A COOL Day!

Hi All...It is a cool day here today, weatherwise, that is! It may be a cool day too, of working on the pond. It is always "cool" to do that. I can remember when I was first teaching that the word "cool" was in, so to speak. Everything just gets recycled, even before it was the thing to do!

Today my hubby is home, tax season over, means Fridays off sometimes. YAY!! We will work on the pond, but first I have to finish my quilt for the show. I am using a pesky metallic thread which keeps breaking. I don't know why, as it usually sews forever without breaking. Anyway, I keep forging forward. I am glad it is just a small wall-hanging. I have to bind it and another quite large one yet before WED. Yikes, I better get going. Then I can start Liza and Kaffe's remaining quilts for the new book.

Our pond project is nearly ready for the lining next Sat. Today we have to finish leveling the edges and get the pipes all covered with dirt. I can't wait till that is all done so I can finally plant my plants around that area.

Yesterday we went to the LaConner Quilt Museum...my Goofballs and I. The Goofballs are my little group that comes once a month to sew. We have a great time. Anyway, there is a great museum exhibit of contemporary quilts mostly made with hand dyes! It is great....check out the website to see if there is any info on it. We could not take pix, so I can't share, but suffice it to say, it was inspiring, and gave me some ideas for my 3 tubs of hand dyes.

I plan to have a dye workshop here at my studio on Aug. 14, if you want to come, and live close enough! Well, gotta go, my hubby is making pancakes with sour cream and strawberries...one of my favorites! Talk to you all later....Judy

Quilt and Garden show a smashing success

Hi All....

We had the Mukilteo, WA quilt and garden show this last Saturday. It was a smashing success. The garden I worked in had 29 quilts displayed. We had a huge garden, and it was begun 40 years ago when the homeowners built their beautiful home on the Puget Sound looking toward Whidbey Island. Ferry boats and freighters ply up and down and back and forth. Not to mention all the sail boats and power boats. Anyway, it was great fun. I even met a couple from my hometown of Saginaw, MI. What a small world.

I only got to visit about 3 other gardens on my lunch break, but one was really packed every square inch with flowers and shrubs and greens of every kind. The secret is to pack it in to keep the weeds out! He had a couple little boardwalks across the dry creek as well. It was great for ideas that I can use in my pond project. Maybe you are in a group where you would like to try a quilt and garden show. It was well worth the hard work.

Since the last time I had trouble with getting titles by my pix, I will just say that the pictures in this post are from the quilt and garden show, with one of our pond project at the end. We hope to put in the liner on August 1...yeah!! Then we will slowly have to fill the pond and move the fish. It turned out to be a much bigger and longer project than we imagined.

One of the goat girls figured out how to escape through the fence. After two escapes, we finally figured out she was slipping between two fences that didn't have enough closures...these goats are way toooo smart. Well, now they are in for good, we hope!

I have to quilt a show quilt today. Hope to finish, because the next Kaffe and Liza quilts are waiting for completion for their next book.

Hope you all are having a great summer. Judy Irish

HOME FROM SISTERS

Gee's Bend challenge quilt made by one of the gals from the Stitchin Post in Sisters. I think it is a great one!

Gee's Bend quilt made by one of the gals from Gee's Bend.

What do you think of this quilt? I think I need one for my Suburban! I
Only one of the many beautiful views as you drive towards Sisters.

Freddy on the right, me in the middle, and Gwen Marston on the left. Pretty exciting!

Hi All!

We are back from Sisters. What fun. THe weather was a bit hot in the high 80's, I think. I have been there in much hotter weather, so it was ok. We got there in time for the Friday night picnic in the park. Freddy and Gwen spoke, and the Gee's Bend quilters did some singing. It was great. I think Freddy and Gwen could go on the road as two broken down comedians. They were funny, and the quilts fabulous. Freddy even introduced me as her quilter and had me stand in that huge crowd. That was pretty exciting. She is such a great lady.

I met one of my clients, Linda Jenkins, from Oklahoma. She is a fabulous applique gal. What great work she does. I am hoping she will come to the Quiltfest in La Conner in 2010. It will be all applique. Ellie Senkiewicz will be the featured artist.

We spent the day looking at most of the 1300 quilts hung around town in Sisters, and I did a little bit of shopping. Got just a few half yard cuts and a book or 2. I have enough fabric and stuff in my studio it is downright shameful!! Anyway, I don't need a snitch more of fabric.

We left and went to Salem, OR for Saturday night where we visited with friends we knew from the Bay Area. They have retired to Salem. It was fun to see them and their beautiful yard. Bill is a master gardener. I got some more ideas for my little garden near the pond.

Our ride home took about 2 hours longer than it should have...traffic, traffic, and traffic. We got home to our critters and everyone was fine.

One exciting adventure, more water/well problems. It turned out we needed a new tank in our pump house, so that is now replaced, and hopefully some of our water problems will be solved.

The goat girls are begging as usual. I am looking forward to doing some landscaping in my new pond area, and we have set Aug. 1 as pond liner day. Yeay!! Then we can fill the pond and move the fish!

I hope you all have a great week. Today I teach machine quilting in our local shop. This weekend coming is the Mukilteo Outdoor Garden and Quilt show, so I will be working at that.

I will get some pictures to post next week. In the meantime, gotta go quilt for an hour before teaching. Have a great day, and I hope you can get at least one visit to Sisters. It is such a fun experience. Judy Irish

Sisters, here we come!!

Good morning...what an event couple of weeks....my last post somehow disappeard into outerspace....how annoying. I was going to re-do it, but never got back to it...I don't know what happened. Here I was trying to edit something, and boom....gone, forever....Oh, where is my blog guru when I need her. I am thinking how to change the colors on my blog so you can read things more easily, but I need help with that. I would probably lose the whole thing...

Well, tomorrow my hubby and I leave for the weekend in Sisters, OR. The big show is this weekend, and it will be only about 80 degrees..which will be great. Sometimes it is way toooooo hot there. Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston will be there, so I can say hi again to them in person.

I have another Freddy quilt waiting and 4 more from Liza and Kaffe. That is the end of theirs for the next Rowan book. I am still trying to get my whole cloth quilt finished and off the frame. I am using a hand dyed fabric and just stitching all kinds of things into it. It will be interesting, if nothing else. I can use it for a sample, too. Our Busy Bee show will be here soon, the end of the month. I still have 4 more quilts to do for that. Two are mine, so if they don't get quilted, no big deal. We have an outdoor quilt and garden show in Mukilteo, WA a week from Saturday. It is really neat to put the quilts in gardens. I think you could find it on the Mukilteo Lighthouse Guild on line. I will not try to make a link, or everything will disappear, or you will get a whole page of nonsense.

The pond project moves along, and with the heat last weekend, we almost passed out in the heat. We got most of the bottom drain plumbing done, so now we have the bottom contours and such to smooth out. Then we have to level the sides all around and other things, but on the last weekend of the month we hope to get the lining in. Oh, happy day. My fish guy is keeping my new fish in his tanks at the shop...they have their own apartment....thank goodness he is not charging me rent!

Well, guess I should go to PO and stop the mail, finish my whole cloth and plant my last few daisies....I love daisies. Have a great day, and I will post some pictures of Sisters next week. In the meanwhile, don't forget to enjoy summer where you are! Judy