Merry Christmas and Happy New

Greetings All.....I just noticed my last post was Dec. 8.....where have I been, and how fast does time fly!   I have been quilting, cleaning the studio....neverending....and quilting some more.  I had hoped to quilt 3 of my own pieces over Christmas, but the one with peacocks took a week on the frame, so that idea went out the window!  I am finally putting the binding on the peacocks....my tired old eyes are having fits with black binding, black backing, and black thread.....not much fun.
My helper Trish came and we put in a counter I had stashed in the barn....trying to clean up around the design wall, or as I often call it the bulletin board.   Opal says that is my problem....I have to quit thinking of that space as a bulletin board!!   It is a great design wall...two sliding boards with insulation board covered with batting....it is a total of 8 by 8 feet...trouble is that I had about 18" on each edge plastered with important stuff!  So the design wall was slowly shrinking.....now I have it all clear so I put up the newest kaffe quilt...just have to add a row on top and bottom.   I had extra blocks so decided to make it bigger.  The more to quilt, my dear!

We had a quiet Christmas at home....went to my brother's the Sunday before Christmas.  Just rain...no snow....I am thinking good thoughts that we have not one flake of snow this year, or at least any that stays on the ground.
I got the Christmas cards in the mail DEC. 24....usually it is after Jan. 1...so this year I was ahead of schedule....just finished making my annual banket pastry, and will finish it up later today.   It is  a yummy almond paste pastry.  I got the recipe from my  lovely old Dutch ladies who could cook wonderful goodies.    I have had the recipe over 25 years already...can't believe it. 
I decided to make some Christmas cut-out cookies so got the dough ready last night for cutting and baking today.  It has been a few years or more since I did cut-out cookies....too many cookies makes for too much Judy.
Well, gotta get going into town on errands...will try to post pictures of the bake shop later! 

 one of my patriotic ornaments.....I have a huge collection and my tree is covered with red, white, and blue.

 who doesn't need some pumpkin pie?

 Part of my matrushka dolls I collected from my Russian mission trips....early on I traded some m and m's for them!   I am thinking of doing a qiult!   (in my spare time!)

 I used to make mohair teddy bears....fun.

 Another kaffe quilt...headlights!

 This peacock quilt was made using Sara Nephew's  triangle ruler....super 60.....the peacock feathers took forever to quilt.

Have a wonderful few days before the new year.   I hope you get some piecing in between all the parties and foodies.....judy

HI Jenny

Hi Jenny......just checking to see if you are reading my blog....since you gave me  a  jolt to write again!  Jenny is one of our youngest members...a busy mom....expecting a little boy in February, and a very creative and talented member of our long-arm group. 
We had our long-arm meeting today, about 14 gals who love to quilt and share and EAT!!
Always good foodies at our every other month meetings.  If you are a long-armer, I hope you are able to meet with other gals in your area...we are truly blessed here to have that privilege.  We share lots of ideas, ask for ideas, share books and classes we have enjoyed, and just plain  encourage each other in many ways.  I have been a part of this group almost 10 years, since  moving to WA. 
Today Jenny Pedigo shared more about her trip to Houston and her great ruler.....makes curves and a myriad of designs can be created with this fantastic ruler.  I will try to figure out how to post her blog info....I think if you just type in Jenny Pedigo up will pop all kinds of great info....sewkindofwonderful might do the trick, too. 
JoAnn Blade shared her great new felt foodie patterns for kids....and big kids too.   They are great fun, and can be easily made on the long-arm. 
I guess I am the oldest, longest quilting member in the group now...Barb Dau has quilted a year longer than I have!....we started in the days when we had no classes, no books, no manuals for our machines, and no nuthin!.....it is sooooo much better today from that standpoint.
I am still quilting on a 16 year old machine with no stitch regulator, but I do have the needle up and down...which I love.   I have never done pantos....just   quilting designs totally free-hand and no marking.....well, I guess the new computer machines would put me over the edge for sure.   I tip my hat to all those young kids who can figure them out  and make all those amazing designs with them.
Today we spotted a little snow on our way to the meeting...don't like that one bit.  

This week will bring a couple more guild Christmas parties, a class, and  a field trip with my Goof Balls to the La Conner Museum and the Material Men exhibit.
I even quilted two of my own quilts  in the last few weeks, and have one of Freddy Moran's ready to start on Monday morn....will try to remember to post a picture.  It is a big, colorful tree!

One of Stephanie Davis' quilts....the modern style! 

Another Freddy chicken!

A goofy flower I created for the museum challenge last Quiltfestival.  I covered the whole top with black tulle just for fun!

Decided to share an old sunset shot that I thought was so beautiful. 

Hope you all have a great week, and will try to post some more pics of my messy studio as my friend Trish comes Monday to help organize another area....I think it is hopeless.....have a great week....judy

HAPPY AFTER THANKSGIVING

How the time flies, and what can transpire in a few short weeks!!
  I guess the most momentous would be the successful surgery my sister-in-law had for a benign brain tumor.  You would never know she even had surgery....the miracles of modern medicine do surely give us much to be thankful for.  She is recovering and has a little therapy to work on for her right arm.  Then my other sister-in-law had a successful gall bladder surgery!  I think we have had enough surgery for awhile!
I have only been quilting and teaching, and staying quite healthy for an old woman!  I managed to get a few tops done and the backs as well.  Now I only have to quilt them.  Had a fabulous time teaching at the Woodinville Grange for Gathering Fabric this past Saturday.  What a great little group of gals that is....and so creative.  We plan to meet monthly over the next several months.  We picked up one new gal and she was working on a great little  square using Kaffe fabric.  I started Headlights and still have that one to finish!
I must get going on my challenge quilt, and a Pelican that has been haunting me for years to make.  I hope that one gets finished this year.  I even got most of the fabric already!
Well, now I have to figure out how to change the red color in my blog for easier reading...thanks for the suggestion, Sally...Sally is a quilting friend who is a FABULOUS quilter in one  of my guilds. 

 What a messy worker I am.....that is my workspace at the retreat..what FUN!!

Opal brought tubs of scraps for sharing and we made a quilt to donate to Camp Brotherhood where we "Retreated"  Didn't make a dent in the scraps!

My spider web quilt in process.  All finished now.

Speaking of spiderwebs...got this picture early one frosty morning...didn't have a great camera for close-ups, but tried anyway!

Well, I better get going....today I have a 12 Days of Christmas quilt to start and hopefully finish by tomorrow for shipping...I hope you all have some quilting time this holiday season.....will post pix tomorrow or asap......judy

I Do Set my Bow in the Cloud......

Dear Friends....where does the time go????   We got home from Grand Rapids and all the fun I had teaching to  quilts piled up for me to do, and finally the rain....(note the photos I posted this time).   Our fish are getting ready to go to sleep with the colder weather and water temp dropping.  Soon the will get not a kernel of fish kibble till next May, or April if the weather warms up.
I will not miss my early morning trudge to the pasture to feed goats and alpacas, altho I do miss those little guys.  It seems strange with no Tommy Boy running around....we miss him.....altho I took a peek at cats for adoption the other day.  Nothing spoke to me.  I think I want another black kitty again.
I have been quilting like mad for my customers, and working on  about 4 of my own piecing projects...tomorrow is our Camano Island Quilt Retreat....and boy, do I have things to work on....including two projects from about 12-15 years ago...one from CT and one from when I first moved to WA.   I want to get them finished some one of these days!!
I finally got my new little light weight Janome....it is great, and even has a thread cutter and lots of special stitches.  I especially love the one double blanket stitch on it.  I want it for teaching instead of carting around my 40 pound Bernina....it is feeling more like 400 pounds the older I get!
Well, when I get some of these projects finished I will post them on the blog.  I just finished a couple of  great ones  from one of Freddy Moran's students...these are the collage type she has been teaching of late.

 These rainbow pictures were taken last week right after a big rainstorm.....I couldn't believe how beautiful they were....there were two rainbows, and you could see the complete curve from end to end.  The colors were so bright, and they lasted quite awhile...in fact, I drove home on the free way, and lo, and behold...there was the end of the rainbow right at the exit of the freeway....I drove right through the mist....(my hubby wanted to know why I didn't bring home the pot of gold...but after driving through what appeared to be the very end of the rainbow, a little further down the road was the rainbow again.  It was the absolute best rainbow(s) I had ever seen in all my 70 years....
The last picture is the view out the window of the beautiful lodge building where I taught machine quilting for the Cama Beach Quilters on Camano Island.  It was such a beautiful view in spite of the clouds and rain.  The Pacific Northwest surely has a beauty of its own!
Well, hope you enjoyed the rainbows...much prettier in real life! 

Well, since I have lots to do, I guess I will close for now....happy sewing to all of you!   judy

Back From Grand Rapids

Hi all.....what a busy couple of weeks.  We flew to Grand Rapids, MI for a week of helping my hubby's 90 year old mom...she had been in the hospital and is now home recovering very well.  She is amazing!
Also got to teach again at Smith-Owen sewing center...what fun!!  That is fabulous store....you should take advantage of the classes and great class-room, not to mention the great fabric and notions, etc.   I hope to come back again next time I am in GR.    I sadly missed the local guild show, and a few weeks before that the AQS show that was held there.  Watch for it next year.    Check out the Tentmakers from Cairo...what quilts they are!
Teaching more  machine quilting here on Camano Island  tomorrow....there is a beautiful campground with a very rustic log building for our class.  The girls work there every month and make quilts for the cabins at the State Park there.   We look out over the water, and the woods....very beautiful.
Then on Saturday I teach in Woodinville, WA....a regular group where we meet at the Grange and sew Kaffe quilts or other projects.   I hope we get more to join us.  We will also have a class on Nov. 24...Saturday after Thanksgiving. 
My friend Jenny Pedigo taught a class at our Mukilteo guild last Saturday.   She has a fabulous ruler she designed and it makes a gazillion different patterns allowing for your own creativity, too.  Jenny is a great young quilter, and I wish her well as she goes to Houston to demo her  ruler at market.  I hope she  gets lots of orders.
The weather is turning colder and we even  had a hail storm the other day.  My fishy boys are getting ready for the long winter.   Soon they will get no more food and start to hibernate for the winter.  They grew a lot this last summer.
And, last but not least, we went to Portland last Friday to help my friend Opal pick out her new long-arm....she got an Innova.   Wow, will she have fun quilting, now.  The quilts displayed were beautiful, and the machine quilting only gets better and better....very creative, and some funky artsy type quilts were shown.  Of course I got some more thread, and added to my already HUGE supply...always a new color or brand or something.   I LOVE thread....hope you are all having a great fall...the weather really says....Quilt, Quilt, Quilt!

 My Imari Plate quilt that I have now finished from Kaffe's book....and the Lone star below is called Big Bang, also from Kaffe's Book.....the biggest one I have quilted...126 inches square...made by my friend Bekah in Houston....I want to to that one too, but not quite so big...ha.

Some of the beautiful fall leaves in Michigan.

We checked out our space for our fall retreat for CIQ guild the first weekend in November...it is a huge open room...lots of space for all to spread out.  We each should have our own table!  I hope you will find lots of time to get to your projects, too.....until later....judy

African American Quilts in Bellevue, WA

Hi all.....our Goof Balls group took a field trip to see the African American quilts at the Bellevue Art Museum....and was it GREAT!!   There was a fabulous collection of great quilts, some of which could be "modern art" paintings...and not to mention the great Lone Star quilt.  I am definitely going to copy that  great old treasure.  These quilts were from a collection....artists unknown.   I really enjoyed them all, and some were just too wonderful.   Thanks to  the museum for letting me post some of the pictures of those fabulous quilts.  I hope you enjoy seeing a few of these masterpieces.   Judy

Runs with Scissors....Bellingham, WA

Hi all....time flies.....what's new???    More quilting, more piecing, and a great time teaching a group in Bellingham, WA....what a great group of gals.  We had an all day workshop where I taught 3 projects....machine quilting,  woven collage, and the lone star.  What a great time.  Everyone was sooo creative.  They have a pretty big guild, and were more than gracious for my trunk show of many quilts!  It is always hard to know which ones to bring.

A lonestar from one of the gals...

weaving in process and  one nearly finished.

Bunny's  in process....

Machine quilting in process.....

Bunny's fabulous finished collage.  I hope she enters it in a show.

I am going to post a few pictures of the class and one great woven quilt finished by Bunny!  I hope I go back again....it was great fun!  Thanks, girls....

Happy Monday Morning

Hi gals....hope everyone is having a great day.  We actually had some rain last night, which we badly need.  Our grass is pretty brown and the  ground is very dry.  All we have is a million dandelions growing about a foot tall....no grass around, too dry! 
We did work on the edge of the pond over the weekend, and got some stepping stones and small river rock spread out.  It looks much better than the 3 foot tall weeds of last spring.  We laid down 2 layers of commercial weed cloth and a piece of outdoor carpet under everything....so, if the weeds make it through all that, I guess they deserve to live!
THis was the weekend we had the raku party at the beach.  My friend Roger Cocke is a potter, and their group does a raku burn every September at the beach.  It is lots of fun, and the pot I made actually came out pretty neat.  It looks like an old weathered metallic pot....last year I did fish.  Next year I will have to try something else. 
THis morning I will try to finish my copy of Freddy's last quilt.  I am half done.  It is a very busy quilt, but I love it.  I also started Imari Plate from Kaffe's  Swedish book...looks pretty neat.  I am waiting for some fabric from Liza so I can get onto the next borders.  I will be using it to teach in  a couple weeks.  I am also reading his autobiography....a fun read....Dreaming in Color.  Gosh, did I lead a dull life.

Well, off to work, hope you all have a great day.....judy

Just to let you know what the pix are....loading the kiln, bottom is one of the great fish that a potter named Mary makes...they are fabulous.  A view of the beautiful beach area, and some foil wrapped pots waiting for the sagir fire.  Once the pots are taken from the kiln, they are put directly into pots with newpaper and straw or such...cover with the lid, and let cook!!...Well, you let them burn a bit and the special glazes oxidize and do all sorts of fun things....hopefully turning out like the beautiful fish. 
Top quilt is the start of my Imari plate from Kaffe's Quilts from Sweden.  I hope you are making something fun today.

Released from the Vortex

Ok....here it is...the masterpiece of the age!

Julie should be sooooo proud of this one.  I had my hubby and friend  Roger holding the quilt, and if you look closely, you can see their shadows behind the quilt.   I was wondering if I ever would get it done, but what a masterpiece in the end.   Julie is the master piecer, by hand, no less.  She is moving to CT where she will join my old guild...how neat is that??

  Since then I have done a couple little floral quilts and  piece another lonestar. 

Yesterday I was teaching and doing a trunk show in Blaine, WA...what a great group of gals.  We did three different things in class....lone stars, machine quilting and weaving...what fun we had.  The gals did some fabulous    piecing and machine quilting.  One weaving was great, and she even used Kaffe fabric for her floral collage.  It never ceases to amze me how creative quilters can be.  It is always such a privilege to try to encourage them to let loose and just have fun with their projects.

Today I tried to figure out my website, but I think they changed the format again...just like the blog, which took me forever to figure out a little bit.  I think someone sits in those offices and dreams up ways to torture all of us computer challenged  people.  It doesn't seem fair...it should be easier than that.  That is why my website is never up to date....poor me....

I had fun a few weeks ago blowing a glass float at the art center in Everett...my friend's son was working there, and he helped me along with another glass blower.  It was something I always wanted to do....now I can mark that off my list!  Maybe I should add....how to post on my website for future things to do.   My friend Jan just called and gave me some help  so hopefully I can get into the website and  add some classes and things.

The weather   has been pretty nearly perfect, and the fish are happily eating their new food.  Floosie is getting so big...she is nearly as big as Marilyn...she has red lips like lipstick, so I call her Floosie.  (She could be a boy, as I am not sure how to tell fish boys from fish girls...ha)

I can't even remember if I wrote about saying good bye to our Tommy Boy cat....we had to take him to the vet...he was just too sick....we brought him back home for a proper burial in our orchard where he loved to hunt gophers by the hour.    We might get another kitty later, but not for awhile.  I went to the animal shelter and looked for a dog with my friend....oh, my......cats galore.  There were sleeping in piles.  They were all so  cute.

My newest lonestar is food and chef fabric...just a crazy collection of fabric just for fun.  I finished one I tried to reproduce from one of Freddy's with no pattern....it was a challenge and had a gazillion pieces per block.  I only made a smallish one with 5 big blocks and 4 quarter and 4 half blocks.  It was fun, but a pain with all those little pieces...turned out pretty neat.  I will post a picture soon.

Well, guess I better get going to the website and see if Jan's directions make sense to me and the computer.....have a great day...love, jude

The Vortex...unbelievable

Well, I cannot believe the Vortex has not swallowed me up alive!!  I have been consumed by this most amazing quilt for a couple weeks, now.  It was made by a new friend from Florida, named Julie.
She hand-pieced the whole vortex, and it was truly an amazing  project.  I had to do lots of thinking before I even started it.  How to quilt it???  How to keep it even, and not end up with puckers and pleats...oh, my...well, my hubby came up with a good idea and between the two of us we got it figured out.  I am going to post a few photos of how I basically did finally get it on the long-arm and then quilt it.  Thanks to Julie, I had a whole new thinking experience  to problem solve...I love to figure out how to do difficult quilts....even tho it may be scarey..yikes!!
I am also baby-sitting Cinda Lou.  She came yesterday and spent the night.  She practically sits on my feet as I am piecing...what a nice dog!  She is soooo sweet. 
Well, I am making plans to teach quilting again at  Smith Owen Sewing Center in Grand Rapids in October.  That should be great fun...we had a blast last time.  I hope some of you will be able to take the class.
In the mean-time, I will get back to the studio and finish stitching around the edge of the big Vortex, before it sucks me into the abyss of  UFO's!   PS....also working on a copy of Freddy's quilt..it is nearly finished...just working on the last few flying geese units...it is pretty wild.  Have a great day...

PPS....we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary yesterday...how is it possible???We have known each other 51 years...wow.....my hubby has surely been a good sport with all my messes and projects these 48   years...ha....Judy

In the pictures...top picture was when I laid out the top on a table and added the pieced vortex circle...I had to get myself organized  for the quilting.  I then marked with pins inside the circle the width of the last row at the outer edge.
Then, I cut out the center of the  white top...that was so I didn't have so much thick fabric to deal with, and the quilt would lay flatter...the vortex would actually be against the batting.
Speaking of batting, who would guess it would be so hard to find a piece of white cotton batting in king size....I finally found some,   Dream Cotton....it worked just fine.( I had run out of white in my stash of batts.)  

I finally ended up pinning the back to the long-arm as usual.  Then I added the batting,  floated the top which by now had a huge hole cut into it...like a giant Krispy Creme  glazed donut!   I loved glazed donuts....Then I simply floated the pieced vortex over the whole overlapping as evenly as possible....WOW....it WORKED....  Well, now I am ready to piece...oh, I did use some 505 spray to hold things a bit, and a few pins...then I had to crank the whole thing to the middle so I could start there and work my way out...didn't want any puckers on this masterpiece....that worked like a dream too....I simply ditched and stitched a swirly line...very simple so the vortex got all the attention....I did not applique the vortex to the background first.  I was afraid that it might stretch and end up with puckers ....which it did not by this system.  So, now I am stitching down around the edge of the vortex after the fact...worked out great...this info is for any of you who think you might want to try this quilt.....just don't get sucked into the vortex....................ooooohhhhhh.....here I go!!

I FIGURED IT OUT!!

HI All....well, it has taken me some weeks, but I think I finally figured out how to post a new blog.  Thanks to a friend in FL who has sent me the most amazing quilt to quilt.....oh, my .....you would not believe the work that went into this piece.  I will get permission to post a picture!  Anyway, she said she reads my blog, and I felt so guilty for not writing lately, that I had my dear hubby and friend Sharon get me going again.  Can't figure out why the computer people have to always change things around and confuse my brain.
Anyway, today is my annual outdoor barbecue and quilt show.  We  grill hotdogs and EAT of course...and hang quilts on the fence around the yard.  It is always fun, and the weather has cooperated everytime so far.  I have to clean up the studio some, and  get some things ready around the pond and gazebo, but it will be so worth it to have everyone come by.   The long-armers usually come, at least some of them...what a great group of gals.  I hope if you are a long-armer you have a  support group like we do....great for sharing ideas or as a source of emergency supplies if ever you need them.
I just finished another great Freddy quilt...so happy!...the quilt, that is.  Also just finished sending the last quilts to England for the next Kaffe book...it should be a great one!  Be on the lookout for some great free patterns that will be on the Westminster site...I am just quilting them now.  They are very nice and will be easy to piece.

Well, just to get on line again with this blog,  I will make this a short post today...more later.  I have left out lots of things of late, so will try to catch up with some things...have a great day....judy  

Oh, my...how do you get rid of all that white space....well, the quilts above are from Freddy Moran..her floral collage one, and then that wildly pieced wonder.  I am copying hers from just taking a few measurements...it is a challenge, mostly because of the zillion pieces in each block....the original came from Quilt Life magazine awhile back...wow, can't believe I am piecing such an intense block...getting   quite a lot done already...also started another lonestar, with food theme!  Happy quilting.