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