Seen At The Quilt Show (Part 2)

Of course, when we go to shows, in addition to spotting future trends, we're always looking to see what people are making with the fabrics and patterns we stock in our shop. 

We love the Australian fabrics in our shop, so we're always excited to see them in finished quilts. "Australian Clams" by Leilani Seidel organizes the fabrics (which can be a little chaotic), and ties them together with the consistence of cream colored pickle dish-style arcs in complimentary colors. 

A stunner from afar and up close.

"Aboriginal Orbs" by Christine Johnson caught our eye as well. She's chosen purple to unify her fabrics and uses a variety of traditional and "modern" batiks to coordinate with the Aussies.

A new addition to our shop is Twighlight, indigo and mud cloth inspired fabrics by Whistler Studios and Windham. We're inspired by Natalie Barnes from Beyond the Reef patterns' quilt, "Faith Hope & Love" which uses these fabrics beautifully. We've already added the pattern to our shopping list! Since the fabrics are on the heavier side, we're thinking of pillows using just four of these improvisational-looking blocks.

Finding fabrics to represent something in a quilt can be challenging. "Fresh Picked" by Hedda Wright was a beautiful reminded that when depicting something, the mere suggestion through fabric color, pattern, or shape, rather than strict pictorial adherence, is most effective. It's OK to get wild and use polka dots for grass, florals in faces, and stripes for sky as they all have the potential to make the quilt more exciting.

Check out the fun cabbage leaves in not-necessarily-cabbagy fabrics:

Customers will often ask us for help coordinating fabrics (we LOVE doing this!), and the collections are usually based around a desired color or a focus fabric. But what if a quilt were designed around a theme, and any fabric with that theme was fair game, regardless of color?! Kristin thought "Strawberry Sunday" by Marcia Aurdal was pretty fun, and an off-the-beaten-track way to coordinate a quilt. All the fabrics used have strawberries. Of course the red in the berries ties things together, but overall, it's pretty scrappy and free-spirited:

And, speaking of color, the pickle juice background color in "Morse Code" by Lynn Glidden kind of screamed "Geri would love this!" Up close, it also has the Me+You Indah batiks Kristin loves, plus a bunch of Kaffe Fasset favorites for good measure. 

Westside Modern Quilt Club January 2017

Happy New Year! After too many snow days in December and early January, we enjoyed seeing so many smiling faces at our January meeting.

To start the new year off on a convivial note, Geri had everyone wear name tags and then she called on each person to introduce themselves and tell us a bit about their quilting story.

Geri brought us up to speed on our "Transitions" challenge to be exhibited at the Northwest Quilt Expo in the fall. The challenge is to take a traditional quilt or block that means something to you and create a modern interpretation of it. We want to have a poster sized image of your inspiration to hang next to your finished piece, so keep that in mind as you take photos or collect inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, our fabulous volunteers have organized a field trip to The Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook:

Date: Saturday, February 11, 2017 Time: 1:00 pm (in Tillamook) Place: 2105 Wilson River Loop Road Tillamook, Oregon 97141 Admission Fee: $4.00 (payable at door)

We still have a few spots left in a carpooling van (fee is $15 which covers fuel and admission). Please call to see if there is room (503-635-1353). Those going in van will meet at The Pine Needle at 9:30 am - van leaves at 10:00 am! Otherwise, bring a friend and meet us in Tillamook for this special tour! Leave early and grab lunch at Tillamook Cheese Factory! PLEASE RSVP by phone (503-635-1353) so that we can let Latimer know how many people to expect! At the meeting, Geri also announced another challenge, Aboriginality! Our Pine Needle customers have been buying lots of the aboriginal design fabrics, and we want to see what you are making with it! Bring in your creations (anything made with 70% or more of the aboriginal fabrics, and up to 42" wide) by April 14th and we'll display them from April 15th until June 15th. We'll have prizes based on viewer's choice so bring in friends and family to vote on their favorite pieces. After filling us in on the challenges, we were treated to round robin style demonstrations of several clever log cabin and curved rulers, plus some fun coloring products. Of course, no Westside meeting would be complete without Show and Tell. Linda R started us off with one of her quilts made using the curved ruler she demonstrated. Check out that pop of green too -- it's pretty close to Pantone's color of the year, Greenery, which Geri introduced us to earlier in the meeting. Marlene brought the gorgeous quilt she made at last summer's retreat.  Alicia shared her cheery black and pink creation. Deslie designed this lap quilt herself which shows off the rich fall colors in her inspiration fabric. As always, she's incorporated her leftovers into a handsome tote bag! Michelle found these low volume squares at a great price so she sewed them together into this sweet little quilt and excellent showcase for her machine quilting. Marilyn showed off her Robert Burns inspired appliqué and embroidered Thistle quilt which she also designed herself.  Susan B wowed us with this baby quilt she made for her niece. She liked it so much, she decided not to give it away (don't worry, she made another quilt for her niece). Susan B also made this ebullient hexie medallion. Sisters Carol and Barbara brought a family heirloom made by their great grandmother. This lovingly preserved crazy quilt has been in their family for generations. Linda D brought a fun baby quilt too. Her's highlights colorful elephant artwork by her cousin. More green and black and white! Linda D designed this bold quilt, and... this one is the same design, just made up in completely different fabrics. It's amazing how much fabric choices change the look of a quilt and make each one unique to it's maker. Kathy W shared her happy quilt, made using our Illumination pattern, which she'll donate to CARES. She pieced the backing using a formula she found in Bernina's downloadable newsletter, Through the Needle. Thanks to everyone who came out for the meeting. We look forward to seeing you all on February 22nd, the last wednesday of the month, if we don't see you on the 11th for the Latimer field trip.

Westside Modern Quilt Club May 2016

May's Westside Modern Quilt Club meeting kicked off with a full house and a funny palindrome joke from Geri, and continued in good spirits from there. 

Announcements:

• The Sunshine and Stitches Shop Hop starts on June 18th. The Pine Needle is participating this year with a simple Friendship Star as our free block, and a patriotic, summery, Stars and Stripes pillow as our project in which to use your stars. Come in and get your Hop passport any time.

• The Row by Row experience will start June 21st and we have a charming row designed for participants. Geri will show it off at our next meeting.

• The State Fair still needs volunteers for the Quilt Walk. Your 4 hour volunteer shift gets you free entrance to the fair and free parking -- a perfect way to enjoy the fair, help the community, and save a little money (so you can spend it on funnel cakes!). Call us for contact information.

• The Pine Needle is also working on a special event with a Quiltlebrity in September -- stay tuned for more details.

Tribal Winds is the final name for our annual challenge. • The 2016 Challenge will debut at Northwest Quilting Expo in September 22-24, 2016. Our reveal party pot luck will be at 6:00 on August 31st at Millennium Park in Lake Oswego.• The challenge is open to anyone wishing to honor the heritage of the Northwest Native Americans in a Modern Quilt format (please avoid decidedly pictorial solutions). • Your piece must measure either 32"x 44" or 48"x 66" and use some amount of the Benartex fabric Sevilla in gold or gold and white. Hopefully everyone wishing to participate is already well on their way creating their quilts!• It must also have a 4 inch sleeve attached to the back of the quilt for hanging. 


Focus on Native American culture seems to be heightened right now, as the Portland Art Museum just had their Edward Curtis exhibit, and are now preparing an exhibit of fashions by Native American designers (more textiles -- yay!). The Lake Oswego Library's summer read is also about Edward Curtis and his work with Native tribes. We are lucky enough that Carol Langer, a quilter and friend of The Pine Needle brought several items from her family's collection. Apparently her husband's cousin was a rural mail carrier who's route included the Rosebud Indian Reservation, where he was friendly with the inhabitants and collected many beautiful pieces. Carol brought us a buckskin dress from the Winnebago Tribe, a child's vest decorated with porcupine quills, several decorative pairs of shoes, a small Lone Star quilt, and a beaded and fringed purse. Most items were from the 20s or 30s, with the purse dating to 1870. Thank you Carol for sharing these beautiful items!

Show and Tell:

Robin shared Paris themed placemats (sorry, the photo was horrible, but the placemats were lovely!).

Kathy W shared a quilt she started in Pam's Studio 429 class. The idea was to choose a shape and then play with changing it's size, proportions, etc. Kathy chose a hexagon and made this striking quilt:

Carol W Shared this graphic and bold graduation gift she made for a niece who loves lime green.

Sue B brought the wedding quilt she's working on for her son. He requested something simple with blue and yellow. We think her solution is gorgeous.

Jan brought her twilight colored Sequoia quilt which she made as Pam was developing the pattern. It was quilted by Nancy Stoval and is a real stunner.

Deslee shared a quilt she made from a poppy fabric that she loved. She used up every last bit of the fabric in this quilt and a matching bag.

Virginia Hammond was our presenter for the evening. She is writing a book about the US money system and has chosen to illustrate it with quilts! She focused on one of those quilts for her presentation. It will be titled "Wheels of Commerce" and is based on the La Passacaglia quilt from the book Millefiori Quilts by Willyne Hammerstein.

Virginia talked about her techniques and favorite resources for making this labor-intensive, hand pieced, quilt. She basically blew all our minds with her fussy cutting and fabulous (and often humorous) fabric choices. Below, she is showing how choosing just the right bits for the fussy cutting makes swiss cheese out of her yardage.

Here's a close-up of one of the wheels, highlighting the carefully chosen motifs in each shape that makes up the larger "block."

Hopefully Virginia's entire collection of money quilts will be able to travel to various venues and be seen as a show as well as illustrations for her book. Good luck Virginia! We look forward to seeing this completed quilt and to seeing what will undoubtedly be a spectacular show.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in May. We look forward to seeing you all in June.

Did You Know?

We keep ordering these Australian fabrics from M&S textiles and they keep flying out the door, so we know they are hitting a chord with our customers. They definitely have rich colors and appeal to a wide audience, but did you know that they are not just pretty pictures? Each fabric is based on designs from Australian Aboriginal artists and each one has it's own story.

Come in to the shop and read about the meaning of each design. Some include native plants or animals, some have spiritual meaning, and some represent such geographic locales as sand dunes or salt plains. Each story is intriguing and unique and provides an extra layer of interest to your quilts and other projects.