It's freeeeezing!!

two more lone stars...one out of some great Christmas fabric and the other from a newer line of grapes in fall colors...pretty neat. I want to make one with oriental koi fabric and some more with Christmas fabric.

The flag was frozen the moring we left Graham, WA at my brother's ....the Saturday after Thanksgiving.....

HI to all you hardy souls out there....seems like all we get here is freezing weather every nite and frosty windows and ground every morning. THe critters are all huddled up against the fence waiting for their breakfast. Poor Brooklyn is as the bottom of the pecking order, and she gets the leftovers!

I am working on my winter teaching schedule which I hope to post on my website in the next couple weeks....with the help of my website guru Jan. She loves to do that stuff...good thing, cuz I hate that stuff and don't know how to do it anyway. I have a beautiful quilt of hers to do soon....it is a raw edge floral, and will be fun to decorate with thread. Watch the blog and I will post it when it is finished.

We are right in the swing with all the guild Christmas parties...2 down and 3 more to go, as well as our museum board lunch and big meeting this month. Otherwise pretty quiet and time to quilt some of my stuff I hope.

Then, I plan to dig out the studio...I guess I should post before and after pix....it just seems like getting to the after is always so hard.

Guess I will post a couple of my latest quilts on today's blog, and then get on to some more lone stars. I am totally taken with that block, and have been collecting any lone star designs that catch my eye, especially if they are a bit more unusual. Just hope I have time to make all the ones that intrigue me. Hope you all have a warm and happy day.....till later...judy

HAPPY THANKSGIVING....a litle late!!

Moe will definitely need to get to the beauty parlor after this bad weather!
Some Thanksgiving day pictures....we have much to be thankful for. I am grateful to live in such a wonderful nation and that our armed forces are there to protect us....I am thankful for family and friends and of course, my wonderul husband. And thankful for the many blessings God has given us over the past year.....even the snow!

Happy Thanksgiving a few days later....we had an interesting week with about 4" of snow, icy roads, and our area tied up in traffic jams and accidents. My studio had frozen pipes, and we were just trying to keep things perking along in this storm. The critters did fine, and probably loved the cold weather, especially the alpacas.

Soooo, I had a hot dog for Thanksgiving Day dinner, and we waited till Friday to take our bird and trimmings to my brother's house south of here a couple hours. Ken did a masterful job of baking the bird....it was really pretty roasted to a golden brown. I tried a new creamy type pumpkin pie......I think I will go back to my standard recipe off the can of pumpkin. I think that one is still the best! All I care about is the mashed potatoes anyway.....I have to laugh as yesterday some guy was interviewed on the radio who went on a 60 day potato only diet...he even lost 20 pounds and his cholesterol dropped 40 points or so....he was from the Washington potato board or some such thing. Now we need an icecream only diet...I will be happy to research that one!

Well, the one good thing that came out of our belated Thanksgiving was that I did quite a lot of sewing. I am nearly finished with my bordered diamonds and a couple other quilts as well. I even did some of my quilts on the longarm!

Well, that is my holiday report....on to Christmas and NO SNOW, I hope.....have a great week...judy irish

It's About Time!!

mystery picture....ha....this was 13 years of thread that had wound around the wheels of my long-arm...Ron Paul said he was glad to see I actually used my machine....now, I am watching closely to see that I don't get thread in my tracks and around my wheels. It sured gave the gals in the class a big laugh!

our snow protector over the heat pump by my studio.
This sunflower quilt was my favorite in the Innovations show...I have lost the name of the artist, but will find it and give her credit. It is painted and stitched....TOTALLY FABULOUS.

HI all....I did try to post last week, but something crazy happened to my nice long letter, and it disappeared....so I will try again today. I hope you are all enjoying a great fall and getting lots of quilting done. Ieven quilted two of my own tops yesterday and the day before. Even so, I did lots of customer quilts and am doing a very nice paper pieced block of the month. Boy, some teeny tiny pieces there. It is made by Sandra Chadwick in CT. Also received a Baltimore Album that took three years in the making...from my friend Pat Jennings in CT.

Well, after the great Leavenworth show I got busy with Innovations.

It was a great show, although not so big as usual, and there were fewer classes, too. A sign of the times, I guess. There were some really great pieces in the quilt show, and I took a class from Ron Paul on machine maintenance. I brought the head of my Gammill, and discovered I most probably needed a new motor. Well, it did sound like a cement mixer with marbles inside. We took the machine to Oregon and a great Gammill dealer and quilt shop, where I did get a new motor, my needle positioner switch replaced with a more modern new-fangled thingie, and a check-up. Guess I have to go back this spring for new gears. I didn't realize I had put that many miles on it.

Cindy Roth asked me to help her do a little program/trunk show one evening at Innovations. It was fun...question and answer and trunk show. I think it will be posted on her website...you will have to check it out. I hate to see myself on film, so likely won't look!

After Innovations I did a couple trunk shows for guilds...one in Anacortes for the Fidalgo Island Quilters...a great group of folks...and then for Bellingham, the Moonlight Quilters...another great group. It was fun, and I hope to be able to do workshops for them some day.

More teaching of quilting and woven quilts, and tomorrow I teach from The Bold and Beautiful book at Aunt Mary's at Smokey Point....then Saturday for a group of gals....machine quilting. It should be great fun.

Yesterday we had a great time giving the alpacas a pedicure...the hard part was catching them!

Our neighbor breeds alpacas, so we called him to do it....they were good boys once we caught them. The goats were curious as usual. Speaking of goats...we have two little bitty goats that live next door now....they are the cutest things, and cry like babies. I just had to check them to see if they were ok...they were! But they were sure crying like babies. They are small enough to pick up and hold and cuddle.

We have had sunny weather for 3 days. I am glad of that. We have been getting the pond plants out of the ponds and putting the lawn mowers into the barn...so I guess it is defnintely winter.

We also had to build a cover over our heat pump top keep the snow off the unit...it got pretty demolished 2 winters ago...just trying to be prepared. I don't think the insurance company will give us another one!

Oh, goodie.....chocolate cookies coming....Ken is going to make cookies later for my class tomorrow. YUM....

Well, that is about all the news for this time...I will hopefully be a little bit better about writing in the future. In the meantime, have a great weekend.....Judy

Leavenworth Quilt Show FAB Event

LOoking down the main street at Leavenworth.

The Gazebo!

One of the Hoffman challenges...it was beautiful. Don't know who made it, but it was great.

Another Hoffman challenge...all the little squares had designs quilted in them. What a job!

HI all...we are back from the quilt show in Leavenworth, WA. It was wonderful. It is too bad that there were not more people there to enjoy it. If more people knew about that show, I think they would realize what a great opportunity they have in that area to see some really great quilts. They even had the Hoffman Challenge, and, if I do say so, I think it was the best one I had ever seen...WOW....some spectaular pieces there. See it if you can.

The other guest artist was Susie Decker...she was the yo yo queen!! All her quilts are so happy and colorful. I think we needed to hand out some sun glasses to the guests...between her quilts and mine, it was a cheery show. If you ever get the opportunity to get to Leavenworth, be sure to go.

When we got home all the critters were in the right spot, although the neighbor's goat spent some time in our pasture apparently....oh, just when we got in the car on Wed. to leave for Leavenworth, we noticed our goats in the neighbor's yard...so we had to do goat patrol and fence fixin'. Then we thought we better get the fish next better secured over the koi since our not so friendly heron is back....guess who was there this morning and last evening....I wish I could figure out a way to scare him off for good...any ideas??? I guess it is illegal to shoot them!!

Then, on our way out of town we noticed our car dripping again....OH, NO! We thought our new heater core was still not fixed right...but we went ahead anyway hoping it was just some leftover drips from before the heater core was fixed...off we went, and the car worked fine, with temperature just where it was supposed to be. I love my old suburban, so hang onto it!

Today we, (Des and I) leave for Tacoma and the Innovations Conference. That is the machine quilting conference. I will be teaching and taking some classes, including one to learn how to up-keep my machine. I am bringing the new wheels I bought several years ago, and maybe can get them on at last.

Well, that is all the news for now....just packing for Innovations and our 2 hour drive to Tacoma....will write when I get back....judy

The Heron is back.....

Lunch time...almost for these poor, unsuspecting guys.....our new waterfall....

HI all.....we have had a couple pretty rainy days here....proof that the fall weather is really here. Hopefully we will have some more sunny days before winter really arrives.

We finally figured out the pond problem....it seems the liner in the old pond was enough below the new water level created by our new, powerful pump....therefore some water was overflowing the old liner in a few places.....thus leaking enough water to bring our total water level down. Now we have that fixed, but with the liner not giving us enough extra to rock in, we will have to put a whole new liner in the old pond...just like a house remodel...you never know what you are going to find when you try to add something new to something old. It will be great next summer.....we will change out the liner in the spring, I think.

Well, the pesky heron came by today....TWICE.....we have not seen a heron for a couple years...maybe he noticed out new waterfall in operation.....or just happened to take note on a fly-over. We had to make a quick mercy run to the pond guy and get another new net....the neighbor's dogs jumped on our nets and put holes in them, so we had jury-rigged up a couple of old nets....now we have 4 layers of new net, hopefully the bird will give up and move on.

We leave tomorrow for Leavenworth and my big adventure as the featured quilter for their quilt show.....another reason why we didn't want to leave the fish exposed to that pesky bird.

The quilt show should be lots of fun. I am bringing 50 quilts for my part of the show, and will do machine quilting demos during the day....as well some piecing so I don't get bored.

I will have to write about my adventures when I get back....hope you all have a great week ahead, and enjoy these last weeks of summer....judy

Plug the leak!!

A quilt from my last visit to CT....how great is that??

more fun piecing!
My new painting on the barn door...from an idea from PA barns.

Well, here we are still trying to find and fix our pond leak...we think we have it this time, and are adding water to give it another try. Hope this time is the charm...the old pond had one side so low under the edge rocks, that water went over the liner with our powerful new pump and higher water line...it forced the water to run under everything and underneath our stream liner...probably should have emptied the old pond and re-lined and started over...if this works, we won't have to do that, at least for awhile we hope.

Oh, I forgot to tell the tale (tail) of the garter snake that nearly got his tail chopped off when I was trimming liner from the old pond....snip, snip, and there was this tail hanging out from under the rocks...will have to say that it made me jump a little....I didn't expect to see a garter snake tail hanging out from between those rocks! Ken got a good laugh. I think it would have made a great funniest home videos entry.

I am looking forward to my visit to Leavenworth and their quilt show. I plan to demonstrate machine quilting and also do some piecing while I am sitting there during the slow times.

I have several samples to finish.

Well, the weather is fabulous today....just perfect, sunny and in the sixties and seventies.

I think it will be a great fall if this keeps up. I am glad I don't live near the hurricane belt! I don't do well in the wind. My sister-in-law and her hubby were waiting with baited breath to see if they could make all their connections to and out of JFK for a cruise they are supposed to catch in Italy....I think it is ok.

Well, off to see if the leak is fixed....have a great weekend. judy

Fall is coming....

This beautiful quilt was made by Janet Goad for the Busy Bee show...it was gorgeous....I loved the bright colors.
THis was another of my thread painting attempts. The silk unravelled like crazy...

SOme of the plumbing for the new pond pump...looks like spaghetti!

Greetings all...it is beginning to look a lot like fall around here...it certainly feels like it, anyway. When I feed the critters in the morning, there is a mighty cold layer of dew on their feed buckets...still better than snow and 40 below!

We had a day of steady rain yesterday. We did need it, but it was a cold, gray day. I got a quilt finished for our American Hero quilt project. You can check on line for that group...so worthwhile, and some very moving moments as we can serve our service people in such a small way.

Well, we are still trying to figure out why we have a leak in the stream/pond area where the new stream hooks up with the old pond. We are stumped, but not giving up! More investigation today. At least we have the pump working in tip top shape.

This weekend is our big estate sale at the La Conner Musueum...actually for the museum and held at the Dakota Art Center in Mount Vernon, WA. I have been helping with the pricing. We got some great junk and stuff for sale. Come check it out if you live near by. THe sale starts Saturday morning.

I am getting some samples ready for my classes this fall, including making one round quilt. It is made with a wedge ruler. Also working on another one block wonder with hollow cubes. Then I am having great fun working with the Bold and Beautiful book and painting on a quilt.

The Leavenworth quilt show is coming a week from this Saturday. I am honored to be the featured artist, and have 50 quilts to take up there. I have some sleeves to sew on about 20 quilts. I think from now on I should put the sleeve on to begin with!! Then, the week after that is Innovations in Tacoma....a busy few weeks coming up. I hope you all are keeping busy too. It will soon be time to really quilt full steam ahead. It seems like quilting is more fitting in the cooler weather for me!

I hope to see many of you in Leavenworth and at Innovations in Tacoma. Stop by and say HI!!

Judy