Vacation Post

Looking Down!

A photo taken from the top edge at Cape Kiwanda Oregon State Park near Pacific City, Oregon. The Monolith has several names, but is one of the many Haystack Rocks along the Oregon Coast.

My friends invited me to come and play with paper, acrylics, and ink pens.  I added the acrylic and muslin leaf print, embroidered with DMC floss, after I got home.

The piece reminded me of viewing Earth from 15,000 feet up.  I decided to float the leaf up there too, like it was doing a free fall in a delicate decent to seek ground or water.

One of my Google+ friends told me later that I got the alphabet right-side up...just lucky, I think.

June 2016

Jacksonville, Oregon
Currently displayed in Wirfs Studio

Guest Artist, Art Du Jour

Guest Artist at Art Du Jour Gallery

Medford, OR

Dec. 2015-Jan. 2016



"African Sky"

Textile by Charlotte Wirfs

Part of Frida Series, #3

Hand quilted, appliqued, and embroidered.

Sold at this event.

Details of African Sky.

"Frida's Hallelujah"  Wall-Hanging Textile

 by Charlotte Wirfs and Round Robin Members, Signed

Frida Block and finishing by Charlotte Wirfs

Part of Frida Series #4

Machine and hand quilted and appliqued. 

Sold at this event.

"Fire Flies" Textile

by Charlotte Wirfs

Hand Quilted and Embroidered.

Part of Fussy-Cut series, Ruby's Red-Bag

Challenge

Currently displayed at Wirfs Studio, Jacksonville, OR

"Cream?" Textile

by Charlotte Wirfs

Hand quilted and embroidered.

Part of Fussy-Cut Series

Notan Art Quilt Challenge

Ruby Art Quilt Group, Tumwater, WA

Sold at the Aurora Quilt Show,Aurora Colony Historical Museum in Aurora, Oregon

Wild Life Mini Quilts

by Charlotte Wirfs

Six-inch hand-sewn and hand quilted wallhangings.

Part of Fussy-cut series.

All are currently in private collections.

"Saw Tooth Sisters" Wall Hanging Textile

by Charlotte Wirfs

Machine pieced and quilted.

Part of Jean Wells Fabric Designs

Sold at Art Presence Art Gqallery, Jacksonville, OR

Currently in a private collection.

Textiles, Mixed Media, cards, and collection Display

by Charlotte Wirfs

Log Cabin Textile by Joan Jacobs

Currently displayed at Wirfs Studio, Jacksonville, OR

Retro Textile Designs Valentines Cards

Hand-made Cards and envelopes by Charlotte Wirfs

Last on display at Art Presence Gallery Gift Shop,

Jacksonville, Oregon

Marigold Bud in Shadow

I was working on learning a new photo technique yesterday.  The challenge was to create an image using negative space by focusing on a subject in the foreground and blurring the background.  It was suggested to compose using complimentary colors.  I was using macro settings photographing flowers in my garden and saw this tiny marigold bud lurking in the shadows, below the larger lemon-yellow blooms.  It was a yellow green hue, but what a surprise to see the dark green surrounding foliage translated into blue-purple in the final image.  I was very pleased with this result and posted it on FaceBook, Instagram and Google+ for my friends to enjoy too.

Frida's Challege

Two Wall Quilts

Hand Embellished, machine pieced, hand quilted

Frieda's Garden

Size:  24" by 15"

Frida in Paris

Companion piece to Frida's Garden...same size

These wall quilts were made for a fabric challenge using French General fabrics.  We could make any sewn item we wanted as long as we used the fabric provided.  We could also add fabrics or embellishments.  First I machine pieced the backgrounds.  One uses straight seams and the other uses a curved seam technique.  The photographs and images of Frida were added from another fabric designer line.  I designed the garden blooms and embroidered them hand appliquéing them in a free-form design.  Both pieces were embellished with embroidery floss and hand quilted also with embroidery floss.  I mounted both pieces (just tacking them with thread by hand)  on artist canvases with the edges of the canvas painted black.  I added a wire hanger to each frame so they could hang on the wall like a painting.

 

 

French General fabrics provided for the challenge.  There was enough to make two small quilts.

 

lan to make two more wall hangings and some mug rugs adding  these Mexican lottery ticket prints and other festive prints and embellishments.  I think there will be some acrylic paint and stencils used also.

Update March 2022

These pieces have been a joy to make. All of them have made their way into private collections.

When Did I Start Sewing?

This is in response to Emily's Sew Thinky Thursday group on www.threadbias.com

Take a look.  There are some great stories and pictures posted by that group.

The question this week  is:  "When did you start sewing?"

I wanted to sew from the day I realized my Grandmother Minnie made my Sunbonnet Sue quilt and an Overall Sam quilt for my brother.  My mom did her best to get me sewing and was my first 4-H leader.  I was 9 and in the forth grade.  My very first project was a pink cotton scarf with pulled thread edges and a crayon designed pressed into one corner.

(This is not the quilt my grandmother made but will hold the spot until I can insert the actual pic.)

And I was was hooked on sewing and 4-H.  I started entering my sewing projects when I was in the 7th grade.  I belonged to a 4-H group led by the twin's' Mom, Susan and Sally were the girl's names, but I just knew their Mom by Mrs. Damon.  We made aprons and then dresses.  I think I won a ribbon.  But I started making my own clothes from that point on and continued making things and learning until my children did not want me to sew for them anymore.  

My kids, well into their 30's now.  

So, I changed my focus and joined a quilting group.  My mentor was Elizabeth and she stared me out learning how to hand-cut pieces from templates and stitch them by hand.  It was a valuable process and I completed my first quilt, a tulip wall hanging.  I was hooked!

This is a Round Robin completed by one of my early quilt groups.  Round Robins were very valuable to me as they pushed me into thinking about new colors and designs, not ones I was comfortable using.  It forced me to learn new techniques and required me to meet deadlines, complete projects, and appreciate my own work.  Since then my favorite projects are mystery quilts and challenges.  The plus to these groups is that I get to meet many people and form wonderful friendships.

My hardest quilt was a log-cabin, barn raising variation that was commissioned.  Oh my, what a learning experience and huge challenge.  But how proud I was to finish it and present it to my client.  She was gracious enough to allow me to show it in a local quilt show.  She sent pictures of it to me later displayed beautifully on her guest room bed.  She had the room painted to show it off.  I will probably never make another quilt as large or accept another commission quilt, but I am glad I had that experience.

Center block made of of four 12.5 inch- log cabin blocks set with dark sides to the middle.  

Me at the quilt show with the completed Log Cabin queen-size quilt.  I was so proud of myself.  I felt my Grandmother Mini standing there with me enjoying the moment.  Afterall, she was the inspiration to get me stared all those years ago.

Minnie standing in the center with her beautiful mother and sisters about 1900.

Minnie, as I remember her standing with my Grandfather Cecil.

Wet Lands

Wet Lands

Machine pieced and hand quilted

measures 16" by 20"
Stared Oct. 2012
Finished Jan. 2013
This piece has been  at The Corner, Pacific City, OR
The Creator's Gallery, Jacksonville, Oregon
Rogue Valley Art Gallery, Medford, Oregon. 

Art Presence Art Gallery, Jacksonville, OR

It is currently in my studio collection.

Add caption

...

This quilt, size 16" by 20" was started in Nov. 2012 and was the last quilt I stared in 2012. 

This is what it looked like at the beginning of December, 2012.  I had pieced the background  and prepared the freezer paper for the applique portion.  The quilt started out as another Red Bag of mystery fabric which I received at my Oct. "Red Mystery Bag" quilting group.  The bag was full of homespun type fabrics of stripes, tweeds, plaids, and solids.  There were very slight contrast features of the fabrics.

  Oh Boy!

  But, homespun says to me folk art, log cabins and utility hand quilting.  I knew when I left my group what I was going to do and had picked a pattern form the book Making Quilts...the promise of joy, by Kathy Doughty, Quilt Mania.  I chose a folk art applique block from that book to sew to a machine-pieced background.

The main problem was to get subtle value changes and interesting texture out of the homespun I had to work with.  I added a few prints from my own stash and stitched together 4 log-cabin blocks set in a barn-raising variation centering the lightest values.  It worked.  My son loved the resulting pieced background and suggested I don't do anything more except to immediately make it into a pillow for him.

But...

I chose some very bright prints for the appliqued pieces and prepared them to be stitched to the background.  I showed my son the fabrics I had selected and he hated it, suggesting I tone down the colors and not use the "blue balloons" (as he called them) or the bright red and that the bird print was "way too dark".  His friend Mike agreed.  What do they know.  They are musicians not quilters.

So...

I ignored their advice and pursued my plan. 

 All this was done during the week we stayed at our cottage of the Oregon Coast.  Matt spent the week with us and his friend Mike joined us for a few days.  Our visit started off with a trip to McMinnville to attend a memorial service for Alice Blanchard, my husband's Aunt.  She was age 98 when she passed in her sleep.  She had 22 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren, and several great greats.  It was a lovely service and we did enjoy visiting with friends and relatives at the potluck at the church after the service.  There was four dishes of "funeral potatoes". 

The Pete Wirfs Family, about 1966. Dayton, Oregon.  Pete and Mary Wirfs are seated and surrounded by children, Ray, Cliff, Alice, and Walt.  It was Pete and Mary's Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration.

  We also traveled to Salem twice, once to do some Christmas shopping, and once to visit my brother and wife, Dale and Paddy Price. Dale was fresh from a visit to see his brand new granddaughter, Juniper-or "Juni" and had pictures to share.

Brother Dale and wife Paddy, Salem, Oregon Dec. 2012.

At the end of the week, on our way back to Olympia Matt, Walt, and I stopped at Mike's music store in downtown Salem to see how his first year of business was going.

Matt, Char, and Mike, Salem, OR Dec. 2012

During Dec. I finished the quilt during a flurry of activities...a huge combined garage sale with my daughter, Carolyn, setting up Snow Village with my granddaughter and friends Parker and Elizabeth.  My 86-year-old Father-in-law joined us for Christmas traveling by Am Track to and from Salem.  Finally during the week following Christmas was the clean-up from what was left of the garage sale and  putting away the Christmas decorations.

Christmas Day, 2012 Olympia, WA.  Walt Sr., Matt, Derek Carolyn, Rosalee.  At the left end is Bill Trip and his daughter, Katti.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we also celebrated my husband Walt's birthday.

Dinner at the Oyster House on Celebrating Walt's birthday.  Carolyn is holding son, Derek, Matt in the middle, and Walt, age 65, is holding granddaughter, Rosalee.

It was relaxing to work on this quilt during all that "stuff" going on.  I chose to hand quilt the piece using a multi-colored embroidery thread, two strands, and an elbow quilting pattern.  I was going to finish it in a black binding, but resisted my habit of using dark fabric to finish a quilt.  Instead I chose one of the lighter prints used in the piecing.  I really was happy I did that.  I like the way the eye does not stop abruptly at the edges, but keeps the focus on the light colors and birds at the center.  Originally I named it "Black Birds", but changed the name "Wet Land". The piece reminds me of the estuaries along Highway 101 as it winds down the Oregon Coast.  Large birds and cat tail reeds can be seen along the highway.

I shared my completed quilt with my Red Bag Mystery group at the Jan. meeting.  Everyone had made some great projects.  Like me, just about every one had finished their items at the last minute as they were all caught up in their own individual Dec. activities.

And we got our next "Red Mystery Bag" of fabrics for our next challenge project to be finished mid Feb. 2013.  Fat quarters of red and white prints and solids from the French General fabric collection.

Not sure what to do with them, but I have two full weeks at the coast again the last part of Jan. 2013.  Hopefully I will have it figured out by then.

So Happy New Year to those viewing this.  I have been blogging for one year now. My goal was to establish a quilting journal that featured my projects punctuated by what was happening in my world as these quilts were created.  My secondary goal for 2012 was to finish the projects I started.

2012 was a good year.

It brought us a new family member who didn't even know she would be joining our family when I started blogging last winter.

Hope you had a great year too.

Juniper "Juni"  "June Bug", age 6 weeks. Jan. 22, 2013

Wet Lands

Blood Moon

"Blood Moon"

 Size 16" by 20"

by Char Wirfs

Finished Sept. 2012

Displayed at Short Term Gallery, Baker City, OR

Currently displayed in my daughter's home

Last Feb. I was handed a red bag of mystery fabric as part of a quilting group challenge and was asked to use as much of the fabric as possible to create a project.  There was a lot of black and white prints and a square of bright orange and a square of turquoise.  I had just read about bargello strips and decided to use that pattern as my inspiration, moving the turquoise solid down each time.  I had just started when I decided to add some drama by putting more solid dark strips between.  Notice I started the strips straight up and down and then switched to slanting them.  I finished with a straight edge to pull the composition back to center.

I liked the results and decided to add a moon to the composition.  I used white embroidery floss to quilt.  I had not intended to give the project as Asian influence, but Bingo...it went there.

Sometimes I look at the finished quilt and see a moon reflected in water and sometimes I see a harvest moon rising against a darkening Nov. night.

My son fell in love with the finished wall hanging and I traded him the little quilt for a really nice red pair of art-glass earrings.  Win! Win!

Me with new earrings.  I love red.

So I had quite a few scraps left over and thought about making a sampler.  The entire alphabet is squeezed into this design.  It is not finished yet, but it will be.  These two projects are quite different, but came from the same little red bag of mystery fabrics.  Next week I get a new bag.  wonder what will come from that....?.....

"Sampler" 

Size: 18" by 24" 

unfinished top that I have decided to finish and it will be on display at

Art Presence Art Center Galleria in Spring of 2022.

by Char Wirfs