Maude Kerns Art Center & Gallery, Eugene

My friend Mary and I took a drive down to Eugene, Oregon, yesterday to see our quilts at the Maude Kerns Art Center.  It was a great day.  We had all kinds of weather, from pouring rain, to hail, to sunny blue skies.  The gallery is located on the university campus in an old renovated church.  

The show, Fiber2 (really Fiber "squared" or to the 2nd power - I can't insert the correct character here) consisted of High Fiber Diet's Bird's Eye View show plus two exhibits by the Eugene fiber group Loosely Bound.  The local public radio station, KLCC, did a review of the show on February 27, 2011. Click here to hear the review.  Click on the Maude Kerns line near the top of the listings.

The gallery has a small gift shop with lots of unique items, many by the artists showing in the gallery.  In one corner they made a nice exhibit of my quilts, paintings and books.  Mary's collage cards are on the rack.

This grouping is small quilts made by the Loosely Bound artists.  What a great way to display small works.  Each was mounted on an 8" x 8" wooden cradle board that had been painted black.  The unity of color and the mounting technique really pulled together these works by different artists.  Each work was for sale individually, and the work I saw was priced from $50 to $75. 

The show is worth seeing and is up for only a few more days, until March 25th.  Do try to stop by if you are in the area.

Palm Desert

I just returned home from a week in the desert, Palm Desert.  I visited my sister, and we drove down to Oceanside and San Diego to see the Visions Exhibit and the show at the Visions Gallery.  Great work and worth the drive.  The desert was beautiful, slightly green since it rained last week.  That's the Salton Sea you can see shining in the distance in the upper right of the photo.

We visited The Living Desert, the Palm Desert zoo.  They have quite a few desert animals and animals from Africa.  You actually can feed the giraffes if you get there right at 10 am.

There are two aviaries you can walk through and also a walk-through butterfly exhibit.

There are lots of odd desert plants and trees in the gardens.

The big arts festival in La Quinta was last week as well.  There are well over 100 vendors - closer to 200 I would guess - showing quality artwork.  American Style Magazine voted La Quinta the 6th best art/craft fair in the country.  It's easy to see why.  The park is shady and beautiful with green grass, water fountains and pools. 

I went to the meeting of the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild and participated in a little quilt show at my sister's condo association.  I met lots of Linda's quilting friends, many from the Portland area!  So now I'm back in the rain with more to come this week.  The ground is saturated here.  Several trees fell in Sunday's wind storm.  The roots can't hang on so well when the ground is so soggy.  We're still waiting for spring.

Back to Nature Opens This Thursday in Portland, Oregon

View Toward Indio (36" w x 57" h)

Photo by Mark Frey

March 3 - April 27, 2011

Back to Nature: An Exhibit by High Fiber Diet

Opening Reception March 3, 2011, 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Kempton Hall, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

147 NW 19th (at Everett)

Portland, Oregon

Please come to the opening this Thursday night!

Dusty - March 2011 Handwerk Fabric Club Selection Ready to Ship

My gardener did a spring cleanup on my yard a couple of weeks ago.  This is what I saw.  "Dusty" includes 3 beautiful mixes of lavendar, daffodil and brown, and 3 neutrals:  a grey/brown dark, a warm light beige, and a warm medium brown. 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. Dusty is now available for shipping.  This is a limited edition, so not many packs are available. Email me at bonnie@handwerktextiles.com to order. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal accepted.

First Quilts Delivered in Guatemala!

Log Cabin Stars by the Loose Threads group in Vancouver WA

Good news!  The first 13 quilts were delivered to the orphanage last Saturday, February 12.  The 4 quilts shown here were part of the first delivery.  Thanks to Vivian, Sondra, Nancy and Luci for carrying the quilts down and making the extra effort to get to the orphanage.  It sounds like the actual delivery was a bit anticlimactic.  It was a festival day in the village and all but one or two folks were attending the festivities.  But, it's progress!  Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed their time and talent.

Vivian found this great article that gives a good history of the orphanage and the programs there.  Please take a minute to look at it.

Deb's Stars by Deb in Maine

Graphic Pastel Squares by Bonnie Bucknam in Vancouver

9-Patch & Stripe by Loose Threads in Vancouver

Making Purses Again

I've finished a couple of purses in the past few days.  The first is from Butterick 5367.  This is one of my favorite patterns.  I've made this particular bag 4 times now.  The first 2 were the same with the exception of the closures and handles.  On the first bag, I dyed a vintage tassel and incorporated that into the closure. On the second bag I used a repurposed silk belt from Hawaii for the handles. 

Here's the bag I made a couple of days ago.  It's the Ashley pattern from Sew Unique Creations.  I used several fat quarters as well as a couple of half yards for this purse.  It takes a surprising amount of fabric.  I used a minute portion of my button stash for embellishing.

Color Improvisations Traveling to Verona, Italy

Tangle (89" w x 88" h)

Great news!  The Color Improvisations exhibit is traveling to the Museum of Modern Art in Verona, Italy!  The exhibit will be on display March 8th through the 13th, 2011.  If anyone happens to see the show in Verona next month, be sure to let me know! (It could happen.)

Tumble (86" w x 87" h)

Canopy (70" w x 70" h)

(Photos by Mark Frey)