Toooooo Busy to Blog!

Barbara Shapel and her spiral and fabulous owls......what a wonder!

Front of the quilt.

My brightly colored koi pond...plan to quilt it really neat with koi, lillies, and lilly pads.

Back of the owl quilt. Great use of thread of both sides.
Haystack Rock on the beach in Cannon Beach, OR. A fabulous quilt shop there, too. It is Center Diamond Quilt Shop. Be sure to stop by if you can!

Hi all....well, guess life just gets too, too busy to get to the computer to blog. Since my last lone star posted, I have made 4 more....notice the operative word....made, not quilted!! I am really smitten with the lone star pattern in every shape and size. Then, last weekend I went to Oregon for a mystery quilt workshop with Barbara Shapel. If ever you get to see her work or take her classes.....run, don't walk, and treat yourself to some beautiful quilts and fun times. We made a type of spiral...I did mine different from all the rest...mine represents my koi pond and the fish swimming in a circle for food. I don't think I have ever experienced nicer Oregon beach weather, either. I remember a beach trip there with my hubby....I thought I would water color on the beach....I spent the whole time chasing paper up and down the beach, and trying to keep warm. I was young and spry in those days!

Today was my bone density test....I have come back to above normal with the test....for several years I took Fosamax....I only share this as an ecouragement to prod all you gals to watch for osteoporosis. My mom had a horrible case, and and could barely hold herself up in in last years...her bones were like corkscrews. So, please, even you young gals....be sure to be aware of this insidious disease...it creeps up and does you in before you know it. It could sure cut into your quilting energies and stamina.

Well, girls, a big paper-pieced quilt is calling, but I just wanted to check in and post a few pix from our big Oregon adventure.....have a great day. Judy

Long time, no Hear!

Hi all...seems like forever since I have written. I just can't seem to sit and get to the blog. Well, not all my fault. We had bought a new computer right after Thanksgiving, but it would not hook to the internet....we messed around about 3 weeks and it still wouldn't hook up. Then we finally took it back, got another one, and it wouldn't hook up either. The lap top would, but not the new one. Finally, we decided to call the trusty Geek Squad. That took another couple weeks...so now it is Jan. 6....anyway, the geek guy finally figured out the problem...he had to trick the crazy thing to read the modem or router or something. Way too complicated for me. No one had a clue what the problem was. Now, you see why I prefer quilting to computing.

Anyway, then dear hubby had hernia surgery, which turned out great, so we are back to normal and here I am at the blog.

Thank goodness the only little snow we had melted by the next day. We did have some zero weather, but no snow yet. It has even warmed up enough so the koi are swimming near the top of the pond.....not good, but they are not getting a crumb of food from me. I hope they don't get too active before spring. they do look great, tho.

As for the goats and alpacas...finally they are getting along pretty well. At first the alpacas had the goats on the run. Then, they started stealing each others' food, and yesterday, the goats were butting the alpacas. They are funny little critters. I had to clip the goats' toenails yesterday. It is quite a job. They actually stay pretty still. My neighbor helped me. She has 5 goats she has rescued. So we have quite a menagerie in our neck of the woods.

Tomorrow the Goof Balls are coming to sew. I am going to show them an easy version of the lone star. We have guild meeting tomorrow nite too. Reynola Pakushich is coming. She does beautiful ethnic type quilts and works a lot with circles.

Well, I hope you all are having a wonderful new year and quilting a lot. I am stuck on this lonestar binge...I am working on number 4. Well, kids....gotta go, but thought I would write a few lines, since I have not done so lately. Have a great week....judy

Giving credit...

Well, one more try... I want to be sure to give credit to the beautiful quilts I posted. The one of the little girl belongs to Sue Utt...it is of her mom as a child. She takes Ruth McDowell classes quite often. then, the beautiful Asian quilt is by Diane Watts of Whidbey Island. She takes classes from me occasionally....the full quilt uses a panel with a geisha girl....I took a close-up of the edge of the quilt with the cranes stitched in gold thread. They are both beautiful.

MOre pix to fix the boo boo...

Hi gang...well, I did it again and posted two pictures of Moe...or Nosey...can't quite decide what to call him for sure. I hope he doesn't get a split personality because of all the names. I don't think he pays any attention, anyway.

The first picture, is a field of snow geese...when I opened the car window to take a picture, the noise was unbelievable. They really can sing. The fields near us are covered with snow geese this time of year.

OH, NO....more critters!!

Hi all....so long since I have written. Guess too much is going on at this time of the year. A week ago Saturday we got two new critters......2 alpacas. They are soooo cute, but love to steal the goats' food. It is quite a feat to get them all fed without the alpacas stealing the food.

Our friends at Over the Rainbow fabric....check out their website on my favorites...don't know how to put the link in the body of the letter!!.....gave us two little alpacas. They had names, but I think I will rename them Curley and Moe....or maybe Moe will be Nosey, which he is!

I feel sorry for them out in the rain. And we even had zero weather for about 3 days, but all the critters did just fine...I even found water buckets with heat in the bottom so the buckets of water did not freeze. It is amazing the fun stuff you can find at the farm store!

I will post the pix of the boys...the alpacas.

Now I am working on Christmas cards and some quilt projects. Hopefully, over the holidays, I will have time to do some really heavy organizing and cleaning in the studio.

Our new computer would not connect to the internet, and after much ado about nothing, we finally gave up and got a different one. Hopefully my hubby can get this one hooked up. I think the first one was hexed.

We had 3" of snow, but it melted off in the rain the very next day....yeah!! Then the weather warmed up and the koi started to come up to the top of the pond. Well, those poor guys will be waitng to April to be fed....no matter how sad their little eyes are.

I still hope to do some baking yet this week...have you ever heard of banket...a dutch almond pastry yummy. I should post the recipe. Ken made 17 pounds of fruitcake...he is famous for it. We have used the recipe for almost 45 years. I found it in the newspaper when we were first married.

Our big treat was to go to the Mannheim Steamroller concert here in Seattle. They are so great.

Well, guess that is all the news for now...have a wonderfully blessed Christmas season. May you have a joyful and peaceful Christmas. Hope to write again before the big day.

Love, judy irish

photo captions for latest blog....

Well, since I cannot figure out how I got two of the same picture, and could not delete one...there are two....that is my new rack for all the rolls of batting in my studio... I really like how it works. I got the rack at Costco. The teddy bears are some of the ones I had for sale this weekend at my cousin's sale...she was selling her beautiful wooden plates and bowls she does on her wood lathe. I sold nothing and she sold some bowls and such. This was a slow year even for her! Oh, well, it is a cuddly inventory to be stuck with...judy

Brrrrr....it's Cold!!

Hi friends....it is COLD in these here parts! Lots of heavy frost and cold weather. I even dripped the faucets in my studio tonite. My poor goat girls are pretty chilly too...I put more straw in their little house so they can snuggle up and keep warm. I think I should bring them some hot chocolate tomorrow morning. As for the koi, they are definitely down now, and there is ice on the pond. Ken put the pond heater in so there is a small opening on one end of the pond to let the air in. It worked real well last year.

Today we had a long-arm meeting. They are always fun, and we get to chat and do show and tell...share tips, and learn from one another. It is so great to have such a giving group of gals willing to share their business tips. We take turns going to each others' studios and enjoying how each one works.

We got some Christmas lights up tonite over our living room windows...inside. We will get the tree up and our outside deck light going soon, too.

I hope to make a few placemats for gifts and quilt on some more of Freddy's quilts this week, too. Other than that, this week will be a couple more quilt guild parties and work, work, work.

I hope you are enjoying this time of the year as much as I do. I LOVE the Christmas season and especially all the great carols. Then, there is always the baking and cooking....don't do so much of that any more....it makes me FAT!!....ha....well, hope to talk to again soon.....judy