News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Jackie Erickson (right) joined host Alex Anderson on "Simply Quilts."
Sisters quilter Jackie Erickson traveled to Los Angeles last week to tape an installment of "Simply Quilts," a cable television show developed to promote an art form that has put Sisters on the map.
Erickson demonstrated the creation of a queen-sized quilt replicating the design of the Human Quilt staged on the Sisters High School football field at the 2000 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. The show will open with Joe Leonardi's film of the event, where 891 people held squares of cloth overhead to be captured by an overhead crane as a giant, rippling quilt.
Sisters artist Dennis McGregor conceived the project. He joined Erickson on the show to talk about the unique challenges of creating a quilt out of several hundred people armed with a yard of cloth.
According to Erickson, the "Simply Quilts" segment grew in part from host Alex Anderson's participation in the Human Quilt.
The Sisters quilter enjoyed the TV experience.
"I've never done the little Hollywood thing before," she said. "Would I do it again? I'd do something like this again, but I sure wouldn't want to do it for a living."
The call time for the taping was at 2 p.m. and the Sisters contingent didn't get out of the studio until 7:30 p.m. The show has a rigorous schedule; they tape 60 shows in four weeks at the clip of about four a day.
Erickson has made two quilts based on Lawry Thorn's design.
"I made one for myself and one for Springs, the company that donated all the fabric (for the original Human Quilt)," Erickson said.
The fabric in Erickson's quilts are the same as those used in the original.
Erickson's "Simply Quilts" segment will be broadcast next spring.
McGregor's L.A. cooking adventure
By Jim Cornelius
Strange things can happen to a man with three hours to kill in Los Angeles. If he's not careful, he can find himself beating eggs on television.
Arriving early for a taping of the cable show "Simply Quilts," Sisters artist Dennis McGregor cast about for something to while away the time.
"I had nothing to do and I didn't want to drive around L.A.," he said.
He decided to take a stroll around the sound stage and see if he could get in as a "live audience" member for the "Wolfgang Puck Show." With the help of a camera operator he had met earlier, he made it.
Then a producer decided to put him in the front row, in the "hot seat" whose occupant often interacts with the famous chef.
"Next thing you know, he had me whipping eggs with a whisk," McGregor said.
Meanwhile, Sisters quilter Jackie Erickson was busy taping a segment on making a bed-size version of the Human Quilt devised by McGregor for the 2000 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. That was the whole reason the artist was there. Erickson and host Alex Anderson had no idea he had landed another gig.
Happenstance provided a pleasant "taste" of show business. Puck was creating Austrian desserts in this particular show.
"I got to sample a chocolate cake," McGregor said.
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.
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