November at the Cape, The Finale

Still a few more photos from our fabulous weekend on Cape Cod. If you missed it, you can read Part 1  and Part 2 to get caught up.

The final two awards go to Marion and Cordula.

Marion scared the crap out of me last month by being hospitalized twice. I was afraid that she wasn't going to make it to the Cape, but quilting beckoned and she rallied from her hospital bed to accompany me.

Marion takes the award for the Quilt That Most Closely Resembles Its Name. This pattern is called Salt Water Taffy, yum! It is all batik.

This quilt is even prettier in person.

Cordula takes the award for It Wouldn't Be a Quilt Weekend If Someone Didn't Make a Yellow Brick Road Quilt. And if Cordula hadn't finished this one, I spied Nancy D. working on one, and I had one in the car.

Love the black and white fabrics with the red accents.

And without further silliness, here are some more photos from our weekend.

Best buddies, Kim G. and Cordula

Daughter Cheryl with Mom Jean.

The Oh So Talented Pratt sisters, Karen and Kim.

Marion

Joan S.

Sally

Joannie C.

Me!

Joanne S.

Jo Ann E. working on her umbrella quilt.

Nancy D., the happiest retiree I know, shows off one of
Kate's new patterns, Gingerbread Table.

Kate

Pat

Pat was hard at work on her Party Dress quilt, which was so popular, three of the Brown Baggers were making it. You saw Kim G.'s version in Part 1. Joann E. was also working on one. One inebriated lady who was peeking in our room from the Bridgewater Reunion Class of '74, said to her companion, "I thought they were doll dresses but I now I realize they are lampshades." If it's any consolation, read my post, Hatboxes or Drums? I must confess that I've always wanted to make this quilt.

I want this! It is Karen's new pattern, Flourish.

Kim P. made this darling giraffe baby quilt.

Joann E. assembled this top. We chose it for our 2015
Birthday Blocks, although applique will be optional.

A close-up of the applique.

Pat made this t-shirt quilt to honor a lost father.

Cordula put together these lovely Kaffe Fassett fabrics for a tablecloth.

There are more Kaffe Fassett fabrics in Cordula's 4-Patch and Friends quilt.

Yes, we are a prolific bunch!

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

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Sleeping Beauty

I spent most of my weekend asleep. On Saturday, I slept in until about 9:30 am, which is late for me. I usually wake up around 6:30 am to 7 am, even on the weekends. I wrote a short blog post, took the pugs for a walk, then I went back to bed at 11am and slept until 5:30pm. Saturday night, Mike and I went up to his sister's house for a rockin' dance party to celebrate her 50th birthday. My nephew's band played. I love them. Good thing, I had my six hour nap because Mike and I danced until midnight.

On Sunday morning we took the pugs for an extra long walk because it was a beautiful although cold day. After lunch we decided to do our annual fall clean-up of the yard. We estimated it would take an hour to pack up all the outdoor furniture, yard art, and pug flags and put them away in the shed for the winter.  Two hours later, when we finished at 3pm, Mike headed to the grocery store, and I went upstairs to bed again, where I slept until 6:30pm. Mike made a delicious dinner of meat loaf, roasted asparagus, and sweet potatoes. He also made a pot of lentil soup. After dinner, I sat on the couch with the pugs and watched some television. We caught up with Dancing with the Stars. Romeo and I are quite annoyed that Lea Thompson was eliminated and talent-less Tommy Chong gets to stay. Although Romeo is still angry that Kym Johnson isn't dancing this season, she is Romeo's favorite. I also attempted to watch a little football with Mike. The New England Patriots were playing the Baltimore Colts. I'm not a sports fan, and I fell asleep on the couch at 9:30 pm.

Not surprisingly, no sewing was done, no fabric was fondled, and no new fabric acquisitions were made, not even on the Internet. Just for the record, I did finish the fourth panel of my blue and purple Scrap Wave on Thursday night, three panels to go.

This morning, I awoke, refreshed and raring to go. I guess an extra ten hours of sleep can certainly help!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

First Snow

We had our first snow of the year yesterday, although fortunately it was only a light dusting. When the puggies and I went to the park yesterday morning it looked like this.

I love the juxtaposition of fall colors and snow.

This darling little pugsicle is Elvis.

Here are his handsome brothers, LarryPug, in orange and Romeo, in blue.
They are wearing pet size Squall Jackets from Lands End.

The snow added a little bit of frosting to our Halloween pumpkins...

...and to our basket of festive gourds...

...and to our Japanese maple tree.

Another stunning combination of fall colors against the snow.

I was going to pose the puggies on the purple bench with the leaves, but it was quite wet with melted snow. I love the purple and the orange together. The colors remind me of this quilt that I made with Charlotte Angotti.

It was 37 degrees in Texas yesterday, and Lola the pug stayed warm underneath her favorite quilt. Can you see her little face peeking out? Lola belongs to our friend Ann in Houston. LarryPug would love to go to Houston and ask Lola to be his girlfriend. The two gorgeous quilts in the photo are made by Ann's talented Mom, Joan.

Thanks for visiting.

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

November at the Cape, The Award Edition, Part 2

If you're catching up, I spent this past weekend in Cape Cod with many of my Brown Bagger quilting buddies.

Most Self-Admired Quilt Award is given to me, by me. I happily worked on my blue and purple Scrap Wave all weekend long. I brought two other projects with me, but they never left the car.

I finished three panels over the weekend.

Perhaps, if I hadn't taken three hours off on Friday for a fabric buying
excursion with Joannie and Marion, I would have finished my fourth panel!

I happily sang my own new original song, I Love Purple, 
to the tune of I Love Trash, by Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.
So far, my song only has a few lines:
I love purple, anything violet, or lilac, or grape-y.
Your lyrical suggestions are welcome.

The next award is for Project Most Likely to Fit in a Shoebox, which goes to Kim P.  Kim's projects keep getting tinier and tinier and this one is no exception. Check out these blocks. It certainly makes packing her car easy!

This block is made up of 1.5 inch squares, cut from Kim's stash.

Here is her tidy little work area this weekend.

Kim chain pieces all of her blocks in one direction. She is saving the pressing stage
for television time at home. She had finished 30 blocks on Day 1, I'm not sure
how many she finished over the course of the weekend.

Cheryl took the award for Project I'd Most Like to Steal when it is finished.

Kaffe-alicious!

We did these blocks as Birthday Blocks one year, but Cheryl made all of these on her own. I love how she fussy cut each of her center blocks and then repeated that fabric somewhere else in the block.

Jo Ann E. received the award for Fastest Project with her lovely table runner, Cat Tails.

Jo Ann purchased this pattern from Karen on Saturday and had the finished table runner top on Sunday morning. She used Halloween prints for her background.

Stay tuned, there will be more to read later this week about my Cape Cod weekend. In the mean time, I'm off to Pittsburgh for a brief business trip. If you get bored, you can re-read some of my older posts.

Linking up on Friday to Richard and Tanya Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts. Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Thanks for visiting! 

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Annual November Brown Bagger Weekend, The Award Edition, Part 1

Hello Dear Blogging Friends,

This month, I'll be blogging backwards. In other words, I will get you caught up on my most recent activities first, then I'll go back and fill in all those blank spaces with posts about the Houston Quilt Festival as well as the November Quilt of the month.

A big Thank You to all my Brown Bagger buddies who were in Cape Cod this past weekend with me. For me, personally, it was our best weekend ever. I felt that everyone made an effort to be inclusive and there was a lot of love and laughter.

Sally gave me a present in honor of my 300th blog post. I'll be doing two give-aways soon to thank my readers for their tenacity in reading the first 300 (I'm up to 319). Thank you Sally! For your lovely gift, you receive the Most Likely to Appear in the Blog First award.

When you own three pugs, you receive a lot of pug gifts.
This is my third What the Pug mug, but I need at least nine more for a complete set of 12.

In no particular order, here are some highlights from our annual November weekend.

Biggest Achievement Award goes to Joanne S. for finishing the nine (yes, nine) quilts that her great niece asked (commandeered) her to make for Christmas gifts.

Notice how happy Jo looks in this picture!

Project Rescued from the Dust Bin Award goes to Nancy D.'s lovely bag from hell (named by Nancy D., herself). This bag is a Patrick James pattern. I've been warned by several people that his patterns are complicated. Nancy took a class to make this bag, but her instructor was new and gave Nancy bad information. Luckily Pat was able come to Nancy's rescue and the bag was finished! It is a beautiful bag. Nancy is giving away the pattern if anyone is brave/foolish enough to try it.

Although painful to make, the final product is beautiful!

The bag has pockets galore!

Most Admired Quilt Top in Progress Award goes to Joan S.

Joan is making this quilt for her son, who is moving to New York. Everyone was in love with the Kaffe Fassett striped cottons. Several of the Brown Baggers commented that this was the perfect quilt to make for the man in your life.

Funniest Project Award goes to Pat for her nunsense zipper bags.

Pat ordered this nun fabric from Spoonflower. They are gifts for some old friends from Catholic School days. One of the other girls suggested that she line them with ruler fabric! Too funny!

If you're not familiar with Spoonflower, I encourage you to check out their website. You can design and produce your own custom fabric as well as buy other's custom fabric designs.

The Don't Try This At Home Award goes to Joannie C.

Here is intrepid photographer Joannie standing on a chair to get a good
picture of her project. Luckily, she emerged unscathed from her daring exploits.

This is Joannie's finished project. Isn't it pretty?
She did the lettering with her embroidery machine.

Joannie made this American Flag table runner for her niece's future mother-in-law. Joannie is planning her niece's wedding shower with her.

Most Sparkly Quilt Award goes to Kate, who tempted us all with her glitter wand. At least three of us admitted to owning one and not knowing where it was... ever do that?

Kate added Swarovski crystals to her beautiful quilt. This is Kate's original design, Peace on Earth. You can purchase it as a pattern from her website or as a kit in her Etsy shop. Tell Kate that you found her through PugMom Quilts!

The Smart Aleck Quilter Award goes to Karen. We celebrated birthdays for Karen and Cheryl at our weekend. Karen put her birthday blocks together. Guess who forgot to bring theirs?

Notice anything funny about this photo?

Karen left me a space for the three birthday blocks that I owe her.
Very funny, Karen.

Most Versatile Quilter Award goes to Kim G., who finished at least three quilt tops over the weekend (she's fast, and it's hard to keep track of her, she could also qualify for Most Prolific), that included a Day of the Dead baby quilt, a dress quilt, and her Kaffe Fassett birthday blocks.

In a single weekend, Kim goes from grinning skulls...

... to pretty party dresses

...to gloriously colored birthday blocks!

Most Patient Blog Readers Award goes to you my dear blog readers, excluding Kim G. and Cordula, who complained vociferously about my lack of blogging over the past two weeks, for being patient while I was so busy. As well as for wading through this entire post.

Sorry, this is so long, I've got lots more for tomorrow!

Linking up on Tuesday to Freemotion by the River. Linking up on Friday to Richard and Tanya Quilts, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

A Brief Message from LarryPug

Sorry you haven't heard from Mom lately. She's been really busy. She owes you a lot of blog posts and she promises to make it up to you. She went to the Houston Quilt Festival last week and had a lot of fun. She came home very late on Sunday night and went to work on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then she went to Cape Cod to quilt with her Brown Bagger friends and left us at home with our Dad.

This is me, LarryPug. My brother Elvis is behind me, but
he's all black so he can be hard to see in pictures.

Anyway, she came back tonight, and I thought it was more important that she stay downstairs and watch some tv with us, so I could sit in her lap and get some cuddles. I've missed my Mommy!

I promise to let her to write a blog post tomorrow. She has lots of photos and stories to share with you.

Pugs and kisses,
LarryPug