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