I thought it was time to share what I was doing. This cactus art quilt is just in the beginning of it’s journey to being completed. I plan to resize and move the cactus plants around to make it a better composition. This has been a slow process since the pictures I took in the high desert. I am still considering adding some other elements such as line drawing of baskets. This is something I have done on the other recent quilts such as Portland Through Runners’ Eyes.

I have just added some new art placemats to the gallery so take a look. Below is just one of the exciting examples.

The 100th Monkey Studio in Portland Oregon is proud to host two connecting exhibits: The Oregon Women’s Caucus for Art (Evolve Gallery) and one OWCA member’s retrospective, Suzan Mayer (Lounge Gallery).  The opening event is First Friday January 6th from 6-9pm with live music by Amber Harlan. The show runs from January 6 through January 27th, 2012. There will be live music by Amber Harlan.  The event is free and open to the public.

As a member of OWCA I am happy to be a part in this event. Please join us for the opening. Visit The 100th Monkey Studio to see more about the event.

One of my pieces has been juried into SAQA Oregon’s show, Oregon: State of Diversity II. I am very pleased and excited to be part of this event. The show will travel throughout the state during 2012 and 2013. SAQA Oregon has had a wonderful response to the first exhibit, and they expect that will translate to more viewers and more venues for the current collection. I look forward to seeing the show, and will post locations and presentation dates as the information becomes available.  The exhibit will debut at “Stitches in Bloom” in Silverton at the Oregon Garden in January 2012, and will travel through 2013.

After taking part in the Susan G. Komen, Race for the Cure in Portland this past summer, I decided to make another art quilt featuring runners. So far, I have the back completed. I collected number placards from several participants (some pink, to recognize “survivors,” with those in white ones for “supporters”). I also included my own. The top for the quilt featuring runners is now in progress.

The Fairy Candle art quilt was inspired by a class I attended with Jane Sassaman on Abstracting from Nature. It has been an interesting project, and I look forward to doing more with this process. The design comes from a picture of a skunk cabbage that I took some time ago. I really like the process, and am quite pleased with the results.

My Night Riders art quilt is  experimental, using black batting for the background. The texture gives it an interesting look.

Now that summer is over and things have started to slow down, I have been able to focus on some “work-in-progress” that have been in progress for too long.  I am still working with bikers and runners, and look forward to doing more on theme.

My Portland art quilt now has a name:  Portland Through Runners’ Eyes. Included in this blog is a peek at the back of the quilt, as many have asked what I did with the reverse side. I gathered number placards from runners, received when they participated in a run or race. I had many saved from my running days in Japan, but as this art quilt was an Oregon original, I wanted to remain that way. Working on this piece has inspired me to experiment more with such placards, from both biking and running. More to come in the future!

This summer has been very busy and my work has slowed to a crawl. But I did finish the “runners” art quilt. I would really like to explore the runner theme more, along with that of the bikers. As to the quilt, the runners are silhouettes and the background is painted and stamped. I took pictures of some of Portland’s unique bridges, and then used Photoshop to modify them. They were then transferred to the fabric. The process really intrigues me.

For the back of the quilt, I used the number placards runners receive when they enter an event. I am now saving more of these (and scrounging some from runners!) as I love the way they work on the back. To protect the paper numbers, and to make them easier to attach, I used gel medium. I am still working on a name for this piece of art.

I look forward to the end of summer so I can get back to work, and develop more projects around this idea and method.

Announcing a big event at the Singer Hill Cafe in Oregon City!  A new High Fiber Diet Show entitled, “NW Vibes” will be opening at the cafe beginning August 2nd.

An Artist Reception will be held from 5-8 PM on Aug. 5th, with live music provided by “The Sale,” beginning at 6PM.

The NW Vibes show presents  21 new art quilts and examples of wearable art, including a piece by Bonnie Bucknam, best-of-show winner of the 2011 Quilt National Exhibition.

Singer Hill Café’s “Fundraiser Friday” will donate 25% of profits made from food and beverage purchases to HIgh Fiber Diet.

Singer Hill’s art gallery will be open for viewing during normal business hours (Sunday 8:AM to 5:PM, Monday, 7:AM to 6:PM, and Tuesday through Saturday, 7:AM to 8:PM)

For information on gallery sales, contact Karen Grondin at (917) 207-2354.

High Fiber Diet is a fiber-art group affiliated with the Columbia FiberArts Guild of Portland. Its members include fiber artists and surface design teachers, authors and professional art quilters.. The High Fiber Diet blog is available at http://hfd-highfiberdiet.blogspot.com. There you will find a list of the most recent shows and a membership roster with links to individual websites and blogs.

I am excited to say I was juried into the Women’s Caucus for Art/San Diego on line show. It is a nice exhibit so take a look and you will find two of my art quilts. They are Flauna and Paper Plastic, Think About it.

OREGON: STATE OF DIVERSITY This Oregon SAQA exhibit is currently traveling throughout Oregon. We have had a wonderful response to this show, and we expect to attract more viewers and more venues for our next effort, OREGON: STATE OF DIVERSITY II, which will be traveling in 2012-2013.

Oregon: State of Diversity
July 2011 – Sisters Public Library, Sisters, Oregon
October 2011 – Quilt Country, Corvallis, Oregon
November – December 2011 – Latimer Quilt and Textile Center, Tillamook, Oregon

Quilt by Catherine Beard

A color catalog of the 2010 SAQA Oregon show, Oregon: State of Diversity, is available for $8 plus S/H. Email gfrench@rosenet.net to order. The exhibit features work by Oregon SAQA members Karen Bates, Suzy Bates, Catherine Beard, Christina Brown, Bonnie Bucknam, Lynda Christiansen, Betty Colburn, Gerrie Congdon, Quinn Zander Corum, Betty Davis Daggett, Sheila Finzer, Georgia French, Terry Grant, Karen Hanken, Jill Hoddick, Laura Jaszkowski, Nancy Kibbey, Kim Lakin, Shirley MacGregor, Karen Illman Miller, Sara Shayne Miller, Shirley Jo Rimkus-Falconer, Deanna Robinson, Vera Rogers, Sheila Steers, and Jean Wells Keenan

This press release was given to me to use so I am releasing it now. I am very excited about this. This quilt is the one going to Vietnam and is shown in the blog.

Portland Resident is a Finalist in Regional Quilt Competition
Shirley MacGregor of Portland, OR is a finalist in the Pacific West Quilt Show to be presented August 26-28, 2011, at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center, Tacoma, Washington. The piece titled Paradigm Shift, will compete with 227 quilts and wearable art entries from the 18 US states and Canadian provinces of the Pacific West region: Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, The Northwest Territories, Oregon, Saskatchewan, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and Yukon. Over $25,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded to winners in ten categories.

The producing organization of this contest, the Association of Pacific West Quilters (APWQ), a non-profit organization, was founded in 1992. APWQ is dedicated to promoting the art of quiltmaking throughout the Western US and Canada and, as of 2011, will be presenting this juried and judged quilt exhibition on an annual basis. “We are extremely pleased with the very high standard of the quilts being created in traditional and innovative styles,” says Peggy Sperry, APWQ president. She adds, “From a field of more than 430 entries, 227 were selected. The 2011 Pacific West Quilt Show will be an outstanding exhibition of quilts from our region.”

The Pacific West Quilt Show is open to the public from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Friday and Saturday, and 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday. For more information, please visit the website at www.apwq.org.

I am happy to say my art quilt “Celebrating Gloom: The Worst Day of the Year Ride” was juried into the High Fiber Diet’s traveling show for 2011-2012. Scheduling for this exhibit is still in the planning stage. You can learn more about High Fiber Diet on their blogspot http://hfd-highfiberdiet.blogspot.com/.

One of the members in High Fiber Diet, Bonnie Bucknam, just won Best in Show at Quilt National. It is an honor to even get into this show, let alone win. Congratulations Bonnie!

I enjoyed the most wonderful experience recently, the Studio Arts Quilt Association (SAQA) Visioning Conference in Denver, Colorado. It has been long time since I have attended such an enthusiastic and professional conference. It was well planned and balanced, and extremely inspirational.

There were two days of mini-workshops, panels on a variety of subjects, and a fine list of speakers. Side trips included the city of Golden, for a look at the magnificent SAQA “Sightlines” exhibit, and to Boulder, where we visited a few private studios.

Time and again, I heard remarks on how the conference provided such a shot in the arm to our creativity and professionalism. SAQA is a great organization, with many creative and inspiring individuals.

I finally have this art Celebrating Gloom – The Worst Day of the Year Ride work finished. The title really tells the story, but here is some additional information. The Worst Day of the Year Ride, which takes place in February, and  attracts about 4,000 hardy and adventurous individuals. Participants log about 18 mile, coursing through the streets of  downtown Portland. Food, drinks, and moral support are provided along the way. To get a feel for this unique event, take a look at the bike ride site.

The art quilt that I am doing for Vietnam is ready. I am using our troubled environment to express this theme for Her Presence in Colours X, which will be held in Vietnam in 2012. The theme is Women’s Art – a New Direction in Global Culture.

Paradigm Shift is the title of my art quilt. As we watch our environment degraded with alarming rapidity, and those in charge either unwilling or unable to bring about any meaningful change, it would seem that a woman’s nurturing instincts are needed to avert disaster.

I “recycled” a quilt top provide a base for this piece, added paper towels (used as swabs for a former project), then applied stamps, appliqué and paint.

Read the rest of this entry »

This March, I taught two 2-day quilting design classes at Lake Chapala, Mexico, just a few miles from Guadalajara. The classes were ably arranged by Gerri Treadway a Canadian resident of Chapala, who I met on the Internet.

It was great to exchange the gloomy spring weather in Oregon for the sunny, dry climate enjoyed by our neighbors to the south. The classes were held on the spacious patio of one of the students.

The first class featured placemat designs, which the participants took to quite enthusiastically. They returned the following day Read the rest of this entry »

One of the quilts I made for my first book Quilting With Manhole Covers, featured the design of Kamaishi City. The city was ravaged by the recent tsunami, with significant loss of life and property. I recently sent the quilt to Japan to appear in an exhibition of the Japan Manhole Association in Tokyo.

Alice Gordenker, who writes for the Japan Times and publishes a blog on life in Japan, has written articles about the manhole covers and my books on the subject. Here is a link to her most recent offering, which shows the Kamaishi quilt and tells of the devastation of the city.