Small Wonders Open House Tomorrow!

Carolina (Carolyn Platt), April, 2003

Small Wonders: Doll Quilts by Andrea Balosky is now showing at the Latimer Quilt and Textile Center in Tillamook, Oregon, and tomorrow there is an open house from 112 noon to 4pm. The show includes 86 of the more than 100 quilts in Balosky's joyful body of work, created between 1999 and 2003. Also on display are selected dolls and doll beds from the collection of Merrily Ripley of Port Angeles, Wash., owner of the doll quilts.

Latimer Quilt and Textile Center - formerly the Maple Leaf School, where generations of Tillamook children grew up - is an ideal setting for the show of doll quilts. The show is bursting with color, pattern, and youthful exuberance. And just like the individual school children, the quilts all have individual names. 

Walt Whitman, July, 2002

Some quilts are named for friends and family. "Carolina" is named for one of Balosky's dearest friends, Carolyn Platt. "Dewey" is named for neighbor Dewey Carpenter, and "Miala" is the artist's mother. Other quilts are named for well-known and well-loved individuals ranging from poet Walt Whitman to animated cartoon heroine Marge Simpson. 

The gallery is in the space that once functioned as the Maple Leaf School's auditorium, and the stage is draped with two clotheslines full of quilts. This display is reminiscent of the method Balosky once used to show quilts to her local group, the Pine Needlers of Camp Sherman, Oregon.

The Latimer Quilt and Textile Center is located in Tillamook at 2105 Wilson River Loop Road. The center offers a wide variety of gifts and consignment items from local artists. Admission is $3.00, free for members and children under six, and $2.00 for groups of ten or more. If you cannot attend the show, the show can come to you. Small Wonders is accompanied by a full-color, softcover 120-page catalog for $26.95, available online through Blurb. To order a catalog, click here.