Still Plugging Along

January 23, 2013January 21, 2013 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

Well? The name of this linky party is Wednesday Works in Progress, right? I’ve made great progress, for I’ve gotten some projects off the pin wall and other blocks out of the box.

This is the project I removed from the wall–the pillow shams for my wonky star quilt.

And here’s what took its place. The first version. I had made a lot of wonky blocks in blues, and then a bunch in green/reds. I had made these in November of 2011–so it’s been a while since I’d seen them, or even remember the idea I had. I think it was to intersperse the green/reds inbetween the blues, but when I tried that, I hate it. Of course, I was also watching the Inauguration and kept breaking off my concentration to wait for Mrs. Obama to appear so I could see what she was wearing to the Inaugural Ball. Jason Wu, apparently.

I like it better with just the blues. Now somehow I’ve got to get it together. Probably not this week–too many interruptions. Like going to Road to California quilt show. Or as I like to refer to it (because the jurors who pick the quilts seem to LOVE spangles and crystals on their quilts), Road to Hollywood. But still, it is a quilt show and there are vendors and lots of interesting people and old friends and good things to see and I’m totally jazzed about it. Any one else headed there?

So now I’ve got 19 green/red blocks that don’t have a home. Maybe I’ll put them on the back? However, I already purchased some lovely blue/white variegated thread to quilt it with. So two quilts? I only have enough energy to do one more Christmas quilt, so these will probably go back in the box until November.

Click back over to Lee’s blog, Freshly Pieced to see more Works in Progress.

Quilts

More Quilt Shops near Corvallis, Oregon

January 22, 2013January 20, 2013 Elizabeth E.4 Comments

After we visited Greenbaum’s Quilted Forest in Salem, we headed south to Independence, where we’d visit a quilt shop and have lunch at the Pink House. First up–the shop!

Ladies of Liberty is a quilt shop that features Civil War reproduction fabrics, and they announce their place in the quilt world with the old-fashioned dress in the storefront window. They are located at 130 C Street, Independence OR 97351. Their phone number is 503-837-0676, and their email is ladiesofliberty@hotmail.com.

By now, the sun had come out, so the shop’s samples really shone. It’s a smaller shop, but has good ideas and friendly staff. Again, I’ll let my photos do the talking.

Their classroom. Apparently they just recently pushed out the walls to enlarge their shop and gain this space.

Beth and I were ready for lunch, so just two blocks away is the Pink House Cafe (242 D Street, in Independence), open Weds to Sunday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. After our delicious lunch, a chance to sit down and catch up with each other again, we were off to Philomath, and JanniLou Creations.

I snapped this one as we hurried inside. JanniLou Creations is at 1243 Main in Philomath, OR 97370, and their phone is 541-929-3795.

This is what greets your eye, but the hellos and how are yous? were also nice to hear, too. I browsed over in the section to the side, looking at all their black and white fabrics. Beth had said this was a converted movie theater, but it wasn’t until she urged me to head around the counter and take a look that it dawned on me what she was talking about. What you see above is where they used to take the tickets and sell popcorn and candy. Walk around to the right or left and you see this:

The former movie theater turned into fabric store. Oh, my. It was huge and filled with quilts and colors and lots of movie memorabilia.

The batiks aisle.

Their classroom is at the back, and is large enough to display these full-sized quilts, plus have room for fat quarter bins around the edges.

View from the classroom. Way up in the corner, near the ceiling was a quilt designed for the quilt shop–yep, the one in black and white on the upper left.

I liked that they not only had groupings of patterns, but also labeled their bins of fat quarters as to what was in them by theme.

After buying a few things, I was sure now that my suitcase wouldn’t shut on the way home, but we weren’t done yet!

We drove the beautiful Oregon countryside to Corvallis; it wasn’t too far away to Quiltwork Patches, right in downtown Corvallis Oregon.

We’d passed by this shop on our way to dinner the night before, and of course, I was intrigued. Don’t worry, Beth told me as we drove past, we’ll be here tomorrow. And for our final stop of the day, we went in after finding a parking place easily.

Quiltwork Patches is on 212 SW 3rd Street in Corvallis, OR 97333; phone number is 541-752-4820. It’s a friendly place and we were greeted right as we walked in, not only by the owner, but also by well-arranged bolts of fabrics. I was happy to see a lot of the modern fabrics represented, although she also stocked a full range of batiks, colors, and Kaffe Fasset fabrics.

A good quilt shop has lots of samples to entice quilters to get to work, and Quiltwork Patches had some lovely examples. I sort of make it a policy not to photograph only quilts when I do a review of a shop, but rather focus on the shop. So if you wonder why I don’t have straight-on shots, that’s why. I’m there to explore the shop. And explore I did.

Quiltwork Patches also had garment and bag samples, as well as good eye-level displays of books and small sewing projects. The shop was neat and clean and I wanted to spend hours and hours and buckets of money in there. I’m sure they wouldn’t have objected.

This is the sale room. Instead of doing punch cards or customer reward points, Quiltwork Patches decided to offer good prices on current fabrics. I had a fun time browsing through her stock.

Batik wall.

Like Greenbaum’s and JenniLou Creations, this shop had a full range of classes offered up, from beginning classes up to classes for the more experienced quilter. I saw many things to buy, but had to start somewhere–like this bolt of Anna Maria Horner’s Field Study. Weighted down by a full day of shopping, good conversation and fabric, Beth dropped me back at my hotel. We hugged good-bye and promised each other we would do this again sometime.

200 Quilts · FAL · Finishing School Friday · Quilts

Into the Woods!

January 18, 2013March 31, 2013 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Into the Woods is finished–my first finish in the FAL hosted by Leanne. I blogged about how bogged down I was in my entry FAL, so it’s nice to be able to go out to the front porch, have my husband hold it up and declare it done. And yes, I know it’s January and we still have pumpkins out there. Okey-dokey, moving right along. . .

Here’s a closeup of the quilting, and the blocks.

And the requisite beauty shot, draping not-so-artfully by the pumpkins.

Back of the quilt. I had purchased this fabric about eight years ago, when I was shop-hopping up in the Pittsburg area with a good friend. Our husbands are both scientists and we’d see each other almost annually at conferences. This particular time I had a rental car, so we left the boys to their science and took off in search of ours. I love that certain fabrics have memories attached; whenever I see this I will think of Beth.

I had originally named this a different name, mocked up the label but just couldn’t make the name stick. Then one night, it came to me. Seeing this quilt was like walking into the woods, surrounded by golds, greens, crimsons and browns, and so that became the title, just like the Broadway play Into the Woods by Steven Sondheim. That play has always had special significance for me, as its allegory of going into the woods –the difficult trials of life — and making your way back out of the woods — into a different life than the one imagined — became a sort of map for me during a painful shape-shifting time of life. I still love that play, and as I worked on the label (with a scrap of lyric pulled from the title song), I played it on the computer and sang along. Nothing like a Broadway show tune to make the quilting go a little quicker.

My quilter, Cathy, did a lovely job on the quilting of pumpkins and vines (and if you know the play Into the Woods, there is a section of Jack and the Beanstock, which correlates nicely). So there it is–my first finish, and finally, a Friday Finish for myself.

Update: Original post for the Finish-A-Long is *here.*

Quilts

Bolt–Portland, Oregon

January 10, 2013January 9, 2013 Elizabeth E.6 Comments

After we finished lunch at Grand Central Baking Company, and had visited Cool Cottons, we headed up into the Irvington district of Portland to a well-known quilt shop called Bolt. I have read their blog for a while, so knew about the amount of creativity that just oozed out of this place, plus it was on Alberta Street–my sweet MIL’s name. So that’s two votes for heading up here, don’t you think?

My husband has Parking Karma, so we found a place to park right across the street, then headed over. It located at 2136 NE Alberta Street in Portland (97211) and the phone is 503-287-2658, with email at info@boltfabricboutique.com. They are open every day, generally from 10-6, but different on Sat and Sunday, so check out their website for their hours.

Can I just say I’m crazy for dot-words? In the front window of their store they had letters on large dots, spelling out the goodies inside, and I loved that interesting touch.

This store is just full of great ideas, great fabrics of all kinds and lots of ways to get you thinking about quilts and projects to make. They carry a full range of Oliver and S Patterns, different kinds (substrates) of fabrics, from laminates to lightweight cottons, notions, threads and everything a sewist/sewer could want.

But like most quilters, I’m there for the fabric and ideas. And they have lots of fabric to choose from.

This store is tiny but packs a lot in, so I spent some time looking. I’m on a tight space allowance because of my suitcase, so that made it very hard to choose what I could take home.

And yes, that is the new Lizzie House Constellations line in the blues (on the left). I also saw other lines of fabric (Madrona Road, for one), plus they have a good mix of modern, novelty and good lines for blending in a quilt layout. You could spend all day here, I think.

Their tins of patterns–many to choose from.

And here’s a PS to our time in fabric shops: We also walked around some of Portland’s Art Galleries, where we saw a piece by Robert Rauschenberg, that only cost $70,000 (below). Makes the price of our quilt fabric look like a steal, doesn’t it?

I was amazed that a simple quilt-like construction could cost that much to own, but hey, it is a Rauschenberg. The intriguing thing was the voile overlay in the dotty and flowery sections in the picture above. I studied it a long time, and if you are in Portland and want to go and see it, head over to the Elizabeth Leach gallery on 9th street, where they treat you with great respect even if you are carrying a drippy umbrella and are wearing walking shoes. Which I was.

We quilters need our inspiration from many different kinds of places, and I’m grateful to both Bolt and Cool Cottons which allowed me to take snapshots of their shops. Now go and visit, if you are in Portland.