You may recall last year I purchased four “vintage” Christmas stocking kits from the bargain table at the Northwest Quilters’ Guild Show. I finished the first one late last year. Then in February I started the second one and just finished it. It’s from Bucilla and copyrighted 1994, so it’s been around a while. Turns […]
Quilt Show Extravaganza
I’ve had the pleasure of judging five shows so far this spring, which has put me behind in posting images of some of the winning quilts, as well as some of my favorites. Umpqua Valley Quilters Guild in Roseburg expanded their show this year, adding classes and special exhibits. Linda Schmidt from Dublin, CA was […]
Viva Las Vegas
Last week I had the opportunity to judge for Desert Quilters of Nevada for the second time. They were a great group to judge for thanks to Judging Floor Coordinator Cory Allender and her assistant Melissa, as well as the enthusiastic guild members who assisted in the judging room. The best of show was stunning […]
Fairytale Challenge Wrap-up
All ninety quilts from the International Fairytale Challenge were exhibited at the recent Clark County Quilters Show. This is the first international challenge I participated in, and after three years the quilts arrived at their final venue, which just happened to be the first show I judged this year. It was so interesting to see […]
Evolutions in Quilts
Just received the news my quilt “Terra I” has been accepted into the Evolutions Juried Challenge at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado. This is the second time I’ve submitted to this challenge which the museum offers every two to three years. I was fortunate to be the grand prize winner in 2010 […]
What a Lot of Quilt Show
Last week I had the pleasure once again of judging the Clark County Quilters Show in Ridgefield, Washington. My fellow judges were Val Pellens and Gerrie Thompson. As usual, the caliber of quilts were high which made judging so enjoyable. This show has best of show for large and small/wall quilts which is great, because […]
Quilt Show Smorgasbord
Yesterday was the Northwest Quilters Guild annual show at the Expo. I started the day with my talk about my design and construction process and the World Challenges I have participated in. A few minutes after I began my stepmother, Theola, and stepsister, Kelly, showed up. I was so surprised as neither of them are […]
My Vintage Yellow Quilt Collection
Today Mike and I hung nine of the 14 quilts I’ve collected over the past twenty plus years at the Northwest Quilters Guild show. The focus of the collection is simply the color yellow–my favorite color. Yellow makes me feel positive and happy. A side benefit to hanging the quilts was the ability to take […]
From Inspiration to the Finish Line
At 11:00 AM on Saturday, March 23rd, I’ll be presenting my design process at the Northwest Quilters Guild show, describing how I move from inspiration through research and sampling to the final artwork. The quilts I’ll be using to illustrate my talk are those I’ve created for two international traveling exhibitions. The first one toured […]
Busy Day at the FiberArts Guild
Today was our quarterly meeting at the Columbia FiberArts Guild. So many activities going on. We are going to be featured as a guest guild at the upcoming Clark County Quilters Guild Show, which is March 28th through 30th, where coincidentally, I’ll be one of the judges. I submitted my quilt “Z is For Zinnia, […]
More Sue Spargo
Sue had us prepare a piece of wool with 48 appliquéd 1″ circles to stitch on, something she has clearly done many times as shown by her textural, creative samples. Here are some of the stitches I completed over our two days. You’ll notice my circles aren’t all round even though I made sure they […]
Sue Spargo, Wool Embroidery
Last week our speaker at Northwest Quilters Guild was Sue Spargo, well-known for her hand embroidered, wool quilts. Obviously, I’m behind in posting, but I have good reasons. I attended her workshop the two days following her evening presentation. Then I went back to working on my World Poet Challenge quilt. I’m excited about the […]
What Were the Judges Thinking?
Thanks to the Columbia River Piecemakers Quilt Guild for inviting me to present my lecture last night on quilt judging. If your guild is interested in learning more about the process, I would love to come to one of your meetings. I do a power point presentation combined with actual quilts that illustrate how to […]
Emily Dickenson and the World Poet Challenge
To create the moth, I immediately thought of using two fabrics I had on hand: a white Radiance for the main part of the body and an iridescent polyester organza for the highlights. For the composition, see my post of January 25th. I chose reverse appliqué for the construction technique, stitching a section of the […]
Christmas Stockings
During the 1970s and 1980s I did a lot of hand embroidery: crewelwork, counted cross-stitch, needlepoint, and Christmas tree skirts and stockings. At the Northwest Quilters Show last spring I spotted three Christmas stocking kits circa 1990s at the show’s Bid and Buy table. My nephew Nick has three children, two boys and a girl, […]
World Poet Challenge
I’m participating in a new challenge with quilters from the US, France, and Japan. There are 90 quilters, with 30 from each country. Each quilter creates a 50 cm quilt based on one of 30 poets, which means each poet will have three quilts. I chose Emily Dickinson whose work I adore. We were asked […]
P is For Poppies and Periwinkle
I’ve been working on another garden-themed piece for what seems a very long time. And it’s going to be a lot longer largely because hand embroidery takes so much time. I haven’t been posting photos because even on days when I work for up to six hours, the piece looks like I’ve made little progress. […]
Le Palais Idéal of the Postman Cheval
While in France for the holidays, Mike and I traveled two hours north to a unique site my French teacher, Sylvain Frémaux, had told me about a called Le Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval or The Ideal Palace of the Postman Cheval. (If you read French, cheval means horse and is his actual last name). […]
Christmas at Chateauneuf
The village where we stayed, Chateauneuf-du-pape, is one of the premier wine-growing regions in southern France. The number of wineries you can visit within the village itself and its surroundings is overwhelming. We’ve stayed twice twice and made it to six wineries. While not as famous, there is also a premier chocolate boutique called Chocolaterie […]
The Christmas Markets of Provence
I’m a day late where the holiday is concerned but it couldn’t be helped. We were in France for two weeks to visit the Marchés de Noël in the neighboring towns and villages near where we were staying. When my late husband and I lived in France we went to Strasbourg in the Alsace region […]
Wonderful Mixed Media Exhibit
The current exhibit called “Peace and Justice” at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center features calligraphy and mixed media by three artists: Inga Dubay, Kanaan Kanaan, and Sara Harwin. The center is located on Capitol Highway in southwest Portland with the exhibit running through February 22, 2019. I took some photos, but many pieces are framed […]
