The Quilter’s Cafe, Yakima, WA

Last weekend I drove to Walla Walla to teach at the Walla Walla Valley Quilters’ Guild. I had all day to get there, so made some stops along the way. Who knew, there are five quilting shops in Yakima! I went to two of them and here’s a virtual tour of the first that I visited, The Quilter’s Cafe, which is located at 910 Summitview Avenue, Suite 1A. Here’s the outside and an attempt at a selfie picture of me with the owner, Linda Sutton.

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The store sells a good variety of quilting fabric, notions, embroidery supplies, books and patterns. They are Bernina dealers and Linda’s husband, Mike, services and repairs machines. In the back area there is a long-arm quilting machine which is available for rental after clients have completed a couple of training sessions.

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The store is spacious and light. They run classes, have free sew-in days and host the local hand-embroiderers group. It is well worth stopping by if you are in the vicinity. Linda gave me a warm welcome and I enjoyed looking round.

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Iron Shoe

My last few blogs have been about the Sew Expo in Puyallup. My main splurge there was at the Bo-Nash booth, where I purchased an IronSlide Ironing Board Cover and an IronSlide Iron Shoe. Here, I’ll show you the iron shoe. See my blog from last week for the ironing board cover.

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The IronSlide Iron Shoe is made of fiberglass with a non-stick surface. Starch and fusibles may be wiped off easily. Apparently, nothing will burn and you can iron over things like glitter, puff-paint and sequins without damaging them. You can also dispense with pressing clothes. It fits most sizes of iron. Simply pull on the draw strings and tie for a nice snug fit.

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I was concerned about losing the sharp point on my iron, but this doesn’t seem to present a problem when I want to iron seams open and has not been an issue. One thing I have noticed when ironing my quilting fabric, is that it tends to create static electricity. The fabric then clings a bit to the ironing board. As far as ironing efficiency goes, this in combination with the ironing board cover seem to have made a difference and everything is working nicely.

Ironing Board Cover

My last few blogs have been about the Sew Expo in Puyallup. My main splurge there was at the Bo-Nash booth, where I purchased an IronSlide Ironing Board Cover and an IronSlide Iron Shoe. Stephanie did a nice job promoting the products and I decided to give them a go.

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I have a “European” ironing board which is 18″ wide and 49″ long, and always have difficulty finding the appropriate size of ironing board cover. I purchased the Giant IronSlide cover which is 65″ x 29″. It is self adhesive and you simply peel off the paper backing and stick it down. I removed my old cover and extracted the padding from it to use again, and then added the silver self-adhesive IronSlide cover. I cut around the ironing board leaving a margin to tuck in at the sides and cut slits in it to miter around the edges. It was a little tricky and the adhesive is extremely sticky, but I managed to install it on my own. Having a second pair of hands would definitely have made the job easier. The ironing board looks pretty slick now and so far, I’m liking it.

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The IronSlide cover is made from luninex which reflects 300% more heat than regular cotton covers, so this in theory cuts the ironing time in half and both sides are ironed at once. If it has creases in it after installation, these will iron out. I didn’t have any problem with that and mine is nice and smooth. The cover is very stable and doesn’t move around at all.

In my next blog, I will show you the IronSlide Iron Show.

Sew Expo Puyallup III – Decorative Embroidery

Another feast for the eyes at the Puyallup Sew Expo was a booth adorned with incredible machine embroidery. The beauty and intricacy of the designs enthralled me. Machine embroidery is not something I’m interested in doing myself. In fact, I sold the embroidery unit that attaches to my Viking Designer 1 machine because I never used it and a friend wanted to buy one. However, when I see these fantastic designs, I can certainly appreciate and admire them. Momo Dini Embroidery Art, a company based in Texas, creates these elaborate designs and digitizes them for machine embroiderers with computer guided embroidery machines.

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Then of course, you can buy every imaginable color and type of thread from Superior Threads.

Sew Expo Puyallup II – Decorative felt kits

A booth at Sew Expo that really captivated me was tucked away at the far end of one of the exhibition halls. Lumenaris is a family owned business based in Morgan Hill, CA, selling felt kits, sewing tools, puzzles and games. They distribute their goods wholesale to over 800 stores nationally. The felt kit products, all designed by Mary Fatula, were so attractive and appealing to me. These are wonderful hand sewn projects that are small and convenient for carrying around to work on when you are traveling or waiting for appointments.

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Check out the variety of items – mats, ornaments, Christmas stockings, garlands, coasters, tea-cozies, and even felt cakes and cookies. What fun! The felt pieces are very accurately cut using a computer guided laser cutter and the kits contain everything you need to complete the projects.

Sew Expo, Puyallup I – booth sampling

Last week, I gave a lecture to Quilters by the Bay in University Place. One of the guild members kindly hosted me for the night and since I was over half way from home to Puyallup, I decided to go to the Sew Expo. This is a huge biannual event held at the State Fairgrounds and lasting for four days. There were two enormous halls of vendors, many of whom traveled from out-of-State to be there to cater for every need of sewers and quilters.Judging by the numbers of people busy shopping, quilting and sewing are alive and well as hobbies and there were serious spenders making the most of having all these vendors in one place. Many of large quilt shops in our area had booths. Here’s a sampling. As you can see, it wasn’t just quilting supplies. There were sewing machines, yarn and more. It was fun to check out new sewing gadgets.

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There were colorful displays of quilts, plenty of fabric and sewing machines large and small.

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The lady at the machine in the QuiltWorks Northwest booth was demonstrating Grip and Stitch, two dish-sponge sized discs that are used to move a quilt around as you machine quilt. They sit on the surface of the quilt and you can gently put your hands on them as you quilt. They cling to the quilt, so that you don’t have to grip with your hands as you machine quilt. I had a go and it worked pretty well.

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This t-shirt amused me – “I have OQD – Obsessive Quilting Disorder Thank goodness there’s no cure!”

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild Show – a small selection

My local quilt guild, Kitsap Quilters’ Guild, recently held their annual show at the Kitsap Fairgrounds in Silverdale. Last week I posted about our featured artist and this week I’m giving you a small sampling of quilt show entries that particularly appealed to me. Our annual quilt show always has a great variety of quilts, ranging from traditional to contemporary and encompassing many techniques. This year there were over 200 entries.

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On the left is Desert Knock Off pieced by Honora Dunkak and machine quilted by Marybeth O’Halloran. The quilt pattern is by Valori Wells. This quilt won first place in the Large Pieced Group category. Chromatic Hex Flowers, pieced by Marybeth O’Halloran and Jenn Rhoads and machine quilted by Marybeth was inspired by the Hexie Garden pattern by Atkinson Designs. Both of these quilts have a fresh, modern look and the colors really pop against the white backgrounds.

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Here’s another stunning quilt on a light background. Metro Scope in Kaffes, was pieced and machine quilted by Marybeth O’Halloran. The pattern is Metro Scope by Sew Kind of Wonderful. Check out the beautiful quilting especially in those oval white pieces. Marybeth works magic with her long-arm machine.

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Birds on Steroids was hand appliqued using wool and a variety of embellishments, embroidered, machine pieced and quilted by Carol Olsen. It took her over a year to complete while she was recovering from back surgery. These are such whimsical delightful birds and the attention to detail makes this a magnificent quilt.The pattern is Bird Dance by Sue Spargo. Carol is teaching a class on this at the quilt shop in Port Gamble, Quilted Strait.

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Gladys Schulz and friends made the Log Cabin blocks and Gladys assembled them and machine quilted this Log Cabin Sampler. I love the creative way that Gladys has set these Log Cabin blocks and the wonderful sampling of quilting patterns really enhances the piece.

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These last two are the quilts that I entered into the show. My Original Octangles won first place in the Innovative Art category. Heather and Jeff’s Star, made as a wedding gift, took second place in the Large Pieced Group category. Both quilts were machine quilted by Wanda Rains. More on these two in upcoming blogs.

 

 

Kitsap Quilters’ Guild show – featured artist Jaxine Anderson

My local quilt guild, Kitsap Quilters’ Guild, held their annual show this Friday and Saturday at the Kitsap Fairgrounds in Silverdale. The show featured over 200 entries from our members, and a special exhibit show casing the work of guild member Jaxine Anderson. Here’s a tour of Jaxine’s lovely display.

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Jaxine is a traditional quilter. Her work is predominantly pieced, but you’ll spy a small amount of applique too. She began quilting in 1989, after spending many prior years doing a variety of handwork. A co-worker introduced her to quilting and her first project was a wall hanging using a Debbie Mumm pattern. Then she began taking classes at a local fabric store and became hooked. After retiring from teaching elementary school, Jaxine owned a quilt shop for 10 years in Juneau, Alaska. In 2007, she sold the store and moved to Poulsbo when she became active in our guild.

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The quilt with the bars, a more contemporary design, was quilted by Marybeth O’Halloran with a different quilting design in each block. You get the gist of this wonderful quilting sampler from the detailed shot. Thank you Jaxine, for sharing your beautiful quilts.

 

Colorful Rugs in Oaxaca

Continuing the theme of vibrant colors in Mexico, here are some examples of the many beautiful woven rugs. The colors are often rich and heavily saturated. The Zapotec people use natural dyes including plants, minerals and insects. Inspiration comes from their colorful surroundings of lush vegetation, exotic flowering plants, birds, majestic mountains and local folk-law. Like pieced quilts, geometric shapes are repeated to produce wonderful patterns. The scenes with popular themes such as the tree of life filled with birds remind me of applique. In all forms of art, the color wheel works!

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Colorful Oaxaca

I’ve just returned from an amazing two weeks in Oaxaca and the surrounding countryside in southern Mexico. We began the trip with a couple of days in the city of Oaxaca, a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s easy to walk around the heart of the city and my room mate and I explored the streets near our hotel on our before breakfast walks. My immediate impression coming from the grey of a Pacific Northwest winter, was the vibrancy of color everywhere.The buildings are in good shape and many are freshly painted in gorgeous hues and bright combinations. Here’s a sampling.

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I’m sure at some subliminal level my exposure to these delights will influence and inspire my quilt making in the future. Enjoy these pictures. Don’t the rugs look fantastic against the bright blue walls!