A Very Quilty Birthday!

Among my quilt group friends, it is well known that you have two birthdays. First there is your real birthday, typically celebrated with family and sometimes friends. Second, and often more important, is your quilting birthday, which is celebrated in our quilt group with cake, gifts of fabric and birthday blocks, and a spectacular off-key rendition of Happy Birthday which often sounds more like a funeral dirge. We need to work on our tempo...

Saturday was Marion's quilting birthday.

Cake! Chocolate of course!

Presents!

Birthday blocks!

Each year our group chooses a block pattern. Participation is optional. The birthday girl chooses her own colors and everyone in the group makes blocks for the birthday girl. Marion has chosen black and white fabrics with a brightly colored center for her 2014 birthday block. Our block this year is a pattern by Terry Atkinson, called Snap Shot and it is the cover quilt of her book, Happy Hour.

I asked the girls to bring in some of the quilts they've made from birthday blocks in past years. It is fun to see how different they appear depending on the fabrics, settings, and size that they've chosen.

The first year we did a birthday block exchange was 1996. We did a star signature block. These blocks are extra special because they are signed, and one of our original members has passed away.

This is Kim P.'s birthday quilt done in patriotic colors.

This is Lori's birthday quilt in shades of blue.

One of the hardest birthday blocks we made was in 2007. It required a special ruler, precise cutting and perfect 1/4 seams. The pattern is called Oriental Lanterns and it was in an Australian quilt magazine. Lots of tears were shed over this one.

I used the original nine blocks I received and finally made a wall hanging in 2012.

Lori was brave and made hers larger.

This is Pat's quilt with our birthday blocks from 2009.

This is Kim P.'s birthday block quilt using the Bento Box pattern
in batik fabrics. We made this block in 2006. I finished mine last year
and you can see it under the tab, 2013 Finished Quilts.

We made this quilt for Karen's 50th birthday and it was also our
birthday block last year because we liked it so much.

One year we did a sampler quilt. This is Nancy D.'s in blue and yellow.

This was our birthday block in 2010 or 2011. Pat super-sized hers and made it out of Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

Karen's quilt is made of batiks.

Don't they look very different from each other?

I hope that you enjoyed seeing some of our birthday block quilts! Happy Quilting Birthday Marion!

Linking up on Tuesday to FreeMotion by the River. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Something Old, Something New

I met my friend Linda in the first grade at the Brophy School in Framingham. Our teacher was Mrs. Spelicacy. We're still friends 44 years later. So, next to my family, I've known Linda longer than anyone else, and unbelievably she still likes me!

My friendship with Linda is epitomized by this poem I learned back in my Brownie troop:

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver

and the other is gold.

I looked up the poem on the web and found that it is much longer than the first verse that I remembered. You can read it here.

Of course, Linda's friendship is more of the platinum standard. She's always been there when I needed her. Unlike a lot of my other friends that frequent my blog, she is NOT a quilter, but she does like crafting. When we were in High School, we had a Friday night craft group with three other friends: Lisa, Lydia, and Kathy. I still have my finished needlepoint picture hanging in my basement. We called our group, Needlepoint and M&M's. Yes, some things never change...

I met Linda for dinner last night and brought her a surprise gift. This gift put itself together and it has a theme: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue.

Something Borrowed
I got this ice cream scoop as a party favor eight years ago at Linda's wedding shower. It is absolutely the best ice cream scoop ever, plus it has a cute handle with ice cream cones. One of the last times we went out, Linda lamented that hers had broken in the dishwasher and she was very upset because it was a memento of her wedding and, as I said above, it truly is the best ice cream scoop ever. I knew that I had to give it back to her.

I surprised Linda with a large wrapped basket and made her open the scoop first.

Something New and Blue

Linda's favorite color is blue and her favorite food is ice cream, so when I saw this fabric on a shopping expedition with the girls, I had to buy it and make her something.

My first finish for 2014. Two pillowcases.

Something Old

My friend Linda is very thrifty as well as family-oriented, so I gave her a set of ice cream glasses that my parents had given me when they moved out of our family home and retired to Florida. They had been sitting unused in my kitchen cabinets and were in perfect condition. Linda and I had definitely eaten ice cream out of them back in High School.

Linda loved her gift! Now, all she needs is a little ice cream!

I also got Linda a gift card for Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, so she can use her scoop and ice cream glasses. I wonder if she stopped and bought ice cream on her drive home last night?

I bought myself a replacement ice cream scoop on Amazon. It works really well, except that it lacks the cute handle.

I hope that you have a life-time friend like Linda in your life!

Pugs and kisses,

Nancy

Linking up to Sew Many Ways, Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party. Thanks for visiting!

 

Color Me Happy!

Pantone's color of the year is Radiant Orchid! Pantone is a color matching system used in the print industry. You can read more about Pantone here.

Purple makes me happy. It is one of my "go-to" colors both for quilting and wearables. I am on trend for 2014.

Last month before the big Pantone announcement, I pulled the batik fabrics below from my stash. (Note to blog friends: this does not even make the teeniest dent in my fabric stash.) I am going to make a Queen size reversible quilt. One side will be a Scrappy Bargello, the other side will be a Yellow Brick Road.

Blues and Aquas in one pile (note the purples sneaking in...)

Purple-icious!

All the purples and blues together in perfect harmony!

I haven't even finished cutting out this project but I am excited to start work on it. The colors are gorgeous and I can't wait to see how they will all looks together.

If you are new to my blog, you can read another post about purple here. There are a couple of predominantly purple quilts seen here in my 2013 Finished Quilt Projects. And you can see the Grape-Ade Quilt top here.

Linking up to CrazyMom Quilts!

Here's to Purple Power!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Florida Fun

Mike and I rang in New Year's Eve 2013 at Allison's wedding hosted by my friend Pat and her family. Allison is Pat's middle daughter. It was a blistery cold evening, but the wedding was lovely. The church was decorated with evergreen boughs and the dance hall was rocking way past my bedtime. The wedding reception had a candy bar, a photo booth, and a cupcake tower--my kind of party!

At the reception with my handsome husband Mike.

Posing with Pat. Doesn't she look gorgeous in her silver dress?

Here is the stunning bride with her Mom.

The next day, Mike and I hopped a plane to Florida to visit my family. My parents retired to Florida about 15 years ago. It makes a great excuse for an annual vacation. My brother Jeff and his family come from California too!

We were lucky and flew out a day before a big snow storm hit Boston. The nasty child sitting behind me kicked my seat all the way from Logan airport to Fort Lauderdale. My back still hurts.

This was the view from my friend Cindy's windshield last Thursday. Brrrr!

This was my view in Florida! Sunny and 85 degrees.

Mike took me to a great quilt shop in Boca Raton, called StitchCraft. They were recently featured in the Quilt Sampler magazine. StitchCraft has two giant rooms full of fabric and a really friendly staff. There were beautiful samples hung all around the shop. I could have stayed there all day.

If you're ever in Boca Raton, check out StitchCraft!

The focus of our visit was to spend time with my family. We spent a couple of afternoons at the beach with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew. We had a big family dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant one night and at our favorite Italian restaurant a different night. On Saturday it rained, so Mike and I took my parents to the indoor Flea Market. We all had a lot of fun. Before we left on Sunday afternoon, we all met at the Highland Beach Holiday Inn for brunch. Mike and I got married there in February of 2012.

Here is a shot of the whole family. My 16 year old niece Rachel is
the tallest of all of us, standing in the middle.

I'm still taller than my nephew Ben, but there's always next year!

Here are the girls: me, Mom, Rachel and Diane (my sister-in-law).

Most of the time, Ben looked like this.

Ben is very fond of my husband Mike and demanded to sit next to him at every meal.

Here I am with my brother Jeff.

Hope you got to enjoy some family time over the holidays!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

January Quilt of the Month

In 2014, I'm going to change the quilt on my bed monthly and share its story with you. I'm sure that I have more than a year's worth to choose from.

This is a queen size quilt made of flannel fabrics. The pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Terry Atkinson. Marion, of course, has an identical quilt. I think a couple of the other Brown Baggers also have one. If you've never made a Yellow Brick Road quilt before, I recommend it. It is a quick and easy pattern that is fun to make.

I purchased the fabric for the quilt below back in May of 2004 at the now defunct Tala's in North Adams, MA, during our annual Berkshires quilting retreat. I finished the quilt in May of 2011.

The interesting ladder-shaped reflection on the
quilt is from the blinds, it is not part of the quilt.

As always, my quilts look better with a pug or two on top. LarryPug on
the left, Elvis on the right. Romeo was downstairs napping.

I have to admit that I don't really like the colors in this quilt. I brightened them a little in iPhoto. I hate beige and the whole thing is kind of drab to me. I have ordered some new batik flannel from Sew Batik and will make a new flannel quilt, hopefully by next year.

As you know, it's been bitterly cold here in Boston as well as in many other parts of the country. In addition to the flannel quilt, we also have a down comforter and a heated mattress pad on the bed! Hope you are staying warm! And I hope that my Australian friends are staying cool!

Adding links on Friday to Richard and Tanya Quilts at  Link A Finish Friday (Happy 100th Richard!) and to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Thanks for visiting! 

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

2013 By The Numbers

Sorry you haven't heard from me in Blogville lately. I lazed around the last week of 2013 and then Mike and I were in Florida visiting my parents for a few days. I'll post some photos shortly in another blog. My niece and nephew have gotten big, whereas my parents continue to shrink.

I have kept a running list of my quilt projects since 2001. It is currently 8 pages long. I have a lot of unfinished projects. I also make a monthly quilting "to do" list. I'm not sure if this keeps me on track, but every time I add something to the finished projects section, it makes me feel really good.

My fabric stash definitely looks like this pie chart.

In 2013 I finished 82 projects which included 11 quilts (13% of my projects). I also finished 71 small projects which included 43 pillowcases, five tote bags, and other assorted items. Fourteen of the small non-quilt items were quilted. I gave away 71 items, including two king size quilts, shown here and here, which was 79% of my output. This year I didn't keep track of any items that I made for the Etsy shop that I share with Marion.

I did squeak out six more pillowcases the last week of December that I brought to Florida as gifts for my family.

Three Star Trek pillowcases for my brother and my niece to share.
My nephew Benny got the pillowcase with the money printed on it.

Joannie gave me her extra Scrabble fabric so I could make a
pillowcase for my Mom. Dad got the pillowcase with the tools on it.

I wrote 131 blog posts in 2013, which was more than double the amount I wrote in 2012. I think I'm getting the hang of this blogging thing! I am pleased and proud to report that I have 20 followers through Bloglovin', 23 Google followers, and 30 email subscribers, so my Mom isn't the only one that reads my blog, although she is still probably my biggest fan (Thanks Mom!). Thank you, each and every one of you that read and follow my Blog and a really big thank you to those of you who take the time to write me comments! I am so excited every time I get a comment on my Blog.

So what's up for 2014? More quilts, more blog posts, and more pug photos of course. I'm still trying to decide if I should make some resolutions for 2014. I will see my Brown Bagger buddies next weekend and check in with them to see how they did with their 2013 New Year's resolutions. I was really surprised to re-read my post and find that I hadn't made 2 out of the 3 quilts that I had committed to for 2013.

Pugs and kisses to all! Stay safe and warm. It is 5 degrees (-15 Celsius) here in Boston.

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River. Adding links on Friday to Richard and Tanya Quilts at  Link A Finish Friday (Happy 100th Richard!) and to Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Thanks for visiting!

Nancy

And they said it couldn't be done...

Sue came over on Thursday to sew with me in the Studio. I was working on some new dog jackets for Romeo, Elvis, and LarryPug.

Each coat will have the brown printed dog fleece on the outside with a different color collar and lining accent. LarryPug is getting orange; Elvis is getting lime green and Romeo is getting turquoise.

Sue was working on a Chubby Charmer tote bag from her stash of projects in progress. She was happy to report that she had given away a few of her finished lap quilts and tote bags for her sister to give as Christmas gifts.

Earlier in the week, one of my coworkers brought me an old sewing machine that his daughter was no longer using. He had mentioned it in passing and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Best case: vintage Singer featherweight. Worse case: piece of junk corroded from living in his garage for ten years. In this instance, it was a happy medium, a fairly modern Singer, that was just a little grimy from lack of use. Thursday, I got it up and running. Sue is going to take it in to Rosie's Place where she teaches sewing. So she was quite happy to gain another machine for her ladies.

After a quick lunch, Sue offered to help me "organize" one of the corners of the Studio. Secretly I was worried that this was an Intervention sponsored by the noticeably absent Joannie (felled by stomach flu) and Marion (visiting friends in Chicago). I asked Sue if she was certain this was how she wanted to spend her afternoon...

Before the cleaning intervention.

This space is a deep corner at the top of the stairwell. It is too skinny to do much of anything except store stuff. In fairness, Joannie and I had organized most of the stuff in the corner months ago, it was just really hard to get at...

Sue is amazed with some of the loot we've extricated from the corner.

After we unloaded the corner, we decided that I should buy a shelf to put in the corner. That would make it easier than stacking all the boxes on top of each other. The space is narrow, only 30 inches wide, and since the ceiling is slanted, we had to account for the shortest height which is 59 inches. So, off we went back out to Lowe's.

Shelf in cart, we head for the register.

Check out all the plastic boxes. Looks like a lot of
people want to get organized after Christmas.

Thus began several hours of work. Sue was a trouper. When I would begin to tire, she would urge me on. We went through all of the boxes. We organized batting scraps by size: large, medium, and small. I will never have to purchase batting again, and neither will any of my friends. Joannie will be able to make place mats until the next millennium. Sue and I folded fabric and sorted fabric and unearthed some projects that I hadn't seen in a long time. Among our finds were the purple printed batik that I needed to finish the border of my pineapple wall hanging, my Deb Tucker Rangeley Star, my Deb Tucker Hunter's Star and my very first quilt block.

This poor little block was wonky before wonky was popular.
Luckily, my quilting has come a long, long way!

I made this block in a quilting class in 1980 at The Fabric Place in old downtown Framingham in a class taught by Sue Turbak. I was in the 10th grade. This was in the days before rotary cutters. This is it...I made exactly one block as far as I can remember. I think the colors are still kind of pretty. As you know, I still like pink. I'm going to have to frame this and hang it somewhere.

Sue left around 5pm, but the cleaning bug had bitten hard and spread to all corners of the Studio. Mike finally came over around 7:30 pm to see if I wanted to come back to the house for dinner.

Corner storage post intervention.

Although this may look messy to you, all of the boxes are sorted and labeled. The shelf I bought at Lowe's fit in the corner, but the large totes were too tall for the shelves. I was still able to use it for some project boxes. Happily, I visited my friend Linda at The Container Store today and she has the perfect solution. She recommended the Metro Commercial shelving, which is very strong shelving that can hold a lot of weight and is the right width. They will cut the poles to the height I need for my slanted ceiling. I am going back in two weeks to have dinner with her and will purchase it then. That will make my corner storage even better.

I can now see the top of the counter!

I hung up some decorations. My friend Dianne at work painted
these letters for me. My Studio theme is hot pink and zebra.

On the right side of the Studio, I have space for two friends. Joannie and Sue keep an extra machine here and I have an extra machine here for Marion also. I have a third table on the other side of the Studio, so four of us can sew at once. I ordered the cute signs you see here online from Joann fabrics. "Create" came in green, so my friend Dianne painted it pink for me.

I am really excited that the Studio is so clean and organized. Unfortunately, now my Mom wants me to help clean out Dad's garage when I visit her next week in Florida...

Dad's garage on a good day...if you look closely,
you can find my Dad in this picture.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Sue--Thanks a Million!!!!!

Linking up on Sunday to Sew Many Ways Sew Darn Crafty Party. Adding a link on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River: Linky Tuesday. Adding a link on Wednesday to Sew Fresh Quilts: Let's Bee Social. Lorna invited me to participate! I am so thrilled!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy