The Polka Dot Debutante

You meet the greatest people through quilting and sometimes they become a friend. I met Joyce Lorenzen when I went to speak and teach at her guild back in 2006. I was lucky enough to stay at her home in Bremerton, WA where she has the most amazing studio in her basement. If I'm remembering correctly, she and her husband built it almost entirely by themselves. We had lots of fun playing down there.
Joyce was in the Portland area this weekend and we had a chance to hang out. She brought her completed Yin Yang quilt to show. I really like how it turned out, bright and cheerful, which so reflects Joyce's personality.

I started the PEZ collection for my son. At least that's what I said. They have always been in what was my son's room. And then one day a couple of years ago, he remarked that he was never really into them and didn't I realize it was really my PEZ collection. Kids! Of course he is right. I am the one who carries the list of which PEZ I have in my purse in case I'm ever in a antique mall and happen upon a bunch of them. What can I say? Don't they make you smile???

I don't like photos of myself at all but I'm going to show some anyway because I had such a good time yesterday. I gave a lecture for the Northwest Quilters guild here in Portland entitled "What's New With Cover to Cover". I love my quilting group and always love an occasion where I get to brag about us and all the amazing work done by our members. I showed quilts from The Secret Life of Bees collection, from the Harry Potter collection, and a few quilts from some of the more recent books. The first two pictures are Harry Potter quilts. The last one is from "Broken for You" by Stephanie Kallos.

"A Healer's Robe" by Heather Poole

"The Flight of Fawkes" by Susan Bucharest.

"I Was Twenty and Stupid" by Lee Fowler

Last Thursday and Friday I took a workshop with Wendy Huhn. If you don't know her work, check it out. She uses all kinds of interesting images and transfers them onto her pieces. There are themes to her work and you really have to look and think about what it all means. I have been interested in learning how to get images on fabric for a while now and so was very excited to take her workshop. We learned several different methods that all give different results. Which method you use depends on what kind of look you are going for. Here some examples.

These images are prepped for a xylene transfer. It will transfer only a black and white image.

These images were transfered using Citra-Solv and it is used to transfer color images.

These images were screened onto the fabric with fabric paint and the screens were made using a thermafax machine. Boy was this awesome. I've never screen printed before and I really loved this.

This last picture is mostly screen printed images as well as one that has metallic foil and one on the top left that is mono printed.

Wendy was a great teacher and I really learned a lot in this workshop. Well
worth taking if you should ever get the chance.

I am happy to report that I am up in Sisters for a week staying with my friend Jennifer. She has a lovely home right on a babbling brook and it is just wonderful. We have been sewing like crazy ever since Sunday and I'll post some pictures on Saturday showing all our finished projects. You will be amazed! For now, I want to show you some pictures from my hike today. Vivienne and I hiked up to Tam McArthur Rim from Three Creeks Lake. The hike is just five miles round trip but is rated difficult and I can now tell you why. The first mile or so is constant switchbacks going up, up, up. Then the trail meanders for a bit with some flat and some ascent. Then the last quarter mile is just brutal. So STEEP! You look at the hills and think: NO WAY! But somehow you make it and the view at the top is incredible.
It was a bit smokey on the way up but did clear and we got some good pictures.

We started from Three Creeks Lake. It has a beautiful color.

We are headed to the plateau that you see in the upper left of the photo.

This is that last quarter mile. The picture really doesn't show how incredibly steep it is. Vivienne is just a speck about half way up.

Here I am on the top at about 7700 feet, and not getting too close to the edge! I just look like a tree in the photo but I'm over there.

Vivienne on top of the world.

This is the final report from Sisters. You are not going to believe it but between the four of us, we made 28 bags and 2 aprons! Yes, we are incredible, thank you, thank you, and we had tons of fun doing it all. One of us would try a new pattern and then the other three would have to make one too. And then there were the many variations that had to be tried. It was a feeding frenzy!
We also managed to walk to town every day, spend an afternoon in Bend, do two great hikes, and cook great food every day as well. I love the Sisters area so much. It has the best quilt store ever, The Stitchin' Post, beautiful scenery, and great weather. I didn't want to come home, well except to see that sweetheart of mine.

The Loot

My fellow bag ladies: Vivienne, Sue and Jennifer

And from Friday's hike, this is North Matthieu Lake

Heading back from the Lake on the Pacific Crest Trail with Mt. Washington in the background.

Back in April of 2007, a group of us did a pinwheel exchange. Yesterday I quilted the first quilt that has actually gotten finished. The quilt belongs to Jeanne Thomas and I think it is just charming. I like the setting and the choice of the grey fabric she chose for the setting triangles and border. Great job Jeanne. (excuse the lousy photo, I was in a hurry)

The Northwest Quilting Expo is a the largest quilting show in Portland. It was started about 5 years ago by several shop owners who wanted to cultivate a national level show here in Portland. It has been growing ever since and this year they added prize money to try to bring in more entries. Good move. There were more quilts than ever and I was especially happy because I won a ribbon and a check. Yeehaw!
Within the larger show, there was a special exhibit featuring 20 quilts by Janet Fogg who is a friend. It was amazing to see her body of work all hanging together. She is an incredible artist. There was also a special exhibit featuring quilts from Cover to Cover, a quilting group I belong to.
Best of Show went to Rhonda Beyer who is an amazing long-arm artist. She is so inspiring. The Best of Show quilt was pieced and quilted by Rhonda. She also won one of the traditional custom awards just for her long-arming and both quilts are truly spectacular.
I won second place in the miniature category. Can't remember what I called it. I made it for the book God of Small Things.

Pat Busby, who is also in Cover to Cover, won second place in the Applique category.
I believe she made this quilt for Three Cups of Tea.

Judy Eselius made this quilt for God of Small Things. I quilted it for her. I don't know if you can see the quilting very well in the picture but I love how it turned out.

This is my latest Cover to Cover quilt I made for Broken For You. It is called "I Was Twenty and Stupid" (thanks Liza!) and I am very pleased with it. You can tell from the picture that it needs to be blocked before it hangs in another show.

Vivienne Moore made this quilt for Three Cups of Tea. It's called "The Green Quilt" is about recycling. It's a mobius strip which is the symbol for recycling. Very unique concept and it hung really well.

There is just so much going on I don't know what to write about first. But here goes. My wonderful hubby bought a motorcycle a couple of months ago. I have no problem with it; he used to have one when we first got married. The bike is a beautiful midnight blue BMW and is a pretty smooth ride. He left yesterday on his first big trip. He's going to Northern California to the Klamath River basin and camping and riding for a week with his friend Ben. Here he is leaving Saturday morning.

Here he is with all his gear. I miss him already.

Today I went hiking in the Gorge with my friend Viv. We did an old favorite and hiked up to Angel's Rest. It was so windy in the Gorge that we couldn't even walk out onto the bluff. I'm so puny, I probably would have blown away. You can see all the white caps on the river in this picture.

That's the bluff up there. We hiked right to the back of it but didn't go out to the edge like we usually would.

Finally, here is today's bounty from the garden. We have tomatoes running out of our ears. The first picture is the heirlooms and the romas. The basket in the back has all the goodies from the farmers market. The second picture is all the grape tomatoes, beans, and tomatillas.