Today Gordon and I went to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon, which is located in the central part of the state. It’s a cute town in a gorgeous setting — Ponderosa pines everywhere and the beautiful Sisters mountains. For the show they hang quilts (1200 of them this year) inside and outside of all the local businesses — they even close the highway through the middle of town and re-route all the traffic. We arrived early and it was pleasant — not too hot yet and not too crowded. I have to admit that I didn’t see a lot of quilts like the ones I make — most of them are brightly colored and machine quilted. If you want to see examples of fine hand quilting these days, I guess you have to go to a museum. Anyway, there were a few antique quilts displayed which were very pretty, and then this one that just blew me away. It’s a Charley Harper bird quilt and I just loved it — even though it’s contemporary. I should have gotten the info from the tag, but I was so distracted staring at the quilt, I completely forgot. If anyone knows who made this quilt, please let me know. I have all of the re-issues of the Charley Harper books and I have often thought I would love to make a quilt from his wonderful pictures. I doubt I ever will, though, because I don’t think I could ever make one this beautiful. My photo really does not do it justice.
UPDATE: Lisa K. informed me that the quilter’s name is Jane Haworth (from Auburn, California). Lisa provided a link to Susan Beal’s blog — West Coast Crafty. Susan has wonderful photos of the of the Sisters quilt show, including close-ups of the Charley Harper quilt.
I also bought several bags of great vintage fabric scraps that were super cheap. They were mixed in with bags of newer stuff and nobody buying seemed interested — even the people selling it didn’t seem to think it was worth anything — I was thrilled!
That is amazing! I did see Jane H. stitched in the bottom right corner, but that doesn’t narrow it down too much I guess…
Ann
This is beautiful. I see the robin and the cardinal and the blue jay. I think there is also a mourning dove, a red-breasted nuthatch, a brown creeper, and I think the bird with the white eye stripe is a wren of some kind.
It sounds like a wonderful event! I hope that when I retire, I can talk The Mister into building some vacation time around events like this! (I love the bird quilt!)
Looks like it was a talented lady named Jane Haworth:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanstars/3724423910/
I seem to remember the Valorie Wells review of the quilt show had info on the bird quilt. Thanks for all you share. I took up quilting after becoming disabled and donate what I make. I’m not out to quilt stores much and rely on the web. Your site is great. Thanks, Gigi.
My daughter just found this link whilst at High School today. I am the maker of the Charley Harper Quilt. It’s wonderful to hear all your comments. Get back to me if you require more info.
Jane Haworth
Last night I saw the Jane Haworth Bird quilt in the June/July Quilters Newsletter (last page) and loved it.
I could not believe how my heart sung at that quilt and I had never heard of Charley Harper.
So I went to work today at the National Park Service and stared at our walls which are covered with wonderful NPS posters. I looked up Charley Harper on the internet and found that he had done all of those posters!!! I had never thought to look for an artist for those posters.
While I feel silly, I would love to contact Jane and thank her for that quilt. Does anyone have an email for her?
Sybil Winfield, Colorado
Years ago CBS Sunday Morning Show featured Charley Harper and that is how I discovered who did the posters we had hanging for years.
I could not afford the book about his work that was featured but did get another, a DVD and best of all, a coloring book! For quilt designs!!!
NOW if only I would get around to that quilt..It is news to me that fabric is available..I will have to seek it out…Ellicott City, MD