Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Wendy's Wish Upon a Card 2014

After the Fiber Arts Stroll on Sunday I had a few minutes to check out the fabric postcard display at the Sisters Chamber of Commerce.  It's always wonderful to see how the Wendy's Wish folks display this little works of art so beautifully.  The wall above includes all of the challenge postcards minus the few that were framed (award winners).  These challenge postcards will not go on sale until Thursday at 3:30 at the reception.  

The First Place Honor goes to my good friend, Marion!  I'm so pleased that she won.  As, always her work is exquisite and whimsical. Marion also made this wonderful star below.

My silly bird got an honorable mention.  I love making these goofy birds!  I have two other framed pieces, the house below and the vase of flowers.  The house was made with the watercolor technique I demonstrated on Sunday.  The flowers are made with a different watercolor technique.  For those I used a technique I learned from Carla Sonheim.  I painted with regular watercolors on t-shirt transfer paper, added a bit of colored marker, then cut shapes which were then ironed on the background fabric before quilting.

These cards were framed by Myrna Dow of High Desert Frameworks in Bend.  She does over 80 framed cards every year as a community service project. Her framing choices are unique and imaginative.  Here are a few others I really like.  I will be at the reception on Thursday.  Don't forget you can also buy many other postcards in the general category.  Unmatted cards are only $5 a piece!  Matted ones are being sold for $25 or $75.  There are also the teacher's framed cards available at Sisters High School.  I haven't gotten over to see them yet, but they are always fantastic.  

The Wonder of Small Quilts

Tonight was the reception and award presentation for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Small Wonders Challenge.  We were treated to delicious food, music and the friendship of fellow quilt lovers.  As Ann Richardson announced the winners it was fun to see which of the 50 something quilts caught the judge's eyes.  Below on the right next to the window is Jean Wells' yellow, intuitively pieced quilt that got the award for Best Use of Color.  I forgot to get a close up, but the judges were impressed by her expert use of yellow.

The quilts in the above photo and the two below all include the green challenge fabric. There was an award sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics for the best use of the challenge fabric.  

I was surprised and delighted to find that my quilt won the Michael Miller Challenge Award!

My friend and fellow Undercover Quilter, Betty, won two awards- Best Contemporary or Abstract Quilt and Judges' Choice!  Well done Betty!

My friend and fellow Undercover Quilter, Martha, won an Honorable Mention for her very cool snail quilt!

This quilt won the award for Viewer's Choice among the East of the Cascades Quilters (this award was just for the quilts that came from those guild members).

This quilt won the Best Use of the 2012 Show Theme- A Patterned Village.

My friend Jan made the quilt with the grey background.  I just love this one.  The houses are so subtle and the flower is beautifully appliqued.

It was very nice to see these quilts in person, but you can also see them online on the show's Facebook page.  You can even vote online for Viewer's Choice!  Go to the album page and down at the bottom there's a link for the vote on survey monkey.

All of these quilts will be sold as a fundraiser at the quilt show on July 14.  If you are interested in any of them, you should contact the quilt show right away, as I think they are going to make them available to out of towners.  Ann said tonight that she was thinking about having a silent auction for the award winners.  Either way, I hope they make a lot of money.  The quilt show will donate proceeds to a local Sisters charity that provides scholarships for kids to attend Parks and Rec classes. 

Small Wonders 2012

This is my entry for the Small Wonders Challenge this year.  The theme is 'A Patterned Village' and the challenge fabric for this year is the green print.  All the rest of the fabric is hand dyed, mostly by me, but at least one of the greens is from a local friend.  It measures 25" x 19".

I admit to having to push myself to make this.  My first idea for the challenge just wasn't going to be ready in time, and I love it so much that I think I want to keep it, so I made this all in one day yesterday.  I started at the bottom, working my way up to the row with the houses.  The main bodies of the houses are free pieced, with the roofs and other details added by fusing.  I call it 'The Red Door' because I've always wanted a house with a red door.  I also like blue doors!  Presently I have neither, but I'm happy to create little worlds where I can have any sort of door I please.  

If you are so inclined to make a Small Wonder, I have it on good authority that the deadline has been pushed back to May 15.  The prizes are pretty awesome, so think about it!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  We are having our first taste of summer weather and it is just delightful!

Small Wonders

* Edited to add:  I should have known better, to make sure I had all the quilts and awards right.  I made some mistakes, but have fixed them and added the judges' comments below.  I still hope I can get over and take some better photos of the winners soon.

During the month of May, the Sisters Library community room has been filled with amazing color and design!  Over 80 quilts were entered into the Small Wonders Challenge for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  I entered two that you can see above, Ginger's Garden II and Quilt!.  Last weekend Sarah and I went over to see the quilts and vote for Viewer's Choice.  Sarah did a nice post about it here.  Most of the photos here are clickable to see more detail.

As you can see it was hard to decide.  There is so much variety in technique and design!  

Here are some close ups of my favorites:

Marion Shimoda

Little Bird by Valori Wells

Virginia Cole

From a woman's soul, through a  woman's eyes, by a woman's hands.

Marion Shimoda

Ann Richardson

Bird by Jean Wells

Salmon Says by Dianne Scharf

Tonye Belinda Phillips

Spring has Sprung by Mary Ann Lisk

Shirley Peterson

Karen Shadley

Quilts by kids in Sisters schools

Last night there was a reception to reveal the winners of the Viewer's Choice, as well as the judges' picks for Best Use of Color, Best Use of Recycled Materials, Best Use of Innovative Techniques and Judge's Choice.

Three of the winners were there and one was me!  I couldn't believe it.  I won Judge's Choice for Ginger's Garden II.  Joanne Myers (middle) got the Viewer's Choice award and Kathie Leonard (left) got the award for Best Use of Innovative Techniques. 

Best Use of Color, "Seasons in Bora Bora" by Mary Nyquist Koons

Judges' comments:  Use of color allows the eye to move around the piece; Great form of color wheel – very innovative; Clever composition, contemporary shape and feel and the use of color makes it dynamic

Best Use of Innovative Techniques, "African Adventure" by Kathie Leonard.  No wonder I was confused.  The name listed on the quilt here is wrong.

Judges' comments:  Great use of batiks and choice of beads, feathers, etc.; Embellishments used tastefully to create an African look; Nice composition; like the variety of surface embellishments

Best Use of Recycled Materials by Charlene Kenny.  This quilt uses pieces of an old quilt to great effect.

Judges' comments:  Outstanding use of recycled fabrics, nice design; Like the mix of old & new to create a classic little quilt;  Re-creation of old quilt – very unique; Traditional with a twist; Great choice of fabrics to compliment recycled blocks; The use of completed blocks from other projects was put together beautifully and was very unique.  The technique to create the wave pattern was successful and created a very pleasing piece.

Viewer's Choice by Joanne Myers

Ann's comment:  Just about by a land slide!

Judge's Choice, Ginger's Garden by me!

Judges' comments:  The color in this piece produced a very vibrant, rich image.  The bright colors combined with light but intense colors played so beautifully off of each other;  The quilting is terrific and while the border is busy, it is filled with interest and truly sets off the image in the center.  Everything works together – lights and darks; Truly a charming piece; Wonderful combination of color, pattern and design; Very fun piece; Great composition and fun – happy quilt

 The quilts will now be sold as a fundraiser.  All the quiltmaker's get first dibs on their own quilts.  I think the 5 winners will be sold for $200, the honorable mentions for $150 and the rest for $100.  The sale will be at the Sisters Summer Faire on July 2 and 3.  They'll remain at the library until the end of May.

It was a wonderful evening with delicious food catered by a new Mexican restaurant in Sisters, Los Agaves.  Thanks to my friend Sarah for attending with me and to my Mom and Dad for coming to the event and to my Dad for taking the three photos here with me in them.

2011 SOQS Quilt Block

My entry for this year's block contest.  When I got these fabrics I liked them individually, but not as a group and just didn't know what to do with it.  The pack sat around for a good two months.  A couple of days ago, I got it out and played around in my sketchbook with some ideas.  I finally settled on this one.  This block is inpsired by Tonye Phillips, Gwen Marston, Mary Lou Weidman, Jude Hill and Joanne Meyers.  After I got the applique done, it needed more so I added a lot of back stitch.  For the curious, here's the back.

I went back to make a mosaic of my previous blocks.  I guess houses are always on my mind, but I also considered doing a tree with moon, an owl and various patchwork star patterns.

Now, back to sewing!

Ginger's Garden II

It seems I couldn't stop at just one Ginger!  I decided to try the cat again with different proportions.  I like the long legs on this one.  The body is free pieced, the eyes, nose and flowers are fused applique.  I got to do some gentle curves in the inner the border and the mini strips of color in the outer border.  All the fabrics are hand dyed by me, except the one print that I used for the flowers and some of the pieces in the border.

I had a lot of fun with the quilting on this one, just trying stuff as I came to each section.

I think the back is pretty cool too!  I love the ghostly kitty face.

This one will be donated to the Small Wonders Challenge at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  These quilts will be voted on by the public and then sold as a fundraiser for the show and Sisters Park and Recreation District.  They will be on display in the Sisters Library for the month of May and sold during the quilt show in the July.