Stitching Hands Studio

The Big Day!

My show at QuiltWorks is in full swing for the month of March.  You can see a lovely slideshow at the QuiltWorks blog.  Last Friday night was quite an experience! I had such a good time.  It was great to see so many friends there and to hear from others who have seen the show during other times.  These first photos were taken before the show started.  Above is the first thing you see when you walk up the stairs.

Some more views of the gallery.

Above you can see Diane and Mary Ann, the lovely and talented ladies who hung the whole show and created and served the amazing food.

The food is always to die for and last Friday was no exception.  There was a St. Patrick's Day theme.

Come along and I'll show you some quilts that haven't made it to the blog before.

Above is a quilt made by my mother and I for the Hammond Family Reunion in 2000.  We designed and created this through a long distance collaboration.  There are signatures on the diagonal blocks.  It lives at my parent's house. 

This one was a collaboration with my sister and I and made in 2003 for my parent's 40th anniversary.  The photo panel buttons to the back of the quilt.  The blocks in the quilt are state blocks representing the states they had lived in up to that point.  There are state birds and flowers in the border.  Now they live in Oregon and next year is their 50th anniversary.  How will we top this!

This quilt is Maui Beach Houses, made during our year in Maui and finally finished 5 years later.  It's paper pieced.  I like it, but I'm not likely to do that again!

This is another quilt I made for Ryan when he was little.  I love the applique on this.  It's from a commercial pattern.

This is my quilt, Crossroads of Sedona, made in my workshop with Rosalie Dace.  I'm so glad it's finished so that it can be in the Sisters Quilt Show this summer.  It was very experimental for me and includes all sorts of techniques.  I combined hand and machine stitching and quilting in all the blocks.  

On the right are two mini quilts I finished just for the show- Studying with Gwen I and II.  These were made in a class with Gwen Marston.  I just needed to quilt them and decided to do it by machine so it went fast.  I like the top one best.

Zig Zag finally got done and this one was hand quilted.  This started in the Liberated Amish Challenge with Tonya Ricucci.  I love it so much! When I found that border print I knew it needed to be on this quilt.

Above right is a new one called "Little Red House".  This one started in a class with Tonye Phillips.  This one is also machine quilted.   

A Tribute to Gwen, was also started in a class with Gwen Marston.  I feel that she is my greatest inspiration and totally a "rock star" quilter.  I love this piece even though it doesn't lay flat.  Luckily, you can't tell that the way it's pinned on here.  

There was also a case holding three of my small slow cloth pieces.  

Here are some candid shots from the evening.  

Guild member Jill.

My parents enjoying the anniversary photo panel.

Ryan.

Michelle and Erin.

Teresa (and friend), Sarah, Jenn and Myria.

Karen, Sarah, Jenn, Erin and Susan.

Dad, Mark and Ryan.

Raffle Time!

Marilyn, co-owner of QuiltWorks, does the raffle.

Thank you to everyone who came and for QuiltWorks for putting this together!  It was a blast!

Sneak Peek

Sorry for neglecting the blog lately.  The preparation for my show has kept me busy.  I also had a real lack of energy last week, the aftermath of that nasty bug I had the week before.  Last weekend I was really able to catch up on sleep and finally get over the bug and today I felt like normal for the first time in two weeks!

This little sneak peek is the last thing I want to finish up before delivering my quilts on Wednesday.  More photos will come after the quilts are up and the reception is over.  If you happen to be in the area this Friday evening, the reception will be at QuiltWorks 5-7 pm.  I'd love to see you then, but the quilts will hang throughout the month of March, so stop on by anytime the shop is open.

Tea is done!

I just finished this piece and it's off to QuiltWorks for the gallery show today. Tea is No Minor Beverage is inspired by The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It measures approximately 20" x 20". Here's my quilt description:

Tea is No Minor Beverage

Renée, a Paris apartment building concierge, has one true friend named Manuela.  They meet for tea and pastry on a regular basis.  Renée tries to hide her talents and interests from the people who live in her building.  As the book progresses, Renée’s true character emerges and she develops deep friendships with Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy and cultured Japanese businessman, and Paloma, a precocious 12 year old girl, both of whom live in the building.  Tea brings these characters together and seemed to me a fitting symbol of them all.

p. 91:  “So, let us drink a cup of tea… I know that tea is no minor beverage.  When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.”

This piece is created with hand appliqué; hand embroidery; hand dyed fabrics and threads; and cotton, linen and silk fabrics.

This is what it looked like last night.  One of the things I did was to couch down a sample of handspun mohair that I made a couple of years ago.

In the past couple of days I added a bunch of quilting stitches.

Today I was adding the glass beads and buttons.  I just ordered these blue glass buttons from Etsy and got them the other day.  I had no plans for them, but they seemed just right here.

I think the back is always interesting to see.  The heavier lines are created by quilting with a back stitch.

Finally a tiny hedgehog had to be on the back and my signature.  This is what I finally came up with and I like it a lot.  My signature post should be coming up soon. 

***Lastly, I haven't heard from Val yet. Please email me soon, Val.  I don't have your contact info in your comment. **

Janelle Rebick

My friend, Janelle Rebick, is this month's featured quilter at QuiltWorks.  Janelle is a multitalented fiber artist and a member of my book club, The Undercover Quilters.  I hope you enjoy this slideshow!

Customize a slideshow

Jean Wells: Local Quilter Makes Good

I just had to share this!  Jean Wells, the owner of the Stitchin' Post, originator of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and all around fabulous art quilter and teacher, was featured in last night's edition of Oregon Art Beat.  I hope you'll watch this video to learn a bit more about Jean and the wonderful shop where I'm taking my workshop this week.  

I'm especially excited because I actually got to have dinner at Jean's house last night along with the rest of my classmates.  It was just wonderful!  Her house is a true artist's house, with art by Jean and other local artists adorning every wall and surface.  Even the bathroom had fabulous original art.  It was such a treat to see Jean's home and studio and the fabulous view from her patio, above.  The mountains were in fine form last evening, showing their new snow in the crisp autumn breeze.  Enjoy!

Cover to Cover Quilters at QuiltWorks

The Cover to Cover Book Club is a group of quilters based in Portland, OR creating quilts inspired by books.  My kind of group!  My pictures here don't do the quilts justice, so please do click on the link to see better photos and more quilts.  

The first group of quilts are based on the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  Pat Busby made this first one again.   I love her style!

This quilt is made by Victoria Jones and includes many unique embellishments.

The envelope quilt by Dianne Kane has hand written notes on the outside- very clever!

Pat Busby created the idyllic village scene above.

Joanne MacNaughton created the quilt, above on left, on right is the quilt by Beth Wells.

Above, Linda Reinert on the left and Carolanne Olson on the right.

The last two quilts are inspired by The People of the Book.  The artistry is simply amazing!

Above by Beth Wells, below by Judy Eselius.

That's not all from my evening at QuiltWorks.  More next time!

Alice in Wonderland

QuiltWorks' June exhibit is something wonderful as usual!  The gallery reception last Friday was amazing as always, but my favorites were these quilts which were not part of the show.  These Alice in Wonderland quilts were made by Pat Busby, one of the members of the Cover to Cover Quilters.  These were just there for the evening as a special treat.  The whole Alice exhibit will be displayed at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show this summer.  It will really be something as I've been told there will be a live Mad Hatter's tea party with the Hatter himself, to accompany the quilts.  I can't wait to see that!  Meanwhile, enjoy these!

Kapitoil Quilts: The Grand Finale

The culmination of the Novel Idea program was a big success!  Teddy Wayne came to QuiltWorks to see the quilts in person and got a private tour with the quilters.  It was so much fun to meet and discuss with him how his work influenced us.  Above Erin Biskup, on the left, talks about her quilt with Teddy and Chantal, one of the librarians who were part of his entourage.

Pris Brubaker discusses her quilt.

Everyone got a kick out of Jill Monley's Oil Futures quilt.

Teddy taking a close look at Jean Egle's quilt.  Jean used hand calligraphy to write on the gold ribbon of fabric running through her quilt.  

Mary Ann Lisk also got a quick chance to talk with Teddy.  Mary Ann works at the shop which was in the midst of a very busy first day of the Central Oregon Shop Hop.  She had to get right back to work!

Teddy and me!

And the whole group!

On Friday night, the lecture at the Tower Theater was presented to a sold out crowd.  My book club and a few guests, including Chloe, went out to dinner and then to the lecture.  It was such a great evening.  Teddy is a funny guy so the presentation was full of laughter.

I was totally surprised to see slides of our quilts projected on the screen for all to see!

There was a special presentation of Mary Ann Lisk's quilt to Teddy as a thank you.  Sorry for my blurry photos, but I thought they were important to show.

As we left the theater I intended to get a photo of that great Tower sign.  We stopped at the candy shop and I thought I'd go in for a moment and get the photo afterwards.  When we came out, 10 minutes later, the sign guys were already changing it up!  So, what's next?  I'm working on my next book quilt, On the Divinity of Second Chances.  In a couple of weeks the QuiltWorks quilters will get together to choose another book to interpret in cloth.  I may not be able to help myself!

Kapitoil Quilts: Take 2 and New York Beauties

I went back to QuiltWorks the other day to take more photos.  There were a couple of new quilts in the display too.  

By Amy Kowalski.  As Amy says, this quilt is Karim-esque.  You'll have to read the book to understand that!

By Jill Monley.  This quilt represents the computer that Karim used to create his Kapitoil program for buying and selling oil futures.  Karim also had a love of fresh juice and his "Juicinator".

By Kathie Eckman.  This quilt represents the cubicle that Karim worked in.  There are masks and flashes of chrome.  The indigo represents Karim's girlfriend.

Since the book takes place in New York, the rest of the gallery space was filled with New York Beauty quilts.  Enjoy!

Kapitoil Quilts

The grand opening of the Kapitoil quilts exhibit was so much fun!  All of these quilts are inspired by the book, Kapitoil, by Teddy Wayne.  As you'll see below the quilts are all very different!  Above is my quilt and yours truly.

By Diane Ottenfeld- This one is inspired by the Jackson Pollock paintings mentioned in the book.  The words are from lists made by the main character as he tried to perfect his English skills.

By Jerry Lindstrom- This quilt was inspired by a racquetball scene in the book.

By Jan Tetzlaff- This one has a quote from the book about the night time stars.

By Pris Brubaker- Hawks are a symbol in the book.

By Marilyn Ulrich

By Linda Mulholland- This is the other one based on a Beatles song.  This time it's about the song Julia which is the song most important to the main character.

By Mary Ann Lisk.  I didn't get to read the tag on this one.  I guess I'll have to go back and take my time looking at everything!

By Gayle Gassner- Depicts New York City and has lots of words quilted in.

By Jean Egle- Depicts clashing of cultures.

By Betty Vincent- Another one inspired by Jackson Pollock.

By Erin Biskup- This one depicts the main character's questions about many influences in his life.

By Judy Johnson- Inspired by Mondrian, another artist that the main character is influenced by.  Notice this totally fabulous New York subway fabric!

By Janice Clayton- This is a representation of New York City from above- buildings and city blocks.

And here are some of the quilters who were there!