My Studio

Greetings from sunny WA.....is spring finally here?? Today is sunny....although not real warm yet. The koi have been pretty active which is always a good sign of warm weather. I can feed them and say hi and take a nose count. I finally saw Fluffles, my big U.S. born butterfly koi. He isn't worth so much since he didn't come from Japan, but he is sure beautiful...orange, black and white spots. I will try to get pictures up some day.

Today my friend Opal will be coming over to hang out and sew. We always have a great time. She has some web things I will have to post...sites or blogs or twitters or something. You can look at her things. She did journals every week for 2 years...what an amazing thing. They are wonderful.

I thought I would post pictures of my messy studio. One is of my big sewing table..originally it was going to be a cutting spot...ha....all it does is collect stuff...one day my girl-friend came by, looked in the window and left...she said she couldn't even see me...the junk was too high...yikes...who has time to clean.??? I do have a great design wall where I hung barn doors...they go in front of my storage shelves, which, by the way, are pretty neat and organized by color and theme. I always say I am going to charge a fee for the gals to bring their husbands through....then they will never complain about their wives' stashes again! Ha...I thought that was a pretty good idea.....till next time....judy

busy bees tonite

Tonite is our guild meeting as well as the day group. Klota and I will be handing out our materials for the 2010 raffle quilt. We decided to do jewel tones and stars on black background with an applique border. We also have Lynn Majidimehr as our speaker tonite. If you type her name into search, you should be able to find her site and quilts. She does really great stuff!

I think we may have a sunny day at some point....yeah. I am getting pretty antsy to get into the garden and yard work. We will have to outsmart all the dogs from our neighbors who like to play in our yard and pond. We are working on a fence system. Maybe we can get it right and the dogs will be on the outside.

Gotta go feed the goats and check the fish...hope you all have a great day. I will post some of Lynn's quilts on tomorrow's blog. Have a great day! Judy

Another quilt show!

Hi to all!

This morning I can get back to the usual quilting. I will be starting a new quilts for Kaffe Fassett's next book. They are always so fun to do.

THe past few days we had another quilt show, this time the Camano Island Guild. It was a fabulous show, with so many great quilts. It only has about 150 or so quilts, but such a great variety. The pictures posted are from that show. We had a Studio Sale....donations from members....books, fabric, patterns, etc. What a great time shopping I had. I donated about 8 garbage bags, and took home about 2, so I guess I am ahead of the game. I love to check out the donated books, as you often find something you really NEED. Got some great fabric for collage, and a couple old, worn out tops, but they are still really neat.

This week I will be teaching machine quilting again. The gals do such a great job...better and better. I guess machine quilting has finally become OK!!

Check out the pictures from the show. Oh, the one with the little snowman and red background was a postage stamp a few years back. The snowman was one I had made and sold at craft shows....a stamp photographer in New Milford, CT used it and it was chosen for the Christmas stamp series...what a fun thing to happen... I got paid a whole dollar to give up my rights. I am just picking some picutes at random. I hope you enjoy them...gotta go check out the little goat girls. Oh, I wish I had a picture of the neighbor's dog climbing straight up my gate using the chicken wire as steps....I have been outsmarted 3 times by this dog....trying to keep her out of my yard and away from the ponds and koi. She is a lab, and loves the water. I have another plan....will let you know if that works. Have a great day...Judy

Sun, at last!

Good morning, Sunshine!

Happy days...it is sunny today. Yesterday was sunny as well, and the pond temp was 50, so I fed my fish just a tad to get them in the mood...as if they need to be in the mood to eat...kinda like their mom! (Except I don't like fishfood) The fishy boys looked very healthy so far, and pretty fat for a winter spent at the bottom of the pond in the ice and snow, and with no food since October. I have a few more new ones on hold, so it will be fun to get the pond things going again and to work on the new pond. I hope they like their new home, if ever we can get it done.

I am going to post a picture of one of my student's quilts, with an African theme. She took my class a few weeks ago, and sent me a picture of her finished top. I think it came out FABULOUSLY beautiful....so I am sharing it with you as well as some pictures I took at sew day with Linda and the gals last Friday. I spent the whole time cutting my kaffe fabric for a new pattern I designed...I am calling this quilt Krazy for Kaffe! I will post it when I get the top finished.

I hope you all have a wonderful day...I am off to quilt a chicken quilt, and hopefully send it home to Oklahoma. Have fun...judy

Rain, again!

Good morning....seems like the only weather we know here is RAIN. It is supposed to be sunny this weekend, but I will believe that when I see it.

Yesterday was great fun...Liz and I took our friend Klota on a birthday shop hop day. Got some great fabric...more chickens, some kaffe fabric for my new design, and some supplies for class. This time I got both white and black mistyfuse...be sure to try this fusible if you are working with lightweight fabrics. It is like fusing with a cloud!

I think I will dig through my tubs of kaffe fabric today and add some to my pile for a new design I am working on. Tomorrow we sew at a gal's house that will give me a chance to work on things. I will post it when I finish the top. Notice, I did not say get the top quilted!

Tonite is our guild meeting on Camano Island, and next week we set up for our quilt show. They put on a terrific show.

Hope some of you got the lemon bar recipe and will try it.

I guess that is about all the news for now...I better get to work for a bit before running a few errands in town. I think I will check out the goat girls, too. They will need water wings before long. Have a great day. Oh, Sharon told me how to write to people reading my blog. I will have to try it and see if I can figure things out. Have a great day! Judy