Behind the seams of the quilt show

Right now, Tammy Ambrose and Joyce Boyd are two of the busiest women in Sisters.

Along with Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Executive Director Ann Richardson, Ambrose and Boyd are laying the groundwork for a vision started 35 years ago by founder Jean Wells.

Planning for this year's Quilt Show began the day after last year's event and really put on steam seven months before the show. Organizing 1,300 quilts that come in from across the country, then categorizing, bar-coding, measuring and assigning them a location takes an amazing amount of planning. The system has evolved into a highly sophisticated, computerized plan.

Before the computers can ease their workload, old fashioned pavement pounding is required. Over a four-month period, Ambrose walks around downtown Sisters visiting each business and talks to them about participating again this year and all the logistics that go into being a quilt location.

Once she knows the business is "in," Ambrose conveys the importance of offering a clean slate - or canvas - to best frame the quilts that will hang at that specific location.

"Tammy will walk through freezing temperatures, snow, rain and blistering heat to get the job done," said Boyd, who partners with Ambrose during the pre-event planning.

Ambrose also takes snapshots of each business, ensuring that they have a picture of the storefront, the business name and any other important factors to quilt placement. She also checks the wires that were used for last year's Quilt Show.

"This whole town is wired," said Ambrose, laughing. "Some new business owners mention that they wondered what the wire was for, but assumed that eventually someone would come by and clue them in."

There are approximately six miles of wire strung throughout the town to accommodate the quilts.

Businesses in Sisters play a major role in the overall success of the event. For the past 10 years, Soda Creek Gallery has been donating the wire for the quilts.

"We are so appreciative of all the support we receive year in and year out from so many generous business owners," said Ambrose.

Business owners also donate land that is used for special exhibits, like Leavitt's, Village Interiors, Beacham's Clock Co., the Heritage Building, the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and Coldwell Banker/Reed Bros. Realty to name a few.

Another huge factor in the Quilt Show's pre-event success are the volunteers who do myriad jobs, from folding quilts (there's a real skill to doing it right) to replacing wires and organizing the quilts as they arrive at the Quilt Show office.

When Ambrose has finished her walk-around, all of the information she's gathered is entered into a database that produces a 500-page book. Each page contains a digital photo of every space available to hang quilts throughout the city along with the amount of space available to hang them and any other pertinent information.

Ambrose hands over "The Book" to Jean Wells to begin her planning of the feel and aesthetics for the show. Beginning on June 25, the first quilts begin to arrive.

"Within the first three days," said Richardson, "we'll get one-third of the quilts; that's about 400 quilts."

All of the quilts must be in by July 3.

To accommodate 1,300 quilts requires three thousand square feet of flat, open space to organize and house them all. Then the magic begins - Jean and a few select volunteers will go in and start assigning the quilts to their locations. They must look into a sea of quilts with their invaluable book and begin placing the quilts with a specific vision in

mind.

When Wells is done, each quilt is bagged and bar-coded to link it up to its location. Once the quilts are assigned, Richardson takes the book with barcodes and enters all the barcodes into the computer to produce the Quilt Location List. This list is used on Quilt Show day by the hostesses to help quilters locate their

quilts.

"We have an information booth behind the Stitchin' Post, on the lawn," said Boyd, "where anyone can come and find out where their quilts are hung."

The city is divided into 22 sections, each with a team leader and a group of volunteers. To compensate for overlap, 25 team leaders are assigned to cover both setup and takedown duties. To ensure everyone knows their role, Ambrose does a walkthrough around town with her team leaders. Some leaders have been doing it for the past 10 years, while many more are on their second or third year.

On the day of the event, Ambrose and Boyd arrive at the Quilt Show office, located across from Lutton's Ace Hardware, at 5:30 a.m. to prepare for the day. Many volunteers are rarin' to go and can't curb their enthusiasm by arriving early.

"It's become a tradition for volunteers to head to businesses that are already open," said Ambrose. "Sisters Bakery does a lot of business that morning."

Amped up on coffee and sugar, volunteers begin the distribution process at 7 a.m. and finish by 9 a.m. There will be around 125 volunteers to hang up quilts; right now they have about 70 people signed up to take them down.

"We'd love to have more volunteers to help with the takedown process," said Ambrose.

Anyone interested can contact the Quilt Show office at 541-549-0989 or visit their Web site, www.

sistersoutdoorquiltshow.org.

Just to make sure they don't get any sleep; Ambrose and Boyd are also planning the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 35th Birthday Gala Fundraiser on July 6. Held on Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. at Village Green Park, the party will include food, a live auction, music, party favors, a silent auction and a no-host bar.

Each partygoer will also receive a retrospective presentation called "Stitching Together - 35 Years of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show" on DVD.

The party is $35 per person and tickets are on sale at the Quilt Show office, the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, or at Stitchin' Post.