The Oregon Gardens

We have spent the last few days in Silverton, Oregon. We stayed at the Oregon Garden's Resort. I have wondered the grounds and taken about 400 photos. I have been in heaven.

On the Garden's Grounds is the Gordon House which is a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It originally was built about 40 miles from where it sits today. It had fallen into disrepair and the individuals who purchased it from the Estate of the original owner wanted to tear it down. Fortunately a group of individuals saved the home and moved it to it's new home on the Grounds of the Oregon Gardens. They have tours and I took the time yesterday to go on a tour. I have always been an admirer of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and to be able to see this home was incredible. He designed this home to feel like the outside was part of the home and I just love that.
I also wandered the grounds of the garden with my camera in hand and went crazy. I just love this photo. Since Fall is here and winter is approaching the plants were changing and drying up but it made for a great opportunity and the weather was so great.

I will be spending the rest of the weekend with my husband and daughter who came down from Seattle to join her father for some work related opportunities. I hope all of you have a lovely weekend.

Messenger Bags

Good Morning to all of you, I have been keeping myself busy. I have been making wool messenger bags. Here is a photo of my beautiful daughter with her new bag. I made this for her and was happy to receive the photo yesterday and know that she is happy with the bag.

I have been using repurposed wool. I have enjoyed taking suit jackets from the thrift store and making them into bags. The wool washes beautifully and I line them with fun fabric.

I am also so excited because next weekend our daughter will be coming to join her father for a conference (work related) late next week. So I will also get to have some time with her. Which always makes me happy! She is a 10 hour drive from us and whenever we can get sometime together it is always special.

Journaling

I have been getting together with a couple of very talented quilter friends and we decided we were going to challenge each other once a month with a Journal challenge. We are all making 8 x 10 journal squares. Our first challenge was based on color. I chose Red, Turquoise and Purple... This is what I came up with. I have always wanted to do something that looked like a highway interchange from the air, this is my interpretation in my chosen colors...
Now our second challenge was to use some organza we painted. I did various shades from White to Black... I also did other colors but I have only incorporated the shades of gray with my purple pieces. We had fun painting organza.

I am so anxious to get together again and share our work and set up our next challenge. It is wonderful to get together with women who share my desire to explore! I feel so blessed to have met these women and have a couple of new quilty friends.

The week is going well. I attended a new yoga class and found out it is an incredible way to start the day.

Just had to share

This was our walk this morning. There are beautiful days here but some are just so incredible I just have to share. We have not had many days of summer but I think our fall may prove to be our summer. I hope all of you are enjoying a beautiful weekend.

Well, I have entered my first contest on line. I have submitted my Paul Klee inspired piece. The theme this week is Stained Glass and I think with the black background and the appliqued fabric it resembles stained Glass.

You should visit the Quilting Gallery site and vote for your favorite piece between Friday and Sunday...

I hope all of you are having a great week.

Quilts hung and one day down

Here are a few photos of our Gold Beach Quilt Show. It has been good so far. We hung quilts yesterday and had visitor's today and again tomorrow. Things are going quite well. This is my first time attending our show and first time working on it.... Oh, and first time entering my quilts. My nine patch is here to the right. I think it looks really nice on the railing!
This photo is taken from the balcony and this is a view of a portion of the floor. My western quilt is in the center.
Now this one is from above and it is the few art quilts in the show. My pieces are on the lower left. I think my pieces are kind of lost but oh well. I like them. My idea of an art quilt is different from others. I did not win any awards. There were 14 awards given by community leaders and were awarded based on what the presenter liked. I am hoping next year we can add a Best of Show category and let the visitors vote. I have learned so much from this experience and it has been a good one. I do think I dance to my own music when it comes to my quilting.

I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend. It is very wet here on the Oregon Coast.

Quilt Show this Weekend

Good Morning to all of you. I have been preparing for our Quilt Guild's Annual Quilt Show. I am going to enter some quilts for the first time ever. I will be entering 2 small Paul Klee inspired applique pieces, my scrappy 9 patch, the still to be completed Western Quilt...

Needless to say I have been stitching like crazy. I have one more cattle brand to stitch on the western quilt and binding. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I needed some motivation to finish this one and this is it. I think I will get it done!

I also volunteered to paint some sandwich boards to place around town the day of the show. I have them complete and I need to do a bit of touch up today. I learned quite a bit on this project. I now can tell you what not to use when making stencils for spray painting lettering. Thankfully my neighbor had some sturdy plastic I was able to cut the stencil from and use spray adhesive to hold the stencil in place while I sprayed the paint.

I will return next week and fill you in on the adventures at the Gold Beach Quilt Guild Show.