Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

Sisters Fiber Arts Stroll 2012

Heat Wave

The Around the Block Fiber Arts Stroll is tomorrow and I'm a participating artist!  I will be behind the Hen's Tooth in downtown Sisters tomorrow, Sunday, July 8, 12-4pm. This is my first time having a booth there or anywhere.  I will be demonstrating some hand stitching techniques that I've learned from Jude Hill (with her permission).  I also will be selling some goodies, including the two art pieces here (and four others),

Under the African Sun

brooches, 

hand dyed fabric packs,

and greeting cards I had made with my photographs (from moo.com).

It's been a lot of work to get ready, so I hope it goes well.  If you are attending the Fiber Arts Stroll, stop on by and say hi!

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!

Autumn in New York

My latest slow cloth is finished with a couple of weeks to spare.  Autumn in New York is inspired by Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, as part of the QuiltWorks Novel Idea book club.  This cloth is completely hand stitched with silk applique on a hand dyed indigo vintage linen napkin.  There's a lot of hand stitched embellishment that you can see better in the detail photos below.  I backed the whole thing with a single piece of medium weight grey shot cotton and turned the edges under the edge of the napkin to hand sew down.  The edges peek out and allowed me to square up the napkin.  It's about 22" x 22".  This quilt will be hanging in the QuiltWorks gallery for the month of April along with 35-40 others.  I can't wait to see the whole exhibit.  The few that I've seen so far are really wonderful.

The only building I wanted to be recognizable is the Empire State Building.  To make things easier I decided to stitch the topmost part as you see above.  Lots of little split backstitches make that up.  All of these techniques were learned from Jude Hill.  Please check out her website for all sorts of wonderful online video classes.

Meanwhile I've already started on a couple of other projects, my Undercover Quilter book club project has a great start and my Small Wonder Challenge project is looking really good.  More on those later.  I'm still trying to figure out what book to use as inspiration for my guild Children's Literature challenge.  There are so many wonderful books to choose from!  We are heading out for a little spring break in a few days, I can't wait!

A parade for my birthday!

I love parades, no doubt about it.  This year the Sisters Christmas parade was on my birthday, so off we went to this adorable little town for it's short and sweet parade. I wouldn't have it any other way.

This girl seems to be always plugged in these days!

There are lots and lots of animals in this one and nary a marching band.  I do love to see all the variety of beasts though.  Llamas, dogs,

Ryan and Scrabble,

miniature donkeys, 

beautiful horses,

greyhounds,

the occasional beautiful vintage truck.

newfies,

and the big man himself!  Santa came into town in style.

After the parade, this is my favorite place to step in for a coffee.  They really do it up for Christmas!

I had a marvelous time doing my part for Small Business Saturday.  I found some interesting rustic fabric at the Stitchin' Post that I can't wait to try and some beautiful vintage buttons at the antique shops.  Later, we had a delicious dinner, presents and gingerbread cake at my parents' house.  My mom also really knows how to decorate for the holidays, so those photos will show up here soon.  The owl portrait is a gift from my sister!

It was a very good day.   Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes.  Happy Sunday to you!

PS: Don't forget to comment on the previous post to enter the contest for one of my handmade ornaments.

PPS:  All the photos here were made with my iPhone!  I had no idea this little gem would be so much fun to take photos with.  I got a phone, computer and pocket camera all in one.  Thanks Mark!

Halloween Favorites

Walking in late October

It's been glorious this week despite some really cold nights.  I've been walking around the neighborhood and can't seem to leave the house without a camera.  Today, Ryan and I went with some friends on a Bend Haunts walking tour of downtown.  Come along with me!  Above, our house decked out for Halloween (pun intended).  Actually, it's pretty light on Halloween, but I thought it would be nice to show where we started.

Around the corner is this lovely house, just dripping with fall leaves.

Shortly you come to the Newport Bridge, our gateway to downtown.

The tour started at the old Reid School, the first school in Bend.  This historical building is now home to the Deschutes County Historical Society and museum.

Our tour guide told us many stories about local sites that have had murders, suicides and ghost tales.  It would have been spookier at the later (night-time) tours, but then I wouldn't have these great photos, so just pretend it's dark and spooky.

McMenamin's Old St. Francis School has been remodeled and now sports a pub, hotel, theater and fabulous soaking pool.  On a side note, I was watching old episodes of Oregon Art Beat online yesterday and found this great story about the artwork at the McMenamin's locations.

There are stories about ghosts and hauntings here.  A couple staying at The Nunnery house (above) found the morning after they arrived, a photo of themselves sleeping, on their cell phone- creepy!   They didn't stay another night.  I wouldn't have either!

I just love the style here!

The old Bend Firehall has held restaurants for many years, but there are ghost tales here too.

Across the street is Hospital Hill (now hotel hill).  

Yesterday's walk took me past some leaf piles

and the footbridge

to Baked, an afternoon bakery that had a lovely pumpkin display to keep Scrabble company while I was picking out my delicious fresh baked bread.

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I'll be back with more spooky stuff soon.

Contemporary Folk Art Retreat

The Contemporary Folk Art Retreat with Sue Spargo and Tonye Phillips took place at the historic Camp Sherman Community Hall, about 15 minutes from Sisters.  It was so beautifully decorated and a really lovely space to do a bit of stitching.

Actually, we had three days of stitching and it was really just heaven!  Below is the class sample, a pretty bad photo.  I didn't realize my camera was on a funny setting and never did get a better one.  At least you can see the idea.  It was a blend of Tonye's whimsical houses and Sue's wool and embroidery.  Of course, most people took off in their own direction after getting a little inspiration from this and all the other pieces on the walls.

The piece above is by my friend Jan Tetzlaff.  She has a wonderful eye for color and loves to incorporate words and/or letters into any quilt she does.  

Above is from Janet Wilson, a fellow Jude follower (makes us sound a little creepy- Judite??).  Anyway, I think the blues were hand dyed indigo that Janet made.  Her mushroom houses will be just darling!

This piece is by Marian Shimoda, another retreat friend.  Marion will be teaching Whimsical Wired Angels at the Stitchin' Post in December!  I will be there with bells on.  Marion is so very creative and makes all sorts of intricate small dolls and other beautiful pieces.

And this is mine.  I've already added a bunch more applique.  I think my favorite is the Seuss tree!  I have several of my hand dyed fabrics in the piece, both cotton and wool.  The border has indigo dyed fabrics.  I'll post an update some day soon!

Look who I got to meet!

Finally, Lazy Gal Tonya and I are in the same place!  It was so great to meet her- like old friends.  We had a nice dinner at Los Agaves Mexican Restaurant and then attended the Gee's Bend quilter presentation.  While waiting in line I did a mini show and tell and of course, we had to get a photo of this quilt, Love Always, our collaboration.  Tonya made the letters and sent them to me and I made the rest.  

I've got more to share, but it will have to wait.  Two more long days ahead.  See ya! 

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!