Browne's Addition Tour - Patsy Clark Mansion

This fabulous Italianate is the Patsy Clark Mansion built in 1897 and designed by Kirtland Cutter to be the "most luxurious mansion ever" after a directive from the owner. It is a true tour de force. Quoting from the Spokane Historic Preservation Office website:

Cutter traveled around the world, collecting materials and furnishings for the house. The exterior sepia sandstone is from Italy, the brick was made in St. Louis, Missouri, and stained-glass windows were made by Louis Comfort Tiffany in New York City. Patsy Clark lived in the mansion until his death in 1915; his wife Mary remained in the house until 1926. Eugene Enloe, an investor, purchased the house and later sold it by 1950. The house served as the Francis Lester Inn, a restaurant and event house until 1982. It was then restored as Patsy Clark's Restaurant. Spokane architect Dennis Young was commissioned to design the project, at a reported cost of $233,000. In 1995, Chuck Quinn sold Patsy’s to a group of Spokane businessmen, and, within a year, one of the group members, Steven Senescall, bought out his partners and become sole owner. Mark and Monty Danner, also owners of the Clark House at Hayden Lake, Idaho, purchased the restaurant in November 1999. The restaurant ceased operations in 2001 and the building was purchased by the law firm of Eyman, Allison,Fennessy, Hunter, and Jones in February 2003 who are restoring it to former glory."

I remember when it was a restaurant, and I think my husband and I even blew the budget to eat there once - a very long time ago! I have to agree that the law firm is being a good steward. Enjoy the many fine details of this building (click on any pic for a larger view). Perhaps some of them will make their way into your next quilt. I know they have my mind cranking away.





Even the side/back of the building is impressive with its large carriage house.


When I looked more closely, I could see this connecting "bridge" leading from the second floor of the carriage house directly into the main house. So often carriage houses were far removed from the main house.


Across from the Mansion is Coeur d'Alene Park where this lovely Russian influenced gazebo resides.

Browne's Addition Tour

The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture is located in the historic Browne's Addition which was platted in the 1880's and intensively developed for well-to-do clients around the turn of the century. According to the Spokane Historic Preservation office: "Within its boundaries is a concentrated architectural aggregate including nearly every residential style fashionable in the Pacific Northwest between 1880 and 1930." After viewing what the museum had to offer, I took a stroll around this neighborhood to, quite frankly, gawk at the incredible late 1800's homes still standing and lovingly maintained. I knew there'd be inspiration in the details too. (Click on any picture to see those details better.) The house above was the first one I spotted on my way to the museum that made it clear there'd be more to my day than exhibits viewed indoors. It is the E. J. Roberts Mansion built in 1889 in the Queen Ann style (see a view of the front of the house plus some of the rooms here). The home remained in the family until the death of their only daughter in 1959. The mansion subsequently became a rooming house, a group home, and apartments. It has been undergoing a rigorous restoration process for the last 23 years and recently opened to the public as a Bed and Breakfast and Event Facility. That explains how someone could afford to own and live in this behemoth. See here for more information about the history of this house.


On the opposite corner was this Queen Ann. I can't track down any info on it, but I remember the plaque saying one of its special features was the rounded bay and multi-windowed copula. It looked off though, especially that rounded bay. I think all the windows had been replaced by modern versions in spite of its National Historical Registry designation.


Making a quarter turn to look at the opposite corner, I spotted this spire. Knew it had to belong to a carriage house.


Here's the house it belongs to - The Hussey-Borgenson House built in 1887 & 1889 in what is considered "a superior example of the Queen Anne style of architecture." This is looking at the back of the house. Click on the link above to see the front of the house. Check out the chimney detail, adding to the overall impact of the house's design.



With its barn/stable/carriage house, they are two of the oldest and most intact domestic buildings in Spokane. Here you get a sense for how big the carriage house is.


It always amazes me what attention to detail many of these older buildings exhibit. Rather than settling for a plain cap on the chimneys, decorative caps were designed and installed.


I was particularly fascinated by this design resolution for the chimney brickwork. I don't think I've seen bricks angled like this before. But maybe I just wasn't looking.


With my love of curves, I rather liked these under the window bay.


Kitty corner from this beauty is this rather garishly painted (in my opinion) house that I thought might be a wannabe. It didn't strike me as anything special, but apparently it is, being a Queen Ann with a two story window bay and multi-gabled roof line. It's the Olmstead House built in 1899 for a former Spokane mayor.


Just down the street from these two I happened upon this group of row houses and was perplexed. They looked in keeping with with the late 1800's time frame of the surrounding houses, yet I wasn't sure this sort of thing would have gone up on this spot back in those days. I decided it must be a very well done recent addition, carefully designed to fit in with the neighborhood. After all, it sits on the edge of the bluff with a fabulous view. and I found that hard to square with what looked like a partially commercial building. I later found information in Spokane: A City With Historical Style by Margaret Krause French & Nancy Gale Compau copyright 2000 indicating that these are townhouses built in 1891 or earlier.


A few blocks up the hill from these I found the Westminster Apartments, looking all in the world like a huge resort one should find in the Alps. I'm not sure when this was built, but French & Compau note: "The first apartment houses in Spokane were very large units. They usually had a living room, dining room, two or three bedrooms, a kitchen and bathroom...Some apartment houses even had rooms for servants to live in and had their own restaurants for the apartment dwellers." Sign me up - I could see myself living in either one of these places.


At the opposite end of the street from the E. J. Roberts Mansion, I found The Finch Mansion built in 1897 and designed by Kirtland Cutter and Karl Malmgren in the Neoclassical style. Talk about totally different. It was remodeled into apartments in 1927 - one of the first luxury apartment buildings in Browne's addition. It didn't look to me like it was still apartments, but maybe in 1927 they did it more tastefully than they did in later years. It sits on a bluff at the end of 1st street overlooking the Spokane River - what a view!


These swags so typical of Neoclassical designs are also found on many many quilts.


Next door I spotted this Mission Style carriage house. The swoopy profile of the roof line on both front and back of the building is what amused me most.


And this is the house it belongs to. Next door to it is a Tudor revival - obviously no zoning of styles here!

I'm saving the last house I found for a separate post - it is just that spectacular.

Last of the Cutwork Applique

Here is the 4th block for the row robin challenge I'm participating in. It is the second of the two designs from the Sisters Challenge quilt. After completing the last of the reverse applique parts today, I sewed the blocks into a row, using a batik provided by the owner for sashing between the blocks. I think you can see how well my batik goes with it, even though the color in the photo isn't as true as the one in the scan of the block.


Then I attached my row to the owner's row, inserting sashing in between. Aren't her Celtic blocks wonderful? Click on either picture for a larger view.

Drawing Studio Session 3 - More Hands

This week's class was frustrating for all of us. I hesitate to even share my results, and we all agreed we are sick of drawing our hand! This time we rested a masked off piece of glass on our hand and traced the outlines onto the glass. The glass also had a single vertical and horizontal line running through the middle. The exercise was to experience using that simple grid to make a proportionally larger drawing of what was on the glass. More studying of relationships and negative space aided by the simple grid repeated on our larger rectangle on the drawing paper. This proved harder than we expected - the eye did not want to make the leap to the larger size.

In addition, we laid down a ground with a graphite stick before starting to sketch. Once we'd gotten the hand sketched as accurately as we figured we could, it was time to "play" with shading. We could make areas darker with the graphite pencil or use the kneaded eraser to lighten areas. I really struggled seeing the light and dark areas of my hand, and now can see some places I could lighten up that I'd missed yesterday. The teacher suggested I could rub out along the outside of the hand to make it pop off the background more, and once she rubbed a spot, I finally got the idea. I had fun with the eraser making swoops and hash marks to give energy to the background. But my poor hand still looks pretty deformed and lifeless to me...

We started a second hand drawing (preceded by groans from all), this time holding something "interesting" in the hand. I chose my cell phone which allowed my fingers to be curled - a much more attractive pose. Not enough time to get very far on it, and I assume we will continue working on it next session.

We were encouraged to turn our work upside down if we got stuck, as well as to concentrate on getting one quadrant at a time right. Amazing how much the upside down orientation helps one to see how to fix something out of whack. The teacher also focused on seeing the negative space rather than the line itself, and I felt I was finally starting to get that. Another helpful technique.

Marie Watt

Museums usually run multiple exhibits concurrently, and the Northwest Museum of Art & Culture that I visited this week was no exception. The galleries running up to the main event featured other items from its permanent collection showcased by themes such as Indian artifacts and fine art. So it was a surprise to turn into one of them and find a display by contemporary artist Marie Watt. The exhibit titled "Forget-Me-Not" is described this way: "Marie Watt explores themes of remembrance, relations, and storytelling, heirlooms, and the notion of things - built, natural, spiritual - passed down from one generation to another." Now I would be lying if I said I didn't roll my eyes after a quick perusal of the exhibit. Her use of recycled blankets rather raggedly rendered into huge tapestries, the bulky dimensional flowers also made from recycled wool blankets, strings of squares looping from floor to ceiling, and particularly the centerpiece of the exhibit pictured above, all smacked of the sort of "pushing the envelop" that doesn't work for me. It just looked like so much poorly conceived and constructed art meant to strike a sentimental nerve and thus be difficult to criticize without inadvertently criticizing the subject of her theme - fallen servicemen and women.


Fortunately, I managed to put my prejudice aside and take a closer look at what Marie was doing. The above is called "Catastrophe" and only shows about half of the piece. Think three or four large wool blankets wide. Because of the dimness of the lighting, it took me awhile to see what was going on in this section.


The applique pieces are stitched down with long stitches, maybe an inch long. Click on this or any picture for a larger view. Very subtle.


When Marie recycles, she recycles! Again, it took me a moment to realize that this section of another very large piece was blanket ends with the satin bindings still intact. These are probably 4 to 5 inches wide.


Here, she has taken larger strips of blankets with their satin bindings and overlapped them, almost log cabin style.


I really grew to appreciate Marie's skill as I entered the circular "Forget-Me-Not: Mothers and Sons." The webbing that serves as background is again, wool blankets that have been slit. The portraits hung upon it are only about 6 inches high and meticulously appliqued from wool. Here her stitches disappear into the soft wool.


Who are these people? Here is Marie's own explanation of this piece:

"Forget-me-not is about memory, story, and devotion. In part, it stems from my disinclination toward abstraction of war by the modern media. Television, in particular, does not lend itself to considering individuals: we are taught to refer to our servicemen and women as 'troops,' which is a collective term. It wasn't enough for me. As a mother, I wanted to know more about the sons and daughters from my community who were sacrificing themselves in our name...Making these portraits helped me to do that.

I am a Seneca woman, a member of a matrilineal society. The Iroquois concept of 'mother' is broad, extending from one's own mother through a long line of women...So it was with this view of motherhood in mind - and its dense web of connections extending across generations - that I asked the men I know to suggest women who were significant to them to include in this work."

Each portrait along with explanatory text can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marie-watt-studio

I have to admit that once I entered the circle, I realized what an effective vehicle this was for her intent. In some ways it was a little like viewing the Vietnam VeteransWar Memorial - a simple backdrop to name after name of the fallen. But in this case, it was not names that stared back, but faces, and not a long flat surface, but a soft encircling one. Knowing their fate, I found I couldn't look at them for long. Again, quoting from Marie's statement:

"The result, I hope, is conversation and communion among individuals: those hung from the web of the circle and those, like you, within it. It is a conversation that I intend to expand...I wish Forget-me-not were finished. But I fear I will be adding men and women to its web for some time."

Quiltscapes Exhibit

Yesterday I trekked to the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture to view 43 quilts from the Eastern Washington State Historical Society's permanent collection. The exhibit runs through May 17th so I was running it a bit close. This exhibit was masterfully hung/laid out, and offered a slim exhibit catalog worth the $3.00 they were asking. Because of the low lighting and taking pictures without flash, I've had to adjust the photos, so colors are not necessarily accurate and some are a bit blurred. Here's a sampling of what caught my eye (click on any picture to see more detail). The Lone Star above (attributed to Minerva Hellen Wilson) is one of two 1820's quilts on display. Immediately noticeable was the unexpected chrome yellow fabric near the center and used nowhere else. It was only upon a second look that I realized the squares making up the border were of fabrics used in the star points. Well, of course! Note the break in symmetry of the border (upper left).


The other 1820 quilt was an English mosaic top, pieced over old correspondence. It is suspected that Susan Eusden, who was born in England about 1838, brought the top with her when she and her husband immigrated to America in 1869. Although the overall sense of this top was a mishmash of muted browns and pinks, with only the center a visible flower motif, I soon realized that a pink flower was centered on each side near a line of blue hexagons forming an inner border. These were fabulous blues that had not faded one bit.


This Birds in the Air quilt was made by Sarah Koentz Glover and is inscribed 5th November 1846. It was the border that caught my eye. To get a sense of how small the triangle are, the Birds blocks are 9 inches square and have 91 triangles in each. Mmmm, and this woman had 11 children by the time she made this quilt.


This next one is for my friend LeAnn, who I believe is in the process of quilting a top with this block in it. Identified as Ducks Foot, it was made by Jane Jacoby of Indiana in 1880. My friend pondered long and hard about an appropriate quilting pattern for her very traditional rendition, so I thought she'd enjoy seeing how Jane handled hers. Feathers, of course!


There were two quilts from 1890. This Honeybee by Sarah Chambers was originally dated circa 1850 because of its trapunto, applique and quilting techniques. Further research of the maker and a closer look at its fabrics proved a later date. Well, you know how many quilters eschew the latest fads and recreate masterpieces in styles from the past. Reproductions, we call them. Or just keeping on doing what we always did. I love the quilting in this one. It also gives testament to the fact that quilters didn't used to obsess over perfection quite like we do today. Note the sawtooth borders that do not perfectly match. This was actually the closest match of the 4 inner corners.


The other 1890 quilt was a classic log cabin done in the furrows setting and made from fancy silks. by Jeannie Creighton. What caught my eye was this quirky edge finish - a thick corded or stuffed piping looped at the corners.


This Fifty-Four Forty or Fight quilt was made by Jesse & Ruth Brockway around 1900. You've got to admire anyone who takes on this block using suiting wools and heavy cottons! The blocks were maybe 14 or 15 inches square, and yes, that one star was much brighter than the rest of the quilt. Quite a charming piece.


The last two quilts are from the early 1900's. I've seen cigar band "quilts" before, but not one quite like this. Usually, there is an over predominance of gold silk bands, but this one had a great variety of colors as well as some great text. The maker, Anna Branzeau never finished this top. I could imagine her enthusiasm waning after a while.


Then there was this cigarette silks "quilt." I've read about these but had never seen the silks in person before. Really great detail and some quite extraordinary colors. I couldn't make out the names under these ladies, but they must have been well-known celebrities of their day. And the interesting twist to this quilt? It was made by ladies at a brothel in Walla Walla, WA. With it's very wide dark blue dust ruffle finish, I could easily see it gracing a bed or fainting couch in one of their rooms. The exhibit catalog asks the question, "Do you suppose they collected silkies from customers of from their own smoking habits?"

Tomorrow - an unexpected contemporary exhibit at the museum...

Shooting Spree

Spent the day out and about and have things to share, but pics not ready. So instead, I share some I took the other day between rain showers. Yes, we are getting our April showers in May. It hasn't stopped the turning over of the adjacent fields, though. This piece of farm machinery showed up and I couldn't resist. Not sure why farm equipment captivates me so. Must be the curves, repetition, symmetry.


A Wisconsin friend mentioned how she is seeing a spring green that matches the one in the crayola box, which she always doubted. I see it here too - more yellow than green really, and fleeting.



And then in this hollow, the most intense bright green.

Once home, I snapped some closeups of the few tulips I have blooming.



I'm guessing the single petal dropped down like this is due to the winds buffeting it.


About half of the daffodils are spent, the other half are hanging in there, no doubt because it has been so cool.