A Day Away from Home

Montesano is a city, with as population of 3,976, on the way to the Washington coast. It is not really very much of a tourist destination, but loving small towns, we just had to stop.





 
A prominent feature of the town is the 1911 Grays Harbor County Courthouse. This is a three-story structure with a domed tower. The interior features murals of local history. Not to be missed is the dent in the front door made by the Sheriff as he fired at a fleeing felon

The city was first settled in 1852 by Isaiah L. Scammon. According to Edmond S. Meany, in 1860 the county seat of what was then called Chehalis County was moved to "the place of J.L. Scammons". Mrs. Lorinda Scammon was very religious and wished to have the place named Mount Zion. Another early settler, Samuel James, suggested "Montesano" as having a more pleasant sound and meaning about the same. The suggestion was approved and soon after, a post office was secured with the name Montesano.

The Shafer House

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a time to honor, reflect, and remember those who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

Stitching Through the Layers: The Workshop

This workshop focuses on straight line quilting designs! You’ve made a beautiful quilt top – now what? I'll show you, step-by-easy-step, how to decide on the right quilting design - what works, what doesn’t and why. Perfect for hand and machine quilters, both traditional and art quilts.

Learn how to take you quilt from this

Schedule one for your guild today! 

To this!

About my book: Stitching Through the Layers; The Art and Elegance of Straight Line Stitching

Quilting for me is part of the original design idea. It’s as important as the color or piecing design. I like all the parts of quiltmaking, but design and fabric selection are my favorites. As I travel and teach quilting design workshops, it became obvious to me that many quilters find choosing a quilting design to be very challenging. Most realize that a good design can make or break a quilt. But free motion can be very intimidating. There had to be a better way. 

In my machine quilting workshops I try to help everyone get past that apprehension. Sometimes I find that we just don’t have enough hours in the day for all the things we need to do much less want to do, and good free motion takes practice, lots of practice. There just had to be a better way. So Stitching Through the Layers; The Art and Elegance of Straight Line Stitching was born. The slogan became “Move your quilt one big step toward stardom! This book makes it EASY for you to decide how to maximize the ‘wow’ factor by using the right stitching in the right way and in the right places!”

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Stitching Through the Layers - the book tells all!

I love straight line quilting, it works so well on so many quilts, and it’s so easy! The possible combinations of straight lines are endless. Don’t stress with the process, remember to breath! I like the look of lines that aren’t perfect. I do try to keep them from looking too messy. Depending on how densely you quilt it can be time quite consuming (take breaks! You don’t have to finish quilting all at one time!). The end results are wonderful. Have fun playing with straight lines! 

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No Fire Flies

One of the things on my list to see is fire flies. But this is as close as I got this trip! I was sorry to miss them, they like warm weather. But on the other hand glad the weather was cool ... no tornado's which is something that is not on my must see list!

Thanks Cherrie for the book!

The Meeting and the trip the the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

Lively group, lots of show and tell.

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum features a superb collection of classic and contemporary Western art, including works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as sculptor James Earle Fraser’s magnificent work, The End of the Trail. The exhibition wing houses a turn-of-the-century town and interactive history galleries that focus on the American cowboy, rodeos, Native American culture, Victorian firearms, frontier military and Western performers.

Edmond Quilt Guild, Edmond Oklahoma

The mission of the Edmond Quilt Guild is to preserve, teach and share the history and art of quilting. And they do it very well. Everyone was so warm and friendly what a great guild. My special thanks to Cherrie Hampton for being a great hostess!

The workshop of the day was Simple Surfaces:
Learn all about applying paint sticks and foil to cotton or silk quilts and clothing. Come explore lots of different ways to creatively apply these fun and permanent mediums to your own projects in this casual, hands-on workshop.