Goodbye Portland, Hello Seattle

Day 5:  Dad and I started the day at the Saturday Market (even though we went on a Sunday and the market is in session both days).  I didn't see any fruit and vegetable vendors.  Mostly hippie stuff like tie dye shirts, incense, pottery, photography, some food booths and the like.

There were some handcrafted items but there were also some booths with odds and ends from China.

After the market, we drove to Cool Cottons.  I liked the store.  Actually, it is very similar to where I work part time.  They carry a lot of Japanese fabrics from Yuwa and Echino and they definitely have a "modern" fabric selection from Alexander Henry, Robert Kaufman, etc.  I could have done a lot of damage but I didn't want to just buy stash.  I have enough fabric (I can't believe I just said that) and want to be able to buy fabric towards a particular project.  Anyway, the store has a great selection and I was able to visit with the owner.  Interestingly, she doesn't offer any classes.  There are more and more sewing studios in the Portland area which offer classes and machine and sewing space rental but no fabric at their studio.  I visited one of them out of curiosity and the rental rate was $8.00 and hour to use one of their Berninas.  I think it's a bit steep and they weren't the friendliest so I won't mention their name in my blog.

Dad and I stuffed ourselves at Petite Provence.  Dad had a HUGE Monte Cristo sandwich and I had a Goat Cheese salad.

(Photo from the Internet)

After lunch, we headed off to Seattle. 

Here are some photos of our Sew Oregon shop hop yesterday.  Here's Mary Kay from The Pine Needle.  She was very helpful.

Here's the exterior of Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe. 

Here's a shot of the ceiling at The Wild Pear.  I think it would make a spectacular quilting pattern.

Here's the exterior of Greenbaum's Quilted Forest.

And finally, here are some pictures of some beautiful fall foliage. 

Day 6:  Dad and I took the ferry to Vashon Island.  I've never been to the island before but the Island Quilter was recently featured in Better Homes and Gardens Quilt Sampler magazine as one of the top 10 quilt stores.  It did not disappoint.  Here is the famous Kaffe Fassett wall featured in the magazine.  The Island Quilter has the newest Kaffe Fassett fabrics, as well as some of the retired designs.  They carry approximately 700 bolts of Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs fabrics.  That doesn't even include the shot cottons.

Paul Robinson, one of the owners, regaled me with stories of Kaffe Fassett.  Kaffe visited the store twice and taught classes both last year and this year.  He taught a peicing class, a knitting class and also lectured on color.  Paul has his own private stash of retired and hard to find Kaffe fabrics.  He even sold a fat quarter on Ebay for $50.00!!!  There's even a sign on the door which states "In case of quilting emergency, please call xxx-xxx-xxxx".  I love that.

Here is Paul with my tiny but lovely fabric purchase.

The store is packed with tons of fabric.  Here's just a small section of their batik selection.

And they also carry yarn.  Trust me, I could have easily spent an entire day in the store and Paul was just so warm and informative but I wanted to visit the rest of the island.

I would DEFINITELY recommend taking the ferry ride over to visit the Island Quilter.  The fabric selction is fabulous and Paul is very warm and friendly.  He even recommended the restaurant across the street for lunch and gave us a 10% off coupon.  The Hardware Store had a great selection.  Dad really enjoyed his crab cakes.

After lunch, dad and I drove down to the light house.  As I parked the car and got my jacket, dad pointed down a trail to the light house.  I took his word for it and we went through a wooded area and muddy trail going downhill.  We were both a little apprehensive about our little hike but I kept telling dad to pretend like we were on the Amazing Race.

Finally, we reached the light house.  It was closed.

And as we walked around, we found a paved road leading us back to the parking lot.  It was an uphill climb but at least we didn't have to go through the woods again :)

After we got back to Seattle, we stopped at Carriage Country Quilt Shop.  I used to frequent this store when I used to take business trips to Seattle as it is close to the airport and they are open late.

They carry a lot of wool, embroidery thread (DMC, Cosmo, Week Dye Works) and primitive fabric and kits.  They are also very friendly and helpful.

Sew Oregon Shop Hop

Let me apologize in advance that all the photos on this post are from the internet.  I was unable to upload my own photos so I will be posting them at a later time.


Day 4:  First stop of the day was at The Pine Needle in Lake Oswego.  Mary Fay was assisting me and she was very nice.  I had mentioned that I was travelling from California and she provided me with a map of all the quilt stores in Oregon.  Coincidentally, their annual statewide shop hop "Sew Oregon" was in progress so I got my official passport and block from The Pine Needle.  I liked the store and their fabric selection.  They had some wool, some shabby chic fabric and a line of patterns from  Metropolitan Quilts.  The designers are local (from Oregon) and this is the first time I've seen their patterns. Very simple but striking.

Next stop, Hollyhill Quilt Shop in West Linn.  I LOVED their fabric selection and merchandising.  Unfortunately, they don't allow photography so you'll have to take my work for it.  Upon entering the store, they had a huge Moda section.  My friends Janet and Jennifer would love it.  They had several lines of Moda's French General, 3 Sisters and Fig Tree so you could mix and match fabric from several lines of each of the designers.  For example, all the Fig Tree fabrics (yardage, pre-cuts), store samples and patterns were in one area so it was easy to shop.  They also have a flair for merchandiing.  Among the French General line were French themed home decor (like signage, stationery, giftware), etc. 

Plus, there was a big table of a Halloween village (houses, figurine, skating rink, etc.) which was just too cute.  I wish I could take a picture.  Instead, here is a link to their blog to see some of their photos.  I really showed restraint at this store.

Next, off the Salem, capitol of Oregon.  We zoomed past the outlet center, een though there is no sales tax in Oregon.  We arrived at The Cotton Patch in Keizer.  We were hungry by then so I got my passport quickly stamped and off to the Wild Pear for lunch.




(photo from their website)

Now this place is worth writing home (or blogging) about.  Food was DELICIOUS.  Dad had the lobster and seafood melt, I had the flatiron steak and spinach salad and we split a pumpkin cake with sour cream frosting.  Our waiter asked me if we would like whipped cream on the side and I looked at him like he was crazy.  Ummm, why wouldn't we?  I just had a salad so yes, I am entitled to whipped cream. ;-)  We had lunch past 1:15 but the retaurant was still crowded so I'm not the only one who thinks this place is fabulous. 

After lunch, we did a quick stop at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest.  I was going to get a rain poncho pttern (adorable) but after a quick math of how much it would cost to make it (3.25 yds x $19.00/yd of laminated fabric + 3.25 yds x $11.90 of cotton fabric), I decided to skip it.  Cute but costs more than what I would normally spend on a raincoat.

Dad and I drove around Salem admiring the parks and huge estate homes.  But alas, no autumn leaves.  Just sporadic yellow or red trees.

Multnomah Falls

Day 3:  Visited Multnomah Falls and did a short hike up to the bridge.  Dad did very well.  We also had lunch at the Multnomah Falls Lodge thoroughly expecting mediocre food at outrgeous prices but it was surprisingly good.  I had the smoked chicken salad sandwich with mango and lime dressing.  Yum!

Here's dad on the bridge.

After lunch, we headed out to the Japanese Garden.  We had met a gentleman the night before at a Japanese restaurant downtown who claimed to have worked on both the Portland and the Chicago Japanese gardens to ensure authenticity so we drove out to check it out.

And here's the Zen garden.

I was a bit disappointed that the leaves haven't changed colors yet.  It would have been more spectacular.

Now off to quilt related things.  No visit to Portland would be complete with a trip to Fabric Depot.  This place is so large it is comparable in size to Costco.  Even dad was very surprised. 

(Photo from the internet)

So, let's talk about the prices.  A yard of cotton quilting fabric was selling at $13.49/yd.  You do get a 35% discount off of all the fabric so the price is really $8.76/yd.  Cheaper than any regular quilt store but you do get somewhat of a sticker shock when you first see the retail price.  All notions, books and patterns were 25% off. 

I really didn't stay very long as I was overwhelmed and tired. Plus, there were cranky, crying children so I couldn't think straight. I did peruse through the entire store and as Lynn would say, "There's nothing here that I need."

I bought a Ruby jelly roll and a Quilting Arts magazine.  That was it.  :)

(Photo from the Internet).

I Heart David Taylor

Day 2:  I signed up for David Taylor's Organic Quilting for the Art Quilter class and we were welcomed with 15 brand new HQ Sweet Sixteen machines in our classroom.  Each of the machines had the cardboard box sitting next to it and a tag hanging from each one which reads "I am going home with_____".  That was a very tempting proposition considering there is no sales tax in Oregon.

I have been a fan of David Taylor for a few years and have always admired the way he creates very realistic picture quilts.  Earlier this year, I took his Pictorial Applique class and I wish I can say that I finished my tulip and brought it with me to class in Portland but ...yeah, right.  I did bring a line drawing of a rose so David could give me ideas on how to quilt it "organically". The two major things I learned was to practice quilting "flames" and to change thread colors a lot to bring out the shadows and highlights of my pictorial quilts.

David is a fun, patient and very entertaining teacher.  He was able to give all of us individual attention.  The HQ Sweet Sixteen was very easy to use and we all had an opportunity to practice to our heart's content.

  Here is David's example of how to quilt animal faces.

David also showed us his latest work called "Hidden Treasures" of 2 baby hummingbirds in a nest.  It was breathtaking.   Please visit his website to view this increadible quilt.

I bought David's Machine Quilting DVD and one of the things on my wish list is to take a 5 day workshop with David in Asilomar.  What can I say.  I guess I'm a David Taylor groupie.

I met a few ladies who were taking one class per day to make their whole trip worthwhile. I would definitely consider that in the future. I also took a peek at other classrooms and there was one with 8 Gammill long arm machines set up and one with 20 Janome Horizon machines set up. I wonder if they would notice if I walked out with one of the Janomes ;-)

Portland, The City of Roses

Day One:
Dad and I took the MAX to the hotel from the airport.  The station stops right outside our hotel and it is very convenient. After checking in, we took the MAX down to Chinatown for lunch.  There's a huge monument sign welcoming you to Chinatown but unfortunately, there were only a handful of restaurants.  That was disappointing.  Next stop: Lan Su Garden.  Now, this is definitely one of the top ten sights of Portland.  It is clean, beautiful and picturesque.  Even dad who has travelled extensively throughout China was impressed.

Here I am doing Chinese calligraphy.  Hard to believe I had weekly brushcalligraphy assignments in Grade School and High School.

Of course, dad did so much better.

This is the Tea Room. 

Here are the picture windows of the tea room.

The tea room is right behind the gazebo.

After the garden, we went downtown and walked around Pioneer Square.  Of course, we had to stop at Powell's Books.  But I was too tired to do any serious browsing.  It was just so overwhelming!

After I dropped dad off at the hotel, I went to the Machine Quilting Expo preview night.  The vendors and quilts were already set up so I had a chance to browse and take lots of photos.  The Machine Quilting Expo is not as big as Road to California or Pacific International Quilt Show but all of the classes were focused on machine quilting- whether you have a domestic, mid-arm or long-arm machine.  There were a number of nationally recognized teachers and the vendors were mostly selling sewing machines, quilting machines, threads, pantographs and other quilting related accessories.  In fact there were only two or three booths with fabric.

Here are some of my favorite quilts at the exhibit.

Check out the beautiful quilting done on this antique quilt top.

I love this quilt!  It is made by 12 ladies and each of them took on an animal and I believe it is called "If Mrs. MacDonald Had a Farm".

And here I am (looking exhausted) with Sharon Schamber.

Off to dinner and bed.  More fabulous quilting adventures tomorrow.

A Shabby Chic birthday cake

My friendship group celebrated my birthday yesterday at our monthly meeting and check out this HUGE cake.  Lynn ordered a white cake with buttercream frosting and cream cheese filling from Costco.  Yum! I still have a big chunk in my freezer for later. Lynn made sure my cake had pink and white roses.
I made off with a bunch of great gifts from my friends.  Some were handmade, some were store bought, of course I received some fabric too.  Everything is very much appreciated.

A Couple of Outstanding Quilts

Here are a couple of eye catching quilts from the Flying Geese quilt show.  Check out the machine quilting on Jan Kirby's orchid quilt. 

And here's a blue ribbon winner from the piecing category.