Quilts from the attic displayed

Sisters area residents brought forth family heirloom quilts for display at Ruth Ingham's Lunch and Learn meeting at Sisters Community Church Hall last week.

As part of Sisters COCC's very popular current noontime weekly program, "Legends, Scandals and Myths of Oregon," Ingham asked people to bring their quilts and share memories with others.

Ingham, who is a quilt appraiser and works at the Stitchin' Post, mentioned how popular quilts and quilting have become in Central Oregon. Anybody who has been in Sisters during a July quilt week knows that already.

She stressed how important it is to have as much documentation about your old quilts as possible. This could include a photo and history of the quilt. The history, written on muslin, should then be attached to the back of the quilt.

Many quilts commemorate a birth, death, battle or other memorable event in family history. It helps, 50 or 100 years later, if these events are documented.

Ruth displayed some of her family's quilts and how they had been passed on to children as family treasures. She also had quilts from Jean Wells' father's family to share with her audience including a beautiful double wedding ring patterned quilt dating from the 1930s.

Another was the 25th anniversary quilt that was made for the Stitchin' Post and Jean Wells popular Sisters store.

Bette Howard brought a lovely quilt pieced by her grandmother and aunt which she shared with the group.

Ethelwyne Golden showed quilts which were found in her husband's aunt's attic. These were bed quilts made from post-Civil War fabrics and are over 100 years old. Some displayed early machine quilting and the use of indigo dyes. One of her favorites was a yo-yo quilt dating back to the 1930s.

Darlene Kelm brought a treasured family "Boston common" quilt dated between 1940s when it was started and 1970s when it was finished with new fabric.

Lynda Sullivan, who was adopted in the 1940s, brought the striped blue blanket quilt her loving new parents had wrapped her in.

Oregon pioneer family quilts, dating back to the 1850s, made in Iowa or remembering Iowa pasts were shown by Linda Goebel. One of the outstanding quilts was a "Rose of Sharon" appliqued quilt.

Another quilt commemorated a college connection back to Michigan and another to a land grant in Portland from her great-great grandfather. Another quilt Goebel showed was a remembrance of a Multnomah Club reception that a relative had attended.

Ingham discussed early quilting in Oregon and how materials were hard to come by. Flour sacks, cigar box flannel, cigar yellow ribbons, cigarette silks and other scrap bag materials at hand were often used in quilts. These are sometimes seen in older quilts and should be looked for. Several "crazy quilts" were shown and older ones had some of these materials in their makeup.

Discussing machine quilting versus hand quilting, Ingham thought that there was a certain snobbishness that favored hand quilting. She reasoned that a well machine finished quilting job was better than a poorly finished hand quilted job.

Sandi Casper, who lives in Sisters, finished the meeting by displaying a beautiful woven coverlet from the 1850s that she had received from her mother-in-law. It was made in Fairfield, Iowa in 1853 and given to a care-giver relative by a patient.