Retirement!

Hello friends, clients and colleagues,
I have decided after over a year's sabbatical from the quilting business to officially retire effectively immediately.
This decision is truly bittersweet, but one I knew was coming down the road, eventually.  I will miss the quilting world, for sure, but mostly I will miss the friendships and associations I've made through 13 blissful years.

Keep quilting!
Connie Potter
Ponderosa Patchworks
aka Pacific Patchworks

We've Moved!

Pacific Patchworks has moved to Southern Utah, and has returned to its original business name: 

 Ponderosa Patchworks.

Look for our Grand Reopening Summer 2019.

Until then: keep piecing!

2018 Clark County Quilters Show

This year I entered four quilts in my guild's quilt show.  Three of them I made specifically for the show, but not necessarily for the theme, which was "Once in a Blue Moon".  I've featured all of these quilts on my blog earlier, so I won't go into great detail on the quilting of each.

Makai (a Hawaiian word meaning "toward the sea") was featured in my July 2013 blog post.  It juried in the 2009 Fine Woodworking and Quilts Show in Colorado Springs, but at a hulking 101" square, it was too large to hang in their venue.  In the 2018 CCQ Show, the placard stated "Both the batiks and freestyle fern quilting techniques effectively portray the sea and sand of Kauai, a place my husband and I love.  I wanted a sense of earth, sea and sky, certainly what you see, smell  and feel in Hawaii."  It received a Vendor's Choice Award.

Next, I pose in between my Antique Yellow and White Pinwheel and my Batik Color Theory Sampler.

The Pinwheel (to my left), featured in my June 2017 post, was described on the CCQ Show placard: "I love to go antiquing and find '30s vintage quilt tops like these! It waited a long time to be quilted, which I did in 'over-the-top' feathers on my longarm quilting machine, freeform hand-guided. The label is a vintage doily - a fitting finishing touch."  No ribbon, but to tell the truth, I was thrilled to get ribbons at all.  I just enjoy seeing my quilts hang in a show!

The Sampler (to my right) was in my post December 2017, and described as follows: "Working out of the box of two and three-color quilts, I selected fabric using a color wheel vs. personal preference.  I actually cringed when quilting the first row, but quickly embraced the vibrancy. To calm sensory sensitivity, I framed it throughout in midnight blue. It was a great study!" It received a Sponsor Ribbon, as shown in the next photo.

Batik Color Theory Sampler

Northwoods Star Crossing

My Northwoods Star Crossing, as seen recently in my February 2018 blog post, placed in the Show at third in the Pieced Intermediate Category: "The pattern for this quilt was inspired by a small fragment of an antique quilt. As I finished the binding with our granddaughter watching, I asked her to help name it, which she did. I pieced and longarm-quilted this bed-sized quilt in both hand-guided and computer-assisted techniques."

"Hip-hip-hooray" to Clark County Quilt Guild for putting on the best show I've seen by a guild. That assessment comes not only from me, but from many, many others. It was reported last Thursday night at our monthly meeting that while the show was running, a woman and her husband were on the highway traveling from Wyoming. As they passed the marquee that advertised our show, she hit the brakes and took the exit off the highway straight to the show venue. Needless to say, her husband is a very patient, wise man.  Moral: if you're itching to visit your local guild show, get on the internet first!  It's safer ...

Northwoods Star Crossing

Here in the Pacific Northwest when the forest gets dense and you lose your horizontal bearing, sometimes you need to look up and follow the stars!

In quilting jargon, when the going gets tough, the tough quilt stars!

The pattern for this large-sized queen quilt was inspired by a small fragment of an antique quilt, and came from the February 2007 issue of McCall's Quilting. The unique setting highlights the star points and adds interest with pieced sashing posts. Using the cream print as the outer strips of the pieced sashing makes the star points in the blocks appear to float in the setting. 

 I pieced and then longarm machine-quilted it, using two techniques; computer assisted and hand-guided. The only hand-guided quilting was continuous; utilizing serpentine lines within the sashing strip seams, and SID around each sashing post as I travelled across the quilt to serpentine each sashing strip. All computer-assisted patterns were Lady of the Lake, from Donna Kleinke of One Song Needle Arts.

Quilting the borders

Border design close up

Border design as seen with triangle design finished

Sashing square quilting detail

Our ten-year old granddaughter was visiting last summer, and among other fun things, I taught her how to quilt. (The arm bandage came from a back handspring, not her first attempt at quilting! And yes, she finished her quilt and took it home within one week - it helps when grandma has a longarm ...). It just so happened I was finishing up my Northwoods Star Quilt when she was here. As I was hand-sewing the binding to the back of my quilt one evening, I was contemplating what to name it. She was watching, enthralled  with the whole process, so I asked her to help me with its name.  

 "What do you think?" I asked. 

"I think it looks like it came from the country, or from in the woods." She said. "So, you should give it a name that makes you think of a forest, or something."

Such wisdom! 

"Well, we live in the Northwest, so how about 'Northwest...something'?"

"How about 'Northwoods'?" she countered.

"Northwoods Star Crossing!!" I finalized, since 'Star Crossing' is the name of  the original pattern.

And there you have it :).

New patterns in stock!

Take a break and browse through recent additions to my pattern collection.

They could be on your next quilt!

Select from these E2E designs or from many others at your next studio appointment.

Connie Potter

Pacific Patchworks

ppatchworks@gmail.com

A Merry Christmas to One and All!

Full to the brim with Christmas cheer, this mystery quilt was designed by a small local quilt club ... 

At their first Christmas Mystery Quilt meeting, five women set guidelines: block dimensions, fabric color and a deadline to submit the blocks (as sewn into 5 identical rows) to the group organizer. They could select any block pattern as long as it was Christmas-themed. Before the reveal at the last meeting, the rows were distributed equally and sewn into five separate quilt tops by the organizer. 

Scroll down for a representation of the kinds of blocks they submitted, and the mystery reveal!

Some blocks came with tree lights and even some snow ...

Blocks with sage wisdom and gifts ready to go ...

Blocks with gay stockings danced with stars in the sky ... 

 Blocks sewn in whipped cream and red cherry pie ...

 Blocks sewn in the likeness we know as St. Nick ...

 ... with snowmen remarking "Let it snow, and be quick"!

 (We'll pause to look a moment before the reveal ...

At ornaments on the tree we like a great deal):

The reveal!

I hope their creativity inspires you to gather a few friends to make a mystery quilt next year!

My heart is full of gratitude for my many gifted clients who not only bring me incredible quilt tops, but real-life stories of caring, life and love. It's truly the Spirit of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!