Oregon Gardens Quilt Show 2014

"Seams Like Degas" by Lura Schwartz Smith, who was the featured quilter at the Oregon Gardens Quilt Show. It was amazing to see this quilt up close, her painted faces and hands were so expressive. Six of us went up to the show on Saturday, to the gardens East of Salem, Oregon. They are 50 acres of beautiful landscapes, flowing down a hillside. Most of the plants were dormant, pruned and waiting for a spring day. There was lots of sculpture art in the gardens, and creeks and waterfalls. They had a large exhibition hall full of over 100 quilts, selected for the show. I enjoyed this, as it gave a great variety to look at, traditional as well as art quilts, landscapes, challenges and beautiful quilting and embellishments.

"Low Tide" by Helene Knott, was one of our favorites, the monochromatic colors gave it a soothing feeling. It was very large and very pricy, I wish I could get that kind of money for an art quilt. After checking the Garden's website, I found that "Low Tide" had won best art quilt at the show.

"Under the Mist" by Angelia Peterson, was another favorite. It was so realistic, with the background hand painted in foggy trees, and the vibrant green foliage in the foreground. The foliage was done with snippets of fabric covered in tulle, but you could hardly tell, as it blended so well.

"White Poppy" by Laura TenBroeck was beautiful, it glowed against a dark blue pieced background, she made the pattern herself from her photograph. The shading was done in lavender and light blues, and gave delicate contrast and depth to the white.

"Cats in the Patch" and "Crater Lake" were very different, the cats made everyone laugh, a very frisky look at quilting with cats. Crater Lake was a large format, to show the grandeur of the location, the circle inset into the picture, added a focus and was very effective.The three quilts with architectural views of ancient structures, were wonderfully detailed, the accuracy and perspective drew the viewer into them. I am sorry I was not able to match up the quilt with the artist in the show brochure. The pillars in shades of gray, were all folded and textured to create the flutes of the stone. The SW Adobe was painted in great detail, and the ruins were from a photo by the artist. There were many more gorgeous works of art, patience, creativity, imagination, and skill all went into the finished projects. A great representaion of Oregon artists. Thank you Oregon Gatrdens for putting on an inspiring show. click here for Oregon Gardens

The bright, blue sky day, gave a glow to the white birch bark through out the gardens. The conifer gardens were impressive with their great variety, the lower growing conifers were in a variety of colors, and shapes, gray, blue, golden, red and light and dark greens. A few spring bulbs were jsut beginning to poke through the soil.

The banana slug fountain was a bit of curveaseous whimsy, the anntenae were polished brassy bright by leaning hands. I've seen the flower pot people before, but the boy on the rusty tricycle was fun! All the flower pot people were in the childrens garden and wrapped in scarves and wool hats!

After the show and walking around the gardens, we ventured into Salem, starving! Around the corner from Greenbaum's Quilted Forrest, is a great little restraunt, "Venti's" it had a variety of "ethnic" foods. Greek salads, Thai chicken, and too many goodies it was hard to choose. We stood around for a while, while six women made up their minds. The ART store next to Greenbaum's is another MUST stop for us. Carving blocks, stencils, paints, brayers, books and sketchpads all becond us. A foray through fabric at Greenbaum's took time, as each of us sought out treasures we had to have. We made it back to the van, being distracted by a the glowing colors of glass rods, and handpainted porcelain in the next shop, and spotted a Mixed Media store kitty coner, where we WILL stop next time through Salem. We made it back to Roseburg, happy and tired and just in time for a late dinner. Thank you ladies for making it a very rewarding and pleasant adventure.