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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
An undersea-themed row, designed by Lydia Sorenson, is on display at Homespun Quilts in Astoria. The theme of this year’s Row by Row Experience is water.
Quilting: ‘It’s like a wine tour for quilters’
Continued from Page 1A
Thanks to word of mouth
— the “power of the people,”
she said — the idea snow-
balled very quickly, growing
from 20 stores entirely in New
York to 2,655 stores in all 50
states and several Canadian
provinces. Oregon and Wash-
ington joined the movement
last year and now, respective-
ly, have 81 and 101 stores par-
ticipating.
“People loved it,” Lutz
said, adding she continues to
be surprised by how popular
Row by Row has become.
“People plan their family va-
cations around Row by Row.”
One couple who recent-
ly visited her store had taken
a “Row by Row vacation.”
They had driven from Ken-
tucky to Maine and were
winding their way back, stop-
ping at one quilt shop after an-
other in state after state, Lutz
said.
Some retailers compared
Row by Row — now a trade-
marked business — to an
old-fashioned shop hop writ
large. Lutz prefers a different
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Kites and sandy beaches adorn the quilt row at Board-
walk Quilts in Long Beach, Wash. The pattern was de-
signed by last year’s Row by Row prize winner, Evelyn
Plamondon.
analogy:
“It’s like a wine tour for
quilters, but instead of sam-
pling wines, they’re getting
patterns for a quilt,” she said.
“The quilt becomes a memory
of the trip they’ve taken.”
Travel is only half the sto-
ry. The other is the sheer joy
of collecting, a common char-
acteristic of the consummate
quilter.
And not just patterns; as
a side venture, many stores
involved in Row by Row are
selling quilted license plates
as collectors’ items. Custom
Threads’ plate reads, “RIV-
ER CITY QLTS”; Homespun
Quilts, “QUILTER 4 LIFE.”
Julie Walker, the owner of
Center Diamond Fabric Store
in Cannon Beach, is sell-
ing a plate that reads, “SEW
BEACHY.” Asked why a
quilter would want to add yet
A stack of 25 fat quarters is the prize for the first person to
bring in a finished quilt (defined as one having eight com-
pleted rows) to Boardwalk Quilts in Long Beach, Wash..
Each participating store has a prize for the first person
who brings a completed quilt.
another collectible to the Row
by Row Experience, Walker
laughed. “Because we’re all
crazy!”
Rabid quilters
Many people play, but few
can win, so it’s almost better
not to experience Row by
Row solely in pursuit of fat
quarters. Remember: Quilted
art is functional art. Quilts can
warm your body, festoon your
wall and get your Christmas
shopping over with.
The beauty of a nation-
wide theme like water is that,
though the quilts are fash-
ioned in different locations,
they are connected by their
imagery. Row by Row partic-
ipants collaborating on a quilt
can do their work separate-
ly, and when they unite their
handiwork, “all the pieces ¿t
together,” Lutz said.
Walker’s Haystack Rock
pattern — which, coinciden-
tally, she commissioned be-
fore his year’s water theme
had even been chosen —
would pair nicely, for ex-
ample, with the North Head
Lighthouse pattern available
at Boardwalk Quilts in Long
Beach, Wash. How they
would pair with the toilet pat-
terns of two other Washington
stores is anybody’s guess.
Quilting “speaks to the
artistic part of all of us, but
you don’t have to be an art-
ist,” said Teri Keizur, owner
of Boardwalk Quilts and the
Row by Row coordinator for
Washington state.
Though it isn’t likely that
the Row by Row Experience
will continue to grow in the
U.S. — because, of course,
there are only so many quilt
shops around — “I don’t think
it’ll get any smaller,” Keizur
said. “People that are quilters
get pretty rabid about quilt-
ing.”
For more information, vis-
it www.rowbyrowexperience.
com and www.rowbyrowex-
perience.com/oregon.
Inn: The hotel is still open, using the same employees
Continued from Page 1A
Knight said Smithart also
has about $150,000 in liens
on his property. Records
with the Oregon Secretary
of State’s Office show Smi-
thart is a debtor to World
Global Financing Inc. and
Corporation Service Co.
The hotel is still open,
using the same employees.
General Manager Lenney
Cheyney was at the meeting
to provide information on
its current state.
Knight said Kancharla
has acquired a 49 percent
stake in Hospitality Mas-
ters, which will likely cease
to exist, and 99 percent fi-
nancial control. Kancharla
has paid off Smithart’s debts
to the county, Knight add-
ed, while making a $25,000
down payment on his debts
to the city and giving the
Port a check for $55,000,
which the Port has waited to
cash until the relationship is
finalized.
But without a lease or a
letter of intent, Kancharla
said companies won’t of-
fer his family insurance for
operating the hotel. Knight
said the next step is for the
Port to develop a lease and
have it approved by the Port
Commission.
“I don’t think we should
allow occupancy without a
lease,” Port Commissioner
Stephen Fulton said of the
liability issues. Port com-
missioners said finding in-
surance for the hotel is the
Port’s highest priority.
work that needs to be done,”
Knight said, adding the Port
still needs to assess the con-
dition of the hotel.
Other suitors
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Kancharla family is the new operator of the Astoria Riverwalk Inn, including, from left, son William, father Kruparao
and son Joseph.
The Port has had to make
quick decisions in light of
its relationship with Smi-
thart and Hospitality Mas-
ters, Knight said. His im-
pression of the Kancharlas
is a “family of honor” want-
ing to do right. The family
has been in Astoria 22 years,
Kancharla said. It owns and
operates several adult foster
care homes around Astoria,
a nonemergency medical
transport company and Hi-
mani Indian Cuisine. But
the Riverwalk Inn is their
first foray into hotels.
“It is our goal to operate
a hotel that members of the
community are proud of,”
Kancharla said, adding his
family is searching for a
hotel operation company to
help for the first six months.
In the short-term, they
are finding railing, paint-
ing, landscaping and other
contractors to immediate-
ly improve the safety and
outward appearance of the
hotel.
“In the future, I’d like
to have at least a three-star
motel,” Kancharla said. He
would like at least a 20-year
lease in order to significant-
ly invest in the property.
Gretchen Mather, Kan-
charla’s accountant, said
she has done some financial
analysis of the Riverwalk
Inn, but the group does not
have a business plan. Kan-
charla said he is confident
he understands the extent of
Smithart’s debts.
“There is some funda-
mental long-term planning
At a Port meeting in ear-
ly June, the commission
had approved transferring
Smithart’s lease to Ganesh
Sonpatki and Portland-based
Param Hotel Group. Son-
patki had first approached
the Port with his vision for
the hotel in October and lat-
er claimed to have a signed
contract with Smithart stipu-
lating he hand over operation
of the hotel by September.
But former Hotel Elliott
and waterfront property
owner Chester Trabucco
and unnamed partners arose
last month as a possible
contender for the hotel.
Trabucco bowed out earlier
this month, saying it was his
group’s impression that the
hotel had already been sold.
The first mention of the
Kancharlas as possible re-
placements came last week.
Knight said he has en-
couraged the Kancharlas to
speak with Sonpatki, adding
his contract might not have
been put together correctly.
Smithart has been re-
peatedly unresponsive to re-
quests for comment. He has
opened the Arc Arcade in
downtown Astoria, starting
with retro gaming machines
and a cafe, then adding
computer and gaming con-
sole rentals and a second
room of billiards and arcade
games.