Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show!

I’ve been promising a recap of my wonderful trip to the Sisters, Oregon quilt show since . . . well, since my trip to Sisters! Three old friends and I went together – seemed like a last minute decision for Sisters planning, as we didn’t make our reservation until February, found the condo on line, paid a very reasonable price for gorgeous accommodations, and were (much to our delight and surprise) two short blocks from the start of the show! Everyone we talked to told us they were amazed at our luck – with much more advance planning many ended up having to stay in Bend and drive to the show . . . . for us, an auspicious start to a great trip.

To say that we were overwhelmed by the quilts would be an understatement – in every way. They are hung everywhere you look on the sides of buildings and on clothesline strung across lawns or across the wide porches of storefronts; quilts of all sizes and shapes. A committee of 2-3 women organize the hanging, choosing locations for each of 1200 (yes, that is not a typo!) quilts, skilled at grouping like quilts together for visual interest. One store wall might feature 4-6 Baltimore Album quilts, another Christmas or Halloween themed, another block of the month quilts, yet another all purples and greens (my favorite, of course!), across the way all embellished quilts, down the street a grouping featuring incredible (and I can’t emphasize that enough!) examples of intricate machine quilting.

Everywhere we turned there was something more to see – I don’t know that it would have been possible to see them all, even if we’d started at 7:00 a.m. (which we didn’t, too tired after all that driving on Friday) and stayed until they pulled them down at 5:00 p.m. (which we also didn’t, too hot by 3:30 or 4:00). But it didn’t matter, because what we did see was so inspiring and visually stimulating. One of the things we all liked about this show is that anyone could submit a quilt and have it hung – so we saw everything from the first quilt ever made by a quilter, with all its warts and blemishes still a delight, to exquisite and intricately pieced and appliqued items that would have won prizes at the most exclusive and rigorous of judgings. What fun to have them displayed side by side and what a great opportunity for quilters of all skill levels to have their work viewed and enjoyed by others.

I particularly liked the Block of the Month quilts – a wide variety of blocks and fabrics – all put together with interesting settings that gave me plenty of ideas for this year’s Brown Bag blocks and for, perhaps, next year’s theme, as well. An inviting reminder that, although it is quicker and easier, we do not have to settle for the sometimes boring 12 blocks separated by sashing with a couple of borders. Let your creative juices flow and do something exciting and different – the reward is worth the effort!!

We will see how long the inspiration stays with us. The four of us are a group of women who have known each other since the 70's (or in the case of one, the woman who started me quilting, she and I have been friends and somewhat sisters since 1960!) We’ve drifted apart while we were all pursuing our careers – and in their cases but not mine raising children – and we’ve drifted back together as we move on to a more relaxed part of our lives. About 4-5 years ago we started going to a block of the month class together in Bellevue. Decided we didn’t like the class but did like getting together monthly or so for dinner, so started our own private Block of the Month, taking turns picking out patterns for star blocks. We have enough blocks to do something with them – and had the great idea that we should all finish our quilts (all extremely different) and enter them as a group into the Sisters show. Perhaps next year, perhaps two years hence . . . we shall see. But for sure, we shall be returning to Sisters!

Oh, and all three thought I should take all my orphan blocks and piece them together into a quilt for my car . . . not likely to happen, but what fun to look at they were!