The Pine Needle Quilt Shop in Lake Oswego, Oregon is having its annual Fall Festival this Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11 and 12. The Pine Needle is my home away from home. I teach there, meet friends there, buy fabric there. When I get into my car to head to the Pine Needle, I don’t even need to steer; my car seems to know the way. Just kidding, of course, but it gives you an idea of the amount of time I spend there.
Those of us who teach at the Pine Needle will be on hand Friday and Saturday to tell you about our new classes and demonstrate popular quilting products. My new quilt, Simply Dashing, is one of the first quilts you see when you come into the shop:
Simply Dashing at the Pine Needle
Not only that, it made the cover of the Pine Needle’s fall catalog:
I’m a Cover Girl!
The Pine Needle does a brisk mail order business, sending out thousands of catalogs to quilters who don’t live close enough to visit the shop in person. It tickles me to think my quilt is the first thing these people will see when they pull the catalog out of their mailbox.
I usually try to come up with a little quilt or craft project to share with the people who come to the Pine Needle’s open houses. Since the shop is well known for its extensive inventory of flannels, my Fall Festival project is a flannel coaster in the shape of an overstuffed armchair, inspired by a felt coaster I bought some 30 years ago at a holiday craft sale.
Aren’t these cute? And very practical, too, because they’re reversible. The pattern and instructions are free with any flannel purchase. A quarter yard each of two flannels is enough to make four coasters.
During Open House the Pine Needle is doing lots of drawings for prizes — including a $50 gift basket each day. A few sets of my Cozy Flannel Armchair Coasters will be raffled off as well. Do come if you are in the neighborhood. I’d love to see you — and you just might be a winner!
That Fontella Bass song from 1965 keeps running through my head: “Rescue me, oh, take me in your arms . . .”
That’s just what I did a few weeks ago, when I stopped by the home of a very nice woman who was selling quilts as part of a downsizing move. Many of the quilts had been made by her mother, grandmother or greatgrandmother, and all three women had also acquired quilts at garage sales and antique stores. She wasn’t sure who had made what but she had piles of quilts that she was willing to part with.
I bought a fruit basket quilt in near perfect condition, which I posted about here. I also bought two other quilts which were not in great condition but I just couldn’t leave without them.
The first is this Ocean Waves quilt, measuring 70″ x 82″:
It’s entirely hand pieced and hand quilted, except for the binding, which was sewn on by machine. The quiltmaker did a beautiful job with her stitching and quilting. Here’s a closer look:
There’s some slight variation in size but most of the squares measure 1⅝”. Can you imagine cutting those triangles out by hand?
I could spend hours looking at the individual fabrics and admiring the precise stitches. The quilt is predominantly blue, black, red, and white, but if you look closely you can see other colors in the mix — green, pink, tan, even orange and brown. See the shirting fabrics in the background triangles? This quiltmaker knew about “low volume” fabrics long before that term started popping up in the quilt world.
The quilt is quite frayed along the edges but otherwise is in pretty good shape. The same can’t be said for the second one, a Basket quilt, approximately 75″ square:
It’s also hand pieced and hand quilted but the quality of both is not nearly as high as in the Ocean Waves quilt. The Basket quilt was trimmed unevenly all the way around, with the points of some blocks lopped off and some basket blocks cut in half (sort of).
The fabric on the back was brought around to the front for binding . . .
. . . and you can see from the next photo that the folded edge of the binding was inexpertly sewn down on the right side:
And alas, at some point the bottom edge was chewed on by a critter of some kind.
Still, I find this quilt oddly appealing. The fabrics are really very interesting. Look at the ones in this block:
I am sentimentally attached to this quilt, even though I have had it for such a short time. Some might consider it a “cutter” quilt, ready to be tossed in the garbage after any useable parts are cut out for crafting projects. I don’t think I could bring myself to do that, although the idea of making something decorative or useful out of a badly damaged quilt does have merit.
But then I am reminded of something my friend Bill Volckening, who knows a thing or two about old quilts, told me: “A rescue quilt is like a cutter that someone loved enough to save.” I get that. Out of respect for the quiltmaker and love of the craft, this rescue quilt is a keeper.
This is a book report, not a review. A review suggests impartiality, and I can’t be impartial because Marie Deatherage, the author of Pieces of Portland, is a friend of mine. But even if I didn’t know her, I would be rhapsodizing about this book because it is about two things near and dear to me: quilts and Portland.
This photo, appearing on page 20, pretty much sums up the appeal of the book for me:
Quilt by Marie Deatherage. Photo by Joyce Brekke.
My family moved to Portland, Oregon when I was seven years old. That means I have spent the better part of 60 years in this city. I have watched it grow, have grown along with it. It is, quite simply, my city. Author Marie Deatherage and photographer Joyce Brekke, whose beautiful photographs enhance almost every page, have created a unique and wonderful book that explains in words and pictures everything I love about Portland.
Trained as a geographer, Marie has also been a college instructor, foundation grant administrator, disability rights advocate, and writer. She has drawn on those experiences — plus four decades of living in Portland — in writing this book. Joyce took up several hobbies, including world travel and photography, after retiring from a career in law. Originally from the Midwest, she settled in the Pacific Northwest and now lives across the river from Portland in Vancouver, Washington. Friends since their college days at the University of Chicago, Marie and Joyce share several interests, including quilting.
In 2011, in preparation for a one-woman quilt show by Marie, the two sought out landmarks and iconic places in Portland to use as backdrops for Joyce’s photos of Marie’s quilts. An idea for a book was born — but not the book you see pictured above. The original concept of a coffee table book featuring quilts photographed in Portland became something much more. The subtitle of the book says it all: An Inside Look at America’s Weirdest City.
In prose that is sometimes serious, sometimes wry, often humorous, frequently irreverent, and occasionally deeply personal, Marie writes about every topic under the sun that touches on Portland. Bridges. Urban farming. Politics. History. Flora and fauna. Food and drink. The environment. Parks. Neighborhoods. Fashion. People of Portland, past and present.
And, of course, the things that make Portland weird. Like the Unipiper, a street performer who plays the bagpipes while riding a unicycle. Like the miniature toy horses that appear in old neighborhoods tied to the cast iron rings that were attached to curbs back in Portland’s horse and buggy days when folks needed to tether their horses.
Like the roll of carpet recently removed from Portland International Airport (PDX) that was “appointed” grand marshal of the 2015 Rose Festival Starlight Parade. Here’s a photo of that carpet before it was removed from PDX:
PDX carpet shares the stage with a quilt by Joyce Brekke. Photo (page 93) by Joyce Brekke.
Whatever the subject, Joyce’s photos cleverly illustrate Marie’s words — with quilts. Lots of them. Take a look at pages 170 and 171:
Quilts by Marie Deatherage. Photos by Joyce Brekke.
On the left facing page are photos of two famous statues in Portland: Allow Me (aka Umbrella Man) in Pioneer Courthouse Square and former Portland Mayor Vera Katz on the Eastbank Esplanade along the Willamette River, both artfully draped in quilts made by Marie. On the right facing page is the People’s Bike Library of Portland, a monument to the bike culture of Portland.
I love the fact that Marie’s kaleidoscope quilt — a favorite design of mine — evokes the spinning wheels of a bicycle:
Detail of quilt by Marie Deatherage. Photo (page 171) by Joyce Brekke.
Marie made most of the quilts in the book but there are several by Joyce and a few by Marie’s mother and grandmother. An annotated quilt index provides information on each quilt, allowing credit to be given to the designer, piecer, and/or professional quilter, and revealing the inspiration behind many of the quilts.
Published earlier in 2015 by Quiltlandia, Pieces of Portland was officially launched in July. In late June, the week before the launch party, Marie accepted an eleventh hour invitation to be a replacement guest speaker at a meeting of the Westside Modern Quilt Club held at the Pine Needle Quilt Shop in Lake Oswego. She brought armloads of quilts and boxes of books so fresh from the printer they hadn’t even been opened yet.
Marie told the assembled quilters about the making of the book as well as the stories behind many of the quilts that appear in the book. It was a marvelous trunk show. When well over half the quilters in the packed classroom bought copies of her book on the spot (which Marie graciously signed), I knew Pieces of Portland was a winner.
Now Pieces of Portland (258 pages with 400 full color photos) is available locally at Powell’s Books and just about every local quilt shop in the metropolitan area, including cool cottons in my own neighborhood. It’s also at New Seasons Market (a quilt book at a grocery store? How very Portland.). It’s coming soon to the Made in Oregon stores, and I have a very strong hunch it will be distributed much more widely very soon. You can order directly from the publisher by clicking here.
I’m so happy that I have my own autographed copy of Pieces of Portland! I have several people in mind who will be receiving copies in the near future. It’s the perfect gift for someone who loves quilting or Portland. Or both.
Marie and Joyce did not ask me to write about their book. I was motivated to do so by a desire to spread the word in Portland and beyond about a unique book that opens windows on a city and a craft that I love.
. . . and a Pair of Pillowcases. (How’s that for alliteration?)
My twin sister Diane and her husband, who live in Atlanta, are going to Maine in September to visit some very good friends. Diane commissioned me to make a couple of hostess gifts: a pair of pillowcases for their friends and a pillow for their dog Lucy’s bed.
Diane had some very specific fabric in mind for the dog pillow: the Alexander Henry fabric that came out a few years ago depicting scenes from the Dick and Jane early reader books. Dick and Jane have a little terrier named Spot — a dead ringer for Miss Lucy.
Regular readers of my blog have seen this Dick and Jane fabric before. It made its first appearance on the back of Susan Elinor’s quilt, a baby quilt I helped my neighbor Janice finish in 2014. Later that year I also made a pillowcase for Diane’s grandson to use when he stays overnight at her home.
Lucy’s pillow measures 6″ x 12″ — exactly the same size as a vignette printed along one selvage end of the fabric. Take a look:
Does Lucy sleep with her little head on a pillow? I don’t know. Most likely the pillow will be tucked up on one side of her doggie bed and just look cute.
Here’s the back of the pillow:
I was planning to finish the back side with buttons and buttonholes. Then it occurred to me that Lucy might be the kind of dog who likes to gnaw on buttons so I sewed Velcro strips to the back pieces instead.
See how the design matches on the top and bottom pieces?
I guess I went a bit overboard. (But in a good way, right?)
The pillowcases were made using my favorite roll-it-up method that neatly encases the top and side seams:
I love that combination of yellow and blue. Diane assures me that her friends will, too.
The gift items will be on their way to Georgia tomorrow, in time for Diane to dress them up every so nicely in a gift box in preparation for her trip to Maine.
A friend of a friend is downsizing, looking to sell some of the quilts she inherited years ago and no longer has room to store. She is not a quilter, but her mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother made quilts and also picked them up at garage sales and antique stores. She is keeping the ones that are near and dear to her but has dozens of quilts and coverlets that she is willing to part with. And they are, as the saying goes, priced to sell.
Now, I am not a quilt collector but something about this situation compelled me to take a trip across town last week to look at the quilts. I fell in love with the very first one I saw. That’s the one you see above, my “something old, something new.”
Isn’t it a beauty? It measures 86″ square, making it queen size. Except for some stains, it’s in perfect condition. It’s hand pieced and appliquéd, machine pieced, and hand quilted. The blocks are 11″ square, with a feathered wreath quilted in the plain blocks and outline quilting and leaves in the basket blocks. The borders are quilted in a cable design.
Sadly, we don’t know who made this quilt. My guess is that it was made in the 1930s or 40s, possibly the 50s, perhaps from a kit. The embroidery and appliqué are expertly done, and the quilting is uniform, about eight stitches to the inch. The edges are scalloped and bound with bias binding.
This may be my favorite block:
But oh, look at this one:
And this one:
And this one:
Do you suppose the fruits pictured below are pomegranates? I love the pink and purple embroidery at the tops of the fruit:
Each of the 25 basket blocks is filled with fruit. Bananas and pears and apples. Lemons and limes and grapes. Even some fruits I don’t quite recognize. Each basket “filled” by an expert needleworker who clearly loved her craft.
I am so happy and grateful that this vintage quilt has come into my possession. I promise to love, honor, and obey — oh wait, wrong vow. I promise to love and honor this quilt for the rest of my days, as a tribute to the maker and to quiltmakers all over the world who create treasured keepsakes with needle and thread, putting love and care into every single stitch.
Following up on my last post, I have a few more photos to show you of my new quilt, Simply Dashing (60″ x 76″ before quilting, 58″ x 74″ after quilting).I took photos late this afternoon on the back deck. It was difficult to get any good still shots, as a light wind kept the quilt in motion, billowing in and out as it hung from the arbor. This was the straightest shot I was able to get:
It does give you a good look at the lovely edge-to-edge quilting done by longarmer Debbie Scroggy of All Quilted LLC. The batting is Tuscany Wool by Hobbs, a blend of 80% cotton/20% wool that’s lightweight, drapes beautifully, and provides a bit of extra loft to give the quilting definition.
As usual, I put my favorite block in the upper left hand corner:
Isn’t it interesting how turning a block on point gives it a completely different look? You have to tilt your head at an angle to see that it’s a Churn Dash block.
Here’s a look at the back of Simply Dashing:
That block you see on the back was a test block that I ultimately rejected:
Don’t get me wrong: I love this block. It’s from the pattern Cosmic Delight by Freckled Whimsy. I will make a quilt from this pattern someday. The issue here is that the center square finished at 3″, not large enough to do justice to the focus fabric. The square in this block turned out well but I could tell I wouldn’t be getting enough contrast with additional 3″ square faux kaleido blocks.
A leftover strip of focus fabric on the back shows where all those faux kaleido 4-Patch Wonder blocks on the front came from:
Last but not least, the label:
Initially I was planning to float the blocks completely by binding the quilt in the pale yellow background fabric. In the end I went with a high contrast ½”-inch wide binding. The blocks still float but now they’re within a frame. A good decision, I think.
I mentioned in my last post that after hanging for a while in the Pine Needle Quilt Shop, Simply Dashing will go on the back of the sofa in my living room. Here’s a preview:
Simply Dashing — that’s the name of my latest quilt, shown here:
Simply Dashing, 58″ x 74″ (2015)
Recognize the classic Churn Dash block? It got a makeover in this quilt. I combined the Churn Dash block with a 4-Patch Wonder block (my name for a block made of four repeats cut into squares and rotated to create a faux kaleidoscope image), added an alternate block, and set all the blocks on point. I think the result is — well, simply dashing.
This quilt came together very quickly. It all started when I stopped at the Pine Needle Quilt Shop about a month ago to see a new line of fabric that Geri, the owner, was ordering for the shop. She wondered if one of the prints was suitable for a quilt made with 4-Patch Wonder blocks. Oh, yes.
Take a look at the fabric, in two colorways, from the Balinesia line by Benartex:
I wasn’t planning to start a new quilt but . . . it didn’t take long to convince me I should. In just a few minutes I had zeroed in on the rich purple colorway, selected some batiks and background fabric to set it off, and was walking out of the shop with an armful of fabric and a pledge to Geri to do something with it within a couple of weeks.
Making the 4-Patch Wonder Blocks was fun. It always is. Like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. This is what I got:
Each block has four possible looks, depending on how you rotate the four squares.
Here’s a look at the quilt top on my design wall:
I considered an elaborate border but decided I really liked the look of the blocks floating in space.
On to the next decision: how to have it quilted? I wanted something moderately dense because of the large amount of plain background. Debbie Scroggy of All Quilted, LLC worked her longarm magic with a curvy edge-to-edge design that echoes the flowers and leaves in the focus fabric and softens the straight lines and edges of the Churn Dash blocks. I’ll show you some close-ups in my next post.
The finished quilt measures 58″ x 74″ — a good sized throw. I think it will look wonderful draped over the sofa in my living room but for the time being it will hang in the Pine Needle.
This weekend I made three and a half pairs of pillowcases. Two of the pairs are gifts so I can’t show them off until they’ve been delivered. The third pair is for the Portland White House. And the single case? On a whim I made it today to take with me when I go away to Quilt Camp in the fall.
I haven’t made pillowcases in a couple of years. Would you believe I had to go to my own tutorial to be reminded of a couple key steps?
As you can see, these cases feature a contrasting accent strip and a narrow folded flange. What you can’t see is that there are no exposed seams on the inside of the cases, first because of the “roll it up” method that encases the raw edges of the bottom band in a seam and then the French seam that finishes the case.
That blue and white floral print (Blue Palace by Johnny Karwan for Clothworks Textiles) has been in my stash for about six years. Regular readers who know of my fondness for accumulating fabric — witness my last post — will be glad to know I am using at least some of it!
Last year I bought a few pieces of fabric from a fun line called Sewing Box by Gina Martin for Moda. It features zippers and snaps and straight pins — very whimsical. Here’s the pillowcase made from that fabric:
The snaps on the folded flange fabric are just a quarter of an inch in diameter. Take a closer look:
If you haven’t made pillowcases before, I recommend you give it a try. They make wonderful gifts, and it’s always a pleasure to sleep on one you’ve made yourself. I’m sleeping on a new one tonight.
Overcome by fabric lust once again. Totally captivated (make that seduced) by a new line of fabrics.
I like to support my local quilt shops, buying a yard here, a couple yards there of fabrics I really like, ones that I am quite certain will wind up in quilts or other sewn items some day. They may spend several years in my stash but the idea really is to use them. I don’t go on spending sprees very often, especially online, so when it does happen, it catches me by surprise.
This latest episode of yielding to temptation? It all started a couple weeks ago when I opened the weekly email newsletter from Hawthorne Threads and saw this group of fabrics from Camelot Cottons among the new lines featured:
Designed by Alisse Coulter, the line of fabrics is called Paradise, and I fell for it immediately.
Something about the colors and designs reeled me in. The pink and orange feels fresh combined with dark purple and gray; the florals, leaves, and medallions strike me as whimsical yet sophisticated. This fabric makes me happy just to look at it. I had to have some!
But which ones to get? And how much of each? Without a specific project in mind, I was in a quandary. I didn’t want to wait too long to decide in case there was a run on the fabric and I missed out completely. In the end, I picked 12 of the 18 fabrics in the line, getting a yard of some and two yards of others. I made myself stop when I got to 20 yards.
Today’s mail brought my (heavy) box of fabric from Hawthorne Threads. Oh, what fun it was to open it! Here are my pretty new fabrics, all laid out on my ironing board to admire:
Would you please excuse me now? I need to go pet this fabric.
Bonnie (15) and Beatrice (12), the youngest of my six granddaughters, left for San Francisco yesterday morning after a weeklong visit here in Portland with their grandpa and me. I wish they could have stayed longer.
We managed to make the most of our time together. The highlight for all of us was seeing the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Broadway Rose Theatre Company. It was terrific!
Bonnie has performed in youth community theater for several years and is studying classical voice at School of the Arts, a public high school in San Francisco. She’ll be a sophomore in the fall. Beatrice is a gymnast and ballet dancer; she’s going into the seventh grade. Both girls love the theater, so we always try to incorporate at least one play or musical into their annual visits.
What else did we do? Let’s see . . . we went for walks in the neighborhood, swam at a community center pool, baked Salty Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies, enjoyed a picnic in Millennium Park with my dear friend Anne, and got in some school clothes shopping.
The girls always do something special just with their grandpa. This year he took the girls to Lan Su Chinese Garden followed by a walk on the Eastbank Esplanade, a pedestrian and bicycle path along the east shore of the Willamette River. They were pretty tuckered out by the time they got home. Fortunately, I had dinner waiting, which we ate out on the back deck. It was a lovely midsummer evening in Portland, made extra special by the presence of our girls.
A sewing project is usually on the agenda when Bonnie and Bea visit. Beatrice was keen to make a fabric basket like the birthday baskets I made for two friends, based on the 1 Hour Basket tutorial from Hearts and Bees. She picked two colorful fabrics from my stash and got to work.
Here she is pressing the basket straps . . .
. . . and topstitching them:
The instructions call for interfacing the outside fabric with fusible fleece. We decided to interface the lining fabric and handles as well to add more body to the basket.
Here Beatrice is boxing the corners of her basket:
After sewing the outer basket and the lining together, she was ready for the fun part — pulling the basket through the hole left in the lining:
The “aha” moment:
Now all that was left to do was tuck the lining back inside the basket, press around the top edges and topstitch them. Because the extra layer of fleece added bulk at the top, Beatrice topstitched ½” away from the top edge.
Here’s Bea with her finished basket:
It measures about 9½” wide, 6½” tall, and 5½” deep. A look at the inside:
Bea used ¼”-wide Steam-a-Seam 2 to close the opening in the center seam where the basket was pulled through the lining. It gives it a nice finished look.
Here’s a close-up of Beatrice’s basket:
Didn’t she do a beautiful job?
And what was Bonnie doing while all this sewing was going on? She was making beautiful music! Out of storage came my trusty Yamaha guitar, bought in the 1970s when I had long hair and played folk music. (Yes, friends, that was a long time ago.) The guitar is still in great condition, and it was a pleasure to hear Bonnie playing it — she’s teaching herself how — and singing. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of her doing both.
