Westside Modern Quilt Club August 2016

Kristin here. Please accept my apologies for posting this so long after our August meeting and delicious pot luck. We've been busy at The Pine Needle getting ready for, and enjoying, our Open House, a visit from Mary Fons (just a few days away!), and Northwest Quilt Expo at the end of September! Phew, there's a lot going on!

Northwest Quilt Expo is a perfect segue into our August meeting wrap-up as the main focus of the meeting was the reveal of our Tribal Winds challenge quilts. Not everyone who has entered a quilt was present, and I did not get super photos, nor take good enough notes to credit each quilt accurately. So... I'll present an enticing peek at a handful of the challenge quilts, but encourage everyone who can to go to Expo on September 22, 23 or 24 to see ALL the Westside Modern Quilt Club's Tribal Winds challenge quilts in the cloth.

The quilts presented were exciting in their variety of subject matter and aesthetic. Everyone had a meaningful story behind their work, and there was a broad range of skill from first quilts or first time trying a technique, to old pros pushing their comfort zones. Several club members thanked Geri for challenging the group each year as it has really helped them (and all of us, really) to expand our horizons and to delve deeper into our quilt making. There is no doubt, the challenge quilts this year will be as wonderful and well received at Expo as the Pearl and Bridges exhibits of the last two years.

First, we needed sustenance for our quilt reveal. The pot luck spread was delicious!

Carol's abstract quilt is based on Tlingit baskets.

I think this one is by Janet. It represents canoes and Longhouses and many other little elements she remembers from visits to a reservation as a teen.

I don't have good notes for this one, but I think it's her first quilt! Or the first one she designed herself.

This quilt by Linda is inspired by petroglyphs in the Columbia River Gorge.

Lori's poignant inspiration was a not yet federally recognized tribe also from the Columbia River Gorge area.

Mallory's Raven and salmon quilt has interesting details like buttons and tiny symbols.

Mary Pat's quilt is inspired by a basket weaving design which represents eagles in flight -- a fine metaphor for the native american spirit.

Susan actually made two beautiful quilts. I particularly liked the graphic simplicity of this one which so plainly represents an elk tooth dress.

Again, we encourage everyone to come see the entirely of this special exhibit at Northwest Quilt Expo, along with all of the other spectacular quilts which will be on display. Be sure to stop by The Pine Needle's booths and say hi too -- we've got half the team at the notions booth and half at the fabric one so you know there's going to be some healthy competition going on between the two! See you there.

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.

Westside Modern Quilt Club April 2016

April's meeting was again a full house. Thank you to all our members who consistently come out for community and inspiration!

Rachel Kerley filled in for Geri this month as our MC -- including a joke she learned from the inimitable Gwen Marsten at a recent workshop in Sisters.

Rachel reflected on last month's field trip to the Portland Art museum and what the Edward Curtis exhibit meant to her. We also discussed the parameters of this year's challenge which are as follows:

• The 2016 WestSide Modern Club Challenge is Modern Heritage and will debut at Northwest Quilting Expo in September 22-24 2016. 

• 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 32x44 or 48x66 and use a minimum of 1/4 yard of the Benartex fabric Sevilla in gold or gold and white (see the photo below).

• It must also have a 4 inch sleeve attached to the back of the quilt for hanging. 

• We also request you enroll with The Pine Needle to participate at the time you receive your fabric  

• The initial due date for the finished piece will be by August 31 at which time we will have the Big Reveal potluck party at Millennium Park in Lake Oswego at 6pm.

Several members also let us know that the Washington State History Museum and Mary Hill have applicable exhibits right now which are a super resource.

Molly O'Dea of the Mid Valley Quilt Guild in Salem is looking for volunteers to help out at the Quilt Walk at the State Fair August 26th through Sept 5th. There are three shifts per day and volunteers get parking. The quilt guild alone cannot fill the need for white glove and desk volunteers and so encourages anyone within a reasonable distance of Salem (or who plan on coming to the Fair anyway) to spend some time supporting our quilting community. Please contact Molly via the Guild's website, or call Kristin at The Pine Needle for Molly's contact info.

Rachel talked a little about social media and how she chooses to use (or not). She uses Pinterest to collect ideas and inspiration such as the board of triangle patchwork she recently created in preparation for her workshop with Gwen. Facebook and Instagram are great for connecting with people who have similar interests, but can also create dissatisfaction when we make too many comparisons of other people's work to our own. Right now Rachel is concentrating on making connections in real life -- through workshops and local groups. This segued well into my talk about my experience as a member of an online group of quilters that became a real life group of friends.

This month's guest speaker was me, Kristin La Flamme. I brought selected artwork from Twelve by Twelve: The International Art Quilt Challenge, and spoke about how our group formed, how we managed it, and what we accomplished. While we eventually exhibited our work internationally and wrote a book about our experience working together, our group had pretty humble beginnings with the only goal being to challenge ourselves artistically. The model of a small group of like minded people with an attainable goal is achievable both online and in real-life. Consider forming a group (perhaps here at The Pine Needle) to try some "No-Rules Patchwork," or slow (hand) stitching. Or maybe look online to form a geographically diverse group. What worked well for Twelve by Twelve was to have a public space (our blog) to share our work and a private space (Yahoo in our case, but a private Facebook page could also work) to negotiate the details and boring stuff. Think about a small group as a way to create community and make connections.

Show and Tell:

Karen Y shared an experimental little piece inspired by Rachel's talk in February!

Elisa shared two older quilts which she had recently finished. The first was her own, started by hand in 1995 and the second was an estate sale find which she brought back to life.

Deslee W told us about her first quilt -- a log cabin made with 1" strips which she hated. Then she shared her most recent finish, a log cabin made with only one block and much wider strips, which she loves! (BTW, it's our Tahoe pattern).





Carol showed off her Fancy Foxes made with Kaffe Fasset fabrics --wow!




Susan B's quilt started as free cut ovoids and soon developed a personality of it's own Even it's back decided to become a front and now she's got two stunning quilts.





Deb S shared a graphic quilt of her own design inspired by photos of bridges in Jefferson.




Sharon shared two quilts made for her neices in their favorite colors.





Janet M shared her 30s fabric quilt which had been languishing. Yay for finishes!




And Carol brought her One Block Wonder quilt which she repurposed and used to test her longarm quilting.




Thank you to everyone who brought your quilts to share -- it is always inspiring.

See you next month.

Westside Modern at the Museum

March's field trip was a super outing. We had great weather while waiting for our appointed tour time, and we had an excellent turnout of at least 20 people.

The Portland Art Museum's current exhibit of Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy was perfect inspiration for our club challenge inspired by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Our docents guided us through the extensive display of images from Edward Curtis' portfolios (did you know the PAM was bequeathed the entire collection?) as well as created a bridge to the present with contemporary responses by artists Wendy Red Star, Will Williams, and Zig Jackson. Afterwards we browsed even more indigenous American work in an upstairs permanent collection. It was such a treat to have this opportunity in our city, and for  The Pine Needle to be able to, as a quilt shop, facilitate an event like this. We hope that we'll be able to offer our community more opportunities like this in the future.

Enjoy some photos from our museum visit:

One of the Curtis books in front of a photo by Zig Jackson

One of our docents in front of a huge graphic by Wendy Red Star

Talking about the relationship between the Curtis portraits (on the left) and Jackson's photos (on the right).

Deslee and friend discussing Wendy Red Star's interpretation of Curtis' portraits.

In another part of the museum we found this very quilty outfit by Wendy Red Star!

Native baskets gave us plenty of design inspiration as well.

April will be back on schedule with our normal meeting the last Wednesday of the month, at 6:00, in the shop. Our speaker will be our very own Pinecone, Kristin La Flamme who will share her experience finding inspiration and community as part of the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge.

Westside Modern Quilt Club Field Trip!

Join us for a very special event sponsored by the WestSide Modern Quilt Club!

Portland Art Museum's

Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy

 

March 30th

(no evening meeting)

12:00 noon

(tour 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm)

Portland Art Museum

1219 SW Park Avenue

Portland, OR 97205

Join us as we are guided through this major exhibition featuring contemporary photographs by Native American photographers Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star, and Will Wilson in dialogue with photographs from Edward Sheriff Curtis' renowned body of work The North American Indian.

This timely exhibition and associated educational programming will ask visitors to consider Curtis' continuing influence on the interpretation of Native American culture while highlighting contemporary reactions to his complex role within the history of representation of indigenous peoples. 

This event will tie into our Native American-themed Challenge for the NW Quilting Expo and hopefully prove to be inspirational in helping you to design your quilt. 

PLEASE REGISTER EARLY (by March 24th)

$16.00 per person

Call 503-635-1353 to reserve your spot

(credit card will be charged)

$20 at door after March 24th

Everyone is welcome! 

Bring a friend!

Join our quilting community!

Westside Modern Quilt Club 2016 Challenge

The Westside Modern Quilt Club's annual challenge has been well received for several years so we are very much looking forward to the next exhibit. The following are all the important details about participation and the quilt specifications:

• The 2016 WestSide Modern Club Challenge is Modern Heritage and will debut at Northwest Quilting Expo in September 22-24 2016. 

• 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 32x44 or 48x66 and use a minimum of 1/4 yard of the Benartex fabric Sevilla in gold (see the photo below).

• It must also have a 4 inch sleeve attached to the back of the quilt for hanging. 

• We also request you enroll with The Pine Needle to participate at the time you receive your fabric  

• The initial due date for the finished piece will be by August 31 at which time we will have the Big Reveal potluck party at Millennium Park in Lake Oswego at 6pm.

We are also organizing a private docent tour at the Portland Art Museum which is featuring an exhibit entitled Contemporary Native Photographers and the legacy of Edward Curtis.  It will be a powerful visit.

Also if you want some additional inspiration...........a good read is The Short Night of the Shadow Catchers.  It's focus is Edward Curtis and his love of the native American culture, and is one of Lake Oswego Library's LO Reads books for 2016.

For further information feel free to call The Pine Needle and ask for Geri.  She can fill you in, or plan to attend one of the WestSide Modern meetings either February 17 or March 30 at 6pm.