I hardly ever get to use all three of my mighty Oregon, Washington and California tags for a single post, but today is an exciting exception!

Here in Portland, we are in for a treat tonight: Linda will be at Powell’s at 7:30, talking crochet and signing copies of Crochet Adorned! You can also check out this interview with her on the Oregonian’s knitting blog, and her live segment on this morning’s AM Northwest show — and she took this lovely photo of her book while visiting the Rose Garden yesterday. So pretty.

I’ll be writing more about her beautiful book tomorrow with some photos from her event…

And tomorrow night August 14, Ryan Berkley has a fantastic art show, Creature People, opening at Schmancy in Seattle!

I wish I could make it in person, but luckily for those of us not in the Evergreen State there will be plenty of online awesomeness to admire.

And all weekend, Handmade Nation is showing at Cinefamily in Los Angeles! Woo hoo!

Check out the Cinefamily site for lots more info on the gift bags, giveaways, book signing, mini-craft fair, and more!

If you go:

Linda Permann at Powell’s, 1005 W. Burnside St, Portland
Thursday, August 13 at 7:30 pm

(and at Yarn Garden, 1413 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland on Saturday August 15 from 1 to 3 pm)

Ryan Berkley at Schmancy Toys, 1932 2nd Ave, Seattle
Friday, August 14 from 6 to 9 pm

Handmade Nation at Cinefamily, 611 N. Fairfax, Los Angeles
Saturday, August 15 at 12 noon and 7 pm
Sunday, August 16 at 3, 5, 7, and 9 pm

My friend Jamin London Tinsel is having a show at Visage tonight — she’s showing work in clay along with photographs from Julie Forward, a really lovely pairing.

I helped Jamin set things up yesterday afternoon and I got to install the piece on the postcard, bit by bit! It was so much fun to arrange all those tiny cups within the vessel, and see her beautiful work up close. If you are free tonight (or later this month), please stop by to see the show. We’ll be there tonight to celebrate with her.

If you go:
Squirm at Visage
1046 NW Johnson St., Portland
Opening tonight, August 6, from 6-9

Portland’s sweetest record store, Q is for Choir on SE Clinton St. also has an enchanting show of Julie’s luminous photographs right now… stop in to see them if you are in the neighborhood.

I’m so happy that the Summer of Making is finally here — the craft portion begins tonight, when Denyse Schmidt is giving a lecture at the Museum of Contemporary Craft! She’ll describe her work, her process, and her approach to craft, and share images of new and in-progress projects… including a very special sneak preview of her upcoming Hope Valley fabric line! Denyse’s talk starts things off before her two-day workshop this Saturday and Sunday — which I am thrilled to be taking.

I had a chance to speak to her for a few minutes yesterday about the workshop, her current projects, and her thoughts on contemporary quilting.

image courtesy of American Craft magazine via Summer of Making

Can you tell me a bit about the two-day workshop? I know you usually teach one-day classes.
Denyse: Yes, this is a new experience — more a combination of the regular and advanced Improvisational Patchwork classes. There’s so much more time that I think we’ll be able to take things quite far. Everyone will be working quite hard, and hopefully we’ll be doing some really cool stuff! I’m glad everyone in the class is giving themselves the gift of time to focus on making.

What have you been working on lately?
I’ve recently completed some quilts and and I have some others in progress. I’ll be sharing images of all of them at the lecture, as well as previews of my new Hope Valley fabric line! I don’t have fabric in hand yet but I will be able to show the designs. [Hope Valley will be coming out this fall - check out this tantalizing preview post at True Up for a bit more on the line!]

What are your thoughts on quilting these days?
There’s such a powerful interest in quilting now. I started my business 12 years ago and in the last 5 years I’ve seen interest build on the do-it-yourself end. There was such a renaissance of knitting a few years ago, and it seems to have carried over into “domestic crafts” now. Quilting has some built-in challenges, like the time factor and the need to use a sewing machine, so it’s been great to see the interest in it grow.

The Gee’s Bend quilts have been a big influence, too. And before that, there was a pivotal show of quilting at the Whitney in the 70s (“Abstract Design in American Quilts,” 1971), and I ran across the show catalog, which was a whole book of images, when I was starting my business. Jonathan Holstein wrote the introduction. He (and Gail van der Hoof) collected American quilts and in this show they were treated like contemporary paintings — put on the wall to view in that context for the first time.

Not all of them were masterpieces, not all were well made, some were quirky and simple, but they were so individual. In a world of traditional quilt shows and art quilts, they were really making a statement. And the Gee’s Bend show that opened in Houston and then went to the Whitney in 2002 was the first time since then that quilts were shown that way.

Design and the straightforward approach are what’s so interesting to me. I always make it up as I go along — the work seems more true that way.

Thank you, Denyse!

If you go:
Denyse Schmidt’s lecture
Friday, July 17, 2009
5:30 – 6:30pm
Museum of Contemporary Craft
724 Northwest Davis Street, Portland

The lecture is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there!

My three-day whirlwind of quilts wound down on Sunday with our visit to the High Desert Museum south of Bend. I have never been to a museum quite like it — it’s tucked back in its own world, well off the road, at the end of a long and winding drive.

The Patterns from the Past exhibit drew plenty of Sisters quilters eager to see the collection of antique quilts from the Susan Lewis Cockrell collection! Everyone commented on border patterns, fabric choices and humble blocks and snapped tons of pictures. Most were displayed hanging on the wall, so we could see the details of the entire quilt, but some in more fragile condition were folded in glass cases.

The seventeen quilts, all made by Southern women between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, show the fascinating progression of patterns, fabric colors, political messages, quilting styles, and available materials as the fortunes of the South rose and fell dramatically during these quilters’ lifetimes. Signs all around the space added fascinating historical details, as well as speculation about the origins or inspiration behind the patterns, since 16 of the 17 are uncredited to their makers after so many years. It felt like an education in a room, learning this history and seeing these lush and beautiful quilts that could have been made by our great-great-grandmothers (give or take a few generations) — and at the same time somehow looked as fresh and lovely as if they had been pieced and stitched this year and shown in Sisters.

Just a note — the High Desert Museum graciously gave us all permission to take non-flash photos, but these delicate antiques are only displayed in low light, so some of my pictures are out of focus or harder to see detail on (especially the smaller print on the signs, which is a shame, because the curators did an outstanding job framing these pieces with vivid historical background).

My whole set of Patterns from the Past photos is here — I spotlighted six of the quilts, but there are eleven more exquisite pieces in the collection (which is owned by the Benton County Historical Museum), and if you have the chance to visit Bend, I wholeheartedly recommend seeing this show in person!

Star of Many Points – circa early 1800s
This quilt’s humble blocks (in the sign below, there’s a great description of the tradition) are so striking within the otherwise beautifully symmetrical geometric pattern.

Whig Rose – Applique – circa 1830s-50s
I could not believe the condition of this beautiful, bright quilt after at least 160 years. The design was breathtaking up close (particularly the exquisite hand-quilting patterns) and the colors were incredibly well preserved!

Album Applique – circa 1850s
Each square of this quilt was created by a different seamstress, in a style that was popular in the Victorian era and inspired by autograph albums. The colors are much softer than most of the others in the collection.

Pomegranate Applique Album – after 1850
Some of the fascinating details revealed on the placard: this beautiful quilt was also made in the communal album style (with a repeating instead of assorted block pattern like the one above), spotlighting the pomegranate — which symbolized fertility and love — along with the use of “daring new colors” like Cheddar yellow and Navy blue.

Northern or Carolina Lily – circa 1850s-60s
This lovely design displays a political message through the quilter’s decision not to twine the Northern Lily and Southern Rose, and her choice to “break” the vine may mean she advocates secession from the Union.

Log Cabin – 1865
This strikingly simple quilt top (it is only pieced and backed, not fully quilted and bound) is the only one in the collection with a definite history. It was made by Susan Cockrell’s grandmother in 1865, using the pattern most closely linked to President Lincoln, the Log Cabin — with some variants in her red, white and blue color choices suggesting a nod to the tradition of the humble block, while at the same time ushering in the radical new era of the modern scrap quilt.

As a complement to the antique quilts on display, there was a newly made quilt on a frame for visitors to add their quilting and stitching to. I added a few tenative inches of hand-quilting, and felt even more amazed by the 14-stitches-to-the-inch delicacies surrounding me!

And outside the main entrance, there was a table set up to create your own quilt pattern, with lots of little angled pieces to arrange and rearrange into blocks.

After we left the museum, we headed north through Redmond and Madras (with a beautiful view of Mt. Bachelor the whole time), wound around the gorgeous open canyons of Warm Springs, and finally skirted the south side of Mt. Hood to come back to Portland. I’ve never felt more lucky to live in Oregon, with the chance to appreciate all these beautiful things in just a few days — but somehow seeing so many quilts by Southern artists (from these unknown women of the 19th century to the Quilters of Gee’s Bend) out here in the West was very much like coming home, and made me feel like part of a family of quilters.

I grew up in North Carolina and have always loved our family quilts, from the antique postage-stamp black-velvet-and-colored-silk confection (so beautiful, but sadly showing its age) to the hand-quilted green calico workhorse that’s still holding strong. Their fabrics and colors tell such a story! I don’t know exactly which women in our family made them, just like in the ones in the Cockrell collection, but next time I visit my mom’s house I’ll be seeing them in a whole new light. I hope generations from now someone’s enjoying my quilt just as much!

I’ve heard so many great things about the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show for years and never had the chance to go before — so on Saturday, Andrew, Pearl and I headed south to Salem and then east through the majestic Deschutes National Forest to find ourselves in the packed-tight town of Sisters, with all major streets closed for quilt purposes! We found a shady spot a little ways out and one thorough application of sunscreen later, we were on our way into the heart of it all.

Through the luck of the draw, as we were walking the very first block we came to was anchored by The Stitchin’ Post, Valori Wells‘ fantastic independent fabric store — I’d been looking forward to seeing it and it was circled on my little map. But there, out front on the store’s porch, were seven of the Gee’s Bend Quilters, being filmed for a documentary — talking about their lives, their community, their inspiration for quilting, how their paths had changed so wonderfully with the chance to show and sell their work nationwide, and even singing three songs together, with one woman leading each time and the others joining in. I was starstruck listening to them talk, and in tears while they sang — it was an amazing surprise. From what I’d seen on the show schedule, they were leaving after teaching workshops on Friday, so I thought we’d miss them (and their quilts) completely, but there they were.

After the interview, they stayed to sign books and talk to quilters, and I got to quickly say hello and how much I loved their work as a collective, and that I’d gotten to see their Portland show this week. I wish so much I’d had my copy of The Architecture of the Quilt with me, but since it weighs about ten pounds I don’t casually take it out to the desert, oh well — and I couldn’t budget an extra $50 for The Quilts of Gee’s Bend on the spot, though it’s at the top of my wishlist. But they were kind enough to sign a copy of the Gee’s Bend journal I bought — and even had a compliment for my husband’s patience in minding the baby in the heat, while I got to talk quilting for a luxurious few minutes… thank you, Andrew!

Later, when we peeked into the (packed with happy quilters) Stitchin’ Post to see Valori’s new Del Hi fabric line (beautiful), Pearl got smiles and waves from several of the Gee’s Bend ladies! It was a fantastic beginning to the day of quilts.

The side of the Stitchin’ Post had over a dozen quilts made by the shop’s employees, all inspired by the Gee’s Bend quilters. I thought they were gorgeous! Here are some closer shots…

So now might be a good time to mention what we were rapidly discovering after leaving the bliss of the small Stitchin’ Post-Gee’s Bend corner of the show: this festival is absolutely huge, and the whole town is covered with quilts for the Outdoor Show. Every business, from City Hall to the tanning salon, has quilts hanging on the porches and fronts and sides of the buildings! I guess I was picturing a couple of blocks of wonderful-ness, but the town was decorated from one end to the other — we made a pretty big loop and I still don’t think we saw more than 2/3 of the whole amazing collection. I took photos of some of my favorites, most of which are credited to the artists, but in the heat and with a toddler in tow, I missed some of the close-ups of the tags! So I’ll post the pictures with some quick descriptions, and all of my Sisters photos are here if you want to see them…

There was not only a quilted ArtCar, but a quilted ArtMinivan.

This was probably my absolute favorite quilt — a tribute to Charley Harper. The stitching and details were beautiful!

I love log cabin (and its infinite strip-quilt variations) most of all designs, and there were some beautiful ones in the show… this Barn Raising Brown + Beige quilt was lovely, with narrow strips and loopy quilting!

This Four Square used such similar colors for such a different effect… and I loved the details the quilter shared on the tag about its creation.

This graphic Straight Furrows Logs and Labels quilt went in an entirely different direction, with repurposed clothes tags adorning the center of each elongated block, as well as the sashing all around the main design…

And this nature-inspired It’s Gotta Be Green quilt tipped the traditional light-and-dark log cabin squares on point for a diamond effect. I also loved the angled, geometric quilting all over the design.

I love vintage quilt patterns, and seeing this sweet, inviting hexagon and nine-patch together in a pairing made me very happy!

After a couple of hours of quilt-admiring we got a second pleasant surprise: the Sisters Library was having a free book sale, with donations accepted, and we found some good treasures, including a stack of vintage Sunset books! So after one last loop back, and a second Nalgene and sippy-cup refill of cold, refreshing water courtesy of the fire department, we headed for our hotel in Bend and relaxed in the pool. Then I mapquested the High Desert Museum, we went out for Mexican food, and we got ready for day 2 of our mini-vacation, quilt edition!

On Friday, Pearl and I headed over to Elizabeth Leach to see the Quilts of Gee’s Bend show and met up with Jamin, Angelina, Lee, Pete, Star, Josh & Sarah there. Having the chance to see these beautiful pieces and appreciate the hand-quilting and binding and color and details in natural light in that luxuriously open gallery space is amazing. When I saw the larger Gee’s Bend show at the DeYoung in San Francisco, it was so popular and so crowded that it was hard to just enjoy looking at each quilt — so if you are in Portland (or can get here this month), don’t miss it!

The Elizabeth Leach Gallery generously gave me permission to take photographs, so all of my images are courtesy of them — the quilt and print snapshots are first, then the artist’s details, and all of my photos are here.

There is also a collection of exquisite aquatone etchings — signed and numbered limited edition prints in simple, appealing frames that capture the lushness of the quilts in a calmer medium. I had never seen anything quite like these and I thought they were mesmerizing…

There are so many pieces (quilts and prints both) that I didn’t photograph, but one last thing I did catch was this statement from the gallery:

What a treat! We all headed over to get ice cream afterwards and it was such a nice end to the busy week.

I am so eager to see the show again — a weekday afternoon is my favorite time to visit a gallery, and I will be right in the neighborhood all next week! And I’m still hoping to make it down to Ashland, too…

I saw so many beautiful quilts over the last few days — as I mentioned last week, I was lucky enough to visit the Gee’s Bend Quilts show at Elizabeth Leach here in Portland, the Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, and the “Patterns from the Past” show at the High Desert Museum in Bend! It’s going to take me a little while to get the zillion photos I took on to my flickr, but for now here’s one Sarah snapped of me and Pearl in front of our favorite quilt in the Gee’s Bend show…

The quilt image is courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery, and the quilt itself is Blocks by Loretta Bennett, 2007. If you are local, this show is fantastic and I hope you get a chance to see it this month!

OK, see you tomorrow with lots more photos…

This month is filled with quilt events and exhibits all over Oregon. Here are the ones I’m going to in the next few weeks — if you are nearby, you might want to check some of them out too!

This afternoon, Pearl and I are meeting some friends to see the Quilts of Gee’s Bend exhibit at Elizabeth Leach Gallery, which includes both quilts and archival prints! I am so excited to see this show. I saw a big show of the Gee’s Bend Quilts at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco several years ago and it was incredible. The Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland also has a larger Gee’s Bend show this month and I am already planning a trip down…

Speaking of trips, Andrew, Pearl and I are heading to Sisters this weekend to see the world-famous Outdoor Quilt Show — we will miss yet another Gee’s Bend event that’s going on earlier this week, but will get to see a whole Saturday’s worth of quilts! I’m really looking forward to it, I’ll be taking tons of pictures and I’ll post them next week. While we’re there, I’m also going to see the “Patterns from the Past” show at the High Desert Museum in Bend — a collection of seventeen quilts made by Southern women from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War eras…

…and the exhibit includes a communal quilt that visitors can embellish or stitch on, a lot like the wonderful Stitch-O-Rama tablecloth we embroidered at craft events in Portland in 2006 as part of the New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma’s Doily show at the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

The Museum is also hosting a lecture by Denyse Schmidt which should be phenomenal, on Friday, July 17th at 5:30pm . It precedes her two-day workshop, which I am thrilled to be taking. I’ve always wanted to take her Connecticut-studio class and now that she’s coming to Portland, I am so excited to learn new color and quilting techniques!

The museum has an exhibit upstairs in the Lab with one of her quilts and work from the other teachers in the Summer of Making program. I am so honored that four pieces of my jewelry from Bead Simple and Button It Up are displayed in front of the quilt — Denyse is one of my craft heroes!

Just a reminder, too, that you can still enter to win a free spot in my Bead + Button Jewelry class through tomorrow. I’d love to see some fellow crafters there so if you’re blessed with a flexible schedule and want to spend four days making pretty things and learning new jewelry and embellishment techniques, please leave a comment on the Summer of Making post or on their Facebook page!

Thank you again to PNCA and the museum for putting on the Summer of Making, with a special thank-you to Josh, who has curated such a lovely program.

I haven’t had much time to craft for fun lately, but lucky for me, I just got a copy of Diane Gilleland’s lovely new e-book, Weaving Un-Loomed, and those sweet little projects are tempting me left and right! I learned how to weave on a cardboard loom at summer camp one year and I loved it. I remember that we dyed our own yarn with natural materials and then tried out different patterns and designs, I know I have my first triumphant little project somewhere…

I wrote a bit more about Weaving Un-Loomed as a special post for CraftStylish, and Diane gives a great introduction and overview on her blog post announcing the book, too. It’s a collection of five very different and very cool off-loom weaving projects, along with a comprehensive beginner-friendly how-to, about a zillion great tutorial photos, and a super-helpful resources section. You can buy the project tutorials individually or as a full book length, and Diane is also offering up a free download of one sample project on her announcement post — check out the last paragraph for the link!

As I mentioned over on CraftStylish, my first project will definitely be the Ribbon & Burlap Tote. I love the off-center cross of ribbons woven into the fabric, and the total simplicity of the design is so appealing.

In the meantime, while I dream of weaving, I have my very own in-house crafty inspiration — Pearl has started doing her very own art projects at school, and it’s been so much fun to see them all! I love her finger-painted tree the most. But the red-and-green I-don’t-know-what-that-is is very cool too.

I got her her own set of toddler-friendly crayons for our mini-vacation this weekend (more on that tomorrow!) and I’m planning to make her some play-dough, plus I’m on the lookout for some nice bright finger paint to add to our home art studio.

I have two little cotton smocks my grandmother sewed for me and my brother to paint and glue and make a mess in, so I’ve unpacked them from the big-kid-clothes box and I’m thinking it’s time for a crafty-toddler playdate with one of her buddies soon! I have some burlap and ribbons ready to go, too, so hopefully we can all do some fun little projects together. I could use some more summer camp in my life!

My Queen Bee hip holster is my go-to bag these days. It holds all the essentials and it’s lightweight, streamlined, cute, and hands-free (extra useful if you are wrangling a toddler, a couple of bags of groceries, or a box full of the complete 20-volume set of Make It Yourself… all of which I have had to wrangle in the last week). And even though yes, it is a hip pack, it does not scream 80s revival!! which is very important to me since I lived through the 80s the first time in middle school, with braces, and I just can’t go back. Anyway…

At Kate’s opening at Reading Frenzy last week, she was generous enough to live-draw a recent purchase or favorite small thing for each person there, so I got her to illustrate my hip holster! Thank you, Kate!

It is such a fantastic show! Be sure and stop by this month and check out all the daily drawings and banners and pennants and posters and zines. There is a ton of stuff to see, I’m going back this week for a second look.

And if you’re a hip holster fan too, they are all on sale right now! Mine is the sugarbush design, but I also especially like hello! and sprout.

p.s. While you’re downtown visiting Reading Frenzy, take a detour down the Couch St. sidewalk edging the Powell’s building, near the Orange Room — someone tagged a bike rack with this colorful striped knitting and it looks awesome! Bonus points for the cute little red tricycle that was locked up next to it on Friday.