Greenbaum’s Quilted Forest–Salem, Oregon

January 20, 2013January 20, 2013 Elizabeth E.7 Comments

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.

Four-in-Art

Four-in-Art Dead Space

January 19, 2013January 18, 2013 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

Okay, is it horrible to mention that I just now am starting to distill my ideas about this project? I usually like to have some trimming and editing of my thought, but for today, here’s my raw footage of this breaking news. I know Betty is all done with her quilt, and last time, when Rachel chose the theme–my idea just popped into my head and I was off like a rocket. But this time, even though I chose it, I’ve not had space enough to think about the art of this idea. It’s that old, “too many irons in the fire puts out the fire” sort of syndrome.

I’ve started teaching Literature again and there’s a poem titled “Won’t Let Go” by Albert Goldbarth that haunts me and I love it (not so sure the students do, but they put up with me since I am the grownup) and it talks about the cycle of life being never ending. It begins with Death throwing open her closet door and wanting to wear that little black dress, moves through ancient cultures and their sacrifices to the gods so that the rain and the sun would help their crops to grow and ends with a birthday party at McDonald’s where the speaker imagines Ronald McDonald as a “popish raja” with electricity shooting out the ends of his hair. It’s a wild romp through those rituals that keep coming round again, and ends with the line about a tree with “one black leaf for everyone,” returning again to the theme of death being ever present, a ritual none of us will escape. Won’t let go, indeed.

Cheerful stuff, you say. But we get notices all the time in our school mailboxes about so-and-so’s wife dying, I’ve had my own brush with cancer, and at my age, way past the baby showers and teenage storm und drang, funerals and doctors visits and mortality and death seem to be woven into the fabric of my life. So, while I’m not really in a morbid state of mind, this idea keeps reverberating around in my life that this idea of ritual, that there is “one black leaf” for everyone. I’d like to try and do something with that.

And then again, I may do some pretty tree with pink blossoms, if this proves too difficult, like this quilt, above. (This is Spring Blossoms by Terry Aske, which I love!)

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.*

FAL

Finish-A-Long — First Quarter

January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 Elizabeth E.9 Comments

The basic idea here is to confess to the world at large all the projects you have on your To Do list. I think this is a great idea because I love embarrassing myself to all my blog friends about how I have what Leanne calls “start-i-tis,” or the ability to bite off more than I can chew, quilt-wise. In this I know I’m not alone, because I am joining in Leanne’s Finish-A-Long, in order to catch myself some “finish-itis.”

Here’s some that I’m considering trying to finish up this quarter:

My Autumn Quilt.
Downton Abbey is tonight and I think I can finish up the binding–then figure out the label and add it to my 200 Quilts list.

Wonky Star pillow shams/Wonky Quilt
The quilt is at the quilter’s–should be done in a month, and I have to finish up the construction and quilting of the shams.

English Paper Piecing
I’m putting this on the FAL list, but frankly, finishing it is a fantasy. Perhaps it’s good to trot out those Pie-in-the-Sky projects just to keep them in the front of my mind. The flowery fabric is my guest room bedspread, not part of the quilt.

Summer Treat
Can I please finish this? Please, please, please? If I wait until June, it will be one year. It’s pinned, sitting there, awaiting quilting. I even have the binding picked out.

Lollypop Tree Quilt
This is lurking somewhere in the realm of Yessiree-I-can-finish-this, and Fantasy. I first saw this on Material Obsession’s website, then lurked on the Kim McClean blog for months before I got the nerve to start it. My friend Rhonda said we should do it together, and I agree, but she’s forging on to new and interesting territory, while I feel honor-bound to finish this up. (No. She hasn’t started hers yet–smarty!) I was smart enough to shrink it down to 9 blocks from the original 16 blocks that the pattern called for. And yes, the borders are full of little dinky, wonderful flowers, too, along with a snazillion little square blocks for the sashing.

And last. . .

Here’s another wonky project that I need to finish; I call it my Snowman Quilt and it’s two years overdue now. If you count when I started collecting the fabric, it’s been eight years. Pathetic, I think. Let’s just face it. Wonky blocks and I are NOT friends.

I still have others, but these are the worst offenders — perennial wallflowers, so so speak — hanging around when I wish they would sprout wings and fly. Maybe with the help of the Finish-A-Long, they will.