind the seams dirt:

1. The shop did not provide enough fabric for the blocks. I've been quilting for over 25 years, and I'm a pretty good piecer and a very accurate cutter, but this was challenging. The cutting layouts from the quilt's designer were miserly. The fabric layout for the pieces that were cut from polka dots measured 17 and 3/4" BEFORE cutting and the shop provided fat quarters that were 18" at the widest (with no margin for error if you squared them off.) I noticed that the kit "offered" to sell you an extra 1/8 of each fabric for an additional $5, but if you do the math, they're charging you $20 a yard for 1/4 yard of fabric. I ran out of fabric twice, and a couple of blocks have a lot of selvage in them, which really irks me.
2. I used very, very scant 1/4" seams in my blocks. The pattern called for 3 7/8" squares to make 3 1/2 half square finished triangles. I had shreds to square up. I would have rather used 4" squares so I had something to trim, but see #1 above! In some places, some of my seams in the blocks are just a couple of threads wide. Hopefully, some good machine quilting will hold this quilt together. Fortunately, I have no plans to enter it in the Houston Quilt Festival.
3. There are 81 pieces in each block. I deliberately did NOT count them until I had made the last star.
4. Here's the good news. The quilt only requires nine stars because these are big honking 24 1/2" blocks when finished. This pattern is NOT hard. It is time consuming to cut and sew, but an advanced beginner could make it.

Are you swooning along with me? Have you made this quilt pattern?

Thanks for visiting.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Pugtastic Tuesday: Meet the Pugmobile!

If you're a regular blog reader, you may have met the Pugmobile before...

The latest edition of the Pugmobile 3.0.

I bought the newest Pugmobile in the summer of 2015 quite unexpectedly. I had brought in the Pugmobile 2.0 (red Mazda Tribute 2005) for an oil change when my mechanic told me that my frame had rusted out and it was no longer safe to drive it anymore. My friend Carol owned a Honda CRV for many years, so it was the first model that I looked at, since the Tribute was no longer being made. Ten car dealerships later, I went back to Honda and purchased it. It's a great car. Lots of space for quilting supplies and pugs. In a perfect world, the Pugmobile would be painted hot pink with gold sparkles, but that color wasn't available, so I got navy blue. They had a red version, but it was more maroon than red.

Here are the Pug boys going for a ride (from left to right: LarryPug, Elvis and Caesar). I have a car cover on their seat and the pugs always wear seat belts. It is for their safety and ours. Imagine if you came to a sudden stop and your pug went through the windshield!

Here's a side view so you can see how it works. LarryPug is wearing his car harness (brown) and the seat belt goes through a large loop on the back of his harness. LarryPug is proud of his car harness because it is made by Martha Stewart (so he thinks he is quite special!).

The Pug Pack 2.0 (Elvis, LarryPug and Caesar) are great in the car. They dance eagerly when I put on their car harnesses. They are fairly cooperative when we buckle them up. They are quiet passengers and generally go right to sleep until we arrive at our destination. Romeo, our first pug, screeched either with anxiety or pleasure, almost the entire drive causing Mike a lot of angst.

Here are some of the fun decorations on the Pugmobile.

This magnet was a gift.

I bought this one at a dog store while Joannie and I were at an Embroidery weekend in Connecticut a few years ago.  It is definitely one of my favorites!

I bought this magnet in Provincetown a few years ago. I bought my friend Cindy the matching t-shirt.

I ordered this sticker on Etsy. I had one on the Pugmobile 2.0 also.

I don't remember where I got this magnet. I love that the black pug is wearing the crown. Not my Elvis, but looks a lot like him in his hey day.

You'll know you're behind my car when you see this license plate!

I don't have a pug hood ornament or pug car seat covers, but I'm thinking about them...

I think this would look swell on the hood of the Pugmobile!

There are lots of pug car seat cover designs to choose from, but I'm partial to this design from Groove Bags.

Have you personalized your car? Do you have a vanity plate?

Hope your Tuesday was Pugtastic! Sorry this post was so late in the day. I wanted people to get a chance to read Weekend in Rhode Island.

Thanks for visiting! Remember to always buckle up (people and pets!) for safety.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Weekend in Rhode Island

The Brown Bagger Girls and I spent our weekend sewing in Rhode Island. We stayed at the Homewood Suites in Middletown. The staff was outstanding and we had a great time.

A great big thank you to Debbie who found our new location. Also Debbie gets my award for Best Camper. She arrived on Friday and plugged in her sewing machine. We heard a large popping sound. Debbie's sewing machine was dead. The hotel determined that the wall outlet was faulty. Debbie headed over to Walmart, bought an inexpensive machine and just kept sewing. Yeah Debbie!

Photo of Debbie from another quilt retreat.

Another award-winning camper was Cordula, who sewed with a broken wrist!

Cordula demonstrated how to sew with one hand.

Here is Cordula's scrap basket. Each time she finishes a project, she cuts the remaining fabric into 1.5" strips.

Here are some of Cordula's pretty strips.

Cordula worked on a log cabin quilt. Kim G., Kim P., and Nancy D. all pitched in with squaring her blocks for her.

It was Christmas all weekend for Nancy D., who is working on a big project. She is participating in an event called Festival of Trees, which opens after Thanksgiving. She is donating a decorated tree which is part of a themed vignette. Each of the trees and vignette items are raffled off for charity. Nancy's vignette theme is Home-Made Christmas and it will include hand-made Christmas stockings, ornaments and a tree skirt. Good thing she is getting started early!

Nancy's Christmas stockings. Pattern can be found at the Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Nancy's Christmas quilt.

Nancy's Christmas tree skirt. She made four of them. One for her event, and three others will be gifts.

The J-Team: Joannie C., Joan S. and Jo Anne E. were all working on baby quilts.

Jo Anne E. made this baby quilt as a gift for her neighbor.

A close-up of the cute elephant on Jo Anne's quilt.

Joan S. is making a baby quilt for her first grandson, due next month!

Joannie C. is making a baby quilt with conversation prints.

The room was humming with lots more projects!

Kim G. made this silk screened Buddha pillow as a gift for Cordula.

Kim P. made these cheerful smiley face slippers. Pattern is from the House of White Birches.

Kim also finished a quilt top for our friend Jean that she had started a while ago. Another of Jo Anne E.'s projects in progress can be seen in the background.

Marion worked on a star-filled lap quilt with batik fabrics. This is a kit that she purchased a few years ago.

Kim P. did the machine quilting on Marion's table runner. Now all she has to do is add binding and another Christmas present is ready for giving!

Sally was working on some pretty birthday blocks.

Not shown: me, Sue A. and Karen. Karen was designing a Mystery Quilt so it will be a few months before I can show it to you. Sue had a couple of different quilts in progress and kept distracting me when I went to take her photo.

Have a great week! Hope you didn't stay up too late watching the Super Bowl.


Thanks for visiting! Come back tomorrow for Pugtastic Tuesday! Later this week, I'll give you the update on my Swoon blocks.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

I like Thursday: Road Trip!

Here are some likes for the week!

Marion and I hit the road! Watch out Rhode Island!

I like (LOVE) quilting road trips. Marion and I are hitting the road to RI for a quilting retreat with the Brown Baggers. I've packed my Swoon blocks and my purple batik sweatshirt for projects. Baby Ava's quilt is staying home for now, but if I get the urge to sew for others, I have seven pillowcases with me to make.

I made this photo Extra Large so you can see how fabulous it is! Way to go Joannie!

I like (LOVE) Joannie's latest t-shirt quilt. Joannie's golf league has fallen in love with her work and I think that every week someone else shows up with a bag of t-shirts for her. This one is for an Eric Clapton fan.

Bet you'd like to come over our house for dinner...

I like (LOVE) my husband's shrimp tacos that he made for dinner last night. His own recipe! With special sauce and cilantro lime rice. YUM!

I like documentaries. We rented AMY on Netflix. It's about Amy Winehouse. I didn't know much about her before I watched the movie, but now I'm definitely going to pick up some of her music.

I like (LOVE) to read. While traveling last week, I picked up The Alice Network, a novel by Kate Quinn about women spies during World War I and II. I highly recommend it. I'm loaning it to Sue next.

Linking up with Lee Anna at I Like Thursday. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Pugtastic Tuesday: Pug Mugs

Before we get to Pugtastic Tuesday, I need to wish my good friend Marion a Happy Birthday. Marion and I have been friends for well over 25 years. It is a rare and wonderful gift to have a friend who always wants to eat Chinese food and ice cream, as well as visit the fabric store or just come over and sew.

Happy Birthday Marion! And many more!

Today I show off my collection of pug mugs. I have enough for a small tea party of fellow pug lovers.

I have two of these mugs. I bought one and a friend (Carol? Eleanor?) bought me the second one. Due to the shape of the top with the indented pug ears, it's impossible to drink out of, but it's great for pens. I have one on my desk at my office and one at home on our kitchen counter.

These mugs were both gifts. The one on the left came from my friend Anna. I asked her if she had it custom made, but she actually found it in a store. The pretty green mug was given to me by another friend, I can't remember which one!

I have three of these mugs (two of the one on the left, the duplicate is kept at my office). The smaller versions were gifted to me by my friends Eleanor and Carol. My friend and fellow Brown Bag quilter, Sally, gave me the super-sized version on the right.

This image is reproduced from our holiday card the year we adopted LarryPug. Mike designed it as the cover of Time magazine. If you can't read the caption, it says, "And Larry makes three... Is it hoarding or is it rescue?"

 Here are my sweet pug boys to wish you a very Pugtastic Tuesday!

Tic tac toe, three pugs in a row. I only had to take four photos to get this image with all of the pugs facing me with their eyes open. They lined up all by themselves. I was eating dinner and they were hoping for a handout. Elvis in front, Caesar in the middle and LarryPug is the caboose.

 Here are two cute pug photos that my husband Mike took recently.

Mike and I take endless photos of the pugs sleeping together. Probably because they're so darn cute.

Love, love, love these squishy faces. LarryPug on the left and Caesar on the right. One day, these two boys will be friends.

Hope your Tuesday is just PUGTASTIC!! Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Your vote counts! Help choose Baby Ava's quilt.

Nothing exciting occurred in the quilt studio this weekend. I worked on three fleece blankets that I layered a couple of weeks ago. The blankets were hogging a majority of my pins and I needed them back. So all three blankets (two different Star Trek designs and a music design) have been assembled and the pins are back in my pincushion. Now I just need to turn them right side out and top stitch around the outside edges.

The intrepid Brown Bag quilters are venturing to a new location this weekend for our annual February quilt retreat. We've been going to the Cape Point Inn in Cape Cod for more than 20 years but it is closed for renovation -- we only found out two weeks before we were supposed to go! We are trying a new location in Rhode Island. Same driving distance as the Cape but in a different direction. We'll get to check out some new quilt stores and restaurants.

So far, I've decided on two projects to take with me. The first is my purple batik sweatshirt. I started this project in a class that I took with Joannie back in December of 2015 and I can find no evidence that I've ever shared it with you in my blog. If you can find it, let me know.

The second project is my Swoon quilt blocks. Apparently, I last worked on them a year ago. I haven't quite found the project box. Yet...

Last seen in my blog one year ago...

For a third project, I am going to start a baby quilt for my friend Maria who works at Sewphisticated. She had a baby girl named Ava in December. I routed through some different options in my abyss of a sewing room. Here are my three choices:

I hate brown. This block just makes me say "blerghhhh..."

1. Resuscitate Lily's ugly owl quilt, a disappearing 9-patch in flannel, shown above. Pros: I have nine finished blocks, which would make a decent size baby quilt. I just have to sew them together. Cons: Problem is, I still think these blocks are ugly. I ended up making Lily a different quilt.
2. Use the "girl-themed" charm squares left over from when I made Logan's quilt. Pros: the charm squares are cut and ready to be sewn. Cons: I'd have to spend some time putting some sashing around them.
3. Start a new baby quilt with some cute cupcake fabric found at Nancy's House of Fabric, aka my Stash, shown below. I have some pretty pink and aqua fabric to go with it. Pros: I can knock this out quickly, using my favorite baby quilt pattern of a four patch alternating with a plain patch. Cons: I'm starting from scratch, but at least I'd like what I'd be making...

Pretty fabrics all found in my stash...

Now is the time to cast your vote. Which baby quilt should I make for Ava?

1.  Flannel disappearing 9-patch
2. Conversation charm square quilt
3. Cupcake quilt

Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Thanks for visiting! You need to vote by Wednesday so I can pack the car.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Winter Table Runner for Dianne

After my friend Dianne's Mom passed away, she asked me to finish a couple of quilt projects for her. One of them is the turquoise Irish Chain shown in a previous post. The other was a simple table runner. It was just a solid piece of fabric, layered with fleece and backed in a solid green. I believe that Dianne's Mom had intended just to do a flip and turn, but Dianne requested that I quilt it.

Here is Dianne with her new table runner.

I wasn't sure what to mark the white fabric with so I turned to my friendly blog readers for suggestions. Several people recommended marking the lines with blue painters tape (you can buy this at any hardware store). I've done this before and it works well. Simply put the tape down and use it as a guide. Sew next to the tape, not through it. It peels right off.

I started by marking lines six inches apart (the width of my ruler). I stitched the lines using my walking foot.

Here's another view.

Naturally six inches apart was just too big, so I added another line in between, making the quilting lines three inches apart. I had always planned to quilt in both directions, but instead of quilting in a square pattern, when I added the vertical lines, I moved the ruler to a 45 degree angle and made diamonds. I think they look nice.

This is the front.

You can see the diamonds more easily on the reverse side.

Finishing the table runner, late at night, it was time to hit the stash for the perfect binding fabric. Down in the basement to my deep, dark Stash, I found the perfect piece of plain, dark green, almost an exact match for the backing fabric from Dianne's Mom. I rarely buy solids and I know that this piece of fabric is more than 20 years old because I bought it on a shopping trip as part of a scrap bag with my friend Sandie before she had her daughter (who has graduated from college). This just goes to prove that you can never have too much fabric!

Here is the table runner in Dianne's dining room. You may recall that I made her a pink table runner in 2016, shown here. Dianne is selling her house so she painted the dining room a neutral color for resale purposes.

Thanks for visiting.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy