Mission Accomplished and a Quilt Exhibit

We made a trip into Tillamook, a little way south of the RV park here in Rockaway Beach. Since this is our "shakedown" cruise, it's also the cruise we take to figure out what extra little things we might need for this new RV. We've also discarded some things that worked for the old one, but don't work in the new one. It's like moving into a new house...small though it is. On the way into Tillamook, I captured a couple more quilt blocks. This one was on a bank building:

This one was on the car wash across the street.

 
Our most important mission yesterday was to get a basket to serve as the kitty toy box and other-kitty-things depository. It looks better than the plastic shoe box that was there before.

Also...less tippy coffee cups. They're almost too big for the cup holders, but they'll work.

While we were in town, we stopped off at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center. We often stop here when we're in Tillamook. I have a soft spot for this place since some of my grandmother's quilts are included in their collection. Here's the front door. It's housed in an old schoolhouse.

To the left of the door is this old school bell.

This plaque hangs beneath the bell.

Across from the door were some wild rose bushes with the biggest rose hips I've ever seen.

Inside, the restroom doors are painted with quilts.

So, we stopped off here to see an exhibit I'd read about in the Tillamook Headlight Herald by Victor Claude Pirtle. Here's a little quote from the article.

Navy veteran Victor Claude Pirtle admits serving in Vietnam had a big impact on his life. “It left me altered in many ways,” he said. It set him on a quest looking for his answers. He readily admits finding poetry 40 years ago saved his life. He made another discovery more recently. Ten years ago, Pirtle found quilting.

You can read the entire article about him right here. He started quilting about the same time I did, and his quilts were very interesting. This first one was hanging to the left as we entered into the exhibit hall. It was called simply "Scrap Quilt."

He has a knack for bringing dimension to his quilts. I'll show you some other examples in a minute. Here's one from the quilt shown above.

Most of his quilting consisted of this swirling and hooked "stippling."

Opposite the quilt above hung this one, entitled "One Leg."

Inside was this large quilt called "Two Legs." Quite a few of the quilts had this unsquared, uneven finish to them.

I liked what he did with the borders, using thread painting for little pops of color.

And I didn't understand this "One Leg" and "Two Leg" business until I saw this next quilt, entitled "Eight Legs." Then, I could see the legs. Do you see them? Look back again at the quilts above, and you'll see the legs there too.

If I'm remembering correctly, he lives in Tillamook, and so many of his pieces are scenes of the sea.

This next one is his thread-painted version of Van Gogh's Starry Night. A little sign said there were 6.5 miles of thread in this piece.

This next one is called "Emery Hotel."

If you're familiar with the music of Pink Floyd, you might recognize this as the Dark Side of the Moon.

He had some smaller pieces on display as well. Here are a couple of holiday quilts.

You might remember our last trip to the coast when we hiked near haystack rock and saw the Tillamook Head Lighthouse.

Here it is in the form of a little quilt.

This one is called "Twin Towers."

Here's an example of how he brings dimension to his quilts. This is a large bed-sized quilt. It was hanging up high, and so it was hard for me to get very good pictures of it.

Looking up, you can see that he's crinkled and tied fabrics to serve as the sails on the tall masts.

This next one is another large quilt, entitled "Mail Call."

It's a little hard to see, but the letters, the mail slot, and the curtains on the sides of the door are all three dimensional.

This next one is called "Agent Orange."

There were many more to see, and so if you find yourself in the area anytime in the next week, I can recommend stopping in to see the exhibit. It closes on September 1st. We walked through the rest of the center. I didn't see any of my grandmother's quilts on display this time around, but I've seen them at other times. On one visit, they were doing a display of Double Wedding Ring quilts, and my grandmother's quilt was among them. I searched through old blog posts trying to find the image where it was on display, and I couldn't find it. Nevertheless, I can't resist showing you what it looks like.

She was such an incredible quilter. All her quilts were hand-pieced and hand quilted.

Her quilts made me want to learn to quilt, but she was long gone by the time I learned.

Family remembrances aside, I had to show you these little cats we saw yesterday. If I'm guessing, I'll think these are made from old sweaters or old socks.

There were also some rabbits.

And this raccoon.

This is the name of the artist, who lives in the same town where I live. I've blotted out her personal information since I wasn't sure she'd be happy about having it shared online. You can find her Etsy shop right here.

Outside as we were leaving, I noticed this large mural painted on the side of the building where their quilt collection is stored.

Back at the traveling ranch, the kitties are settling in a little better. I snapped this image of Smitty who was sharing the love seat with me.

There's an Instagram artist named Melissa. If one posts pictures of one's cats with the hashtag #melissapaintmycat, she might just paint your cat. Then she posts them, and they are available for sale if you want to purchase it. I've posted dozens of pictures, but so far, no dice. (I'm sure she's tagged by thousands, and so it's no surprise we haven't won the lottery yet.)

Purrdon me, but did you ask my purrmission to post my likeness on social meowdia?

They were both exhausted yesterday after keeping us awake for most of the night.

Sadie is spending most of her time in the bedroom, but she did come out for snuggles while we watched a movie last night. She likes the little kitty quilt by the bedroom window. She can have a comfortable place to lie and watch for woofies outside.

And then it's just a short hop to the bed for napping when she feels like it. (Remind me to make a quilt for this bed.)

Smitty is still put out that there are no cubbies in the new RV.

I've turned on my lasers as a warning that I could turn into "Fang" at any moment. Be careful.

We did all our running around yesterday, and now we'll just stick at the RV today. We postponed our Oysters Rockaway and Linguine alle Vongole for tonight and went out last night. It made sense to us to keep our running around confined to one day so we could just hang today. The warm weather has gone away, but we'll get out for a cooler walk on the beach today. Aside from that...nothing on our agenda.