The Remains of the Day

Normally we go to my friend Beth's house for the 4th of July. Beth and her Mom, Judi, are great cooks and we always have a very fun time with them. This year we invited Mike's friend Phil, who lives in New Jersey, to come stay with us for the weekend, so we decided to throw a party Chez Pugs so he could meet a lot of our friends. Mike and Phil met their freshman year of college and have been friends ever since.

Hosting our party kept me hopping, so I only took a couple of photos during the actual event. Mike did an outstanding job making barbecued chicken, which he had brined the night before, in addition to homemade potato salad. None of our friends and neighbors showed up empty handed, so we had enough food to feed a small army.

The pugs had a great time visiting with everyone. From left to right: Romeo, Elvis, and LarryPug.
LarryPug is keeping a sharp eye on the food table in case someone drops something.

I made my famous maple cookies. I enjoy eating the raw cookie dough as much as the finished product.

The cookies have maple frosting on top. Yummy!

Kim brought a delicious fruit salad and she even cut the watermelon into stars!
Eat your heart out Martha Stewart!

Paul and Terri tried out my new purple bench.

Terri brought strawberry shortcake...

...with home-made biscuits. Guess who is definitely getting invited back next year!

Joannie brought her famous broccoli salad.

Marcia brought the world's largest salad and she gifted me with the purple platter and purple salad tongs!
Thank you Marcia!

It wouldn't be the 4th of July without patriotic brownies.

The next day, Mike, Phil, the pugs and I cleaned up the last of the party items and hung out in our backyard. It was a gorgeous day.

I ate the last piece of Terri's strawberry shortcake for breakfast.

Phil made us home-made beef ribs with his Mom's secret recipe marinade for dinner.
Joannie and Dan came over to help us eat them. We also feasted on more party leftovers.

Guess who is getting a quilt?

Phil came over to the Studio and I invited him to choose fabrics for a throw for his sofa. He was thrilled. He chose a palette of greens, blues, and teals. I am using a pattern called Colonnade which was designed by my blogging friend Kim from Robot Mom Sews.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

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