The Sloth Diaries

For the past six weeks, I've been going to Physical Therapy twice a week due to my back attack in November. Physical Therapy is just another word for exercise. It makes me very sore and very tired. On the positive side, I am building up my core and I haven't had any back spasms. Today I did 66 sit-ups! On the negative side, I hurt in strange, new places, I am developing a potential addiction to Advil, and I want to sleep ALL THE TIME. This past weekend I took a three hour nap on Saturday afternoon and a three hour nap on Sunday morning as well as another two hour nap on Sunday afternoon. That didn't leave much awake time for sewing.

I have finished the top of Sam's college quilt and sent it off to my friend Terri to be machine quilted. I also put the borders on Rachel's college quilt and will be sending it to my friend Kate to be machine quilted. Sorry, you'll have to wait until I get them back for photos. I also made the quilt bindings so I'll be ready to finish them when I get them back.

Purple binding for Rachel's quilt.

I don't have too much more quilty stuff to share with you at this time. I've made some pillowcases, a quilt back for Sam's quilt, and today I machine quilted some large squares on some camouflage print fabric that will become a tote bag.

My favorite candy has returned early to the stores. All hail the Cadbury Egg (the big ones with the goo inside, not the tiny ones). I keep an eagle eye out for these and found them a few weeks ago at the super market, in front of the Valentine's Day candy!

I do have photos from our early January Sunday Brown Bagger's holiday party as well as our recent MLK Quilt Weekend, which I promise to share soon, if I can stay awake long enough to write a post!

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

Resolutions to Keep

A belated welcome to 2016. I'm looking forward to a great year. 2015 was one of the worst years that I've experienced in my life, both personally and professionally. I can only thank my wonderful husband, loving family and fabulous friends for helping me get through it. Hat's off to 2016!

HAPPY=HOBBY=HAPPY

This is my mantra for 2016. I'm not going to get consumed with quilting deadlines. Quilting is my hobby and it needs to be fun. I love to sew, it's been a passion of mine since I was in elementary school. Deadlines are for my real life, for my job that pays the bills and supports my hobby. I'm going to do what I want, went I want and make quilts for whomever I want.

Which segues nicely into the one resolution that I'm making, that I am guaranteed to keep. I'm going to buy fabric whenever I feel like it. Because buying fabric makes me happy.

These three huge bags of fabric came home with me last week. It's part of my extensive fabric rehabilitation project. I rescue fabric from a lonely life on the shelf at the fabric store and bring it home to my house for a happy ever after. I scored big at Sewphisticated last week, visiting two out of their three locations. Almost all of the fabric in these bags came from the remnant table at $2.49 a yard. How could I leave it there?

Want a peek?

This lovely floral came home from the Dorchester location with me on Tuesday. I scored six yards at $2.49 a yard. Would you leave it there? Originally I thought I might make some pillowcases, but almost in a dream the fabric told me that it wanted to go on the back of Rachel's horse quilt, Purple Neigh. Purple Neigh just needs some outer borders and it is ready to be sent out for quilting.

I also bought several yards of this lovely print on Saturday at the Framingham location. Marion and I had a fabric shopping day and we also met the lovely Miss Linda B. for lunch. I think it may go on the back of my Valentine Yellow Brick Road.

I had seen the Barbie fabric at the Dorchester location on Tuesday but managed to pass it up, at least then. But finding it on the remnant table on Saturday at the Framingham location was a sign that it was meant to be. Ironically, I also found the perfect fabric for the accent piece, but I bought it at full price at $3.99 a yard.

This will be a pillowcase for my best 6-year old gal pal, Lily.

And then there was the fabric that I bought from the people standing next to me in line. Ever done that? Luckily, they were only buying a yard to make a pillow. It is pre-quilted. This was $10 a yard. Every time I look at this fabric I find something new. The zany colors and patterns make me smile. There are large flowers and a giraffe (not seen here) and lots of zebra stripes. I didn't even see the birds in the print until I took this photo. I am going to use this fabric to make a jacket. It will certainly liven things up at my office!

Oh baby! My co-workers will need their sunglasses when I wear this!

Also in the three bags and not shown here deliberately: some fabric for my friend Lee Anna (not from the remnant table) and some adorable food fabric for my friend Sue. And I may also have purchased some fabric on Etsy too...

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

A Day of Arts and Crafts

Today was spent doing arts and crafts. This morning Marion and I took a silk painting class at the Batik Art Studio in Newton Center. We each painted a scarf using a cold batik method. Picasso need not worry, his spot in art history is safe, but we both had a good time.

Since neither of us can draw, we took advantage of some large foam stencils that the teacher offered. You start by tracing your shape with a disappearing marker, the same kind that we use in quilting.

Marion chose a flower.

I chose an octopus.

I attempted to draw some starfish but they didn't quite come out... luckily the ink will disappear!

Once you have your fabric marked, you affix it to a frame and then you trace your outline with a chemical resist. Then you get to paint.

Marion's scarf in progress.

My octopus in progress.

Marion's final flower. She opted to keep her background white.

I've got a heavy hand with paint and couldn't resist covering the entire surface of my scarf with color.

The painting part was fun because as soon as you put your brush to the silk, the dye flows like magic. It is "stopped" by the chemical resist. The final step is to steam the scarf for 40 minutes over boiling water and then to wash it. I will hopefully do that sometime this week. I'm curious to see what the final colors look like.

I was energized by the class and I decided to do some sewing when I got home. I finished seven projects! Before you get jealous, it was five pillowcases and two boxy pouches, and all of them were in progress. But I was thrilled to spend some time in my Studio and to have something to show for it.

Two Christmas penguin pillowcases for the divine Miss Linda B. and three pillowcases for our (mine and Marion's) Etsy Shop.

The infamous Boxy Pouch. Original size on the right and super size on the left (cut your fabric 10x12 instead of 8x10).

Before you go, you should check out the other people's work from our scarf class today. Several of the other ladies (there were eight of us in total) could actually paint and did some more intricate work (not requiring the foam stencils!).

Thanks for visiting!

Pugs and kisses,
Nancy

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