This little pathetic, collapsed piece of dangly bits is where I found myself at the end of a day of invention as I worked on my second entry in our Four-in-Art art quilts group. We are still holding, the four of us. And from the dead place I spoke of last week, I’ve made progress.
Although I know it doesn’t look quite like anything yet, the quilt is coming along. Nicely, even. Reveal date is one week from today. I’ll be ready. Hey! I already have a title.
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.
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.
My friend in Oregon, Beth, picked me up at my hotel bright and early and we headed up to Salem, to the first shop of our day-long shop hop. Beth really knows how to make a quilter happy, because she is one! That’s her out front in the yellow raincoat. We started with Greenbaum’s Quilted Forest, and the address is 140 CommercialStreet NE, Salem, Oregon 97301. Phone number is 877-700-2233. Their email is sylvia@quiltedforest.com, and the reason why I mention that is because they are near Sisters, Oregon they do a huge mail-order business and charge no shipping for domestic (US) orders. Pretty amazing. We struck up a nice conversation with Lisa, who is the office and events manager, and she filled us in on all the happenings. More in a minute.
This is the sight that greeted us. I felt like I was in a forest of quilts–they were everywhere! They were hanging from the ceiling, displayed over the stair rails, on the walls, draped on tables, everywhere. So many ideas, so little time!
That’s Lisa, smiling there beside the rows of Kaffe Fassett fabrics. Greenbaum’s is one of the best 20 quilt shops of all times in the Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler, so they do a lot of things to serve quilters and stock a wide range of fabrics, notions, and books. One fun thing she dangled in front of us was a bus trip to see the Quilt Show. The plan is to meet at Greenbaum’s early Friday morning, drive towards Sister, visiting four quilt shops, then overnight in Bend. The next morning, we’d be all day at the Sisters Quilt Show, then head home that night. Friday night accommodations are included. Head to their website for more info: www.quiltedforest.com.
They have a wide range of fabrics, from prints to batiks, to moderns to florals. I had a hard time making choices (remember I had a carry-on suitcase).
Some quilt shops you go into and it’s a quick glance, a fat quarter and you’re out. I wanted to keep looking not only because of their friendliness, but also because of the many ideas they had everywhere. I think that’s where they really excel, if I have to single out one reason. I feel like I sound sort of glib here–but I thought this was an outstanding quilt shop. It’s hard to give a sense of it without you being there touching all the fabrics, seeing the sights, quilts and colors, so I’ll just let my photos (lame as they are) do the talking.
I loved the pine tree up on top of their center shelves.
One thing I enjoyed were their little vignettes–a theme, with some books, patterns and fabrics to entice you to try something new.
Their classroom.
The old brick walls are proof they’ve been here a long time–111 years, although in the beginning it was a “dry goods” shop, then in 1948, it was converted to a fabric shop.
I really enjoyed my time here–if you are ever in Portland, Salem is south, over an hour away, but then you can hit shops in Corvallis and Philomath too, which are covered in the next post.
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 