Sew Day with Opal!

What a cute boy....this is my Tommy Boy, doing what he loves best...sleeping!

You can almost see bottom by my mailing center....I hope to re-paint the little stand to the left.

The fish are waking up for the season...but it is still too early to feed them, poor guys!

Freddy's happy collage quilts..they are so colorful and cheerful....have a great day!!

Oh, today should be fun, as my quilting buddy Opal is coming to quilt with me. She is going to machine quilt on my fabulous Juki, while I work on my long-arm doing one of Freddy's collage quilts. I even cleaned my studio a bit by the door, so I can actually get into my shipping center! WOW, a miracle!! I had fun teaching yesterday at Pacific Fabric, two classes back to back on machine quilting. We had a great time, and the gals did really well with the quilting.

Friday I am doing a machine quilting demo at Bill's Janome shop...Smokey Point Sew and Vac.

That is always fun, and there is a great Janome I want to get some day for classes, very light weight and it even has a thread cutter button....I love those thread choppers!

Well, gotta get going and get Freddy's quilt up so I can get those collaged flowers stitched...Freddy has an exhibition coming up in a few weeks. I hope you all have a fun day whatever you are doing....judy

Quilting Fun in Grand Rapids

You are My Sunshine....I had fun stitching and painting this piece for QA show....I used Stewart Gill paints...they are fabulous, and available on line.

Sally LeBoef made this cute ladybug quilt from a panel...pretty clever, eh??

The Navajo quilt to the left was made by Joan Dawson...she is also an excellent applique quilter...

How fun is this piece..didn't get the name of the quilter, but I think it is soooo fun. What a great show.

I hope we are all inspired!

In April I will be teaching in Grand Rapids, MI....it should be loads of fun to meet all the gals there....all 40 plus...two big classes. I was surprised by such great interest in machine quilting, but soooo happy to be able to share what I have learned. Hey, gals, if you have questions about the class feel free to write me and ask. I am working on some fun designs..maybe peacock feathers...of course, koi!.....any suggestions??

By the time I get there for classes on April 19th and 20th at the Smith Owen sewing center, it should be great spring weather, with the flowers poking their heads up and the forsythia blooming. I do miss the back east springs.

If anyone has a particular design they want help with, get in touch with me so I can be getting it ready for you....I hope we have a big turn our for my quilting class at Empty Spools Seminar in Asilomar, CA this June. We have a 5 day workshop for quilting every day....lots of time to work on some designs, stitch length, and a few finished beautiful pieces of thread work. I hope to see many of you in my up-coming classes...we will have a great time...NO PRESSURE...just hanging out, quilting, and having fun. If you need to email me..... wildirishrows@yahoo.com

In the meantime, have fun, and I hope lots of you are getting inspired to try your hand at machine quilting...Judy

Quilters' Anonymous Quilt Show

My koi challenge in process...my friend Mick Dunn's poppies...she pieced and I quilted it....my ooh la la lone star with fun fabric, and the last one is a great pepper made by one of our members...just a taste of some of the quilts!

Hi Bloggers....well, what a weekend. We had our guild quilt show, and it was really something. This year we held the show in the new building at the Monroe Fairgrounds...and what a fabulous building it was!

The windows let in all that glorious light...notice I did not say sunlight! Well, we did have some sun on Friday! The quilts were so colorful, creative, and inspiring. I came home with some ideas for many more quilts than I will ever have time to create. Of course the vendors were great. We found some Marsha Derse fabric...check it out. And I even got an honorable mention for my koi quilt in the color challenge. The challenge quilts were phenomenal, so getting a ribbon was really an honor. I had fun doing a machine quilting demo on a little featherweight machine....just like magic!!

Had such a good time Friday, that my friend Opal and I had to come back to make sure we didn't miss anything, including voting for our favorite quilts. Well, suffice it to say, you all must have guild shows, too...so I hope you enjoy yours and enter your work for others to see. I think I will have to go to bed and ponder all those quilts in my dreams! More later...judy