Keizer Quilt Show

I am a "short sleeper" but without the benefits that genetic and truly authentic "short sleepers" are afforded. They never get more than four hours of sleep a night but are never tired, never yawn, and don't need caffeine, nor ever feel the need for a nap. They live happy, healthy, productive lives on less than 4 hours of sleep a night.

 

I am short. I am a 'short' sleeper who gets less than 4 hours of sleep a night and I don't take naps, but boy do I wish I could fall asleep to take a nap and I do need my caffeine to keep the yawns at bay.

Then I remembered that today is the last day in February (or 'Febrary' as the copy of "Keizer Senior News' informed me in a headline about activities this month. And right above an article about improving your memory) and not long after I'd read an article that said no one pronounces Feb-RU-ary correctly any more!  Apparently, no one spells it correctly, especially if they are prone to mispronouncing it, anymore either! 

But what it really meant, was that it was the last day of February and I had one day left to hop in the car and over to Keizer to see the beautiful quilts made by members of our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild as part of the arts program at the Keizer Civic Center!

And as these beautiful quilts attest, it was well worth the drive!

                                                  

  





Our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild managed to snag a free contract to display quilts there...for free..for THREE solid months!

So, I combed my bird's nest of a hairdo, brushed my teeth, and slipped on some clothing and shoes (don't ask) before I headed out, and over, to see the show right after the doors had barely opened and long before they were due to close. (show can be seen from 8am to 5pm.weekdays, only)

The quilts were just great! They lined these beautiful spacious new hallways and a windowed front area that faced the main street (and not parking!) and it so lovely, so peaceful and quiet.

I felt like I was truly in an art gallery. It was more than worth the memory prompt and the short drive over to Keizer from my north Salem home connecting cross street home. Since, I knew all of the quilters and recognized some of their work, well..that was even more fun!

So, here..the last day of Feb-RU-ary, and the last day of their display...are some lovely quilts from a few talented members of the Mid-Valley Quilt Guild.  I was totally dressed, wearing shoes that matched each other, my hair was combed, my teeth brushed, and I had a wonderful, wonderful time!

And the quilts were display in two hallways that made an "L" shape, so it wasn't too difficult to find my way, back to the door, again!

And I have to show how they are arranged on the walls, above the coordinating settees...some one did one great job of quilt hanging!

 So, peaceful, so quiet, all I hear is the sound of my footsteps and the gentle click of my camera.

A lovely early morning visit to a beautiful home town quilt show!  Thank you for sharing your quilts and thank you to the city of Keizer, the Keizer Civic Center for allowing our guild to showcase these beautiful works of art...completely for free, for three months!

 

It turns out that Keizer Mayor Lore Christoper comes from a family of quilters and see them as art. Well, ma'am, so do we ...so thank you for sharing our sentiments and brightening my day!



 
Note:
For all who asked about the "Labyrinth Walk" quilt made by Linda Doerfler of Keizer, Oregon.

The pattern out of a quilt magazine, "Quilt" - the issue was the April-May 2012. 

http://www.quiltmag.com/magazine/quilt-aprilmay-2012/

 The quilt designer blogs at:http://theguiltyquilters.blogspot.com 

*If you make the quilt from the magazine, there are some errors in the pattern, according to the quilt maker of this particular quilt, above, which she did not discover until later. Please contact the designer through the blog, or Quilt magazine for the pattern and for any corrections she made.

 

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!

Zion Mennonite Quilt Show and a Cougar Sighting!

Friendship time with a dear quilting friend.... and a trip to Whiskey Hill, in Hubbard, Oregon.... and the Zion Mennonite Quilt Workshop.


The Zion Mennonite Quilt Workshop is really a lovely little quilt show, combined with lots of hand quilters and wonderful advice if you need, or ask for it. You have the chance to see some lovely vintage quilts with great charm, as well as more modern ones. And the ladies of the church cook up and serve a wonderful home cooked meal for the cost of a simple donation.



There are wonderful vintage quilts mixed in with new and often even quite modern ones.





And there is the absolute charm of seeing some of the older Mennonite quilters still hand quilting and teaching others their special techniques after all of their years of making quilts and quilting.

And I really love knowing that this was the original group of Mennonite women quilters who first worked with Gwen Marston, decades ago, and taught her to quilt. She has written about them in one of her books and described their skill and their patience.

Back then it was all with simply drawn pencil on cardboard templates and they have boxes and boxes of them, still. We are welcomed to trace as many as we want, but it is, of course, the fun of just seeing these vintage pieces that is the most fun.

The same is true of the quilts. One from 1917 with a later dated of 1957 added. I wondered out loud..."I wonder if it took the quilter that long to hand quilt and finish it?' and a stranger next to me answers..'it would have taken me a heck of a lot longer than that!"

 Shown above:  a collage I made from a previous visit to the Zion Mennonite Quilt Workshop and more quilts and fun from a previous post.

My friend, Pat, and I wandered the rows looking at the older quilts mixed in with the newer ones, with old sock monkeys, and simple yo you dolls, sitting in vintage strollers and high chairs while modern lamb toys and a teddy bear cozy up to other pieces.

The merging of the old and the new is reflected in all of our faces. In a visit from 2007, there was a beautiful Mennonite woman hand quilting in her traditional sheer bonnet, while the middle aged in quilted jackets and vests, merged with the new young quilters and the tiny tots played with scrap fabrics on the long tables.

This visit there were some of  the earlier quilters combined with newer ones just learning to hand quilt.

And there is always a 'Beginner's Table' where you feel comfortable sitting down and giving it a try with advice, if you want it! A place for everybody and every kind of quilt.  But Pat and I saw enough quilts with utility stitching to make me feel at home with my more clumsy and larger stitches, and gave her the courage to try her own hand at it on a beginner's table. She not only stayed on the line but I thought her stitches looked pretty good!

And there are always quilters hand quilting, drawing templates, or making hand sewn blocks. And this visit, I actually visited with a quilter using a modern plastic template as she graciously showed me how she used different colored pencils to trace her lines..changing colors as needed in order for them to show up.

The wonderful church ladies always proved a home made lunch...soup, bread, a dessert, and drinks, and we found several ladies from our Mid-Valley Quilt Guild group from Salem, to enjoy a great lunch and nice conversation.


Then off to more adventures!With her GPS, and printed off Google Map directions, we set out to find a little quilt shop that moved out into the outskirts of Mollala, Oregon. As we went up into the beautifully forested hills with many twists and turns, a large 'cat' ran across the road in front of us.

We were driving on 'Wildcat' Road outside of the city of Mollala, so  I knew it wasn't a house cat..quite large, tawny colored, and with that beautiful rolling up and down gait you see on wild life shows.

The beautiful creature went into the forested meadow and posed and looked deep into my eyes. And just like my many deer sightings in our back yard under my prayer arch, it was magical!
 
I was too mesmerized to think to grab my phone/camera! But it was a rare event and they are seldom seen in Oregon. I quickly texted my husband and son, suspecting that they had probably never seen one in the wild in Oregon.

Off to the Canby Quilts and Fabric...in the outskirts of Mollala along our Wildcat Road and a lovely time, there as well. Sandy, the guilt shop owner, said that in all the years of living out there, they'd only seen one and that only a few times, so I was truly blessed to see one. It's hard knowing that the existence of one creatures requires the demise of others for survival, but such is life!

I bought an O'lipfa ruler that are so hard to find now, while Pat looked for backing fabric for a charitable donation she is working on. And before we left, Sandy told us to select something from her free goody basket!

A quilt show, a country drive with a cougar sighting, and a new ruler plus a free gift! And yes, I actually loved seeing the cougar the best..that's just how I am growing up as a wild woman who loves nature and wildcrafting and wild sightings of all kinds on my little island in Alaska.

(And later, my husband said that sightings were so rare, that frankly he doubted I'd even seen one. But after describing it to him, he knew that I had!) So great fun!

We were just glad to have seen a fun quilt show, had a nice lunch with new friends, and then visit this little quilt shop and one more closer into the town, itself. A good day and a bit of a miracle of nature combined!


Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!

My Heart Filled With Blessings

My prayer flags of blessings are flying high in the winds of gratitude.  Blessings of gratitude for all of the many miracles in all of our lives, gratitude for patriotism that unites rather than divides us, and love for the good that is done in this world by so many.


My brother was brought back and out of his medically induced coma, on Valentine's Day!!! Eleven days after he had been placed on a ventilator and into the coma to allow him the chance to breathe without stress. And a chance for his pneumonia scarred lungs to heal.

He could only be on a ventilator for 14 days before it would become dangerous for medical complications. And when this happened before (in 2012) they were unable to bring him out and we waited with praying hearts and bated breath for an extra 3 days.

After 14 days, they either breathe on their own or have a tracheotomy for a surgical implant of a vent in the throat, rather than the vent down the throat. Oh, it has been hard learning so much, going through so much, yet finding out just how strong we all can be.

Four hospitals and three states later, in 2012, I was the one nonchalantly vacuuming out his trach vent (taught to do so by a doctor, first, trust me!) when he began to choke. You push that nurse's call button but sometimes, you just need to remember that we are part of all miracles and accept the responsibility for right thinking and right doing and have to do both!

This time, his oxygen levels were just to low to bring him out earlier. He was in the 80% range and he needed to be at 98% or above. And bit by bit, he got there to that level, thus allowing his doctors in Anchorage to bring him back up and out, once again.

I give thanks that he has yet another chance to live for surely to have survived so much, there must still be more good that he is meant to do in this world.

Gratitude for the beautiful snow last week, here in Oregon, that gave me such joy but lifted so quickly to let the sunshine back into our lives.

I had a lovely Valentine's Day of staying centered for the miracles to ensue while I baked Valentine sugar cookies with sprinkles, made a huge batch of potato salad and spaghetti. Comfort foods not necessarily eaten together!

And I was so grateful for the shameful goodness of Cinnabon cinnamon rolls that my husband brought home, that I ate for dessert...after far too many sugar cookies, first. Some days, one needs to be more sweet than others, after all! And I hadn't eaten one in years!

Grateful for great big, huge things like miracles, and little bitty swirled things topped with cream cheese frosting,  and wonderful little home baked cookies with colored sprinkles, too.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentines, and if you live in the United States, as I do,  that you enjoy your President's Day holiday and a long, good weekend of gratitude, creativity, and joy.

Blessings and gratitude.

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!

The Principle of the Patchwork Quilt:Sochi Olympics

Two and a half years ago, I wrote a post about "The Principle of the Patchwork Quilt" at a a time when the theme, the look, and samples first came out as a mere possibility for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi!

Guess what? It's the theme that was selected!

The beautiful rainbow...a symbol for all people, of all religions, cultures, and  belief systems is especially meaningful during a time when a hosting country has chosen to denigrate an entire group of people, that the same country picked a theme celebrating the patchwork of diversity of cultures.


Here's a look at some of the clothing that the Russian athletes will be wearing.  I made a general collage to share the overall look of some of the Olympic Russian apparel.

And I, for one, would love to own a piece of this as winter wear! I'm thinking the blue patchwork vest on the right near the bottom in my own collage their Olympic team clothing....oh yes, I could wear this!

 

As Bosco, the official licensing organization says:

"Olympic patchwork quilt, developed by Bosco’s creative department and given to the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, will be the official Look of Russia’s first Winter Games.
 
Our goal was to represent a diverse range of emotions and feelings, connecting concepts like Motherland, Family, Culture, Time, Olympism, Peace, Nobility, Friends, Memory, Honour, Dreams, Beauty, Freedom, Pride, Warmth, Happiness, Greatness, Reliability, Victory, Creativity, Hospitality, Creation, Future, Russia, Planet Earth.     Every region in the world is proud of its unique origins, and it is no different in Russia. That is why there are so many different local traditions, songs and crafts that highlight the individuality of their creators, each valuable in its own right. Bosco had a wealth of choices to represent Russia’s rich diversity, but in the end we settled on something familiar, warm and welcoming: the patchwork quilt.

In the concept design, every patch was infused with the history and personality of traditional crafts from each of Russia’s 89 regions: in a single tapestry we combined Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and the flowers of Pavlo Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns, fabrics of Ivanovo and other distinctive Russian patterns.

That is how we arrived at a modern, distinctive and unmistakeably Russian Look of the Games.

With Heart and Hands :

2014 Winter Olympics--Principle of the Patchwork Quilt?

I am quoting from the official 2011 press releases from Bosco, the official licensed clothing company for the Russian Olympic Team apparel.

"The XXII Olympic Winter Games will take place in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. This week the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee unveiled the concept of the "Look of the Games" which was designed by BOSCO Sports, a sponsor of the Olympics, as well as the official uniform provider for the Russian Olympic team since 2002.

Their newest entry for 'the look' revolves around “the principle of the ‘patchwork quilt’ — a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma.”
Using these compiled fabrics....

.....they created a design which the press release describes as....

"The design was created from the motifs of ornaments of the most famous Russian national crafts. Here we can see Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and Pavlov Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns and Ivanovo chintz. A new modern approach to the folk motifs, a thorough work on the common algorithm for construction of the patchwork quilt - “an individual net”, and on each of the 28 constituent fragments, and an unconditional work of authorship of the BOSCO creative team add an exclusive urgency to the LOOK OF THE GAMES."

Check out the fabulous unveiling photos...

In my 2011 post, I wrote "Oh yes....If I could vote I'd definitely vote for this patchwork crafts entry as the theme of the 2014 Olympics, how about you?"

Let us hope and prayer that things will improve in time for the 2014 Winter Olympics in all ways and keep the country and all of the athletes in your positive thoughts in all ways! 

Today, the official opening day for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, I am off making a patchwork quilt...it's all about "The Principle of the Patchwork Quilt"! Mine won't be like their ideas, just a patchwork quilt of my own.

But here are some ideas and links for you as I am receiving many requests for "How to Make a Sochi Quilt".

All of these Sochi designs for "The Principle of the Patchwork Quilt"  resemble both the Thousand Pyramids and many of the Diamond quilts.


 Thousand Pattern quilt block on my blog:
http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2009/12/free-quilt-block-patterns.html


courtesy of : http://www.quilterscache.com/T/ThousandPyramidsBlock.html



But how pretty are these? Look at how differently, triangles make up into diamonds if you just change your fabric choices from each of these looks, below:



Park Slope Triangles Quilt, 49 x 61", free pattern by Michael Miller Fabrics

Tonga Sugar 1000 pyramids, 68 x 83”, by Karen Montgomery for Timeless Treasures Fabrics 
 

 

One reader even mentioned that she had taken a class from Jan Krenz where she showed a very similar idea. Check out that quilter and her own "Indian Summer" quilt made with the "Thousand Pyramid" idea at: Jan Krentz from the book Quick Diamond Quilts and Beyond

Road Well Traveled, 68 x 79", free pattern by Jean Ann Wright for Marcus Brothers 

Skylark by June Pease at Red Rooster Fabrics

  
 

Chateau Rouge French General, free pattern at Moda Fabrics 

Alfresco, 80 x 96", free pattern by Jean Ann Wright for Marcus Brothers Fabrics

Modern Ombre Triangle  42 x 48", baby quilt tutorial and pattern at See Kate Sew

Have fun creating your own Sochi Patchwork Quilt!

++++++++++++++Updated at the end of the Olympics!+++++++++++++

And now, Lyn Brown, on her blog has created her own "Memories of Sochi" Quilt Pattern available for free through Craftsy!

As Lyn says: 
"This design is simplified. There are only three panels. Each panel is made of just squares and quarter square triangles.  It is the color and variety of the fabrics you use that will make this quilt fabulous!
If you want to make a bigger quilt, make the panels longer and/or make more panels.

So start gathering fabrics of all colors of the rainbow to make your memories of Sochi quilt… And don’t forget to download the FREE pattern  from Craftsy!"Memories of Sochi PDF

Meanwhile, Hoffman Fabrics came up with a free quilt pattern inspired by the Sochi quilt,

 When Bali Met Sochi.

I ..and my blog... were mentioned and linked up to in The Quilter's Newsletter!

Sochi Olympics banners as quilt inspiration | Inside Quilters Newsletter

www.quiltersnewsletter.com

 ...it's still all about the Principle of the Patchwork Quilt! 

Michele Bilyeu blogs With Heart and Hands as she shares a quilting journey through her life in Salem, Oregon and Douglas, Alaska. Sewing, quilting, and wildcrafting, with small format art quilts, prayer flags, and comfort quilts for a variety of charitable programs. And best of all, sharing thousands of links to Free Quilt and Quilt Block Patterns and encouraging others to join her and make and donate quilts to charitable causes.   Help us change the world, one little quilt, art quilt, and prayer flag at a time!