1,500 attend Quilter's Affair

Word on the street is that, if you want to learn about quilting, the action is in Sisters every July during the five days that precede the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. An addendum is that once you attend the five-day event, known as Quilter's Affair, you will come back time and time again.

A living example is Shirley Hammar from North Bend, Oregon, who has attended Quilter's Affair the last 27 consecutive years.

"It gets me away from life, and I get to do my passion. I love it," Hammar said, remarking that her daughter started attending the event with her eight years ago. "It's our time together. ... It's our carrot in front of the horse's nose pulling us along all year," Hammar said.

She admitted that she started out as a very traditional quilt maker but because of Quilter's Affair has evolved into a fabricator of mixed media and collage-style "art" quilts.

Kitty Amaral from Napa Valley, California, who was attending for her eighth consecutive year, is another sterling example of the impact the program has on its participants.

"I work all year to get to here. We stay in Camp Sherman on the Metolius River, and it's a little bit of paradise. It gets you revved up to quilt more, and you meet the best people," she said.

"It's something for us. It's not for the kids, the husbands, ... and that makes it kind of nice," said Iris Barret from Santa Clara, California.

An educator at heart, Quilt Show founder Jean Wells-Keenan always visualized an educational workshop program as an accompaniment to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, and 28 years ago Quilter's Affair made its first appearance.

Whereas 1,500 ladies attend today, about 50 attended in the early years.

According to Jackie Erickson, who oversees Quilter's Affair for Wells, the event was originally held at Sisters Elementary School.

With each year Quilter's Affair attracted more participants, and to accommodate the growing numbers, the event was moved to what was at that time the high school and is now Sisters Middle School. Then, when the new high school was built several years ago, Quilter's Affair moved there.

Through the years the length of Quilter's Affair has also expanded. Originally, it was held only on Thursday and Friday. Later, Wednesday was added, and finally, about nine years ago, the scope was expanded to five days.

Today, the limiting factor is the size of Sisters High School and the ability of event organizers to mange the number of registrants.

"We can only grow as many classrooms as we have. We've pretty much plateaued. We did add two more classes this year, but it gets to a point that to keep it controlled and to keep the quality, we are now topped off," Erickson said.

Thirty some instructors comprised this year's teaching staff. They came from throughout the United States and beyond. Karin Hellaby was here from the United Kingdom and instructor Priscilla Bianchi is from Guatemala (see related story, page 19). These instructors taught everything imaginable about quilt making from layered curves and ribbon borders to appliqué to designing art quilts. Classes were structured to students' skill levels from beginner through very advanced.

If participants did not absorb enough during the day, lectures and demonstrations were offered each evening.

"We can hold up to 740 for the lectures," which are held in the high school auditorium, Erickson said. Some Quilter's Affair participants do not take any classes but only sign up for the lectures.

The original purpose of the event "to bring quilters from all over together," according to Erickson has never changed. Today, however, the thrust is expanding somewhat.

"Now we're trying to reach sewers in general. The quilting population is getting a little older, and we need to bring in younger sewers," Erickson said. "I think we're trying to attract people in general into sewing. It doesn't matter what you want to sew, as long as you want to sew."