Cape Cod, the Epilogue

I'm still blogging about my Cape Cod weekend at the end of January for a couple of reasons. One because I haven't run out of photos yet. And two, I've also been excruciatingly tired the past couple of weeks from working late and haven't done much sewing. I did make some birthday blocks for my Brown Bagger quilt buddies, but they will have to remain a secret until they are gifted next week.

Check out my cool new Olfa cutting board. I was super lucky and got two of them for Christmas (I must have been very good!). Marion and Sue each bought me one, so I have both sizes (12x17 and 17x24). I brought the 17x24 to the quilt retreat and it was great. I didn't have to worry that it would warp because I could fold it in half (see photo below). You can find these at Joann Fabrics and on MassDrop.

Looks like a regular Olfa mat...

It folds in half, which makes it great to take to quilt weekends!

Here are a couple of projects that were only in the very early stages that I look forward to seeing again as they near completion.

Pat  started this Disappearing 9-Patch in yellow Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

Cordula was designing this quilt using Kaffe Fassett stripes.

Joannie spent her weekend working on a quilt for her Mom, all in pinks. The blocks are only 5" finished, so she needs to make a lot of them for a twin size quilt.

I had a Mexican Fiesta dinner with Joannie, Sue and Pat one evening. Marion is sitting next to me, so she is not in the photo.

Here is Marion enjoying her favorite breakfast, French Toast!

This is my favorite breakfast, Chocolate Chip Pancakes!

We celebrated Marion's birthday for the second time while we were at the Cape. The waitress even put a candle in Marion's French Toast. We all had French Toast that day in honor of Marion's birthday! (Marion, me and Sue)

This is Sally's latest invention, the two-tiered trash system (patent pending). The small bag at the top is for fabric scraps to put in the pet pillows. The outer, larger bag is for trash. Sally is the MacGyver of our quilt group. She can fix or jury-rig anything.

Happy from finishing her spectacular Snake River Log Cabin, Kim P. has returned to handwork.

She is making hexagons.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

A Personal Best! Three Finishes!

Despite an inauspicious beginning, I finished three projects at our end of January Cape Cod Quilt Weekend.

When I arrived on Thursday afternoon, I started to put the binding on my Scrappy Bargello quilt. I machine sew my bindings on both sides. I do this for three reasons: it's fast, it's sturdy, and I'm too lazy to sew it by hand. I had it almost sewn all the way around the back, but look what happened...

My binding is almost sewn but I was short by about six inches!

Fortunately Joannie came to my rescue. She wasn't planning to drive down to the weekend till Friday morning, so she kindly stopped over at my house and brought me the extra piece of fabric that I needed!

I used three batik jelly rolls to make this top. I love the colors! This one's a keeper and is on our bed.

I also put the binding on Dr. D'Esopo's quilt. This quilt is a gift for Dr. D., my veterinarian. He has taken care of the Pug Pack since I brought Romeo home at eleven weeks old (Romeo is now an old man of 14!).

Dr. D'Esopo's favorite colors are green and blue. This quilt is also batik.

Here I am, hard at work!

I am also making Chubby Charmer tote bags for the three lovely women who work in the office at Dr. D'Esopo's veterinary hospital: Katie, Anna, and Martha. I can not say enough nice things about my Vet and his staff. They are always kind, caring, and welcoming. Last year, one of the Pug Pack always seemed to be at the vet's office and I thought they were going to have to create a frequent visitor pass for me!

I finished Katie's bag. She requested camouflage print.

Here is Katie's Camo Bag!

I made a cute double pocket on one side of the interior.

The other side has a large pocket divided in half and a strap to hold Katie's keys.

Anna's purple patchwork bag is almost done. I just need to make the handles. Martha's bag has not been started yet. She originally requested purple, but the last time I was at the office, she asked if I could change her bag colors to blue, brown and green. There are also several vet techs that work at the practice. I think that I am going to make them pillowcases with cat or dog fabrics.

Now I need to add a 2016 Finished Quilts tab to my blog.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Gambling Finally Pays Off!

I'm pleased to report that I finally won a round of RLC at our last quilt weekend at the end of January.  Usually we play for fat quarters, but we'd had a snow storm the week before, so I improvised some new themes. Everyone liked them, so we may re-use them again. The funniest thing was that no-one brought the dice so I went to CVS and bought a set. We put them in our infamous Bag of Crap (holds all our sundries for quilting events, such as cups, forks etc.) so we're guaranteed to have them for the next time!

The competition was fierce! Just kidding, it's a dice game, so it's completely dependent on luck. Here everyone played with three $1 bills.

We played for money one night (as shown above) and I won! It looks like a million, but I believe it was $39 in total. I reinvested it at the local quilt shop before we left. Anything I can do to help the Cape Cod economy. I'm kind of selfless that way...

Cordula won the night we played for scratch tickets (everyone put in three $2 scratch tickets). She claims that her winnings were only $13 despite having 39 tickets. If she shows up at the next quilt weekend in a Jaguar, we'll be a little suspicious...

Joan S. won the night we played Winner's Choice. We all used markers and when Joan won she got to pick whatever she wanted and we all went to the quilt store to go shopping. Joan chose Amy Butler fabrics. Aren't they pretty? We pooled our money and bought Joan yardage, at her request, instead of fat quarters.

Thanks for visiting!
Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Small Project Showcase

Here are some of the lovely small projects that were created by my talented Brown Bagger quilting friends.

The talented Karen P. debuted two new patterns at our January quilt weekend. They are already for sale on her QuiltLily website. The little birds are Sitting Pretty and the flowered table runner is Bloomers. Tell Karen you saw her patterns on my blog!

So cute!

You have to be wary of paparazzi at the quilt weekend.

Upside down, but still so cute. Check out the embroidered details.

Meet Bloomers.

Sue is almost finished with her Chevron Quilt top, a free pattern from The Missouri Star Quilt Company.

Pat made the cutest baby quilt with elephants. She is also making a baby boy version in blue fabrics.

Sweet little elephants all in a row. This pattern is called Elephant Walk.

Cordula made some boxy pouches.

Jo Ann E. designed a new neighborhood.

Sue finished an armful of pillowcases.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

The Girls of January 2016

Back to the future! Did you check out my special talent? I can write blogs before things take place. Last night I was trying to write a few blogs posts at once, so you'd have something to read for a few days. I still have A LOT of photos to get you all caught up on.

Anyways, I published Under the Big Top last night. I meant to publish Small Project Showcase for Saturday but accidentally hit the publish button instead of the schedule button. I reset it for Saturday but it published anyway. Go check out the date at the top of the post. I'm curious to see what happens on Saturday.

Here's our group portrait from our January Quilt Weekend. I asked the girl from the front desk to take our photo. She did a great job.

Here's the whole gang!

Here we are individually.

Sally

Kim G. This photo is priceless.

Me! Pat brought me this luscious slice of chocolate cake to celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day! It would have been a crime NOT to celebrate!

Karen

Jo Ann E.

Pat

Cordula

Marion

Joannie C.

Sue

Joan S.

Kate

Kim P.

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Under the Big Top

Here are some more great quilts from my Brown Bagger quilting friends. This post features the bed size quilt tops and other large quilt tops that were completed recently.

I am pleased to report that Marion finally assembled the center of her Hexagon Quilt at our January Cape Cod weekend. I helped Marion mark the edges, she stay-stitched next to the line, and then she fearlessly trimmed off the edges. Next step for Marion--adding an outside border! Marion's quilt is from the book, Jelly Roll Jambalaya Quilts.

This bright and cheery quilt is guaranteed to beat the winter blues!

Here's a close-up. The hexagons are strip pieced!

Sue had fallen in love with Marion's fabric choices and was using them to make a different quilt. Sue's quilt is the scrappy version of Terry Atkinson's pattern, Morning Noon & Night. I believe the fabric line is from Marcia Derse.

Sue's quilt is as bright as her smile!

Pat assembled her lovely Kaffe Fassett Winter Trees. Pat was inspired by a quilt that Kim G. had made at a previous quilt weekend.

This quilt is too pretty just to be hung in the winter. I think that Pat will need to hang it up year round.

The trees are dimensional, using a Cathedral Window technique.

Joan S. assembled her scrappy Scrappy Trips Around the World, a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter's website. I am also working on one of these quilts. You can see some of my blocks in this post.

Joan dug into her scraps to make this lovely quilt top.

Here's a close-up of the wonderful fabrics she used.

And last, but not least, Cordula finished her Kaffe Fassett Chinese Coins Quilt top.

Cordula's blue/green sashing really made the colors in her quilt pop!

Lots more photos to share. Come back soon!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy