Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, Post 1

Posted on July 17, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

Hi everyone,

I had an amazing time last Saturday looking at all the wonderful quilts displayed in the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. I took plenty of quilt show photos and will post them over the next few days.

I’ll start by posting this great view of the Three Sisters:

Three Sisters in July

I love living here in Oregon, amongst these beautiful Cascade mountains and tall evergreens!

In this post, I’ll show you the three quilts that I displayed this year. The Hummer Storm quilt we found right away, but the other two quilts were a bit more difficult to find. We finally did find them at opposite ends of town.

I love this picture that my hubby took of my Hummer Storm quilt because you can see our son also taking a picture of me and the quilt with our little point-and-shoot camera:

Hummer Storm at Sisters

Here’s a look at Yahoo Stars:

Yahoo Stars at Sisters

And Happy Halloween:

Happy Halloween at Sisters

We started the day bright and early during the quilt hanging process. We finished touring the quilt show around 11:30 when our little guy decided he’d had enough of the quilts and wanted to go for a hike.

Proxy Falls, Oregon

I hope you enjoyed this first post on the quilt show. Stay tuned for more quilt photos in my next post!

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Cat Quilt Inspector

Posted on May 10, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

I took this photo recently of Romeo who is one of my cat quilt inspectors! Although he is taking a break from his inspection work, I think it’s a really good pic of him. I think he’s saying, “Mom, why aren’t you sewing?”

How would you caption this photo?

Romeo, the Quilt Inspector

~Jennifer

Central Oregon Quilt Shop Hop Weekend

Posted on April 28, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

This weekend, I went shop hopping in central Oregon with my mom. It’s a gorgeous drive from the Willamette Valley over to central Oregon taking approximately 3 hours depending on photo stops! We had beautiful weather with clear blue skies and temperatures in the upper 70s.

I love seeing the Cascade mountain range still in wintery snow coats against the blue sky. By summertime, much of the snow has melted so the vistas, while stunning, do not have the same pizzazz as they do in the winter and spring.

Just outside of Sisters, Oregon, you’ll find this stunning scene of the Three Sister and Brokentop:

Three Sisters and Brokentop

Home of the famous Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and the Stitchin’ Post, this quaint town was our first of eight quilt store stops. We picked up our passports, a pattern, and a fat 1/8th. Each store in the shop hop contributed 1 piece of pattern that will create a mystery quilt. In addition, each store provided a free fat 1/8th which you could use to make a special shop hop quilt designed by Jean Wells of the Stitchin’ Post.

This is the shop hop quilt using fat 1/8ths plus additional batiks: (sorry for the blurriness!)

Shop Hop Quilt

In total, we visited these 8 shops totaling about 450 miles from home:
The Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Quiltworks in Bend, BJ’s Quilt Basket in Bend, Sew Many Quilts in Bend, Homestead Quilts in La Pine, Material Girls in Redmond, Quilter’s Attic in Terrebonne, and The Quilt Shack in Prineville.

Here’s a little slideshow featuring some of the stores, quilts, and scenery from the shop hop:

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It was a fun quilt shop hop, and I hope you enjoyed this little taste of central Oregon.

Three-Fingered Jack

Enjoy!
~Jennifer

Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show – Oregon Garden

Posted on January 30, 2013 by nwquiltedcat

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit the Stitches in Bloom quilt show at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. This part of Oregon is lush, green, and famous for the nearby waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park. Since it is so green, the area naturally has plenty of rain and this weekend was no exception!!. The $10 admission to the quilt show did include entrance to the gardens, but it was chilly rain so I decided to stick with the show. I definitely need to make a return trip in the spring to see the garden in bloom.

The show had some great vendors, and I picked up a wonderful wooden quilt frame, a paper piece pattern, a wooden quilt coaster, and some fat quarters.

Here’s the wooden quilt rack that I picked up:

The quilt is one that I made a couple of years ago called the “Bear Went Over the Mountain” by Susan Schwarting. The fabric is from the Lake of the Woods collection by Julie Ingleman for P&B Textiles. P&B Textiles has the pattern available for free on their website; however, the fabric collection is probably out of print now. I think it goes so well with the oak quilt rack above my brown leather couch!

I took a few pictures of quilts displayed in the show. We were not able to take flash pictures so many of my pictures turned out too blurry, but I did manage to get few decent ones.

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What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Happy quilting,
~Jennifer~

Kilauea Kreations Quilt Shop on the Big Island

Posted on November 27, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

Over the Thanksgiving holiday week, I traveled to the Big Island of Hawai’i with my family. I had planned to visit a few quilt and fabric stores, but only had time to visit a couple of them.

One quilt store that I visited is Kilauea Kreations in Volcano Village, very near to the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

This little quilt store is tucked away and can be easy to miss in the little town. In addition to quilts, there are a number of other hand-crafted items that you can buy here. However, my main goal was fabric!

Kilauea Kreations Quilt Shop

Inside the store, I found a nice selection of batik fabrics. I had a hard time narrowing my fabric choices down to just a few. I picked up 2 fabrics at 1-yard each and 4 different fat quarters. I definitely wanted more but hubby and son were waiting for me!

The store also had a selection of Hawaiian themed quilt patterns and blocks as well as finished quilted projects. I picked up a Turtle Walk pattern for myself since I enjoyed seeing the green sea turtles (honu) on the beach earlier in the week. It’s a small wall-hanging, about 12 inches by 24 inches finished. I’ll write another post when I finish it (hopefully soon).

Inside Kilauea Kreations

The lady at the cutting counter/check-out area was so friendly and helpful! I definitely recommend stopping by this quilt shop if you are visiting the Big Island.

Of course, what trip to Volcano Village would be complete without a look at the main attraction – the Kilauea Caldera! Here’s a great shot that we took at the Jaggar Museum on our last evening. We used a wide-angle lens and a long exposure to capture both the glow from the lava lake as well as a few early evening stars!

Kilauea Caldera during Early Evening

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!
~ Jennifer ~

Old Truck Photographs and Pictorial Quilts

Posted on October 3, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

Last weekend, my family and I went for a nice, long hike. We did an 8-mile loop through old growth forest, went past silvery waterfalls, and even encountered old abandoned mines and equipment.

These old, rusty trucks caught my eye. They have such character, even sitting broken-down in the cool greens depths of an Oregon forest. What stories do they have to tell? I had an idea to take the photographs and, perhaps, turn them into a pictorial quilt someday.

This old truck appears to have a grin.

Grinning Old Truck

The red paint on this one contrasts so well with the surrounding green forest. The snow chains are still on the tires!

Old Red Truck

And here’s a row of tired old trucks, sagging into nature:

Row of Tired Old Trucks

Have you ever turned a photograph into a pictorial quilt? I’ve done it once before with a picture that I took of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. It is a very individual and creative process, but I might one day help these old trucks find a new life in fabric.

Delicate Arch Pictorial Quilt

Enjoy!
~Jennifer~

Upper Butte Creek Falls – Experimenting with Photography

Posted on September 24, 2012 by nwquiltedcat

I’m taking a little deviation from quilts and other craft projects to talk a little bit about photography. My husband and I are very much amateurs, but have decided to learn more about our DSLR cameras and how to use the manual settings. We have a Canon Rebel XT and a Nikon D90 and have been taking the cameras outdoors over the past several weekends to practice. In particular, we’ve been practicing with waterfalls.

I wanted to take better waterfall shots where the water looks like “angel hair.” With my point-and-shoot camera, I can’t get this cool effect but knew we could do it with either the Rebel or the D90.

Here are a few untouched photos that we took this weekend of Upper Butte Creek Falls in the Santiam State Forest in Oregon.

: Upper Butte Creek Falls from Trail

: Upper Butte Creek Falls – September 2012

: Upper Butte Creek Falls and Rocks

So, what do you think of these early experimental shots? And how would you edit and/or enhance them in software?

Another question I have is on our Nikon D90. We only have the standard kit lens, but really want a better one for outdoor (read landscape) photography. What lens would you recommend?

I hope you enjoy viewing these photos!
~Jennifer~