My door prize

I won the door prize for Thursday at the Columbia River Gorge Quilters Guild show and it was delivered today - I am so pleased. The fabrics are by Windham who do a lot of reproductions and a favourite manufacturer of mine - just look: a book, patterns, green wadding, a Rebecca Barker jigsaw, lots of charm pieces, Gutermann threads. Oh boy! Does this photo look like me - not in my head anyway!

And yet more

And here is a further selection.

More of Mary's Quilts

When I arrived I was invited over to Mary's opposite and was privileged to view and photograph her many quilts. I've already posted twice about them and here are some more.

Still sewing

I brought my Katharine Guerrier blocks to work on - I had nine completed star centres and masses of HST's and I've now completed all nine blocks. I felt my sewing on the old machine wasn't too good and I was dreading the bobbin running out but refilling with the aid of some free pages from the sewusa site was a doddle - on the Singer 600e the bobbin is left in place and you thread from the needle as if continuing to stitch. How cool is that! I was impressed. I've also been handquilting my Patchwork Party setting blocks In retrospect quilting with coral thread on a coral marked design was not a good idea as I couldn't see the stitch size as I was working.

Columbia River Gorge Quilt Show

Another day another quilty event. Today we drove along the historic highway towards Stevenson on the Washington side of the Columbia River. It was a good day out as we stopped at Vista House to admire the view, the Multinomah falls and took a tour round Bonneville Dam and Power Station!! Lunch at the popular Big River Grill in Stevenson then the Quilt Show mounted by the local 100 strong Guild. Just look at the setting by a creek, a mountain backdrop and trees just starting to turn. All were very welcoming and there was another UK couple there. The building in the background of the photo was where the show was held and here is a picture of my visitor's choice- no hesitation at all though it hadn't been judged Best in Show. The BIS was an excellent riverside scene wallhanging which I think I have seen in a magazine somewhere. One point about many quilts - I used to think US quilts outdid the UK ones in intensity and quality of quilting. Here I felt some lovely piecing was spoilt by careless quilting whether intense stippling or ill thought out longarming though to be fair lots were enhanced by the choice of quilting.

Out and about in Oregon 02

Thanks to Barbara of the Quilted Hill's directions we drove to 3rd Street, McMinneville, a street of lots of individual shops and eateries. We lunched on soup and sandwiches at Sage then Alan took off for an appointment with the Spruce Goose in the local air museum while I tracked down the quilt shop Barbara had mentioned, Boersma's. This took my breath away; it was huge and so much stuff! Lots of high quality fabric: Modas, Amy Butler and Westminster and many more. In fact it made me realise the value of the smaller specialised shops where it can be easier to choose. However I took advantage of the sale fabric downstairs; anything unsold after three years is moved on down and there's a lot of lovely things down there. I bought some soft orange needlecord to make my dear granddaughter a pinafore and lots more splashy fabrics for my strip pieced hexagons. I'm definitely breaking away from my usual grunge.

Out and about in Oregon 01

Today we had a day out in wine country Oregon; the chief object was the air musem at McMinneville. First however we diverted to The Quilted Hill shop in wine country, well signed and up its own unmade road with stunning views across vine covered slopes and low lying hills. Alan took to the man seat outside while I bought fabric, patterns (got a free FQ with each of these!). Barbara, the owner, was at her Gammill machine and she and her husband gave some useful information about where to go and what to see - more in next post.

more Portland Quilt Shops

Just a few blocks up the road I tracked down Bolt "the neighborhood Fabric Boutique", an exquisite shop with not a large selection of fabric but a very carefully chosen collection - Amy Butler, Westminsters - you get the picture. There were also Finnish Marimekko designs and other unusual fabrics. The patterns were lovely with garment and children's styles as well as the usual bags and aprons. I bought splashy lilac, turquoise and yellow prints to make a strip pieced hexagon quilt I've had in mind for some time but I want to use these lighter more modern fabrics rather than my rather grungy stash I attach photos of Bolt and my purchases but also want to mention another destination - Josephine's Dry Goods in downtown Portland on the corner of 11th and Washington, not far from Powells. Again Amy Butlers and similar types as well as silks, fine wools etc. The emphasis was on dressmaking and I wished I was living in Portland so I could attend some of their garment making classes.

Visit to Astoria

On a beautiful day we set off for Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River, a lovely setting, lots old work buildings on the shore, clapboarded houses in pretty colours on the wooded slopes and downtown cafes and secondhand shops. To my surprise Alan pointe out a Jo-Ann's right there on the main street. Not as large as some but but I bought some cheap turquoise fabric for the back of my workshop quilt coming up. My husband is a star! After lunch he went off to the Maritime Museum while I went to the Flavell historic house, beautifully restored. There were two quilts upstairs, not original to the house and one a 1930's piece. I also squeezed in a quick visit to the airy Hmespun Quilt shop on 10th right by the river and bought fabric and a Lazy Angle ruler and a Wondercut ruler, the former I'd seen demonstrated on The Quilt Show and the latter I've read about a lot on Stashbusters. I just cannot resist those special rulers!

Downtown Portland

Our first venture beyond our immediate neighbourhood was downtown Portland on the tram where we took a self guided walk around some of the main buildings and along the river before ending up at Powells, world famous and huge bookshop. I liked the way new and secondhand books were interfiled so one could choose the cheaper volume. I managed about two and half bays of quilting books before saturation point was reached. I bought titles of historical interest including two books detailing Barbara Johannah's methods as I'm very interested in tracking back to the original sources of the quicker methods we all use today. I also bought Lois Hallock's "Creating your perfect quilting space" as I plan to remodel my sewing room and I'm going to a talk by her on Monday, I hope. I also bought Spike Gillespie's "Quilty as charged" a lively account of the world of quilting from, initially, an outsider's point of view. Great American Quilts Book 6 and Carol Fure's "Surprising designs from traditional quilt blocks". Anyway here is the quilting section at Powells and more of neighbour Mary's quilts.

Quilting in Portland, Oregon

Here I am houseswapping in Portland, Oregon in a lovely historic neighbourhood of turn of the century houses and tree lined streets. Our house here has been beautifully restored and furnished by the owners. Very comfortable and lots of nice things to look at including two cats. It's taken me a few days to get organised with uploading photos and blogging. The local church has loaned a very old Singer which is a bit of a struggle but it will be nice to complete a few of my Katharine Guerrier blocks while here. I was very disappointed it lacked a presser foot and the ankle and nut to attach it with but our neighbour from across the road arrived with a pretty box of tomatoes and herbs and of course she is a quilter too. We adjourned over the road where she lay her quilts on the bed for me to admire and photograph. I hope to get a set of prints done for her before I go. Then it was off to the sewing machine shop where parts were produced. Of the two versions I bought, one works, one doesn't. Now I'm puzzling how the 600E bobbin works - I can't see anywhere to wind it either. However I think a manual is available to view online. I have made a start with the bobbin already in there. After the sewing machine shop it was off to Fabric Depot a really big shop. I didn't buy anything as it was overwhelming but I shall return - they had lots of wadding including the green bottles variety which I want to try. I'll show more of my namesake's quilts in coming blogs.

Dragonflies Quilt Show 01

On Saturday I went to the Dragonflies Quilt Show in Deal, Kent. They have a lot of youngish members and the show reflected a certain joie de vivre. I met my friend to hand over her Little Gem but was a bit flustered so forgot to take a photo but judging from her quilts I chose the right one as quiltwise at least she's "in the pink". As I stood by the smaller one two people were exchanging nice comments about it - "pink and grey, unusual I must remember that and those 3D triangles are nice, aren't they." I thought so too!

Log Cabin Quilters meeting

At our meeting of the Log Cabin quilters Trish brought her completed mystery top, a lovely surprise as I'd forgotton which fabrics she'd used and the combination looked good. the completed Patchwork Party block is hers too while Mavis brought in the quilt made for a granddaughter using leftover pieces from her Houston Stars quilt.

Quilt collecting

The little A4 piece doubles my contemporary quilt collection though I have two older quilts. My other purchase was from Jennie Lewis's gallery at Festival of quilts last year. I'm not sure of the title but it's the theme of pretty maids all in a row from the old nursery rhyme about my namesake and Jennie is someone I've been on retreats with. It's on my sewing room wall.