Iris & Peony Garden Tour

Several of the ladies went on a trip North of Salem on Saturday to tour Schriener's Iris Gardens and Adelman's Peony Gardens. They are about 2 miles apart off Interstate 5, on either side of the freeway, at exit 263. It was a cool day with the sun peaking out, just right for photography. Everything was at it's peak of blooming, though we could have been a week later for the peonies. The best time to see them is between Mother's Day and Mid June. They will still be great for a few more weeks now.

The iris gardens are inter-planted with lupine, delphinium, clematis, allium, poppies, columbine and all sorts of other stuff. Backed by huge old rhododendrons and azaleas, the gardens go on and on, and there was a pond too. The whole area is surrounded by fields of iris, row after row of different colors. They have a wonderful gift shop, and nursery area where you can buy iris plants or order bulbs for fall planting. We took lots of pictures, and worked with the intricacies of our cameras. Hopefully these will inspire us to create beautiful textiles

After shopping we went to Adelman's, it was just a short jaunt on the other side of the freeway. They had beautiful gardens planted with peony bushes, tree peonies and some iris and other filler flowers. The gardens are newer, and have some growing to do, but the flowers were amazing! Huge, full, rich colored flowers, filled with bees, and fragrance, enticed us to walk the paths, around a waterfall feature, and other statuary. They had picnic tables, so we took a nice break for lunch. Their gift shop and flowers for sale were wonderful, Amy had to get a deep red Japanese style peony, and the others got some cut flowers. They were going to be doing a flower arranging demonstration, but we did not stay around to catch it.

On our way home, we stopped at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem for some fabric shopping, an art gallery that Peggy had found on the internet, and Dutch Bros. for some coffee. We also had time to stop at the Eugene Textile Center, to see what they were all about. One of the guys was taking some shibori silk scarves off the the piping they were drying on, and they were gorgeous. They have a wide assortment of books and fibers, and wonderful classes several of our members have taken.

Portland "NW Quilt Show" 2012

Four of the Fyber Cafe ladies went up to the Portland Guilds show on Friday, it rained all the way up, we got an early start and got there about 10:30. The show was in a smaller exhibit hall, and was not the big Expo show I had been expecting, that is in September. The vendors where wonderful, and they had some very creative quilts. We are more drawn to the art quilts now, rather than the more traditional work. The guild challenge "Portals" had some beautiful entries, and they are entering several quilts in the Guild Group Challenge in Houston. I am not going to post any photos due to copyright considerations. I mostly bought some new stencils at the booths, some hot fix crystals, and ceramic buttons and Janna got some interesting applique patterns. After enjoying our lunch we headed across town to "Fabric Depot." It wasn't as busy as usual on a quilt show day, so we got to spend a little time there. I got Jacquard De-colourant, and spray adhesive and some more stencils. I am addicted to spray adhesive for basting my quilt layers. Vera got a cookbook on local Oregon Cuisine and wines. We beat the rush hour traffic out of town, and stopped at "Greenbaum's Quilted Forest" in Salem. It is such a bright cheerful shop, lots of color and projects on display, it is one of our favorite shops!! We always make a point of stopping here. Janna found a Laurel Burch bag she couldn't resist, and Peggy and I got a Japanese print with colorful butterflies. We dragged ourselves home about 6:30pm for a long eventful day, we had a great time with friends, enjoying our passion for textiles. We are already planning another trip up to Keizer/Salem for the IRIS gardens blooming, between Mothers Day and Memorial Day. Hope others can join us for that field trip.

Bandon Field Trip

During our Bandon Art Retreat, we went out to lunch on Saturday, then went exploring to various places South on Highway 101. Our first stop is a place aptly named "ART101" you can check it out at Art101Bandon.org The artist who owns the place has a beautiful view of undersea life, creating beautiful mixed media 3-D pieces, using recycled materials. Her "Sea Cave" is an installation piece, an entire room, with closing curtains to create a sea cave, with many glow in the dark effects. She uses a lot of shag rug, sweaters, knits, hair scrunches, paint, plastic parts, beads etc.. to create reef environments, corals, anemones, shells and other sea life. To be enclosed in the cave is an awesome experience. The second part of her work is with public participation and recycling. The project "Washed Ashore" at washedashore.org is made with found objects from the beach, people bring her all sorts of items found around coastal Oregon, plastics, nets, glass and metal. Large sculptures of ocean and coastal creatures are made with the recycled materials. I was there once when they were working on a large salmon, and Pat was there during the summer, with her family and helped make a starfish. A large jellyfish and a seagull were the recent projects.

Photos 1-4
Sea Cave closeups
& Orange corals.
Photos 5-11
Washed Ashore
recycled materials
sculpture

Further South in Langlois we stopped at the Wool Shop, they were full of beautiful knits, felts, and fibers. Several of us got sample bags of various wools, mohairs, and silks to use in our needle felting projects. It was a place where you just want to feel all the textures, soft and fuzzy and hairy!