December in Photos

It's been crazy-busy around here. Not necessarily the fun, holiday-prep, crazy-busy, but rather the everyone else has gone on vacation in my department at work and all of them have left my name as the person who is covering for them. Yikes! Last year, I took off the last two weeks of December and I may have to do this again next year, if only in self-defense.

Here are some photos from the past two weeks in random order.

This guy had a birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday Romeo!

Here is the Pug Pack passed out on the sofa after all the festivities! We had to pry them off the sofa to take them out last night for a biology break before bed time.

My sweet Romeo turned 14!  I brought him home in March of 2002 at 10 weeks old, my how time flies! The Pug Boys had Frosty Paws (ice cream for dogs) to celebrate.

Last week I took Mike to see the Christmas House. We also have a Christmas House in our neighborhood within walking distance, but he had never seen this one, which is about two miles away. I didn't think to take any photos until we were driving away in the car. Their entire back yard is also decorated and it is enormous. I wonder what their electricity bill is?

I've been doing some sewing but not as much as I would like. Not much to show you but I did finally finish a Christmas present for Joannie and my row for Debbie's Row by Row.

Pillowcase-apalooza!

I also sold some sports pillowcases at work to desperate co-workers who needed last minute holiday gifts. Tanya, if you're reading this, I can certainly send you some Patriots fabric, the next time you need it! Although I had plenty of Red Sox and Patriots, everyone wanted Bruins pillowcases this year.

Last weekend I went to a yummy holiday party at Sue's house and had home-made eggnog, baked ziti and chocolate chip cookies among other holiday treats! I've been doing my physical therapy, so I deserved a reward!

Last Wednesday, Mike and I went out to dinner, and I ate dessert first! Giant chocolate chip cookie sundae from Pizzeria Uno. I did eat some dinner afterwards.

On Tuesday, friend Eleanor had to run an errand in the North End, which is the Italian section of Boston. She picked this up for me...

Lovely little cannoli all snug in their box!

Mike and I can only eat about half of one at one sitting. We still have two left. Perhaps breakfast?

LarryPug and Elvis posed for a quick photo while I was trying to make our bed.

I have still not mailed our holiday cards! Sorry!

Thanks for visiting!

Merry Christmas with Pugs and Kisses,
Nancy

A Few of my Favorite Things

Chinese Food! Saturday's lunch with Marion

Fabric! Hit the 40% off at the local quilt store! Sadly, they are closing this week.

These little beauties went home with me! Think how much money I saved!

Picked up my handsome husband at the airport (he had been visiting his parents) and we had Indian food for dinner.

Not a lot of sewing is getting done during the week. I am doing physical therapy for my recent back spasms and some nights I am so tired I go to bed after I eat dinner! I am also tired of the dark! It robs me of my energy.

Thanks for visiting.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Sue's Red Quilt

Back in October, Beatrice, a blog reader commented on this post: Hello, thank you for sharing. Sounds like a great week-end! Has your friend Sue finished her Kaffe Fassett quilt shown here?

Why yes, she has, Beatrice, and it was devilishly hard to get her to give me a photo of the quilt. I still haven't actually seen the finished quilt in person. Finally, Sue's son, Sean, was pressed into service and sent me some photos.

Sue's quilt originally appeared in the blog in October 2014 as Work in Progress (WIP). At the time, Sue had recently lost the quilt pattern, which she believes was called Figgy Pudding. I've done a Google search and have not found the pattern. It appears to be a derivative of Yellow Brick Road. If anyone out there knows anything, please write to me.

The little cutie pie on the right is Sue's granddaughter Moira.

A close-up.

I love how the scattered purples really make the orange fabrics pop even more!

Nana's little helper appears to be considering the addition of a purple flower button to the border. I think it looks great Moira!

The back of Sue's Red Quilt.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

December Sunday with the Brown Baggers

Last Sunday, I met up with my Brown Bagger buddies for our monthly sewing get together. I actually pushed myself and arrived by 9:30 am, which was about an hour earlier than usual (for me). I even beat Marion!

Here are some of the girls and their projects. Some people were making Christmas gifts which needed to remain under wraps until after December 25th. I was busy assembling Sam's quilt, seen here. I still have a few more rows to sew together.

Debbie finished this pretty Tumbler quilt top.

Kim G.'s quilt of artist Frida Kahlo is finished! This is Kim's original design. She silk screened the squares.

Never one to do anything half way, the fabric on the back of the quilt also has Frida Kahlo on it.

I love, love, love, Lynne's circle quilt. All of the beautiful fabrics came from Lynne's stash.

Here's a close-up. She is quilting it in big stitches with pearl cotton.

Valerie shows off her latest creation, a teeny, tiny Little Twister quilt, which she is making into a mug rug.

A close-up.

Sally models her latest infinity scarf. She is making a bunch of them for Christmas gifts.

Pat made this gorgeous Christmas stocking for her new great nephew Desmond.

Pat made these adorable pillowcases for her great nieces: Bralyn and Brooklyn and for great nephews: Bradley and Brett.

Nancy D. won our first block raffle!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Happy Faces from Cape Cod

A few more photos from our Cape Retreat at the beginning of December. Seems hard to believe that it is the middle of December and Christmas and New Year's are almost upon us!

 If you missed the other posts, you can read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 at the named links.

Sue won the Right, Left, Center game and walked off with at least three dozen new Christmas prints.

Sally

Sue and Marion

Terri and Paula

Joannie, me and Marion.

Joannie

Joanne S. with her new safety pin sculpture. Jo Ann E. is in the background.

Marion!

Nancy D. mugging for the blog.

Joanne S.

Terri

We played a spirited game of Quilt-O. Nancy D. was the big winner, taking home nine (!) prizes. If you don't win, you can always eat your markers (mine were M&Ms). I won three prizes and took home some lovely fat quarters.

The end of the Retreat.

A good time was had by all!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

WIPs, the Cape Cod Edition

Sorry to have kept you waiting, at long last, here are some of the beautiful Works in Progress (WIPs) from our recent Cape Cod retreat. You can read Part 1 and Part 2, if you missed them.

When life hands you scraps...

Lynne put her Accuquilt cutter to work BEFORE the quilt retreat.

Make some quilt blocks...

 Put them on the Design Wall...

 ... and watch all of your other quilting friends drool. These blocks belong to Lynne. I've never seen her make anything that wasn't fabulous. Me? I would have put those triangles right into the next pet pillow!

I had to do a Hexagon Intervention with Marion. Marion has been working on this quilt for a while. She makes a few rows at every quilt retreat and them puts them back in a box. She kept insisting that she needed to make more, so I finally told her to lay them out on the table and see how many she still had left to make.

Here are two rows...

The quilt kept on growing! We discovered that Marion had more than enough to make a bed size quilt. There will even be some hexagon rows on the back! Good thing I intervened or she'd have to make an RV cover instead!

The colors are bright and fun!

I spent my retreat time working on a quilt for my oldest nephew, Sam.

Sam's quilt on the design wall.

 We all made some blocks to give to Debbie for a Quilts of Valor quilt top.

Hooray for the red, white and blue!

 

 

 

Linda's Mario blocks in progress. She has twin grandsons, so she has to make two Super Mario quilts. She couldn't find the fabric she wanted, so she cut these squares out of sheets.

Nancy D.'s batik star quilt in progress.

Wendy's Christmas quilt. She got it assemble and layered and was quilting it. It looked like it was almost finished by the time we left. She backed in Grinch fabric.

Jo Ann E. cranked out another set of pretty quilt blocks!

I have a few more photos, so I'll do one more Cape Cod post.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy