Ruth B. McDowell 06-24-24

I am very sad to tell  you that Ruth B. McDowell died on Saturday,June 22nd, she was just 79.  The cause was Multiple Myeloma.  She wasn't sick very long, but how would I know?  She was never one to complain.  When I learn more I will post any information.  

This  is a professional image used for some of her exhibits.

The best teacher I ever studied with, as she was for many of her students.  Here she shows the picture a student has decided to work with. 

The last class I had with her was her last session in Kalispell, Wyoming..  

Here she is talking about Susan Hillsenbeck's eggplant flower in progress. 

Ruth at the demo easel showing how to trace the sewing lines onto tracing paper.

Ruth and Pippi, her grand-daughter, take a walk.

"Conversation on the Porch"  Ruth B. McDowell   1993   37.5"L X 54"W

Cotton fabric, thread,and batting.  Machine pieced and quilted.

This is the first of Ruth's quilts I added to the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection in1994.  It is my favorite.

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Final Quilts from Empty Spools 04-25-24

 This is the last of the quilts on view at Empty Spools last week.  

On the bulletin boards behind my table I changed the quilts several times.

On the left is "Is This Me?"  Bodil Gardner - Denmark  2020

Machine and hand applique.  Machine quilted.

On the right is one of my quilts, I always take one or two just to prove I do make quilts!  "Palms" Del Thomas - CA  2023 Fused, machine  quilting. 

On another day I hung  these two quilts.

"Lowanda Does Hollywood"  Jean Ray Laury - CA  2000

Machine Pieced, silk screened, foiling, hand colored, and lots more techniques.

  Someone always asks if I was the model!  No, she did this before we met.  

"Rooster at Freddy's"  Ruth B. McDowell - Minnesota   2009

Machine Pieced, Machine Quilted

Ruth visited Freddy Moran's home in CA and based this design on a 2-1/2 foot rooster on the coffee table.  Only the real thing was all white, unusual for Freddy.

A glorious tribute to Asilomar, Empty Spools, and Pacific Grove. 

"Asilomar/Pacific Grove"  Mary Lou Weidman - CA  2013

Machine pieced, Machine quilted, hand and machine applique, hand embroidery.

All the places quilters know and love when they attend Empty Spools. 

"Cataclysm"  Judith Content  2009

Hand dyed (arashi shibori) silk fabric, Machine pieced and quilted. 

When Judith was working on this quilt her husband was reading "Krakatoa" about the Pacific island that erupted in 1883 and made the loudest noise ever heard at that time and also affected the weather around the world for several years. Mr. Content kept reading sections of the book outloud to her and she created this image.  The silk gives a shimmering effect that is lovely. 

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More quilts from Empty Spools 04-23-24

Not many tonight, I am still just sooo tired.  I did not take as many photos as I thought. I guess I was too busy answering questions and talking quilts. These two quilts were on the stage.

"A Rash of Flamingos"   Ruth B. McDowell  - Minnesota  2000

Using her unique piecing technique Ruth created this fabulous flock.  It seems to be the most popular quilt in TCQC.

Cotton fabric, thread, batting.  Machine pieced and quilted.  52"LX100"W

"Oregon Rain"  Pat Pauly - NY 2023

Printed using silk screen, rubbing, masking, scrappers, etc..

Machine pieced, machine quilted.  52"X104"

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Ruth McDowell quilt from Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 10-29-23

I am surprised that the last time I showed "Pumpkins" on this blog was November  2008!  It took me a long time to find it in the archives and I am showing it in full from that long ago post.

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I am an admirer of Ruth B. McDowell and the magical quilts she creates. There are quite a few of her works in the Collection. I feel this is one of her very best and it fits right into this season of autumn and Thanksgiving.

"Pumpkins" Ruth B. McDowell -  Massachusetts 1998 57"W x 44.5"L
Commercial cotton fabrics, cotton batting, cotton thread.
Machine pieced. Hand appliqué. Machine quilted.

Using her unique techniques of curved seam machine piecing for the pumpkins and straight seam machine piecing for the leaves, Ruth has created an elegant image of this common vegetable. Her whimsical choices for the background fabric include round orange flowers with green leaves which reflect the color and shape of the pumpkins, shibori, hand dyes, batiks and plaids. For the leaves there are many different fabrics in a variety of greens including a vintage piece with buttons that could represent bug holes, or raindrops. She has make a rather realistic stem by piecing striped fabric together. The only appliqué used is for the bottom circle on the foreground pumpkin. The integrated border implies a frame, but blends into background to avoid crowding the central image.

Ruth B. McDowell and Del Thomas w/Pumpkins quilt in background. Photo by Karen Stiehl Osborn.

Last February (2007} a selection of Ruth B. McDowell quilts from the TCQC hung for several months at the Pacific Grove shop Back Porch Fabrics. It was a great opportunity for those attending Asilomar to see the quilts up close and to read what Ruth had to say about them in her various books. Pumpkins appears in "A Fabric Journey: An Inside Look at the Quilts of Ruth B. McDowell" on pages 18 - 21

http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/

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The are now more than 30 Ruth B. McDowell quilts in the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.  The latest was  added last fall,  "Day Lilies by the Pond". Ruth has retired from teaching and now lives in Minnesota, but she still makes an occasional quilt.

Ruth B. McDowell quilt from Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection 04-02-23

This is the quilt most representative of SPRING in TCQC.  The color here is more dull than the actual quilt, but I seem to have no luck brightening things  up.  I only have one place in my house I can show this without furniture in front of it.  So it hangs there for three months every now and then.  Currently it is on loan so others can enjoy it.

"Summer Lily"  Ruth B. McDowell  2002  59"W x 70"L

Cotton fabric, cotton batting, cotton thread

Machine pieced and quilted. 

www.ruthbmcdowell.com

 

The actual lily plant is 7 - 9 inches tall, so this exaggeration is an eye stopper.  

One of the delights in Ruth's quilts is the variety of fabrics that she uses and manages to mix together successfully. 

In the early 90s Ruth designed a line of fabrics for South Seas and has used bits of them for years in her quilts.  The leaf in the middle with the blue nine-patches and the snaky white "stitches" is one of hers.  The Swiss chard at the bottom is a Kaffe Fassett.

 

At the top of the picture with the floating triangles and also the light fabric with white bits that is in the middle of the picture are both Ruth's fabrics.  The gold and white checks in the bottom flower is a Marimekko.

 

The back fabric is also a Marimekko.  In this picture you can see the intricate quilting done on a domestic Pfaff machine.

And here is the back with those enormous yellow/orange/green poppies - one of Marimekko's best. 

Ruth's hand lettered label and the TCQC label above it.

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Ruth B. McDowell Quilt from TCQC 03-05-23

This is reprinted from the post of 05-27-12

It always interests me to look at an artist's work over a span of years, so I am very happy to have purchased this early Ruth McDowell quilt from a private collector.  She had loaned this piece to the 2008 exhibit of Ruth's quilts at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA. When I heard that she and her husband had downsized to a much smaller home, I asked her if she would consider selling the quilt to me and she said she would think about it.  This year when I was at Empty Spools she said she was ready to part with it and I wrote her a check! 

"At Crocker Grove"  Ruth B. McDowell 1990  36"W x 47"L 
Machine pieced. Hand appliqued. Hand quilted. Commercial cotton and raw silk fabrics, cotton thread.
www.ruthbmcdowell.com
  When she began making quilts Ruth hand quilted everything, but gradually taught herself to machine quilt which has helped her to create over 500 quilts over the years.  I believe this is one of the last of her hand quilted works, so I am extra pleased to have it in TCQC.

  
She hand appliqued the thin horizontal branches,but before too many more quilts she had refined her piecing techniques and rarely hand appliques anything now. 

 
Ruth has never been hesitant to use whatever print fabric will give the look she desires.  This background drapery fabric gives the look of branches and grasses behind the trees.  

 
Ruth's hand stitched signature appears on the front at the lower left. 

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Friday Feet 01-20-23

For awhile Friday was always "Friday Feet" day and I posted pictures of shoes, boots, feet, etc., but along came Covid and I didn't go out and didn't see anyone's feet but mine and KoKo's!  So I started doing "Friday Food".  I don't go out much now, but saw these amazing shoes at CVS Pharmacy.  Can't imagine they would be comfortable, but we are all different.  She might find my standard shoes unbearable.  So, I will sometimes do Food and sometimes Feet.  

I suppose there is fur on the inside to keep her toesies warm.  It was a cold day. 

 

Here are some from the past. 

Don't know if gnome lovers would approve.  Quite a burden for the little guys. 

Elegant feet and always interesting shoes on this lady. 

I don't stick to people feet.  These are on Ruth B. McDowell's quilt "Duck Weeding".

These are my favorite feet!   Copied this off the Internet.  Sooo tiny.

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Amaryllis 01-09-23

I love these fabulous amaryllis bulbs growing in a wax coating and buy them for myself and as gifts every Christmas.   Even though I know what they look like they are always a surprise.  The red are the most common, but this year I found a white one in a pot that I gave as a gift.  

Some grow tall and blossom and some can hardly wait to get out of the bulb!

And here is Ruth B. McDowell's rendition of a pink amaryllis which is part of the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection.   one of my most favorites.

 "Amaryllis" Ruth B. McDowell (2014)   43"W x 39.5"L

Cotton Fabrics, batting, thread.  Machine pieced and quilted. 

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Looking back ten years to May 2012 Part Five 05-31-22

It was amazing how much some of the students accomplished in class, some completed the top of their quilt.  I never do well in class.  Can't concentrate, have to keep up with what everyone else is doing, taking pictures, shopping for more fabric, just can't settle down.  I did not even cut any fabric, just worked on the design for a large quilt of fuchsias.  The design is rolled up in a plastic bin with lots of other designs I have never completed.  

The shop was large and had a fabulous selection of every possible cotton print, so we all took home additions to our fabric libraries.   Ruth lived in a rural section of Massachusetts where it was miles to a quilt shop, so she always stocked up when she visited Kallispell.  Here are the fabrics she purchased on this trip. 

I guess I also bought the orangey stripe in the middle.  I used it in a quilt I made during the pandemic.  I'm sure I have others in my extensive fabric library.  

The day after the class ended four of us did a tour of Glacier National Park enjoying the local knowledge of the shop owner who also did the driving.  It was a great day, I'm sure we would not have seen as much if we had been on our own.  Bears, sheep, loons, and unbelievable views of the soaring mountains and deep lush valleys.  I'd like to go back again someday. 

Loon carrying chick on back. 

What a wonderful week, but over too soon. My friend flew back to the mid-west and I hit the road for SCalifornia.  

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Looking back ten years to May 2012 Part Four 05-28-22

This was the last class that Ruth taught, ever!  She had been teaching here for a few weeks every summer for some time and many of the students were repeating - taking one last class.  it was at the Quilt Gallery shop which has since changed locations and owners.  It was a very large shop with a great classroom, but I don't know what the new shop is like. 

  The first day of class everyone gets out the picture(s) they have brought with them and Ruth starts helping each student design their quilt.  I have always been amazed at how easily she seemed to handle twenty different designs and the twenty different backgrounds and experiences of those students.  

Susan Hilsenbeck and her husband drove from Texas and while she was taking the class he went on a fly fishing class.  She worked diligently and almost complete the quilt top of this eggplant design. 

First putting tracing paper over her picture and drawing the seam lines.  She chose to color her drawing to make it easier to chose fabrics. 

Starting with the flower she selected and cut fabric, pinning it on her diagram until she has all the fabric cut for one section.  

Continuing to select fabric and cut the shapes which are pinned in place.  

One joy of having a class in a quilt shop is being able to search the entire shop for just the right color, texture, value, etc.  of fabric needed.  

By the last day of class this is what she had done.  The piece is about 22" wide by 28" tall.  The original photo she worked from is on the left.  

There were four or five dogs, a cat, seven or so flowers, a couple landscapes, some people, a great lizard, just a broad selection made by the students.  

I liked Susan Vacek's blue dog.  The original picture was brown. 

And the lizard was spectacular.  About 36" wide.  

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