A note to those who read my blog!

Just so you know, if you are following my blog....I still don't know how to get to you. I need my guru Sharon to show me how to respond to folks reading my blog...pretty sad that I don't know that yet....thanks for your patience. I would love to write some of you, and as soon as I can figure that out, I will.....love, jude

Lemon Bar Recipe

Good morning......rainy again today. Our neighbor girl fed the goat girls, so I will sneak them a treat later this afternoon. Tonite I teach machine quilting, so I have to finish one quilt and start and finish another. Good thing it is small. THese are for Sara Nephew, an author near me. She has sold her business but still works with Marcy Baker the new owner. Sara has written many books, the last one was all about log cabin quilts...Not your Mother's Log Cabin.....she is great with 60 degree diamonds and triangles.

I will have to post my chicken quilt I did with one of her patterns. It is called Hollow Cubes.

Try this yummy lemon bar recipe. I am sure you will love it.

LEMON BARS

1 1/2 Cup unsifted flour

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup butter

Combine above ingredients. Pat down well in buttered 9X 13 pan.

Bake in 275 degree oven for 10 minutes.

FILLINGg.....2 eggs

1 Cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 Cup coconut

1 Cup chopped walnuts

2 TBS flour

1/4 tsp. salt

Beat the eggs; stir in sugar, coconut, nuts, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Spread on top of the baked crust mixture. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. While warm, spread with FROSTING made by combining:

2 TBS. melted butter

2 Cups powdered suga

Juice of 2 lemons (You might add some lemon zest too!)

This recipe came from my friend Annette Austin via Marcella. Annette made a quilt with all yellow squares, and used the recipe on her back label....really neat. I wish I had a photo of the quilt. But I hope you love the lemon bars! Judy

Right Side Up!

Well, as you may have noticed, I posted a picture upside down yesterday....ugh...I cannot figure out how to do so many of these technical things. Where is my Guru??

I had my dear hubby right the picture so I can re-post it today, right side up. This piece was made by Elaine Colvin, a longarm quilter in my guild. This was a challenge piece using apple fabric as the challenge. All of the pieces entered were great.

This morning I will be sewing with Roxanne Carter and working on one of her patterns. I have to make at least 12 more star blocks and some more sections of seminole piecing. I have been working on this over a year off and on...mostly off!

I have that great chicken fabric to start on as well as a new pattern I am figuring out where I want to use all Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Just orded some more to put with my stash.

Gotta go feed those cute goat girls and get packed for my class. Hope you all have a wonderful day. PS....my fish are starting to wake up more and more. Maybe spring is coming after all. Judy

Longarm Meeting

Hi quilters!

Today was fun. We had a longarm meeting and it was very well attended. Nearly 20 longarm quilters from the North Sound area near Everett, WA and surrounds......of course we had a great lunch as well, and lots of gabbing and sharing of tips. We have more and more new quilters each time....all you need is to have an interest in machine quilting. Some have large machines, and others small or mid-arms and some still are just dreaming of getting their machines. But we all love machine quilting.

One of the tips we discussed was oil on a quilt...which may happen if you get an oil drip from your machine. Many of us have had a lot of success with cornstarch...it sops up the oil quite well. You may have to leave it on overnight, but you should have quite a bit of success with this trick. BUt ahead of that...be sure to wipe down your machine and watch for oil drips in and around the table and head of the machine.

I shared my love of Marathon Thread, especially the gold and black twist and silver and black twist metallics. I LOVE them. Check on line for Marathon Thread.http://marathonthread.com/ They also have great rayon variegated threads in some unusual colors and are priced very reasonably.

Oh, the goats have names...I guess they came with names...Brooklyn and Jerry. I am getting pretty attached to them, so I hope they stay for quite awhile! The pictures posted are from today's meeting. I hope you enjoy some of the quilts we shared. Will post again tomorrow...Judy

The Goat Girls!!

Good morning to all you quilters out there....hey, I have 2 girl goats in my pasture...on loan, of course. Unfortunately, I may be pretty sad when they leave. They are pretty cute, and talk to me....baaaa.....baaaaa...I have them on loan, hopefully to eat my blackberries which are taking over. I think we need names for them. Any ideas??

I am experimenting to see why I have so much space between paragraphs. My Guru Sharon is here..yeah......oh, she will make a link to her blog from mine. Ain't technology grand!!

PS. I got the greatest chicken fabric yesterday on a mini-shop hop. It was at the Keepsake Cottage in Bothell, WA.

I hope you enjoy Freddy Moran's colorful quilts posted above, and my cute little goat girls!

Back in the Saddle!

Good morning quilting friends!

Anaother rainy morning in our neck of the woods. I wanted to take pictures of my cute goats, but want to wait for a sunny day. They talk to me everytime I go to the studio or they get within earshot. I hope they get busy and eat some of those blackberry vines and all that grass. When spring comes and it gets warmer, I think they will eat more!

Well, it seems good to get back to a more normal schedule....my poor hubby, I am always asking and checking on how he feels. I am sure he is happy to get back to work too. I guess that is a normal reaction....even he says so!

Today is Freddy Moran day again. I want to finish one and try to finish another...they are small, and then there are at least two pretty large ones to do as well. I think after these I will do this really neat LARGE chicken quilt made by my friend in CT....if I don't get this one done pretty soon, it may be my X-friend in CT...ha...

I will post a few more pix from our quilt show last weekend, a smashing success. I even got invitations to speak and teach at two guilds...one in Anacortes, WA and another south near the ORegon border. I love to do trunk shows and share all my quilt memories with other quilters.

Well, guess I better get to work and get a few pix posted and head to the studio. I hope you all have a wonderful and sunny day, wherever you are....oh, my friend and blog guru Sharon will be here Thursday to help me on the blog. Maybe I can figure out some links and a calendar. I wish I had a computer brain! Happy Quilting!

Life Happens...with a happy ending

Dear Friends...it has been a few weeks since I have written on my blog. I am still new and still want to learn some other things about posting on the blog. I think this week my friend Sharon will help me with more blog stuff.....

It has been a most eventful few weeks...About two weeks ago my dear hubby was getting ready for work, and informed me he had pains and tightness in his chest. This was after he had been up over an hour and thought they would go away....soooo, I rushed him in the car to our little local hospital where they stablized and ekaygeed him, and gave him some nitro etc.....he was fine at that point and went by ambulance to the major heart center at Providence Hospital in Everett, WA...which happens to be one of the top hospitals for cardiac care in the U.S....

He did very well, and by the time I got to him they had put in one stent...followed by 4 more on Monday. He was to go home Tuesday, but he had a few more tests and was able to go home a day later, on Wednesday......the heart care is nothing short of miraculous. He had 95% blockage in about 3 arteries and a bit less in others. We are so grateful for God's healing hand and the wonderful doctors who cared for him. He was not the typical profile for this, so I guess the way you are made may have more to do with things than what you eat and how much exercise you do. Well, the end of the story is happy, and we are so grateful to be all right. Ken has even started back to work, and will slowly get back to all the regular routines. I am quite a nag...but I guess this is normal. I just want to share this and hope it explains my not "blogging" for some weeks....

on a happier note....

BIG QUILT SHOW....The last few days was our local Quilter's Anonymous quilt show at the Monroe Fairgrounds in WA....It was a great show, and I even was honored to be the Featured Artist....what a blast. I got to meet the nicest people who came through the show, and demonstrated machine quilting so I wouldn't get too bored sitting there. I even got a few people to try quilting. They said it was fun to boot!!

I will post some pix from the last few weeks and hopefully life will get back to our regular routine. I trust you and yours will have a healthy and happy spring, if ever it does get here....oh, I have 2 new guests! Watch the blog for photos....2 of the cutest black and white goats are here to eat my blackberry vines. That is the plan, anyway. I have 2 goats here for awhile till their owner can get a place for them. Happy quilting!!

Today is my meeting of the Goofballs...a little group of us who get together for lessons and sewing and fun.

Fun with Threadplay and machine Quilting

Well, I see I missed posting one of Barbara's quilts, and posted two by mistake....I just don't get how to edit or fix my boo boos yet...so will add a part of her Heron Quilt, and some of my students' efforts at machine quilting...they did GREAT....and we had a really good time. I hope you are all trying some new things with machine quilting as well. I just re-printed my design book, and the girls use some of the designs from that....enjoy! Judy

Barbara Shapel Class FUN

Hi Quilters!

This week I took a workshop from Barbara Shapel...you must check out her work and take a class if ever you can. I took the class through my guild with 2 friends....Liz and Klota...we are the Shapel Groupies....ha....we worked on 2 sided quilts and I hope to get going on the actually sewing and finishing yet this week.....check out some of her things and drool!

Is spring coming??

HI folks...here it is noon, and the sun is finally coming out. My husband says with the weather, in like a lion and out like a lamb.....It has not been too bad here in early March, but back where we lived in CT the lion was definitely out, as in New York and Boston, I guess. Glad we are not living there with all that cold, snowy weather. I am optimistic that the remaining March days will be much better.

The Picture is my kitty boy....Tommy....he came with the house! He is quite the character, and a pretty good hunter, too. He also is a good nap-taker! The other quilt is one I made after taking a class from Jackie Robinson on folded piecing. It is a fun technique. She does a fabulous program on Frank Lloyd Wright...the best I have ever seen....if ever your guild has the chance, ask her to come and do a program.

It is time to plant my sweet peas, maybe this weekend. According to all the gardeners I may be late already. I also bought some neat multi-colored sunflowers. I hope they will grow well here. We should have plenty of sun. I have to start getting rid of all those weeds soon.

I finished a great Asian fabric quilt yesterday for Roxanne...she is such a fabulous designer and teacher. Today I am doing another Asian style fabric with a big heron and dragon flies...also some beautiful lotus. That is for my friend Lorraine....check out her website at http://seawatchfabrics.com/ She specializes in batiks and Asian fabrics...I hope you enjoy her website.

Our big quilt show is in a couple weeks. That is for the Quilter's Anonymous Guild here in Edmonds, WA. It is held at the Monroe, WA Fairgrounds.

Yesterday we planned my classes for the Fall Quiltfest at the LaConner Museum. I will post them in a bit, once everything is finalized. I will be teaching 2 classes, and they should be lots of fun. Maybe some of you can sign up!!

Not much other news here, so guess I better get back to work on Lorraine's quilt. Hope you are all having a great time in your gardens or working on quilt projects. Will write again tomorrow....Judy