Instant Insanity...finished

I finally got my Jacqueline de Joong quilt finished...it was really hard. It was the hardest thing I have ever pieced, but then you have to follow a pattern and that is hard for me. It was really wonky on the bottom, but I managed to quilt it into submission pretty well....now I can make some funky, no pattern, fun things. I will enter this into the Busy Bee show, which was why I was trying so hard to get it done before deadline!

I finished Freddy Moran's selvage quilt. That was totally fun. She had a great collection of selvages, especially Marimekko. I am not sure if it goes in a book yet or not.

Finished some more planting in containers yesterday. I have a better chance of keeping the weeds at bay if I put things in pots. They do look so pretty, and I can move them around, too. Well, gotta go to the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum for a meeting, so better get busy and check on the goat girls and koi.....hope you all have a great day, too...the weather is spectacular again.....judy

What a beautiful weekend!

Good morning all!

What a wonderful weekend...weatherwise. We put up my new flags to celebrate all the freedoms with which we are so richly blessed. We thank all those who have so selflessly served our nation both now and and in the past. They are true HEROES.

It is cloudy this morning, but over the weekend we had lots of beautiful weather for mowing, weeding, fencing, and working on the pond. We got the back part of the waterfalls built up with chunks of re-cycled concrete and dirt filled in as well...it is finally starting to shape up there. As for the hole in the ground, we are still trying to pump dry so we can install the koi toilets...I think that is such a funny name, but actually the name of the product which works as the bottom drain to keep things flushed and clean. We still have lots to learn, but have a very good teacher north of us where we buy our equipment.

I finished Freddy's quilt...very colorful, of course. One more to go for her. It is a fabulous collection of selvages. I hope it goes in a future book. As for me...I finally got my paper-pieced project up and began to quilt on it. I hope I can quilt out all my wonky piecing. It was a definite challenge, and not one I plan to take on again for awhile. I do have some more similar patterns, but I think one a year of those is enough to make me totally nuts.

I will post a few pictures and get to work. I want to finish my quilt today so I can get to some others by tomorrow....have a great day. Judy

Back Again! Janet Fogg Quilts...WOW

http://gatheringfabric.com/OH, MY! It has been way too long since I have written....too many irons in the fire. I have been busy teaching and working on quilts. The spring weather occasionally pokes its head out here as well.....and the weeds are calling way too loud! Hopefully today I can get on the mower and cut grass as well as plant more of my annuals which are lined up waiting. I LOVE this time of year when the nurseries open with all the colorful flowers and such. I also like to collect succulents, which I can grow very well, and love the unusual little plants with funky "leaves" and little flowers on occasion. I always plant everything in red, white, and blue.....altho blue flowers are the hardest to find!

JANET FOGG came to our Camano Island guild to speak and show her quilts. If ever you get the chance to see her work, you MUST run, not walk, to do so....it is beyond fabulous. And be sure to check out her quilting as well. She works on a long-arm and does spectacular work. Her cat quilt won at the APNQ show.....and her other pieces are prizewinners as well. She has a retreat in Oregon....which some of us hope to attend some day. I hope you enjoy the couple pix I posted today.

The house quilt belongs to Trish Van Slageren and Elena is posted with her Christmas quilt from Laurel Burch fabric. She used my Creative Detours pattern....
I taught a couple classes of the woven quilts and the gals really made s0me beauties. Also taught Kaffe Fassett's Red Diamonds at Gathering Fabric and the quilts were fabulous as well. Okay, what happened??? I thought the link should appear near the word Gathering Fabric....oh, I just can't get this stuff......and now I got on Facebook because some friends have been encouraging me to do that....more hard stuff....can't get it. I think I just need my old Hermes typewriter from college. It was state of the art at one time.

Last night was my first board meeting with the La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum...check them out on the internet....won't try a link here, who knows where it will pop up? The 2010 Quiltfest will be fabulous....this year's too....I will even be teaching! All the applique folks will ove the 2010 with all the stars coming to teach....La Conner is working on a new website and it should be going within the month, so do check it out, and if you are around the area go for a visit.

The goat girls are doing well as are the koi. I wish we would have baby koi, but the fish don't seem to cooperate in that area. All they want to do is EAT!

The quilt shows are a bit quiet for a while....we have the Busy Bee show in July. I am looking forward to my little homegrown outdoor show in August. It will be even bigger this year, and with all the fences we added to keep the neighbor dogs out, we can hang more quilts....ha...

Well, guess that is all the news for today...amazing how boring life can be, but the day by day little things we do are blessings for sure. I love to get up and feed my fish and visit with the goats, and even mowing the lawn...which I really love to do. I will try to post some pictures of the pond project in the future if ever we can continue. Maybe in June the weather will dry things out a bit. In the meantime, hope all is well with you all, and I will still try to figure out how to check your comments....still have not got that figured out....happy quilting and gardening...judy irish

Houston, here I come!!

OK....I just lost my first efforts at posting for today....I just cannot figure out computers and programs and such...tried to put some pictures and edit...name the pix....next thing I know...it is all gone.

My exciting news for today is that the greater Houston quilting guild has invited me to come and do a trunk show and teach machine quilting. I can hardly believe it. What a fun thing that will be...not till Aug. 2010.....so that will give me plenty of time to prepare and get some more things made for the trunk show.

Today I am working on a quilt for Christmas....a block of the month with santas and trees made by my friend Pat Jennings in CT. Then, if the weather should clear up, I can plant some more flowers in my pots...including some interesting new succulents that I got. They are one plant I can never kill!!

I will try to post again the pictures from before. If I am lucky...the bridge is the GW in New York. The sunflowers from a garden in CT, and the quilt from a show I saw in CT as well....if it doesn't work...it will be potluck!! Have a great day...judy

back in the saddle!

Greetings...shame on me!! I have not written in at least a week...what has happened? Too much work, and not much news, I guess. I did finish 2 quilts for the new Kaffe book...one by Mary Mashuta, and one by Roberta Horton. They always have quilts in the Rowan books. They come up with some great things.

The goat girls are fine, eating everything in sight. Hopefully they will keep the new blackberries mowed down. They love their alfalfa pellets and I love to give them extra snacks! They are pretty loveable. I hope I won't mind giving them up when they go back to their real "family"

My hubby is doing very well after his adventures with 5 stents, and working like before. We have been working on putting up some gates and fences to keep the neighborhood dogs out. So far we have put up one gate, and some slightly tilted fence posts! One of the dogs climbs straight up the fences like a monkey....so time will tell if these will work.

Our pond project is still on hold till things dry out some more. We need the bottom to be dry to install drains and liner. Maybe by July??

My brother and his wife were here for a few days, and I got some help with cleaning and sorting books in my studio. I will have to send some pix of some of the organized areas some time. I think it may be hopeless!

Oh, today we had fun at our longarm meeting. We have great gals and each is a star in her own right. One has a statler stitcher and some have mid-arm or other machines for quilting. Some do only charity quilts, and others quilt for customers. But we all have a great time and enjoy sharing about our work and how and where to get supplies quickly and for good prices.

Well, guess that is enough for tonite. Hopefully will have more to report next time. I hope you and yours are well and enjoying the spring weather in good health. Till next time, happy quilting...Judy