Now I'm really all over the place!

Week before last was the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma, WA - a little over 2 hours north of us.  I've been looking forward to this show for a LONG time.  Three of my Tangled Threads friends and I headed north for a wonderful day . . . the other was totally envious as she had to go to a wedding. 

The group, formerly known as the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington,and Wyoming in the US, and British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories in Canada.  The juried show is held every other year, and is always spectacular.

This year was no exception.  Amazingly spectacular quilts, including several from our guild, Clark County Quilters in Vancouver WA.  I took lots of pictures, but I'm going to include only a few.  I was so enthralled that I forgot to take pictures of the labels, and I really don't like to post pictures without giving the maker credit.

The reflections are created with scraps cut with pinking shears!

Made by Helene Knott, Portland OR

I've already set myself a new goal - to have a quilt juried into the 2015 show.  Wish me luck!

Of course, I did some damage in the merchant mall.  I bought more batiks to add to my growing collection, and I bought another pattern.  It is one I've loved ever since I first saw it.  Every fall I tell myself that this is the year I'll actually start a fall quilt.  This year I'm going to do it.  Come September all that calls to me are yellows, oranges, reds, greens, golds, and browns.  So what did I choose?

Baltimore Autumn by Pearl P. Pereira

 The blocks are 12", which is smaller than I want, so today I'm taking them to Fed-X today to have them enlarged to 15".  That will give me a bed size quilt instead of a wall quilt, and the applique pieces won't be quite so small.  I've bought my background fabric, and have plenty in my stash for the applique.  Once I bring my enlarged patterns home I don't know if I'll have the will power to not start it right away!

An added aside:  When I showed my purchases to my friends I learned why the quilt looked so familiar to me.  One of them already had the pattern, and two more of them are getting it as a block of the month.  Makes me smile - so often our group has similar tastes!  No one has started making it yet, however.  I plan to be the first to start.

Pomeroy Quilt Show

On Saturday August 2nd my friend Kim and I went to the outdoor quilt show at the Pomeroy Living History Farm a bit north of here. This is the first time I've ever gone - we always seemed to be camping on the first weekend in August until this year. There are both old and new quilts on display, including the quilts from the farm's collection. The theme this year was "Butterflies in the Garden", so of course there were lots of butterfly quilts - mostly from the 30's. During the Depression the butterfly became the symbol of hope and new life. Quilters used scraps of fabric, often taking them from the floors of textile mills, to fashion their butterflies. They then stitched them onto blankets and quilts, frequently using a buttonhole stitch. This was a way for people to help keep their faith, hoping and waiting for better days to come.

The speaker was Karen Snyder, owner of Anna Lena's Quilts in Long Beach, Washington, author of several quilt books and designer of several lines of fabrics including Washtub Prints, reproductions of 30's fabrics. Unfortunately Kim and I didn't get to hear the talk - it conflicted with our tea reservations - but we spent some time talking to Karen and seeing some of the quilts.

I can't possibly show all the quilts here, so I'll focus on the antiques for the most part:

From the farm collection. I love the pink and brown combination and the simplicity.

From reproduction fabrics by Juanita Wells, a member of Clark County Quilters. Her ten year old granddaughter embroidered two of the butterflies - her first embroidery.

A row quilt by Juanita Wells. From an online block exchange. Juanita did the row with Overall Bill.

An Ebay purchase by Karen Snyder.

"All Hugs, No Kisses". Made by the grandmother of Charlotte Sappington, owned by Cheri Drudge.

A funky quilt owned by Cheri Drudge. Bought in Hermosa Beach CA from an elderly woman who was cleaning out her house. It was handmade by the woman's grandmother in Ohio.

Made by Maureen Orr Eldred, quilted by Janice Jones. Made from scraps. Sewn during quilting retreats all over the country.

Farm quilt.

Farm quilt. A great use of orphan blocks, Finn!

By Janet King - one of her first quilts. Made from old cotton prints and feedsacks. Patterns were shared with her by friends.

The next quilts are from Karen Snyder's 1920's-1930's collection.

The last quilts were displayed in the Log House - the original Pomeroy home. They are from three generations of the local Heisen family - grandmother, Ida Lily Dresser Heisen; mother Lillian Heisen Linn and daughter Betty Lynn Davenport. They span the years from 1920's to 1980's.

I should have listened

So many of you told me to take it easy on my shoulder even though the doctor gave me the go ahead to get back to normal activities. I should have listened! Since quilting a couple quilts on Wednesday didn't bother me much at all I figured I could do two more this weekend. So yesterday I quilted my two other string quilts for Hotel Hope. I started pinning the first one on the machine about 7:30 or so yesterday morning, and took the second one off the machine about 8:45 last night. These two seemed to take much longer than the first two - I guess the pantograph I chose was more complicated than the one I used on the first two quilts. I didn't think it was, but it certainly took longer. I had one break when I went to coffee with my daughter about 10:30, and another of a couple hours when I went grocery shopping and fixed dinner. By the time I crawled into bed I was wiped out, and my shoulder, back and feet were aching. So I took the last of my Vicodin along with a couple Tylenol PM's.

I remember talking to Fred a couple times this morning - once when the dog wanted back off the bed and once when he told me he was going to the gym to work out. I remember commenting that it must be raining too hard for golf and he confirmed that. Next thing I know I was waking up because I needed to head to the bathroom. I could believe it when I looked at the clock and it said 10:33! I guess that Vicodin really knocked me out last night! I absolutely hate it when I sleep that late - which is why it very rarely happens. Besides the fact that I slept away at least 3 good hours of the morning, it takes me another couple hours to really wake up once I get up. I'm definitely a morning person - and don't do at all well when I sleep in.

Today I made binding for the last two string quilts and finished machine stitching it on. I used up the rest of my binding scraps, plus cut binding pieces from all the edges of the backing that I trimmed off after the quilting. One nice thing is that I'm really going through the stash making backings and bindings for these charity quilts - that will make room on my shelves for the fabric that's waiting to be prewashed before being put away. I made a stir fry for dinner since peppers of all colors were on sale at the grocery store and I had leftover steak to use. Now I'm going to spend the evening relaxing and hand stitching bindings.

I'll post pictures of these last two string quilts as soon as they are finished. In the meantime I'm illustrating this post with a few quilts from the show that was part of September Quilt Fest in Portland.

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Gratitudes:

1. Four more flimsies quilted

2. Fresh fall vegetables

3. Two, two-day work weeks

4. A clean kitchen - thanks to Fred's doing the dishes

5. New pink plaid flannel pajama pants and a fluffy, soft bathrobe

Portland Quilt Fest 2007

I am back driving short distances - very carefully. I went to physical therapy on Friday, where I received exercises to do three times a day to prevent frozen shoulder. The therapist told me I didn't have to wear my sling all the time - hooray! I can't reach my right arm up far enough to hold the wheel where I usually do, but I can hold it firmly enough in the 4:00 position that I feel it's safe for me to drive. Painful, but safe for short distances.

I was able to drive myself to the place designated for meeting five North Star Quilters friends so we could head to Quilt Fest in Portland. We had a marvelous time. Dozens of spectacular quilts to view, as well as one of the traveling Hoffman Challenge collections for 2007. Several dozen vendors also - something to excite any quilter alive. I took over 80 pictures so will be able to share many of the amazing quilts during the next few weeks.

Lucky for me, my budget, my will power, and my crowded shelves, most of the vendors had little to interest me. Not to say they didn't have wonderful things to buy - I'm just not into batiks, hand dyes, brights, shabby chic, Asian, African, or any of the beautiful bright prints by the young designers of today. It was fun to see what they had but I wasn't tempted. Only four or five of the booths presented any danger, and I was able to be good in all but two. I bought a Bare Roots pattern in one booth - a neat stitchery of a quilt shop, quilts, and other quilty things.

Then I reached the booth for my favorite quilt shop - Momma Made It. I already knew I was going to spend money there because I'd asked her to reserve a kit for me that I'd seen when my friend Kim and I visited the shop shortly after I hurt my shoulder. This is a design by Lori Smith - one of her Seasonal Quilts collection called Spring Baskets. Sharon has such a marvelous way of putting fabrics together. The other thing I really like about her kits is that they are more a collection of fat quarters and yardage to use in the quilt than an actual kit. No instructions on what fabrics to put where - she leaves that up to the quilter. So there is still lots of room for personal choice and each quilt will look a bit different depending on where the quilter uses each fabric. She'd also just gotten in the Civil War Dressing Gown collection by Judie Rothermel, so of course I had to have a set of those fat quarters.

So that was the extent of my purchases - a collection of fat quarters, a collection of fabrics for a particular quilt, and a pattern. I could have been swayed to purchase so much more if I'd allowed myself to do so, so I was actually pretty happy with myself. We had a marvelous morning - what's better than time spent with quilty friends?

More pictures

I tried to be VERY good when I wrote the last posting. I purposely showed quilts that are about as far as one can get from the type of quilts I make and love. In this post I will show pictures of Patti-type quilts.

I love nine patches. I never get tired of making them or seeing them. Every one is different. I thought this was a different way of setting them to make larger four patch blocks. Almost looks like a variation of "Puss in the Corner" or "Burgoyne Surrounded". I really liked the border on this one also - more nine patch blocks set on point in between two rows of sawteeth.


These could be barns or houses. I think the maker called them barns. A flannel quilt in warm brown and gold plaids with red accents - some of my favorite colors!






I think this is a Country Threads pattern. I really love their stuff! I'm pretty sure I have this pattern somewhere in my files.



I love strippy quilts, if for no other reason than the fact that most quilters don't usually set blocks this way. This is a wonderful collection of plaid scraps. I love the appliquéd vines twisting around the stripe used for the alternate strips.

This angel quilt was done by the same person that did the Morning Glory quilt. I didn't think there was anyone else in our guild that did primitive quilts besides my friends Liz and Kathi and me. These are the first primitive quilts that have hung in our show since the last time we entered one or two. I'm almost positive this is a Jan Patek design, but the quilter has made some changes to make it her own.

This tree quilt was done by my good friend Peggy who lives in Black Butte, Oregon. This was a block of the month that she got from a quilt shop in central Oregon. I don't know whether it was from Jean Wells' shop in Sisters - it doesn't really look like something they would do. In case you aren't familiar with that shop - it's the one that's done the Sisters Outdoor Quilt show for 30 years now.


I'll call it quits for today. More quilt show photos coming later this week.

Quilt Show Pics

We have some very talented quilters in our guild. They make many types of quilts - traditional, art quilts, brightly colored quilts, original quilts, and more. We have several men in the guild, and also several young quilters below the age of 20. We have three or four who've had their work accepted into both Paducah and Houston. A few have published patterns. Quite a few teach classes. It is a large guild - 500+ members, so we have a large budget. We are able to bring in several internationally known teachers/quilters each year to present both classes and programs at the meetings. I feel very fortunate to have belonged to the guild for the past 16 years. A lot has changed since I joined, and many faces have come and gone. I recommend guild membership to all quilters. If you don't have a nearby guild, start a group. There is nothing better than sharing your love of quilting with other quilters. Isn't that why we blog?


Here are some of the pictures I took at the show. I'll post more as the days go by.

This quilt is by Barbara Shapel. Barbara's quilts are always two sided quilts. Unfortunately I guess I missed taking a picture of the other side, which is in blues. Barbara does the most remarkable thread painting on her quilts. We always hang them so both sides can be seen. Here is a link to her website where you can see her quilt gallery. Each is an original and each is more wonderful than the one before. Be sure to click on each small picture so you can see what the back of the quilt looks like.

A traditional pattern in non-traditional colors. I've always wanted to make a house quilt. One of these days I will. In the meantime I love to look at the house quilts made by others.



This quilt was made for a second grade teacher. The flowers and leaves are the handprints of her students. I thought this was a wonderfully original way to make a handprint quilt!



This is some of the most marvelous thread painting I've ever seen. Pictures can't begin to do it justice - even the close-up I took.