A Visit to Sew Creative

 

On a trip last week with DH, we stayed in Ashland, Oregon and walked around the very cool downtown. We were desperate for a bathroom opportunity, and lo and behold, a quilt shop appeared. I knew they'd have one, I don't think I've ever been in a single quilt store without facilities. Sew Creative is a really nice shop, they had great selections for all types of fabrics and many clever fat quarter presentations. Like the plastic sushi container filled with FQ's above. DH saw these at the checkout and grabbed this one insisting that I needed to get it. Apparently the shop owner is big on recycling and takeout sushi, so she recycles these perfect containers to make appealing FQ combinations.

Some of the pieces were even rolled up just like sushi which was super cute!  They also had packs of FQs tucked into painted metal cages hanging all around the store. They turned out to be suet cages that are supposed to be squirrel proof. This was a very clever marketing idea to go with their new BOM quilt Sweet Tweets which involves appliquéd and embroidered wool birds.

It was very fun to unpack this tray of goodies. And there was no sushi fishy smell at all. I would imagine they get run through the dishwasher or something like that. I love when business find ways to reuse plastic containers in such a clever way.

And then there were the bag patterns! I saw a bag designer on offer that I'd never come across, Charlie's Aunt - Vintage Sewing Patterns. Not that I'm claiming to be an expert or anything, but I have recently been on an extensive quilt shop trip with friend Jaye who is a literal expert on all things bags. I couldn't resist and chose this one because they had one made up in a great combination of solid wool. I love the angles of the flaps, those intriguing layers, the size of the bag and the three buttons. And yes, I'll admit, the beautiful leather gloves and cool coat on the model. I really like the sun hat pattern that Charlie's Aunt sells on Etsy.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took inside the shop, obviously in the bathroom. But is this not the cutest re-use of wooden spool and a piece of a vintage advertising ruler?

Freeway Stitching Again

 

Today DH and I drove home from the redwoods up North through the Avenue of the Giants in Redwood National Park.

Once we got back on an actual freeway, I got out my hand stitching again. Still working on Snake In The Garden, last seen being worked on in San Diego in March, This piece has A Lot of freeway miles on it. I'm finally almost done with the purple-pink section.

I have my whole kit ready to go on my lap, it's easy to put away quickly.

I put it away again once we saw the Golden Gate Bridge. It's so nice to be back home once again. Time for more laundry...oh goody.

Look Up Into Willow

Willow trees have always been one of my favorite trees. They have such a beautiful form and are particularly lovely when you’re under one and you look up.

So next time you’re able to, my advice is to take a second and look up.

 This one wasn’t even enormous like some of them end up, DH shown for scale.

Some day I’ll make a willow quilt.

On The Floor

These pictures are from a floor in Powell’s City of Books.

It’s near one of the elevators.

I just thought it was super interesting and textured. Usually stores have such boring floors.

 

So I decided to do a black and white conversion and I like it a lot.

This one even more.

At PIQF This Year

Heads up, at this year's odd summer-time PIQF, I've got four quilts that will be on display at the Santa Clara Convention Center from July 24-27 as part of various exhibits. 

In the New Quilts of Northern California exhibit, be on the look out for my "Safe At Home" quilt.

Over in the SAQA exhibit, we'll be showing off some of the rejects from the now touring Prism Play show, and two (out of three) of mine will be displayed.  It was hard to say yes when they asked, but I did, so I hope you'll have a chance to check them all out.  This one above is named Aqua Centrum.

And this one is named Chartreuse Sinister.

And finally, in one of the special exhibits, Stretching Art & Tradition 24, my quilt 5-4-5-7 will be displayed.

Wandering Wednesday - Portland Rose Garden

 This one really needed its own post, (so many pictures!) which was a visit to the Portland International Test Rose Garden on July 4th. 

We got there about 11 am so it hadn't gotten too terribly hot yet. But we had more than 10,000 roses to see.

The flowers were just a'bloomin' like crazy. I think the last time I'd visited it was early spring and not much had flowered, so this was wonderful.

What a wonderful place this is, no admission fee, the bus stops right next to it so even though it is up above the city it's somewhat accessible to people that need a break from the city.

We took a selfie before I got too sweaty and wrung-out.

All sizes of roses were there all the way from teeny tiny  miniatures to big blowsy singles.

I think this might be my favorite picture that I took of a rose on that morning.

Something about those shiny shiny dark leaves.

This luscious yellow-orange color is just so great.

A longer view of part of the garden.

There were little markers that told you whether or not a rose was "Fragrant" or not. That was nice so you knew whether to go in close and take a whiff or just to admire from afar. Every now and then a breeze would blow and you'd get an overall scent of roses which was lovely.

These are so abundant aren't they, like a full bouquet on just one stem of the rose bush.

There is a central sculpture art piece. Unfortunately the water wasn't turned on but it still looks cool.

This is the only one I remember the name of: "Ketchup & Mustard"

A perfect full white rose with those dark glossy leaves, ahhh.

Hey there's friend Jaye.

Another view of the central sculpture.

Some of the lower gardens have these glorious hillsides just covered in landscape roses. More like ground covers than the individual bushes.

Just so beautiful. There is a map that shows where to find each and every variety that is planted.

A yew bush I think? Maybe? I thought it was funny.

The three arches of blooming pink roses were gorgeous, there were people taking engagement photos and families doing group shots beneath them.

As you walk through the garden you head down the levels and then you have to come back up, so you get a really good view of all the covered steeper hillsides.

This was from the lowest part of the garden and you can't really see the top of it from there.

Some of the roses are in the test sections which is a whole arcane process that helps test new roses varieties before they're produced on scale for release to the public.

Red red red

It's almost too much beauty! So I'll leave you with this Very Happy bumble bee on a pretty pink rose.

Orla Blocks

I love when BAMQ's Community Giving coordinators make up pre-cut block packages for us so that we get to contribute to making a brand new quilt top as a group. They're really nice to use as leaders and enders when you're sewing other projects. I got these at the May meeting when I attended in person, but then....they were just gone. And then I of course forgot all about them. I didn't think to even go look in the trunk of my husband's car, as this was soon after my surgery, he was schlepping my stuff around. This last week when we did the grocery run, I spied the block packages just loose in there, so now here they are, all made up.

This Orla block is a really cute design, and the quilt will end up looking great I bet.

I just need to measure the rest of the pre-cut pieces before I start sewing so that can ease in some space in the seam allowance. I had to add on a tiny bit of blue to one piece to make the blue block up above. I'll just say it "adds interest" I guess.