Tag: Travel

Out and About near the Lake

Last week was a hard week, which culminated with me having to drive 3 hours north on Friday to go on a short vacation with my family. part of me wanted to go and part of me wanted to lay face down in my own bed all weekend. I wasn’t looking forward to the drive and was tight as a spring up until I got out of the City. I finally got to the lake and the first thing I did was look up quilt shops. The weather was not laying by the pool weather and I was determined to have some fun.There are two shops in the area I was willing to drive in: Shelley’s Quilted Treasures and Kerri’s Quilting.

The first shop I found and visited was in Kelseyville. Kelseyville is a small town with a main street that is pretty lively. There was an antique store, a bead store, a computer store, and a couple of restaurants in addition to Shelley’s Quilted Treasures. We also passed the public library on our way there.


The shop has been there for 12 years, but Shelley has only owned it for about 2.5 years. Brenda manages the shop and is knowledgeable ( I heard her helping someone select the right amount of fabric for a class project) and VERY friendly.

The store is large, bright and very cheerful. There were at least three other rooms behind the sales floor, one of which housed a longarm machine. The fabrics were fun, on the new side and who couldn’t love four shelves of dots? I found one of the Basix dots and bought the rest of the bolt. They had a lot of very appealing kits, including one with the above referenced Basix dot print and turquoise in a rail fence pattern. Normally, I am a bit dismissive of kits (the snob in me, I guess), because they appear to require so little thought. However, a combination of the Gabrielle Swain class and going to Shelley’s as well as the experience I had in a quilt shop with the woman who had finished all of the quilts in Quilts Quilts Quilts made me realize that not everyone knows how to design a quilt; not even putting blocks together with confidence. I don’t think it is most people, but I do think that a lot of people don’t have the confidence to try and fail. I think also there is an issue with “wasting” fabric.


The shop also had a great collection of pear pincushions. They had ready made pincushions for about $20 and patterns so you could make your own. I thought about buying one, but didn’t see one with a fabric combination I adored.

I found out later that Lake County used to be renowned for its pear crop, but that all of the pear trees are being replaced with vineyards.
The shop was light and airy with dark-ish brown shelves. they had a lot of new fabrics, but some golden oldies as well ( like the Basix). Shelley’s stocked other materials as well such as Tsukineko Fabric pens, a holder for my colored pencils, which I bought since I had been fighting with the organization of my colored pencils the day before.
Next, we drove to Lakeport. I had my MIL and SIL along who were very patient and didn’t hurry me along. We missed the Lakeport Memorial Day Parade, but stopped at Kerri’s Quilting, which is a nice little shop in a sad location. We were the only people visiting at the time. It is a small shop, but has a really nice fabric. I found a couple of dots and some 40s (??) pinwheel fabric in a different colorway than I had before. I saw an Artbin that held 12″ projects, but forgot to buy one. The owner was friendly and showed me the little sundresses she was making for her granddaughter. She had also juste received a small business award from the city.

The mall where Kerri’s resides has a lot of vacancies, including a restaurant space and the anchor space, which used to be a market, and is located behind an old, decrepit and defunct gas station. Lakeport looks like a nice town (larger than Kelseyville).

I hope that the day we were there was a slow day and that normally the shop is bustling.

These are my weekend purchases.


These are the purchases I made after the Gabrielle Swain class at New Pieces in Berkeley. The books were very spur of the moment.

Quiltmaking By the Sea


Often, I work almost all the time at one of my two jobs or dealing with other non-paid work type tasks. This past weekend, I threw it all aside, took Friday-most of Sunday off and went to a quilt retreat! Hooray! It was great! I spent Friday night, Saturday and a few hours on Sunday sewing.

I couldn’t completely get away from work, so I worked on the bookkeeping while I watched Law & Order and waited for Friend Julie to arrive. I did go visit Cabrillo Sewing, which is right next to the hotel (how convenient!). Little did I know that downstairs, in the Begonia Room, the other ladies were setting up and warming up their sewing machines. I was pleased that I did this work, however, as I felt a lot better about taking the weekend off.

As you can see, I wasn’t able to follow the directions that I originally set out for myself. The display quilt from Quiltworks Northwest that I saw at APNQ can be seen on the 2007 UFO Report. I am really not sure what happened, but as I drove down to the hotel, it occurred to me that I would rather work with rectangles.

Julie got my act together by arriving. We went downstairs with all of our stuff and set up for sewing.

Sewing mess
Sewing mess

Here is my mess after cutting a bunch of strips and rectangles. We eventually went to dinner; we tried to go to a restaurant that serves only ostrich meat, but we couldn’t find it, so we ended up at a little Mexican place. It was storming quite hard and they had sandbags around the doors and cloths and things stuck in the windows to keep the water out. Quite the adventure digging for change for a parking meter in the dark in the driving rain where the meters give you 5 minutes for each quarter!.

I was amazed that we sewed as late as we did – 10:30 or so, then we went up and drank Sambuca and Limoncello while we watched more Law & Order and CSI. I am such a junkie for L&O- it is what I do in hotels.

The next day we sewed all day except for a quick dash to lunch and to a quilt store called Round Robin (Portola and 38th Ave). They had nice fabrics and the place was restful and organized. I bought only a few fabrics at the two shops.

Round Robin fabrics
Round Robin fabrics

I used up about 4 yards of fabric in the quilt and didn’t want to buy more than I used. A novelty, I know, but I really wasn’t in the mood to buy fabric and didn’t see anything I had to have. The dots are nice. I hadn’t seen the one with the white background before. I went back and forth on the one with the black background as I don’t have an idea for a project. The other black-on-whites will be used for the Cross Blocks/Flowering Snowballs.

Chocolate Box in process
Chocolate Box in process

Aside from a quick dinner at a local Thai Restaurant, I sewed until about 11pm. I really wanted to get a handle on how I was going to put the blocks together. By about 9pm the blocks were finished, but I hadn’t made them perfect squares, so some figuring needed to take place. Terri let me use her portable design wall, which was absolutely necessary and I was very grateful to her for it.

I fiddled with placement a little bit, but mostly worked out how I was going to get different sized blocks together. Once I had about four done, I went to bed and let the process percolate while I slept.

The next morning, I sewed the rest of the blocks together and now have the top you see at the top of the post. I think I’ll call it the Chocolate Box.

So, one thing about this project was that it was not at all precise. I was ok with having to fiddle with putting it together, because I could just mindlessly sew whatever I wanted wherever…basically. I did have a semblance of a plan. Second, I am glad I used the rectangles instead of the squares, because it makes this project mine while allowing me to be inspired by another quilt. Third, there was enough structure to keep me grounded with enough freedom to relieve the stress of the Pineapple Problems.

I don’t have any pictures of it, but Friend Julie is taking a mentoring program from Gabrielle Swain. One thing that she does is “show up”. That means that she gets into the studio every day and works. For her, that is four hours a day. WOW! I am so impressed, I can’t even tell you. I admire her for the commitment. She isn’t just sewing, however. She is noting down her ideas in a visual journal and it is the visual journal I want. My little drawings looks so sad compared to the exuberance of her work. I look forward to seeing more of it and getting to that point as well.

Everyone should really go on a quilt retreat once in a while. Boy! I would love to do that once a month. I can’t believe how much I got done in 17 or so hours of sewing. Amazing!

Quilt Exhibit at the Renwick

It pays to read blogs, so you can tell people to go and see this exhibit. It is about QUILTS!
It is at a real MUSEUM!
They have a companion BOOK!

Sadly (I guess it is my day for sadness), I won’t be heading out that way until the summer. Do give me a review and let me know if you liked it. Perhaps I will put the book on my Christmas list. Hhhmm.

clipped from bemused.typepad.com
http://bemused.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/26/100_2995_3.jpg

But the week wasn’t all about turkey and muffins.  Before everyone else arrived at my sister’s, M & I ducked out for a spectacular day in Washington, a city we’ve spent a lot of time in since Molly & K both went to college there.  First stop, the Renwick Museum, where we saw the current show, Going West! Quilts and Community.  I’d wanted to see this exhibit since I read that it had been curated by Sandi Fox, author of two of my favorite books on 19th century quilts, Small Endearments and For Purpose and Pleasure.  Well worth the trip, I’d recommend the show if you’re going to be in D.C. before the close of the show in mid-January.  Sadly (for you,) no photos allowed.  The show’s companion book does include all of the show quilts (and more) with accompanying essays on over fifty quilts brought to or made in Nebraska in the late nineteenth century.

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Fabrics, Blog Fun and Product


I hope the above describes some of my work lately!

I spent the better part of 4 days in Monterey at a conference (for my other life). I have gone to this particular event for a number of years, particularly when it is in Monterey (some years they have had it in Palm Spring, San Diego, etc.). One of the nice things is that I stay with friends rather than staying in a hotel (no late night Law & Order sessions for me!). This year their house was under construction and my friends were sleeping in *my* bedroom! The nerve. They shuffled me off to his sister’s house a bit down the road where I was treated fabulously and helped out as well. Sis’ hubby went in for hip surgery after my first overnight, so I kept her company. I had my own ensuite bedroom and bath. The bath had a heated floor!

Back Porch Fabrics

Back Porch Fabrics is a wonderful quilt store in Pacific Grove, which I have visited and written about before. It is light and airy and the people are friendly. The absolute first thing I did when I got to the Monterey Peninsula was head to Pacific Grove. I didn’t think there could possibly be any dot fabrics I didn’t own, but I was mistaken.
Not only was I able to find more dots (and a few other fabrics), but the lovely Quilts Japan mag as well. There was another issue that I liked, but I really only liked the cover, so I didn’t buy it. The quilt store staff didn’t leave me alone long enough to take a picture of the cover, so I will have to try and find it online.

The quilts they had hanging up were not in my colors, but they went together really well, were graphic and well made and that made me like them. Unfortunately, the staff would not let me take ANY photos in the store. I knew they wouldn’t let me take photos of their class sample quilts, but I wanted to show you some overall pictures of the store so you could get a sense of it. No dice. Sorry, maybe next time.

Sherri e-mailed me and was kind enough to offer the two lovely dots above, which arrived while I was away I’ll need to cut some strips and add them to the piles. I probably won’t be able to use the grey in the Pineapple quilt, but, as I have a few more dot quilts in me, I will find a place for it. Thanks, Sherri!

Finally, I have been neglecting the Flowering Snowballs (Cross Blocks), but sat down in front of bad TV last night and finished this one. I only had the two middle seams to finish, so I can add this to the stack.

I also attended the CQFA meeting today. We spent, probably, 1.5-2 hours on show and tell. It was a lot of tell and that was great. I showed the Nosegay and the sleeve on Sharon’s quilt, which is now finished. Hooray!

I was looking for the Quilts Japan issue when I came across Little Shika blog. It has a Yarnstorm kind of feel with my dogged resolve to show all the steps in a project. (Suppose I should rethink that, e.g. how much information is too much information???) Great photos, too.

Stay tuned for a report on my new iron!

More Denver Travelogue

Any time I can get inspiration off of a floor, I take a photo. I am fascinated by mosaics and tile patterns. Above is a detail and you can see the border of 4patches.

I like the way the small green border frames the piece. I think the greens and the reds could be all different.

This was a block that I saw in a quilt in the shop of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. I like the different blues that the maker used on the top of the piece.

What I like about these baskets are the little things that make them unusual. In the top photo, the basket has a slight curve from the rim to base. In the second photo, notice the handles added to a fairly usual basket pattern. I also like, what I assume, are the border blocks.

Please note that these were not any of the exhibits. These were items in the shop.

On Saturday, we headed south to see the famed Great American Quilt Factory
I have noticed a trend of quilts shops being in strip malls. I guess it makes sense: go to the grocery store, pick up the dry cleaning, stop at the quilt shop. This was a particularly ugly strip mall, but it did have a great big parking lot, which was good because there were 200 women in the shop when we got there at 10am. GAQF has a block of the month meeting each Saturday. They make up the pattern and the kits and test it on the people who do the Block of the Month. This is how the Welcome to my Cabin became a book and a pattern. The meeting had ended, but all the ladies were in line to pay. We started looking at the fabric around the perimeter and stayed out of their way pretty much. It was no problem because they, apparently, have over 5000 bolts of fabric. The store made up for the ugliness of the strip mall. There were lots of all differenty types of quilts hanging on the walls. Many of them were Possibilities patterns.

After the Great American Quilt Factory, we went to Holly’s Quilt Cabin. St. JCN didn’t really want to go, I don’t think, but she didn’t fight too hard. ;-). Holly’s had more REALLY nice fabric. I bought a lot of FQs and more dots. They had a nice selection of Creative Grid rulers (still need to do that review!) and I bought a 2.5″x12″ model. It will be good for cutting squares for those 4patches I plan to make someday. 😉 The people there were really chatty.



Right, 3rd from the bottom was a fabric that just caught my eye. I don’t usually buy this fabric, but I decided to buy an FQ and put a piece or two in the Cross Block quilt.

Left 3rd from the bottom is a really interesting fabric. It is cotton, but it shimmers. I got it in a couple of colors. I may put it into the silk quilt just to see how it works.


Above are the fabrics that we bought at GAQF and Holly’s.


This is a bear peeking in the glass wall of the convention center. I thought it was really clever. How can I not like the bear anyway? It reminds me of Oski.

clipped from www.oski.com
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On Sunday we ate breakfast at LePeep’s near the City Park and then went up to the Denver Botanic Garden. I am not much of a gardener, but I can appreciate a beautiful garden just as well as the next person. This place was fantastic. I liked the way the garden was laid out in rooms. It was so relaxing. If I had not had to go to a meeting, I would have liked to have sat there and read or worked on writing projects. St. JCN loves gardening and is working very hard on her garden. She is also working on my garden a bit: helping me pick out plants that won’t be a burden or take a lot of work.

I thought that this would make a good quilting pattern. I particularly like the wavy, vertical sort of look.



The top photo is a picture of a giant poppy, but the others are all peonies. I have never seen peonies growing in my area, but St. JCN said that she would look into it. She did warn me that these would need coddling if they would grow. In any case, I really took the photos as inspiration for quilts. The colors, the graphic quality are all really great. Inspiring.

The garden had an exhibit called Big Bugs. They had placed large wooden (not sure if all were wooden) insects all over the garden. I saw some grasshoppers, ants, a praying mantis, a dragonfly, and some others. My favorite was this spider on the spiderweb. We walked by and I didn’t see it, then we walked by again and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. When I looked. I saw the spiderweb. It is partially hidden and it looks like it could be real.

Mosaic bench they were selling in the gift shop.

Visiting My Fabric

I spent the weekend of 8/10-8/14 visitng the fabric that I sent to Seattle with TFQ. I sent it to Seattle to visit its cousins and have its spa treatment (read: washing and ironing). Of course, visiting TFQ was much more important than the fabric. 😉

We spent the weekend immersed in fabric related activities, eating, sleeping and chatting a mile a minute. It was fantastic! I left my house stressed, catching a cold and in pain and returned refreshed, no cold in evidence and pain-free. it was a good reminder that fabric fun is good for my soul and good friends who don’t judge my whacky, and sometimes misguided ideas, are invaluable.

One of our main activities was visitng the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters Show held at Seattle Center. The layout of the quilts was the same as 2004 and I was disappointed. I really thought that they should have returned to the layout they used in previous years. Despite my problems with the layout there were a number of wonderful quilts. Good colors, great execution of patterns, wonderful choices of fabric combinations. Unfortunately, however, nothing that made me say WOW! Photos of some of the quilts are posted at:
APNQ 2006 quilts pt.1
APNQ 2006 quilts pt.2

We also got started on an auction quilt that St. JCN promised to an organization, The Healing Center, which helps adults, children and families deal with grief. The quilt started out as multi-colored half square triangles so that it would appeal to parents of boys as well as girls, but St. JCN thinks that she will stick with predominantly blue and green and perhaps change the white to a light green. Even if she doesn’t use any of the squares we made together, it is always great to work together.

Here is a picture of the design as I left in Seattle:


As usual, I purchased a number of pieces of fabric. Many dot designs were purchased in order to add to my dots collection. Other fabrics were purchased with some specific projects in mind. I bought nearly the entire line of Denyse Schmidt fabrics. These were new designs to me – not design types and colors that I normally buy- but interesting none the less and it is always good to branch out form the norm. You can see the fabrics I bought in my Weekend Photos post. I also saw a quilt by Sugata Shah at the Quiltworks Northwest booth (for which they were selling the pattern) that I will probably make from the Denise Schmidt fabric — or at least start out with that idea! I didn’t buy the pattern, because it was just squares and I can manage something similar without a pattern. I have been thinking about that pattern, though and whether I should have purchased it for the inspiration. We’ll see. I will certainly credit Ms. Shah. No, there is no creativity involved, but I think it is important to get sewing. Of course, as projects move along, I tend to deviate from my original plans quite frequently, so who knows how the project will end up? In any case, I still need to get some browns for background.

Mostly St. JCN and I talked, caught up, shared tips and tricks for various things, shopped, did car required errands and relaxed. The worst part was the airport. I spent so much time in the airport that it was a major time sink for the trip, despite the fact that there were no real holdups. Earlier in the day there were major delays, especially at SeaTac once the British terrorist story broke. Fortunately, my flight was later, most people were well behaved. The no-water rule is really a problem for me, though. I was extremely thirsty after both flights.

Lowell Textile Museum

A few years ago, I went to Lowell, Mass while on a business trip. I didn’t get to devote as much time as I would have liked to the experience. We didn’t have much time for sightseeing and I was pretty tired from taking a Red Eye. Still, it was great to get a flavor of the place. The quilts that I saw at the New England Quilt Museum were wonderful.

I was thrilled recently to see that the Lowell Textile Museum has put their online catalog in beta out on the web. While I am a sucker for online catalogs, I am more thrilled that more textile and quilt information is being put out as well. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see a quilt catalog that had hundreds and hundreds of quilts ranging from famous quilts to the neighbor next door quilts. The catalog could cover anyone that wants to upload a quilt and just be images and description-a virtual collection. I think it would be a great resource for historians, geneologists, people seeking patterns, artists, everyone, especially as it evolved. I think it would be fantastic. When I win the lottery, this will be my project.

In this catalog, I would like to see a general browse feature. Additionally, a photograph browse, a textile browse etc. would allow people browse through the collection if they just want to get an idea of what the museum owns.

I hope that some of the fabric companies look at these collections, because some of hte fabrics look really interesting. It would be great if The Electric Quilt could partner with the museum to reproduce their fabrics digitally for use with EQ5.

Still, I am thrilled that this new resource is available and I look forward to see more of their collection virtually.

An Effort to Be Creative

I spent the weekend in Seattle with JCN. We hung up her drapes, which are silk and called Poppy, but the color really looks like raspberries. I was somewhat inspired by the embroidery of Riita-Liisa Havisto of Finland, which was on display, with her daughter’s work at the Nordic Heritage Museum. You can see an announcement at http://www.nordicmuseum.org/index.php?t=events&c=full&e=156 or find much about their work using this search.

The detail fo the stitching was wonderful. It made me want to do hand stitching.