News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Dolores Minson is the featured quilter at this year's Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. photo by Jim Cornelius
Thousands of quilters are already on their way to Central Oregon, making the annual pilgrimage to Sisters for the largest outdoor quilt show in the country.
They come from all over the world, some 20,000 strong, many arriving early to partake of classes and fellowship in advance of the one-day show on Saturday, July 12.
Some special events are planned for the week of Quilt Show.
The Pine Needlers Quilt Show will be held at the Camp Sherman Community Hall on Thursday, July 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A $2 donation is requested at the door.
The annual Home & Garden Tour is scheduled for Friday, July 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The $12-per-person charge helps raise funds for the Sisters Garden Club and the Sisters Schools Foundation.
Quilts will be hung in each of the gardens on the self-guided tour. Visitors supply their own transportation. For more in-formation contact The Stitchin' Post at 549-6061.
This year's featured quilter is Dolores Minson. An avid gardener, Minson also has her home in Sage Meadow marked as a stop on the Home & Garden Tour.
She will display her quilts amid a carefully crafted landscape that she and her husband Don created completely themselves.
"This was the first time we've actually carved out a garden from scratch," Minson said. "And I'll tell you, this acre got bigger every time we looked at it."
Minson wouldn't be in Sisters if it wasn't for the quilt show. She and Don didn't think they could live in Central Oregon after tending a "gentleman's farm" in West Linn for years. They thought you couldn't grow a garden in Central Oregon.
Then Minson came to the Quilt Show and went on the garden tour. She was knocked out by the gardens she saw and recognized that -- with a lot of care and hard work -- one could, indeed, grow things in Central Oregon.
Soon, she and Don moved here and built a home.
Minson has been a quilter for eight years. It all started in 1995 when four of her six children had babies.
"I made four quilts for those little grandkids in 1995 and I got hooked," Minson said.
She has become quite prolific over the last couple of years.
Minson's quilts generally start with inspiration from a particular fabric. She found the Indonesian fabric Batik particularly alluring.
"I was on a Batik kick for awhile," she said.
She doesn't like to conform to any one particular style.
"I don't just do vintage; I don't just do appliqué," she said. "I like to try everything."
Minson is humble about her selection as this year's featured quilter. She notes that the talent pool in Central Oregon is exceptionally wide and deep.
Minson will display her quilts during the show on the lawn at Ponderosa Properties (corner of Hood Avenue and Ash Street).
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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