Columbia Stitchery Guild Show

I belong to a small guild called Columbia Stitchery Guild. It is not, strictly speaking a quilt guild, but many of its members are art quilters. Of three guilds I have belonged to in Portland it is the one that seems to have evolved as the "artists' guild". Our yearly show is now hanging at the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, which is quite a cool venue in North Portland. Thursday was the reception. It was fun to see the work of some old friends and even better to see some of those old friends in person.

The piece with the trees is Karen Miller's. She does Katazome prints using traditional Japanese techniques. Her work is quite wonderful. Those are her fish in the background. Silhouetted at the left is Virginia O'Donnell, one of my oldest Portland quilter friends. And below is her wonderful quilt of falling angels.
Here is one of Gerrie's quilts that is in the show. I feel a bit of ownership. She showed it at our critique group a couple months ago and we gave her some input that, I think, made a beautiful piece even better!

Here is one of my hat lady pieces. Gerrie said she is looking skeptical of the messages on the quilt to the right by Laura Jennings.

That, by the way, is Gerrie herself adjusting something on the other side of the wall.

I really liked this piece and made a mental note of who made it, now I have forgotten. It was not someone I know. If anyone knows, leave me a comment and I will give credit. (update: Virginia O'Donnell emailed me to let me know the piece is by Joyce Gordon. It is a tribute to her grandparents. Thanks, Virginia!)

Here is my other piece that is in the show. It is the first piece as you come in the door. I am not very happy about how it looks. The hanging rod is too big and makes a bump and it also seems to have a wrinkle at the bottom. (and to clarify—both problems are my own fault.) Gahhh.

There was nice food and wine and lots of pleasant visiting. There's my other friend Jeri, in the back. I hadn't seen her in ages and it was good to catch up.

Ray and Steve Congdon (known to readers of Gerrie's blog as "Mr. C") hung out by the windows. Ray said they were the "wall flowers". I think they look very cool and casual in their sporty shirts. It was the first nice warm summery day of the year. And it was hot in the gallery.

Steve said he charges people to put his picture on their blog. I told him to send me an invoice.