Twisp of Fate

As mentioned previously, we recently stopped at the Pendleton Woolen Mill Store in Milwaukee, OR (SE of Portland) so I could pick up more selvage material for rug weaving.  When I first started going there, the outlet store was in the basement of the building.  In the last couple of years, they have renovated the main warehouse space and turned it into a beautiful showroom:

Unlike the outlet store in Washougal, WA, which carries mostly clothing, this is the outlet that carries home furnishings (including prototype blankets) and fabrics.  There are huge rolls of fabric that you can buy by the yard (clothing, upholstery and blanket weights) and they also cut some of it into pre-measured pieces that are stacked on tables.  This would be great if you are a sewer, but too expensive for me to buy just to cut up and use in rugs.   What I go for are the bins full of blanket selvage material.  It’s completely unpredictable what will be there – how much, what colors, etc.  So sometimes I really hit the jackpot, and sometimes I go away disappointed.

During the past year they have opened a tapestry gallery in a room off the main showroom, and on this visit we took the time to go through it.  There were some pretty amazing pieces!  It turns out there is a computer-operated loom at the mill, and they work with various artists who design some of the tapestries.  They can scan their artwork right into the computer.

All of these pieces were for sale.  The current exhibit featured a number of tapestries designed by Paul Alan Bennett who lives in Sisters, OR:

We were really smitten by the one of the flying cat, and as it turned out there were some versions of it at bargain prices on a table in the back of the showroom.  We think they may have been test versions, as the colors on some of them were dark, and some had unfinished edges.  But we did find one that had good color and finished edges, and it is now hanging from the railing of the top floor landing here at home on Wolf Creek.

Ah, found one more picture – same artist:

And these beautiful special-edition blankets are produced to fund scholarships through the American Indian College Fund: