Volunteers organize 1,200 quilts for show

Last updated 7/4/2006 at Noon

Jim Cornelius

Melody Johnson sorts some of the hundreds of quilts entered in the show.

Quilts appear as if by magic on the storefronts of Sisters on the morning of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. That “magic,” however, is actually the result of a three-week effort by some 75 volunteers who sort and assign locations to the 1,200 quilts entered in the show.

The sorting of the quilts is a major logistical operation.

“When we place the quilts around town, there’s actually a plan,” said quilt show Executive director Ann Richardson. “We pick quilts that will look good together. It’s not random.”

The Sisters downtown area is mapped out by sections and photographs of each building that will host a quilt are posted on the walls of the quilt show office, housed this year in the old Sisters Library building.

Each quilt that comes in to the office is assigned a bar code for tracking and folded and placed in sorted stacks to be assigned to a specific building.

“We know down to the building where each quilt is in the show,” Richardson said.

Quilters who want to track down their entry without having to search all over town can track it by means of the barcode, which is listed in a book available on quilt show day at the information booth on the lawn behind The Stitchin’ Post.

It takes five days just to sort out where each quilt will be hung.

The work is done almost entirely by volunteers — who see the work as anything but drudgery.

“I do it because I love the quilts,” said Melody Johnson. “I get ideas.”

Betsy Leighty-Johnson said, “I just enjoy all the colors and excitement of the whole quilt show.”

For Virginia Knowles, volunteering is a way to be involved in something special.” I want to be involved in the community,” she said. “The quilt show is known all over the country and yet it’s such a small town.”

Richardson points to the volunteers as the critical element in the success of what has become one of the quilting world’s signature events.

“It wouldn’t happen without volunteers,” she said. “There would be no show. Without the financial support of the community and volunteers, I don’t know what we’d do.”

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.