We Interrupt This Blog...

I had recovered from my stomach bug for less than 24 hours when I was struck by a massive head cold... blogging to resume soon, I hope. Crawling back into bed...

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Lost Weekend

I took Romeo to the vet on Friday morning before work. Although it was supposed to be Romeo's annual physical, it turned out that the little bald spot on his chest was not caused by rubbing from his harness, but rather it was a skin infection. $342 later, Romeo and I left the vet's office, complete with antibiotics, special shampoo and a request to come back in five days. As I helped Romeo into the car, I thought, well I shouldn't spend another penny this weekend.

Be careful what you wish for... I spent the rest of my weekend supine on the couch or curled up in my bed with a nefarious 24 hour stomach bug. I didn't get to go fabric shopping with Marion on Saturday or to dinner at my favorite restaurant with my friend Kate. Nor did I get to go to the quilt show on Sunday with my gal pals.

Joannie sent me this photo from the quilt show.

Joannie, Sue and Marion went to the Rhododendron Quilt Show on Sunday. Joannie only sent me one photo. I wish I could have seen this quilt in person or read the story behind it. It is simply darling, even though there doesn't appear to be a pug on the bus.

Anyways, it's Monday morning and I'm fine and ready to go to work.

Hope your weekend was better than mine!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Owl Always Love You: A Quilt for Lily

I finished Lily's Owl Quilt. This is my first quilt finish of 2015. It is made of flannel and it is all owl prints. Every time I went into Joann Fabrics it seems they had a new owl design and I finally had to stop buying them. Lily is only 6 and she does not have a king size bed!

Lily loves owls and her favorite colors are green and purple so I used green flannel for the sashing and pieced her name in purple at the top. The quilt design is Colonnade, a pattern by my blogging friend Kim from Robot Mom Sews. (I made this quilt in a completely different color way last year. You can see it here.) The letters for Lily's name are from the Little Letters tutorials by the Temecula Quilt Company. I think they came out quite cute! My friend Terri Bearer quilted the quilt in an all over owl pantograph. Terri says that she hates me now and she'll never use that design again because it was very hard to do! Unfortunately you can't see her wonderful quilting in any of the photos, but take my word for it, it is simply adorable. My finished quilt measures 67x79.

I met Lily and her Dad Jeff for lunch last week and I gave Lily her Owl quilt. She was thrilled. Lily turns 6 tomorrow (we have almost the same birthday except I'm a few years older) and she is having an owl-themed birthday party this weekend. It is at the Blue Hills Trailside Museum so there will even be a real owl in attendance.

As shown on my queen size bed.

Joannie made me this great quilt label. This cute flowered flannel is the backing fabric.

Lily's Dad Jeff sent me this photo. I think she likes it!

Me and Lily!

Of course, I also gave Lily another owl pillowcase. Who can resist leprechaun owls for Saint Patrick's Day?

One more quilt photo!

Linking up on Friday to Richard and Tanya Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Fabric Frenzy Friday at Fort Worth Studio. Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Happy 2015 Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! My quilting gal pals treated me to a Quilting Road Trip last weekend (blog post soon!) and my husband is spiriting me off to Cambridge for a mini weekend including a fancy dinner, a Celtic concert, an overnight hotel stay and a wonderful brunch. And I think he will even take me to a quilt store (or two) on the way home.

In honor of my birthday, here are my handsome Pug Boys!

From left to right: LarryPug, Elvis and Romeo

The original Dynamic Duo: Elvis and Romeo

LarryPug. His birthday is in March too!

 How did I get such cute photos?

I had to lie down on the kitchen floor with my pug pals. Of course,
they came over to check on me to see that nothing was wrong.

Thank you to my wonderful family and friends who have showered me with gifts and cards. I love you all!

If you missed my Mom's birthday post last year, check it out!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Bag Making in Boston

I took Friday off and I finished two quilts! You will see them soon. About half way through the day, Joannie found out that I was home and joined me in The Studio for a little sewing. She finished making a knitting bag that will be a gift for a friend. She machine embroidered the white pocket panels with knitting designs. She even added more pockets inside.

The pattern is A Novel Approach Tote Pattern by Poorhouse Quilt Designs.

Here's a photo of the fabric she used. Aren't the knitting sheep cute?

Joannie has made this bag before for some of her golfing friends (of course, with golf fabric). I'm pretty sure I've shown the bags in my blog, but I can't find the post. Note to Self: add search feature to blog...

Not to be outdone, Pat was busy making MORE Sew Together Bags and sending me pictures from her iPhone. Seems like daughter Alison tried to sneak off with the first one.

Here is Pat's second bag.

Another pretty one done in Kaffe Fassett fabric.

Here is Pat's third bag.

Pretty in a pastel paisley print.

Daughter Alison will get her own Sew Together bag and so will daughter AnnMarie. But what about oldest daughter Jackie? Or granddaughter Jill? Pat, you better keep sewing!

Thanks for visiting.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Sam Moves On

This is Sam.

Hanging on the sofa.

My Thursday Girl friends gave me Sam at my bridal shower so I would have a grandbaby for my Mother-in-law. It's kind of a long story...

For several years, Sam has hung out in a remote corner of our living room.

He enjoyed a brief modeling career in my Etsy Shop.

 Until he was supplanted by LarryPug.

I decided that sitting forlornly on the bookcase was not Sam's ultimate life choice, so I searched for some new opportunities. One of my co-workers volunteers at a homeless shelter for women and children and I thought Sam would feel more useful there. She told me that there is a little girl who is just the right age and will love Sam!

I brought Sam into work this week. He enjoyed a spin in my office chair before heading off to his new life.

Farewell Sam! I'm sure that your new little girl will simply adore you!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

March 2015 Quilt of the Month

Here's another oldie but goodie. It has never been on my bed before. Like last month's quilt, it only covers the top of our down comforter, so it is just bed dressing.

According to my Finished Project List, which dates back to 2001, I think this quilt is my October Mystery Millennium Quilt (or it could be this quilt, it certainly is a mystery to me!). I started this quilt in 1998. The pattern is a Judy Hopkins Mystery Quilt that we did in our Brown Baggers group. I know that a bunch of us went to The Button Box and Catherine, the owner, helped us pick out our fabrics. I finished this quilt on February 7, 2003, and it still needs a label. It was quilted by Kim Pratt.

Here is my handsome boy Elvis on top of our quilt. Sorry our bed looks lumpy today.
Our bed-making skills were not up to par.

I really wanted to pose all three boys together, but my photo shoot was like an episode of Wild Kingdom. Only Elvis was willing to sit still and model. Here are the live action shots.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Scrap Happy Saturday--Walking On Sunshine

I'm officially here, and on time, with my Scrappy Saturday blog post. I won't mention that it took me three months...after all this is a hobby right? It's supposed to be fun!

This pattern is called Twinkle. Originally I had thought I was going to make my center stars in black and white, but when I auditioned some fabric yesterday, I didn't care for it. The pattern cover has a red star (and when we made this quilt for Marion in 2012, I used both red and purple stars), but this pink fabric called to me from my stash. It looks great with the yellow fabrics we are using this month. I know that it will be less vibrant with some of the other colors in the fabric rainbow, but I'm going for it.

I made three blocks!

I made two like this. It's funny though, because the large prints cut up differently, they don't look the same.

These are my "uglier" yellow Kaffe Fassett prints, but they play nicely together.

These are large blocks, finishing to 14.5 inches square. The quilt calls for 42 blocks, but I think I'm going to make 49 so it will be bigger. I need to go back and make my Twinkle blocks for January and February. They are cut out and ready to sew.

Thanks for visiting! Linking up with great joy and fanfare to Scrap Happy Saturday.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Reunited and It Feels So Good!

I FINALLY saw my Thursday Girl friends last night. The horrific amount of snow we received in Boston has kept us from meeting for the last two months. And just because the news has quieted down, don't think that the snow has gone away. The last part of my brief journey from my office to the hall where we meet was down a road that is normally two lanes wide, that is now only one car width wide, and barely that. Luckily no-one else was driving in the other direction. The snow banks are still so high that you can't see who is coming and the parking lot at the hall was full of ice. Whoever is in charge of plowing in Quincy should be ashamed or perhaps thrown naked in a snow bank.

I was very happy to see Judi, Beth, Toni, Nancy, and Ginny. Pat and Karen couldn't make it. We had a lovely Chinese take-out meal and got caught up. Ginny brought cupcakes! Yeah Ginny!

Ginny had two projects to share. I love her penguin quilt. It is another Amy Bradley Design, from the pattern Merry Christmas. This is the same pattern that Ginny made her Nutcracker Quilt from. I really like Amy Bradley's whimsical designs.

Here's a close-up of one of Ginny's penguins.

Ginny added a name panel in the middle.

Ginny made this Celtic-influenced quilt at a recent quilt weekend.
Perfect for Saint Patrick's Day!

Beth confessed that she is in love with The Missouri Star Quilt Company and their wonderful free tutorials. I agree. They're fast and easy!

Beth made this Disappearing 9-Patch as a birthday gift for her Father-in-law.

She put this really cool map fabric on the back.

Judi was working on a lovely batik quilt but she didn't want me to photograph it because she wanted to add one more border. Hopefully she will bring it next week.

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

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Almost Famous

Meet Emma. She is eight and she wants to be a Brown Bagger.

Emma is Joanne's great niece and she spent the day with us on Sunday at our monthly Brown Bagger sewing group. Joanne has been teaching Emma how to use the sewing machine and Emma has taken to it like a duck takes to water.

You may have heard about Emma before... she's the little niece that convinced Auntie Joanne to "help" her make nine quilts for holiday gifts for her cousins...

Emma and Joanne worked on a baby quilt on Sunday for Emma's newest cousin. Emma had a great day. She visited with everyone and got to ask questions about what they were working on. We stuffed her full of birthday cake and ice cream. Pat gave her some left over fabric to take home. We played hangman with her. And when I asked Emma if she would like to be in the blog, she was over the moon. For the rest of the day, every time she walked by me, she would say, "I'm going to be famous!"

I hope she's not disappointed...

Sew

Press

The top is done!

Due to all the snow, we hadn't seen each other in a while, so there aren't a lot of projects to show off. We were busy catching up, commiserating about the snow, and eating french toast (thanks Terri), birthday cake (thanks Pat) and ice cream (thanks Sally). I think there was also a coffee cake and muffins (thanks to Sue), but I was full after eating the first three items...

Terri put the borders on her newest quilt top, Steppin' Stripes.
The pattern was from a recent quilting magazine (maybe Fons and Porter?).

Marion finished this little baby quilt.

Sally and Joannie were working on their Double Wedding Ring blocks.

 Here is the rest of the gang.

Sue

Kim P.

Lori

Pat

Me!

Happy Birthday to all of our March Brown Baggers: Terri, Sally, Me, Pat, Jean, Kate (an honorary Brown Bagger) and Judi (Thursday Girl). And Happy Birthday to our late friend Rochelle, we hope that there is a lot of fabric, especially purple fabric, in Heaven. Happy Birthday to our little bitty Brown Baggers: Julianna and Emma. And Happy Birthday to LarryPug, my darling baby boy.

Happy 6th Birthday LarryPug!

Thanks for visiting.
Pugs and kisses,
Nancy