Jane’s Fabric Patch, Tillamook, OR

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Maggie Ball

I always enjoy the opportunity to visit quilting shops on my travels. On the way to Quilt Camp (see my previous blog), I visited Jane’s Fabric Patch in Tillamook, owned by Jane Wise our fearless Quilt Camp leader and organizer. This bright pink building certainly stands out! Jane is definitely into pink!

Inside, there is a cheerful atmosphere and the employees clearly enjoy working there. Everyone was excited about Quilt Camp about to begin and most of the customers that day were on their way to Camp. There are multiple rooms with an amazing quantity of fabrics, notions, books and patterns. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you discover another corner where there is even more…

Here’s the book and pattern nook and the large classroom.

Great fun and well worth a visit along with other attractions in Tillamook such as The Cheese Factory with delicious ice cream and the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center.

Tillamook County Quilt Trail

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Maggie Ball

In October I had a wonderful time teaching at Quilt Camp at Twin Rocks on the OR coast. En route I had time to explore a little in the Tillamook area and was delighted to see many quilt blocks painted on large boards hanging on buildings.

The Quilt Trail concept is very popular in the East where there are around 3,000 quilt blocks mounted on barns and businesses. The nearest to Tillamook is in Nebraska. The Tillamook Quilt Trail began in 2009 with 13 quilt blocks. Each year, more have been added and there are now over 45. On the left we have the one displayed in Wheeler just north of Tillamook on the Old Wheeler Hotel building which also houses Creative Quilting, a nice quilt shop. On the right, Jane’s Fabric Patch in Tillamook has a lily block and there is one on the side of Roby’s Furniture and Appliances too.

It’s fun to watch out for these quilt blocks and see how many you can spot as you drive through or walk around Tillamook. Brochures listing the location of all the quilt blocks are available at the Visitors’ Center and at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center.

Latimer Quilt &Textile Center, OR – guided tour

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Maggie Ball

When Nancy Watts and I visited the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center before Ocean Waves Quilt Camp, (see last blog), we discovered that if we gathered together a group of six people, we could have a guided tour through the climate-controlled repository. We decided that we would easily persuade six people at Quilt Camp to come the morning we were all to head for home at the end of Camp, so we went ahead and made the arrangements with the Center. Over 20 people from Camp came so we had two shifts for the tour of the repository where there are over 160 quilts and quilt tops stored along with vintage fabric collections and antique textiles of all kinds.

The quilts and quilt tops are all stored in acid-free boxes carefully numbered and labelled with a picture for ease of identification. There are a series of huge shelving units that roll on a system of rails and everything is very well organized. They also have a bed with some antique quilts stored flat and we were privy to a bed turning.

The woven cover dates from the 1850s. This beautiful Crown of Thorns quilt was hand pieced and hand quilted by Ella Jones, aged 16, in 1883. Here’s a spectacular crazy quilt from 1898. The embroidery was wonderful and as we looked, we kept seeing more delightful details.

This mosaic quilt came from the Lamb family and was made in the 1890s

Here’s a Pineapple quilt, again from the late 1800’s

Finally, a beautiful applique quilt with fine hand quilting.

Latimer Quilt & Textile Center, Tillamook, OR

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Maggie Ball

I was fortunate to visit the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center near Tillamook when I went to teach at Ocean Waves Quilt Retreat on the OR coast. This is a gem of a place and a great quilting resource. Visiting should be a high priority if you are in the area.

The Center began as a school, built in 1900 on a parcel of land donated by James and Permelia Latimer in 1892. The current building dating from the 1930s, became a maintenance repair facility in 1959. Thirty years later the property reverted to the Latimer family who then donated it to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum Foundation in memory of James and Permelia. Claire Fairfield, an employee of the Museum, saw the need for a textile center in the Pacific Northwest; a place for artisans to demonstrate, teach and produce their crafts. The Center has become this place and hosts many craft activities. There is a large room devoted to spinning and weaving.

A sizable area houses special visiting exhibits including quilts and other fiber arts. When we were there the Whidbey Island Surface Design Association had an eclectic show entitled Life on the Edge which included some facinating 3-d pieces. In another large room that can be used for workshops, antique quilts from the permanent collection are displayed on the walls. The lovely Lone Star (c.1930) was donated by Al Griffin and the Sunbonnet Sue (c.1935) donated by Jo Kincade.

Also in this room were wooden cabinets with display drawers containing all kinds of interesting quilt blocks, embroidery, beading, lace work, buttons and more.

The beautiful 2013 raffle quilt was on display. The “Oregon Quilt” was made by volunteers at the Latimer Center and machine quilted by Mary Torrey.

The Center also has an impressive research library with an extensive collection of books and patterns available for on-site research. Then there’s the store to help boost Museum funds with all kinds of hand crafted items and more.

If you have a group of six or more, you can go on an organized tour by appointment to see the climate-controlled repository for the permanent collection items not on display. More on this in my next blog.

Ocean Waves Quilt Camp, OR

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Maggie Ball

I had a wonderful time last October teaching at Ocean Waves Quilt Camp on the Oregon coast, just north of Tillamook. Quilt Camp is an annual event organized by Jane Wise the owner of Jane’s Fabric Patch quilt shop in Tillamook. My good friend Nancy Watts is a regular attendee at this annual event and suggested I contact Jane about teaching. If you are looking for a quilting get-away with three days of workshops from a wide variety of teachers, this is a great opportunity in the beautiful location of Twin Rocks Camp. There were about eight teachers and 85 attendees. Here we all are. Jane in her hot pink jacket is in the front center.

I taught workshops on all three days. Here’s my classroom during Bargello Quilts with a Twist. On the other side of the partition, Peggy Gelbrich was teaching and the photo on the right shows some of the beautiful pieces her students made in her Swinging on a Star class.

Here’s a couple of Bargello block arrangements from students in my class. On the Christmas one, the cardinal is fussy cut to go in the center of the four middle blocks. The blocks look great.

On the last night, we had show and tell. Nancy took these pictures of some of my students displaying their projects. It was fun to see everyone’s work. A couple of my students did study hall for a day after taking the Kaleidoscope Puzzle class, so they made great progress with their larger pieces.

I enjoyed seeing projects from other classes too, and several people brought completed quilts from previous quilt camps. It was a wonderful grand finale to an action packed three days of fun (including jokes read out by Jane at every meal and many door prizes). As an added bonus, the food was excellent. I can highly recommend this camp and I know that Jane will welcome you as will all the regulars who have been attending for years.

Happy New Year!

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Maggie Ball

Greetings for the New Year! As I review the events of 2013, the year included some wonderful experiences. I love traveling to teach and sharing my quilting passion took me afield to TX, NM, CA, OR and South Africa. Quilters all over the world are such welcoming and kind people. Next year’s plans already include TX, PA, CA, CO and Mongolia. On the home front, I’m expecting my first grandchild in late June so there is much excitement!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? The start of another year gives us a good incentive to think about our goals large and small. One of my resolutions is to spend time quilting every day when I’m at home. Hours are easily swallowed up with administrative tasks ranging from negotiating teaching contracts and making travel arrangements to handling my business accounting. Not to mention writing blogs and newsletters and succumbing to computer distractions. It’s a matter of discipline and I need to deliberately apportion my time each day to include time for quilting and designing quilts as well as making sure I complete all the essential business tasks. The intention is there, let’s see how I do…..

May you have a happy and productive 2014!

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Maggie Ball

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

The house is decorated and festive, the Christmas cards posted, the presents are wrapped and the first two batches of mince pies have already been consumed! I love this time of year with family and friends, good food, a joyous celebration at church and much singing. I hope your holidays are happy and stress free and that you’ll find some quiet peaceful moments when you can reflect on the joys of life itself.

Mongolian Quilting Center

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Maggie Ball

My association with Selenge Tserendash and women at the Mongolian Quilting Center continues and I raise funds from donations and selling their products when I travel to teach. See the Mongolian pages on this website. Earlier this month, we participated in Christmas in the Country on Bainbridge Island. This event has several locations each with 10-15 booths and is very popular. St. Barnabas Church hosted Christmas in the Country for the first time this year, and since they are also the guardians of our Mongolian funds, it made perfect sense to have our booth there.

Here’s the booth and a close-up of the beautiful silver unicorn silk hanging. It is thrilling and inspiring for me to see the level to which the Mongolian women have taken their quilting and product development. Nine years have elapsed since my first trip to Mongolia when I taught them very basic quilting techniques. Since then several other volunteers have taught too and the women have become increasingly creative and resourceful. They now have a designer at the Center, a manager, three seamstresses and five part-time teachers. As many as 35 women do piece work at home, such as the silk blocks, which they bring to the Center for the seamstresses to assemble into the products.

I encouraged them to work with silk which the tourists love. Selenge discovered that the garment factory making silk deels, (tunics worn by Mongolians), was burning their leftover scraps or sending them to the land fill. At first they gave her their scraps, but then began charging a small amount after they saw the beautiful items the women were making. The women use even the smallest scraps to make crazy patchwork cosmetic bags, change purses and Log Cabin blocks for long-handled denim purses. Our top selling items were the felted slippers, the silk squares with fan or Twisted Log Cabin blocks and the Log Cabin denim purses. Total takings for the 3-day event were $1,460. The silk wall hangings shown below were designed and made at the Center. I think they are absolutely beautiful and I’m so proud of Selenge Tserendash and the Mongolian women.

It was a particularly busy weekend for me as in addition to running the booth, I sang in three concerts and two Sunday services. I couldn’t have managed without John and Nancy Watts from Portland who helped me set up and kept everything going when I couldn’t be there. We became good friends after Nancy (Watts) saw me talking about the Mongolia project on the Nancy’s Corner part of Sewing with Nancy (Nancy Zieman). Nancy and John were interested in going to Mongolia and came to visit me to get more information.Two years ago they made their trip and Nancy taught at the Mongolian Quilting Center in Ulaanbaatar. Last year, Nancy and I coordinated the special exhibit of Mongolian quilts at the Sisters Quilt Show in OR and hosted Selenge Tserendash from Mongolia. Nancy came with me to Quilt Market in Portland this spring and we ran into Nancy Zieman who was amazed to hear this story. In September, John and Nancy went to Wisconsin and were interviewed by Nancy Zieman on Nancy’s Corner. The program has just been aired. Click here to see this video, which will work for as Wisconsin Public Television keep it out there.

International Quilt Market, Houston 2013, #10

Posted on December 14, 2013 by Maggie Ball

A special exhibit I particularly enjoyed, was In the American Tradition. This is an annual exhibit which seeks to honor the country’s rich quiltmaking heritage. All the quilts displayed are clearly based on a documented 20th century or earlier American design or pattern. These wonderful traditional patterns have stood the test of time and are still absolutely beautiful. I find myself returning to them again and again, especially the star patterns. Here’s a selection.

A gorgeous Lone Star, Texas Gold by Vickie Owen from Texas,was made using a pattern reproduced from an antique quilt in an old quilt magazine. The navy and black in combination with the cheddar orange makes this star striking.

Feathers and Stars Abound by Zvia Strahilevitz-Klein from Israel is lovely combination of stars in such pretty soft colors. Her design source was Judy Rothermel’s Ohio Star Medallion quilt and Marsha McCloskey’s Feathered Stars. She resized the blocks and center Feathered Star to fit into this medallion.

Last Summer’s Leftovers is a beautiful hand-quilted scrappy quilt made by Rahna Summerlin from Florida. The design source is a Railroad Crossing quilt in Sharon Newman’s Treasures from Yesteryear Book 2. Rahna writes, “I am constantly inspired by antique quilts and am infatuated with scrap quilts from the early mid 1900’s.” This quilt was made with leftover triangles from a prior project.

Quilt Market Houston 203

Grandmother Eulah’s Flower Garden was hand pieced by Nancy Davis-Altman from Washington and machine quilted by Lin Clark. Nancy’s grandmother, Eulah Davis was her inspiration. She gave Nancy a quilt for a wedding present and it was always a favorite. Nancy’s grandfather used to call Eulah his “Little Petunia”, so the Grandmothers Flower Garden seemed a fitting pattern for this quilt made to honor her.

Connecticut comes to Spring made by Minay Sirois of Spring, Texas is amazing in its simplicity and beauty. The design source is Chinz One Patch (c1820-1840) made by the Hollister Family of Washington, Connecticut. Minay saw a picture of this quilt in the book Quilts and Quiltmakers: Covering Connecticut. What makes this simple one-patch quilt with sashing so stunning is the fabric choices. It took Minay seven years to find just the right fabrics to recreate the effect. It is very successful and an absolutely gorgeous hand quilted quilt.

International Quilt Market, Houston 2013 #9

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Maggie Ball

Over the years I’ve admired the work of Libby Lehman and was excited when she visited my local quilt guild to lecture and teach a workshop a few years ago. Libby is known for her exuberant colorful quilts and her brilliant use of thread in a playful way that adds an additional dimension to her work. She has traveled all over the world inspiring quilters with her creativity and good humor. Unfortunately, Libby suffered an aneurysm about six months ago which burst in her brain. She had two major surgeries followed by a stroke and is now residing in a senior retirement center. Her contribution to the quilting world was honored in a special exhibit.

Here’s a large white board, a We Miss You sign, where quilt show attendees could write messages for Libby and send their get well wishes. The quilt on the right is one of Libby’s well-known pieces made in 1994, Tidewaters. Below are examples of her recent work from 2012.

Watch Your Step: Fall and Watch Your Step II: Mushrooms

Watch Your Step V: Back Porch – full and detailed shots.

Here’s Libby’s humorous self-portrait, also from 2012. To see more examples of Libby’s work, check out her website.

Maggie Ball | Dragonfly Quilts

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