Little Things

 Fall Crafts

For little people, and some big people.

And these are breads we saw at our grocery store this week. They have their own on-site bakery.

Now on to Texas for a wedding. 

Thread Painting- Special Exhibit

I want to tell you about the special exhibit at the quilt show that I know you will find as impressive and inspiring as I did. The show always features a special guest quilt artist and their work and this year it was Judith Phelps from Battle Ground, Washington. She is a lovely lady and talented artist. I was privileged to have a long conversation with her about her process and I'm excited to be signed up for the class she is teaching for our guild next month. 

Her art quilts are a blend of realism (almost hyper-realism) and impressionistic use of bits of fabric accentuated with meticulous thread painting.  

Judith told me that she starts by painting the picture on fabric using special fabric paints and ink pens. She then "paints" them with thread. I marveled at the perfection of the stitches because I had spent a day working on a small piece and struggling to keep my thread tension balanced. She confessed that she sometimes has to tear out areas that don't have the perfect stitches that she requires. 

This close up of the stitches gives you an idea of the COMPLEXITY of her work!

This is the BACK of the quilt! She changes the top thread and the bobbin thread to achieve this!

Those quilts were densely "thread painted" but she also has works that use more bits of fabric to achieve the realism of her images. I love this piece that shows the cycle of nature in our forests after a fire. 

This frayed string with a swing was a sweet finishing touch to the piece. 

 I spent several long minutes examining the details of this dragon piece. There was so much to see! A detail that a young girl noticed was that the artist hid numerous animals in the clouds.

I placed my finger here for reference to see how tiny the bits of fabric are for each roof and building and tree. 

There were several villages and castles in the landscape.

This is painted with fabric paint and pens and then accentuated with thread painting. 

I knew Sarah would LOVE this Zendangle horse!

I'm very much looking forward to Judith's class on using Inktense Pencils! Check out more of her amazing work on her website. 

Quilt Show 2025

October is quilt show month for our guild. This year there was again an abundance of admirable works of fabric art by the many skilled quilters in our area. 

Here are just a few of the standout quilts.

This quilt is the product of the Blossom Festival quilt block contest that I chaired in April. Each block is made by a different designer (mine is the apple pie) and I sewed all of them into this quilt that has been donated to a local charity called "Next Door" that helps families in need. They will raffle the quilt to raise money for their organization. (The quilt does have a top border that is folded to the back in this photo)

This wall hanging was made by one of the talented gals in the art group (Beyond the Block). Each leaf is a small snip of fabric. 

More "Beyond the Block" art quilts-

This piece depicts hikers on a trail with spectacular views of the Columbia River Gorge pausing to notice the train rumbling through in the distance. 

 

The following 12" wall hangings were also made in the Beyond the Block art group with a prompt called "Word Play" where the maker would use a single word that "makes you feel better, uplifted or inspired." Some makers put the word in the design but some just used it in the title.

                "Love"     and      "Bouquet"  (mine. The center is embroidery.)

          "All you need is...."     and "Sharing"

"Adventure" and "Truth"

"Birdsong"    and     "Delicious"

"Persistent"   and   "Refresh"

Next time I'll tell you about a very special exhibit.

OLMA, Part 2

 More Exhibits

The locals are justifiably proud of their produce. 

Take a look at this bountiful variety.

Yup, black pumpkins. 

This very fine heifer went for 5400 Francs in the auction.

An exhibit by the furniture maker who made all of our wall paneling, bookcases, and such. 

And cars. Lots of people like automobiles. 

You could rappel down this wall, or go zip-lining over everyone’s heads.

The OLMA is famous for its beloved Bratwurst. And you need to know that it is a sin to eat it with mustard in eastern Switzerland. Some people sin in other parts. The lines were the longest at this stand. 

The brewery had their team out (I missed the photo) with their loaded wagon. We did go see the stabled horses after they were put away, still sweaty.

These horses had legs like tree trucks. One of the team was over twenty years old.

They were obviously well-cared for by knowledgeable horsemen. 

And that was it for this visit. Maybe we will go again before fifteen years has passed.