My "Heritage Text Book" Is on Display at the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft

My Heritage Text Book is part of the Columbia FiberArts Guild's exhibit "Text", on display at the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft in the Community Showcase on the 2nd floor.  I'm sorry I don't have a photo.  I decided to enter the book at the last minute and neglected taking a photo first.  I mono printed the cardboard book covers.  The book cloth is some of my hand-dyed fabric.  For the pages, I used recycled paper, bags and maps.  I also copied and blew up some old photos and documents from my family.  There are photos of my dad in Belgium during World War II, my Grandmother and Grandfather Rumsey's marriage certificate, and my grandmother's adoption papers.  It was a fun project and rather atypical for me.

I usually hand-bind my sketchbooks.  Here are a few of the books I've made in the past.

Desert Dwellings, Handwerk Fabric Club November Selection

Last January I went to Palm Desert to visit my sister and attend a couple of quilt shows.  I was inspired by the colors of the buildings in the desert area.  Isn't it fun how each area has it's own colors which seem appropriate for buildings and houses?  In the Pacific Northwest, you seldom see a pink house.  While in Southern California or Florida, pink houses are the norm.  These earthy tones of the desert architecture inspired the colors for the Novermber Handwerk Fabric Club selection, "Desert Dwellings."

"Desert Dwellings" Fat Quarter packages (1 1/2 yds. total) are $27 ($30 including shipping by first class post within the U.S.); 1/2 yard packages (3 yds total) are $54 plus actual postage to your location; 1 yard packages (6 yards total) are $108 plus actual postage. Email me at bonnie@handwerktextiles.com to order. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal accepted.

Garden Lattice

Several months ago when my friend Pat from Alaska was here visiting, we worked on a piece that had been started by another Anchorage friend.  See the beginnings here.  Here's the finished quilt.

Pat came up with a very effective use of those rather plain blue stripes.  I quilted an overall leaf design.

What a Co-inky-dink!

A couple of years ago before I started the Guatemala Bound project, I bought a few vintage quilt tops on ebay.  I still consider myself a fairly new longarm quilter, and I was looking for some tops to practice with.  I bought maybe eight scrappy tops during that time.  One day I saw this top and was particularly attracted to it.  I paid attention to the bidding, and submitted the winning bid with only seconds to go.  About 10 minutes later, I received an email from Jeanie, a friend in Anchorage.  'Did you just buy a quilt top on ebay?'  She had recognized my ebay userid.  She was bidding to buy the same top!  What are the odds of that?  Later in the year, I quilted the top, then sent her the quilt for Christmas.  That's Jeanie above with the quilt.

Here's another of the vintage tops that I quilted.  This one went to my friend Pat in Anchorage.  I'm still a sucker for log cabins.

Progress on Guatemala Bound

Here are two completed log cabins that the Vancouver group made for Guatemala Bound.  To see the post about our first log cabin work day, click here. We worked in 6 colors: black, grey, white, beige, rust, and turquoise.  The idea was to pick any three of the colors and make a block, for example, a black center with 2 sides turquoise and 2 sides grey strips of any width.  There was no specification as to how many blocks or how many color combinations per person.  I made enough blocks for one top, pictured above, and Chris made her own top as well.  It's still in progress. The quilt below is a made of the other donated blocks.  There's another in progress. Pretty cool way to work in a group.

Here's a scrappy log cabin made by Pat in Anchorage for Guatemala Bound.  Pat used the 1/4 (or 1/2?) log cabin block with strips on only two sides of the "center" square.  This is a different layout that creates an intriguing design.  To see the beginnings of this quilt, click here.

Below is a photo of a log cabin bed quilt I made for friends last Christmas.  The colors are close to the same value, so the design is subtle.  I'm really drawn to log cabin quilts.  I don't seem to tire of this classic.



Big Month for Visitors

I've had a really busy September, with visits from my younger son and two other friends.  Eric drove down the Alcan Highway solo, taking several side trips to mountain bike, and arrived here in early September.  He's on an adventure, leaving Alaska and moving to who knows where? 

A few days after he arrived, I drove to Seattle to pick up Deb, my old-time Alaska work partner who now lives in Maine.  We toured Gig Harbor, Tacoma, Seattle, and drove up to La Conner to see the museum and the Quilt Walk.  La Conner is really a vibrant little town!  And, when we arrived at the Country Inn, we were greeted by Mary Arnold's Guatemala Bound quilt hanging behind the reception desk!

We spent a couple of days in Vancouver, then headed down the coast to our friend Rosie's B&B in Lincoln City, Coast Inn Bed and Breakfast.  Rosie is a wonderful host, and a GREAT cook!  Go there!  The house is beautifully decorated, and there are many wonderful quilts throughout.  Here's just a sample.

A quilt by Nelda Warkentin graces the entryway.

Here's a quilt by Alaskan artist Ree Nancarrow.

This quilt is by Alice Gant.  Alice now lives in New York state.

This is my quilt, Vallejo's Garden, in one of the guest rooms.

This is the view from Deb's room.  Actually, the ocean is there beyond the trees.  It's a bit too foggy to see it in this photo.

Rosie, the innkeeper, is a glass artist.  Glass by Rosie and by Kathy Steele is available for purchase.  Guests can also sign up for a glass class and make coasters during their stay.

Here's the sun room.

Road to Nenana, by Rosie Huntemann.

A couple of days later, Deb and I took a drive up Columbia Gorge.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way to a quilt show in Skamania.

That's Deb in the orange coat up on the bridge.

Last Monday my friend Pat arrived on a stopover on her way home to Alaska.  Deb departed later that day, but the three of us had some time to explore fabric, yarn, and thread shops in Portland.  Pat and I sewed a top for the Guatemala Bound project.  We used the Chinese Coins strips that we sewed but didn't use during Pat's last visit here.  Here's the top that we made.

Roman Coins

Way back in 1986 I was part of an Amish study group in Anchorage. Over the course of about a year we made several small quilt projects based on Amish designs and colors.  I constructed two Roman Stripe exercises that I never completed.  Lately I added the Chinese coins borders to make these bunk-bed size for Guatemala Bound.  After 25 years, finally a purpose!