Quilt show is weeklong cultural event

Quilts are still what it's all about, but over the past three decades, the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show has evolved into a major cultural event for Central Oregon.

Quilting and music came together last week in a moving presentation of story and song with students and alumni from Sisters' Americana Project performing with the famed quilters from Gee's Bend, Alabama.

The show also featured quilts from A Quilted Forest, an exhibition that hung at the Oregon State Fair.

"When we got an invite to do it, I was so excited," said quilt show founder Jean Wells. "I love tree stuff."

Lisa Encabo, of Sublimity, Oregon, curated the exhibit of two-sided quilts inspired by and resembling the magnificent trees that are the signature of the state of Oregon.

The crowd of quilting enthusiasts was mesmerized by the unique presentation - which is just the effect Encabo sought.

"We wanted to hang them (so that) people felt they're walking through a forest of quilts."

Encabo, who works at the famed quilt shop Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem, was enjoying a kind of celebrity status at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

"I just had a piece of my own published in the Quilting Arts Calendar, which is an international publication, so I am very excited," she told The Nugget. "Somebody even asked for my autograph!"

Sisters had its own celebrities on hand. Kathy Deggendorfer, this year's poster artist, was armed with an arsenal of Sharpies, signing dozens upon dozens of posters, tote bags, and cloth panels based upon her 2011 poster image, "Nature's Symphony."

The piece was designed in 36 "panels" that yet created a unified "painting." Deggendorfer explained the "orchestral elements" of the piece, including singing bluebirds "and the frog for percussion - when he jumps in the water."

Eric Gunson designed this year's raffle quilt, "Tulip Star," and he was thrilled with how it turned out - and the brisk pace of ticket sales. Gunson is part of a Sisters family quilting business called Pieceful Expressions.

The quilt show has spun off a bevy of cottage industries in Sisters. Dennis McGregor mans a booth in front of Sisters Coffee Co., selling posters he painted in past years, T-shirts, mugs and popular quilt show tattoos (the temporary variety).

"Twenty years ago when I came here I saw all these quilts hanging and I though 'How cool!'" he said. "I immediately wanted to paint them."

McGregor is currently at work on a profusely illustrated book about a girl who comes west with a quilt. She loses the beloved heirloom under nefarious circumstances and must go through many adventures to get it back.

Ione Whitney, of Seattle, Washington, has made longarm quilting her business for 20 years, operating out of her home.

"Your commute is past the kitchen!" she said. "I've quilted probably close to 6,000 quilts."

These days she devotes most of her time to the American Hero Quilts project, which provides heirloom-quality quilts as a gesture of love and compassion for wounded troops in military hospitals.

Whitney has made the pilgrimage to Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show many times, usually as part of a trek to Diamond Lake for an annual family reunion.

It is next to impossible to get an accurate count of visitors to the annual show, but it was a big draw. Based on attendance at the weeklong Quilters Affair classes and anecdotal observations, Quilt Show Executive Director Ann Richardson thinks that there was record attendance.

"I'm not sure why people came out in droves this year," she said. "I think that part of it is that people are feeling a little better about the economy."

She also believes that hard times have brought out the crafter in many folks.

"There's a big resurgence in the do-it-yourself mode," she said. "People are doing their own gardening, raising their own chickens... People want to do it by hand. That significantly affects the industry."

Richardson was very pleased with the steps the show took this year to grow into a weekend event.

The Save It For Sunday program included a quilt exhibition at FivePine, which is not a venue for Saturday's show. The FivePine display featured quilts by Jean Wells, who also offered a lecture.

The Cover to Cover Book Club Quilters displayed their quilts on Sunday at the Heritage Building on the corner of Hood Avenue and Pine Street and drew a nice crowd.

As with all events of its kind, the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is faced with a need to grow, but carefully, maintaining the qualities that made it a success in the first place. And there are logistical issues.

"We can only grow it as fast as we have staff, volunteers and financial resources to do it," Richardson said.

Based on this year's results, Save It For Sunday will continue.

"We're definitely doing it again next year," Richardson said.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

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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