Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2023 // 7-5-2023

2023 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show™

Saturday, July 8, 2023

— 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. —

Always the second Saturday in July

Located throughout Sisters

No tickets required • No cost to attend

9 a.m. Start of 48th Anniversary

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

“Hidden Stories”

Over 1,100 quilts on display throughout the town of Sisters

e “Gra ti”

Cherrywood Challenge on display at the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Hall throughout the day

4 p.m. End of Quilt Show Day

Live-feed raffle of the 2023 SOQS Raffle Quilt at the SOQS Office: 220 S. Ash St.

VIRTUAL SHOW-DAY ACTIVITIES ON FACEBOOK LIVE:

7 a.m. Welcome to SOQS: Quilt Hanging at Stitchin’ Post

9-11 a.m. Quilts on Display

Featured Quilters

Quilt Block Challenge

12:30 p.m. Cherrywood Challenge

1 p.m. Teachers’ Pavilion

WISH Upon A Card

3 p.m. Quilts of Valor Presentation

Corner of Hood Avenue and Elm Street 4 p.m. Quilt Ra e at the SOQS O ce, 220 S. Ash St.

For the most up-to-date information, follow us on social media:

Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show

SistersOutdoorQuiltShow

For additional information, or if you miss something, visit www.soqs.org

ADDITIONAL HAPPENINGS

DURING QUILT SHOW WEEK:

Quilter’s A air: Classes held at Sisters High School Monday-Friday leading up to Quilt Show Day. Brought to you by Stitchin’ Post. www.stitchinpost.com

Wed., July 5 – Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Fundraiser

Sun., July 9 – Quilts at FivePine Lodge

A Message from SOQS Executive Director Dawn Boyd:

Stitching our Hidden Stories

Welcome to our 48th annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, and on behalf of our Board of Directors, thank you for joining us. We are so pleased that you have joined us to celebrate the art, skill, and heritage of quilting and fiber arts, and believe we have created an event that will fill your heart and soul with beautiful quilts. May you be inspired by all that surrounds you: design, color, joy, and new quilting friendships.

Our theme for the 2023 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, “Hidden Stories,” reflects each quilt that is lovingly stitched together. There are stories that we carry and pour into our creative works. We celebrate each stitch, every work of art, words that are written, and songs that are sung with the beauty of every Hidden Story. As you walk through our beautiful community and gaze at all the gorgeous quilts, I hope you seek to see the “Hidden Stories” and become inspired in creating art to share your own.

We wish to thank our community of Sisters and its amazing support of the Quilt Show, our quilting storytellers who share their art

with us, our silent heroes of volunteers who help to make the Quilt Show happen, and our sponsors and donors who believe in and partner with us in fulfilling our mission. We must also thank those who step up within our community to make today a wonderful event: the City of Sisters, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon Department of Transportation, Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters Park & Recreation District, and oh-so-many others. We are here today because of the support we have received from all of you.

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show has always been free to attend, and always will be. We hope that you will consider supporting the Quilt Show by becoming a Friend of the Show with your donation to help offset our expenses, and to help our Board continue to fulfill that commitment.

We are so thankful you have chosen to join us. May your day and your heart be filled with the magic of quilts and the stories they tell. Enjoy every moment.

— Dawn Boyd

“HIDDEN STORIES” BY KELLY RAE ROBERTS

Poster artist reveals ‘Hidden Stories’

By Sue Stafford Correspondent

Mixed-media artist Kelly Rae Roberts, who created this year’s Quilt Show poster, “Hidden Stories,” discovered her creative self in her 30s, when she was working through anxiety. She has never looked back.

A native of northern Florida, she, and her future husband (whom she met seven weeks before departing Florida) left her home state to drive across country to visit

several friends in the Pacific Northwest. That trip in the 1990s represented the closing of one chapter on one coast and the beginning of another on another coast.

Roberts worked as a social worker through her 20s and then as a medical social worker for Providence in Portland, working with families and patients in crisis.

After discovering the healing powers of art for herself when she began painting as a hobby, Roberts authored a book titled “Taking Flight:

Inspiration and Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings,” available on Amazon. She has gone on to have articles published in Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and has been featured in various mixed-media books by her peers.

Her artwork is collected worldwide, and she has been juried into numerous art festivals. Roberts also has many long-term licensing agreements for her creations displayed on calendars and wall art, cards, magnets, journals, fabric, and other reproductions in stores nationwide.

Roberts also leads creativity retreats and teaches online. Check out her website at www.kellyraeroberts.com. She will have some of her creations for sale in the parking lot behind the Stitchin’ Post on Quilt Show Saturday and will be signing posters there from 9 a.m. to noon. While living in Portland since the ’90s, Roberts and her family often traveled through Sisters and found it charming. When things began to change in Portland, they decided to move here permanently five years ago. Kelly’s parents, who had moved from Florida after 40 years of living there, came to Portland, and then on to Sisters. Her mom is a quilter and her dad is a golfer, so they are delighted to call Sisters home.

On Friday, July 7, as part of Quilter’s Affair at the high school, Roberts will be teaching two classes on her creative process, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon, by having participants create collages made of paper and vintage wallpaper instead of fabric.

Roberts and fellow artist Katie Daisy, who painted

two murals in Sisters and recently moved here, have signed a lease for a store front on West Washington Avenue, where they will hold open houses and events featuring their artwork, including participating in the Fourth Friday Artwalks. Previously, Roberts owned a shop on West Hood Avenue, Marigold and True, where Daisy’s mural graces the side of the building.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Kelly Rae Roberts, mixed-media artist of Sisters, created this year’s Quilt Show poster titled “Hidden Stories.”

Van Gogh inspires Machine Quilter of the Year

By Bill Bartlett Correspondent

The masterful artist Vincent Van Gogh, who famously cut off a portion of his left ear, is believed to have suffered from, among other things, Ménieré’s disease, an inner ear disorder. Annette Caldwell, this year’s Machine Quilter of the Year, is one of only one percent of patients diagnosed with the disease as bilateral — in both ears.

Caldwell is a force in machine quilting, a creative and prolific artist from Central Oregon who has been machine quilting for 25 years, 10 on a longarm machine. She’s also the person at Stichin’ Post in Sisters who fulfills the firm’s large mailorder business.

She often gets to work before 5 a.m., giving her afternoons to perform her magic for dozens of customers from far and wide. The morning when we met with Caldwell before 6 a.m., she showed us a recent piece for a customer in Portland measuring roughly 60-by-60 inches, with over 220,000 stitches. It took her about five hours to complete, leaving those who see it in

awe at the enormity and complexity of the work — to say nothing of her genius.

Caldwell’s creativity in free-motion quilting is now legendary and was thus an easy pick for 2023 Machine Quilter of the Year.

She will be exhibiting several of her own quilts as well, including one depicting Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painted in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of

Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Van Gogh lived well in the hospital, allowed more freedoms than any of the other patients. If attended, he could leave the hospital grounds and was permitted to paint, read, and withdraw into his own room. He was even given a studio.

Caldwell doesn’t work from sketches or preconceived ideas.

“It usually just comes to me as I start,” she said. “I basically work with what’s right in front of me.

“I did ‘Starry Night’ as therapy,” Caldwell shared, saying that it gave her immense relief.

Once the layers of the quilt are basted together, there are two techniques for quilting: machine-guided quilting and free-motion quilting.

Machine-guided quilting is controlled by the feed dogs, and the quilt sandwich can only move in straight lines. On the other hand, for freemotion quilting, the feed dogs are disengaged, which allows the quilt to be moved in any direction.

Elaborate designs can be quilted with free-motion quilting. As the quilt can be moved in all directions, side to side and front to back, without having to be turned, curved designs are possible.

Free-motion quilting can

be faster than quilting with the feed dogs engaged. The quilter can move over the surface of the quilt without having to follow a line like in “stitch in the ditch” or straight-line grid quilting. Free-motion quilting adds beauty to quilts and allows the maker to finish quilt tops much faster than hand quilting.

A typical quality longarm quilting machine starts at around $11,000 and a Gammill Statler will take at least $49,000. Caldwell occasionally instructs on machine quilting but her true love is the actual quilting — where her spirit runs free.

PHOTO PROVIDED

PHOTO PROVIDED

Storytellers’ book

By Sue Stafford Correspondent

Every quilt has a story — some very visible in the quilt’s design and some hidden in

the heart of the quilter. This year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) theme is “Hidden Stories,” celebrating the beauty of every hidden story.

selected

Six years ago, Sisters artist Dan Rickards originated the idea for the “Storytellers’ Book,” an oversized tooled leather book with pages sized to fit original quilt art. Each year, selected quilters are invited to create and donate a quilt for inclusion in the book and to be offered for sale with all proceeds going to support the nonprofit SOQS. The Quilt Show is not a ticketed event, so fundraisers are critical to the staging of the Show.

Purchasing one of these artworks directly supports the Quilt Show organization. Each year, the sale of the quilts has generated $4,000 to $5,000 for the nonprofit.

The book of quilts will be available for viewing and purchase each day of Quilter’s Affair at Sisters High School and on Saturday, July 8, Quilt Show Day, in the courtyard at The Open Door restaurant located at 303 W. Hood Ave. Last year, all the quilts were sold before Saturday.

Artists participating in the 2023 book and telling their hidden

stories are: Anna Bates, Colleen Blackwood, Helen Brisson, Dawn Boyd, June Jaeger, Janet MacConnell, Tonye Phillips, Donna Rice, Marion Shimoda, Jan Tetzlaff, and Jean Wells.

Jan Tetzlaff’s Night and Day quilt will be included in the 2023 “Storytellers’ Book” of Quilts and available for purchase. Her creation represents Palm Springs with its brightly colored succulent made from a variety of different textures and the dark, starlit desert sky.

Jean Wells’ Storybook Quilt.

Jennifer Sampou: inspired by the natural world

By Katy Yoder Correspondent

Jennifer Sampou is a fabric designer, author, quilter, teacher — and the 2023 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) Inspirational Instructor. She finds inspiration in nature’s endless blend of colors and layered light — especially from dawn to sunset. As a painter, she uses pastels to capture patterns of beauty in the glow and hues of the changing landscape.

Her fabric line called the “SKY Ombré Collection” uses digital printing, which drastically expands color possibilities for quilters. As a textile designer, Sampou started her SKY Ombré Collection because she wanted to capture the look and feel of the sky. But she could never quite capture what she wanted with traditional screen printing. With only 16 screens available when using screen printing, Sampou says you can’t capture what you can with digital printing because it has an unlimited number of colors. Ombré is a technical term that blossomed through digital printing’s expansion and access to a rainbow effect or blending of colors.

Sampou was born into a creative family. She still marvels at her mother’s ability to make something out of nothing, whether it was reupholstering a couch or preparing a delicious meal from a seemingly empty fridge. That ability to see beauty and possibility in everyday scenes, coupled with Sampou’s desire to create, took her to New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) where she studied surface design.

Smelling, breathing, and living in New York, along with access to the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Modern art (MoMA) and studying at FIT, broke open Sampou’s world and her understanding of fashion art. She was inspired to seek out fresh design ideas and study graphic design from other cultures.

“I was fascinated by the

Dutch artist Piet Mondrian who was really a quilter with paint. I spent my early 20s in Kenya, Cameroon, and Tanzania. The West African textiles and Dutch waxes celebrate the repeat, and don’t try to hide it. West African people and their textiles are about seeing rhythm… it’s very obvious and powerful,” said Sampou.

In 1996 Sampou opened Studio Sampou and has been creating best-selling fabrics for the family-owned company, Robert Kaufman Fabrics. SKY Ombré Collection came into being after Sampou got a phone call from Ken Kaufman, saying he was sending her a panel of wolves, deer, waterfalls and forest. “It was everything you could imagine in one square yard,” she laughed. But Sampou saw the potential. “When I woke up the next morning, what I wanted to do was clear: A line of fabrics of the sky at all times of the day.” The collection has become very popular and a good way to find new possibilities for stashed fabrics from old prints to paisleys, plaids, and batiks.

The SKY Ombré Collection currently has 46 blended ombré designs. In 2024, Sampou will add 14 new ones to the collection.

“I like the timelessness of my SKY Ombrés. They’re a way for quilters to paint with fabric and be more expressive in their approach to color. I want people to feel like they’re color-mavens and have the freedom to capture glow and get those weird, in-between colors that are easy to find in my Ombrés,” said Sampou.

A popular and inspirational teacher, Sampou says one of her teaching mentors was Mary Ellen Hopkins.

“I don’t even know if she knew that,” said Sampou. “When I took from her, I was in my twenties and thirties and had no interest in becoming a quilt teacher. But when I decided to teach in my forties, I thought about whose class

I loved to be in. She taught with so much joy and personality. She was a delightful little sprite of a human.”

With inspiration found in nature’s palette, Sampou says when she’s not creating, she’s outside enjoying skiing, dancing, and riding her mountain bike.

“I have to move every day,” she said. Her dream for the future is to live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country again. She lived for two years in Mexico and thrived.

“Being there I felt so alive when I was having to challenge my brain, sense of direction, and meeting new people,” she said. “I love Latin cultures around the world.”

Sampou will be teaching at

the Quilter’s Affair July 3-7. She is the Spotlight Presenter for the Friday night lecture, “How Quilts Connect Us – A Designer’s Perspective.” Her quilts will be on display at the SOQS Office, 220 S. Ash St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Quilt Show Saturday.

To get the inside scoop on Sampou’s company, Studio Sampou, sign up for her newsletter at www. JenniferSampou.com.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Nature’s colors inspire Jennifer Sampou — and she, in turn, inspires quilters and artists. She is teaching this year at Quilter’s Affair.

Local quilters guild featured

By Bill Bartlett Correspondent

It has been tradition for the East of the Cascades Quilters Guild to match the theme of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS), which this year is “Hidden Stories.”

This year, however, the Guild is making its own way with the theme “Black & White Plus One” (color of choice).

Karen Tyler, coordinator for the group, is very enthusiastic about the change.

“We will have 20 quilts on display, double from the 10 last year,” she said.

The group’s works will line the Elm Street outside wall of the Candy Corral.

“We’ll have a range of quilts from professionals to beginners,” Tyler said.

East of the Cascades Quilters Guild is a 501(c)(3) organization that is based in Sisters but has members from all over Central Oregon. Their mission is “Sharing our Quilting Passion With Each Other and the Community.”

The Guild meets the fourth Wednesday of the month (except July and August) at Stitchin’ Post. Social time is 4 to 4:15 p.m. and the meeting is from 4:15 to 6 p.m. Each meeting there is a presentation and/or demonstration of a technique on

a variety of quiltingrelated topics.

Presentations include topics on modern quilting, art quilts, quilts of valor, quilts for kids, traditional quilting, machine quilting, quilted gifts, barn quilt blocks and trunk shows by local and international quilt artists. There is also the opportunity for guild members to “show and tell” about their creations.

At every meeting, members receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win gift certificates from Stitchin’ Post, The Quilt Basket, Anvil Sewing Inc., and Cynthia’s Sewing Center.

For a period of time, the Guild ran SOQS, and its members have deep connections to SOQS history. Every bit as important as their collection of work is the role they play as ambassadors for Show visitors.

“Because we know Sisters so well, we delight in greeting tourists and Show visitors, helping them to find directions and places to shop, dine and play,” Tyler said.

Indeed, the Guild has made many contributions to life in Sisters, such as designing, sewing, and quilting the Sisters Country Community

Quilt that was displayed in Sisters City Hall, hosting and participating in The Oregon Quilt Documentation Project, and the Forest Service Christmas Tree Skirt Project that was displayed in Washington, D.C. They will have 14 badged volunteers on duty in shifts to welcome tourists and guests.

We will be hosting My Quilting Loft and annual outdoor market vendor s will be o er ing fabulous deals on new fabr ics, quilts, Afr ican batik panels, hand-woven Afr ican baskets, and more. Stroll inside the store for the vintage quilts and fabr ics, plus lovely antique glassware and collectibles.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Karen Tyler, coordinator of East of the Cascade Quilters, is shown here displaying a quilt by Susan DeGroat.

Jan Tetzlaff is 2023 featured quilter

By Sue Stafford Correspondent

Jan Tetzlaff, this year’s featured quilter for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS), says that most of her art quilts are reflections of the colors and places that have inspired her designs. Her Moroccan quilt reflects the colors and culture of Medina and Marrakesh.

Tetzlaff has a very simple explanation as to why she quilts: “This is what I do, what I love.”

Her devotion to her art is evident in all the handwork that goes into each quilt. She may do some machine piecing, but the quilting and some piecing is all done by hand.

Her first attempt at quilting was when she created a bedspread for her college dorm room by cutting up some fabric and sewing it together. In the years of her children’s growing up, she made many quilts but when they went off to college, she thought her quilting days were done, and she took off 15 years from quilting.

Tetzlaff and her husband lived in Southern California for 35 years, where she worked as a journalist and had a home wine-making business with her husband. Her husband had attended the University of Oregon and they vacationed on the Oregon Coast many times. Their two children attended college at University of Puget Sound and Willamette University. Their son is a doctor here in Central Oregon and has three children. Their

daughter is a reading specialist in University Place, Washington and has two children. Jan’s 91-yearold mother lives in Vancouver, Washington.

The family’s pull north saw the Tetzlaffs moving to Bend, which meant Jan was leaving her former quilting community. It didn’t take long for her to find “her people” in Central Oregon. She knew of Jean Wells and Stitchin’ Post, so in 2007 she took some classes in creating art quilts from Wells. In 2008, she entered a traditional log cabin lap throw and attended her first SOQS.

Tetzlaff finds the classes at the Quilter’s Affair a great resource for creating her own designs. She rarely sells any of her quilts unless it is to benefit the SOQS.

“I have a hard time giving up my art quilts,” she explained.

She is a member of the local Journeys Art Quilters group as well as the Studio Art Quilters Association. Her Moroccan quilt will be exhibited in upstate New York later this summer, and in the Alsace region of France for which it had to be juried in. She will be able to see it on

display, as she is taking a river cruise this summer in France with friends.

Nowadays, Tetzlaff likes to hand-dye her fabrics, using a variety of textured fabrics to create artful interest. Her art quilts generally employ a minimalist design approach. She still takes classes and

The culture and colors of Morocco inspired Tetzlaff’s “Medina-Marrakesh” quilt, which will be on display in France later this summer.

Jan O’Brien Tetzlaff of Bend is this year’s Featured Quilter for the 48th Annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Her exhibit will be on display at Ponderosa Properties Saturday, July 8.

said, “I am inspired by the tremendous artists in this region and those who come to teach.”

“I am very grateful and humbled to be recognized this way (as the featured quilter),” she concluded.

Tetzlaff’s 29-quilt exhibit on Saturday, July 8, will be a retrospective of her work from more traditional quilts

to her most recent art quilt titled “City of Light,” inspired by Paris. Her best friend is flying in from Colorado specially to help Tetzlaff and her husband hang the exhibit. It will be available for viewing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Quilt Show Saturday at Ponderosa Properties, located at 221 S. Ash St., on the corner of South Ash Street and West Hood Avenue.

PHOTO BY GARY ALVIS

PHOTO PROVIDED

Hand stitching is her hallmark

By Sue Stafford Correspondent

Each month of the year, quilter Kathie Olson hangs a different quilt on the wall of her apartment in Redmond: a leprechaun with gold coins, an Easter bunny and his decorated eggs, a turkey with tail feathers made from her late husband Ron’s ties, and Uncle Sam sporting some of the fabric from her mother’s gray square dance skirt. Unique buttons, scraps of tatting, and other treasures adorn her creations, and each quilt invites the viewer to make a closer inspection.

What makes all of Kathie’s quilts so special is the attention to detail that goes into each one. Her creativity and eye for color and design are unmistakable. The icing on the cake — or quilt? Every stitch — piecing, quilting, and embroidery embellishments

— is done by hand.

“My sewing machine died years ago, and I just never replaced it,” she explained.

She uses all the techniques employed by her grandmother, Edith Seabury. Today, Kathie sleeps under a quilt created by Edith in 1936 called “French Bouquet,” adorned with lovely shades of pink, lilac, and green and later given to her granddaughter.

Over the years, Kathie’s quilts have been donated and gifted to community causes, nonprofits, individuals, and friends and family. Kids Center recently honored her for all her donations to their cause.

collected all styles, colors, and patterns of fabric and said, “I’ll never buy fabric again,” as she opened the door of her cabinet to reveal her stash.

A sample of Kathie’s artful creations will be on display on Quilt Show Saturday in front of Beacham’s Clock Company, 300 W. Hood Ave. (on the corner of West Hood Avenue and South Oak Street).

Now in her 80s, Kathie says she currently works on smaller pieces that are more manageable. A true quilter, she has

on

WELCOME, QUILTERS...

Take your time and enjoy the show and your visit to Central Oregon, while we entertain your fur baby!

The heat will be on in July

Whether you want to keep your dog gie cool for a day of making new friends in our puppy pool...or a night of peaceful slumber, so you can make some side trips... we o er safe,supervisedplaycare, for a few hours orlonger,aswell as pampered short-termboardingandgrooming, too. GIVE US A WHISTLE AT 541-549-2275!

PHOTO BY SUE STAFFORD

1 Cherrywood Fabrics –The Graffiti Cherrywood Challenge presented by Cherrywood Fabrics – located at the Sisters Fire Station Community Hall. Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics challenged artists to create a unique piece of art with a limited color palette. Their challenge: Gritty urban areas can be the setting for colorful layers of graffiti. This form of expression dates back thousands of years. Why do people engage in graffiti? How can you capture this graphic art form in fabric? Can you do it with just eight colors?

2 WISH Fabric Postcards in partnership with Andover Fabrics and presented by Wildflower Studios, Sisters Gallery & Frame, Bend Picture Framing, Sage Custom Picture Framing, and Eastlake Framing – located at Village Green Park. This is an annual fundraiser for the SOQS Arts Scholarship for Sisters High School students. Fabric postcards, donated from across the country, are sold to raise funds. Custom framing and/or matting is donated by multiple Central Oregon framing and art studios.

3 Teachers’ Pavilion presented by Stitchin’ Post – located in Village Green Park. A collection of quilts created by the instructors of Quilter’s Affair.

4 Featured Gallery Artist: Kris Lang presented by and located inside Clearwater Gallery. Quilting offers Kris Lang a source of relaxation. Creating handdyed fabrics as a medium, using different design elements such as gel printing, hand stitching, and/ or embellishing with different textures is fun as a fiber artist. Kris is a member of numerous quilting groups, and believes in always building her quilting education.

5 Storytellers’ Book 2023, Hidden Stories Storybook: Quilts for sale by various artists. Presented by and located in the courtyard of The Open Door. Various Oregon quilters have created the larger–than-life storybook with quilted pages, each one telling a unique story.

6 Central Oregon SAQA: Meandering presented by Your Store and located in The Open Door courtyard. Meandering is defined as moving slowly and not in a straight line. This theme allowed the participants to slow down and appreciate the beauty of Central Oregon through their art, including a highlight of turquoise on each piece.

7 Made by Men presented by The Gallimaufry located at the Hood Avenue Art Building. Our annual tribute to the men whose quilts are displayed in one exhibit, showing off the range of talent and style of our male quilters.

8 Kathie Olson Showcase

Quilts presented by First Interstate Bank and located on the lawn behind Beacham’s Clock Shop. Kathie grew up in Nebraska and has followed her grandmother’s example. The precedence started early with Kathie receiving a twin-size quilt at birth handmade by her grandma. Kathie has

continued her family legacy with her quilting, and designs all her own pieces. According to Kathie, “It’s still the most relaxing thing I can do while watching some TV each night.”

9 Kaffe Fawcett: Heritage Quilts presented by FreeSpirit Fabrics, located at Beacham’s Clock Shop. Celebrating designer Kaffe Fawcett’s 80th birthday, we are pleased to share this heritage collection of quilts designed by Kaffe. These quilts exude Kaffe’s love of color and boldness.

10 Quilt Block Contest 2023 presented by FreeSpirit Fabrics, located on the lawn behind Stitchin’ Post, at Cascade Avenue and Oak Street. Thanks to the generous support of Sew Kind of Wonderful and FreeSpirit Fabrics, our annual Quilt Block Contest challenges quilters to create a block using Sew Kind of Wonderful’s fabric line, The Cottage Collection. Come see the variety of designs and talents exhibited with over 45 entries, including our winning block and honorary mentions.

11 Stitchin’ Post Employee Challenge Quilts presented by and located at Stitchin’ Post. Each year, the employees of Stitchin’ Post interpret the Quilt Show’s annual theme. This year, they celebrate their “Hidden Stories.”

12 KONA Color of the Year: 2023 Crush presented by Ponderosa Lodge Best Western, located at Stitchin’ Post. Come see these fresh, inspired designs utilizing the KONA Color of the Year, Crush.

13 Storyteller’s Narrative: Water Works – What we do with Water presented by Copper Cane Wines, located on the lawn next to Paulina Springs Books. Seven quilters Illustrating the variety of ways we all interact with water, and showcasing the variety of methods chosen to construct these quilts.

14 Featured Quilter: Jan Tetzlaff presented by Black Butte Ranch, located at Ponderosa Properties. Jan creates quilts that reflect her love of fiber and the maker’s hand. Beginning as a traditional quilter, Jan now most often creates art quilts. Her work reflects abstracted moments of time and place in which movement, line, and memory are pieced by machine and stitched by hand on fabrics that are often hand-dyed and highly textured.

15 Machine Quilter Showcase: Annette Caldwell presented by Cynthia’s of Bend, located at Toriizaka Art, 222 W. Hood Ave. With 25 years of quilting, Annette began by asking her grandmother how to quilt — even after many requests, Grandma said no. So Annette purchased books and took classes. In 2013, Annette’s purchase of a longarm started her on the path to being published in multiple formats. Annette is very much looking forward to seeing what the future holds for her quilting. And the fun that comes with it.

16 SOQS 2023 Raffle Quilt: Rhythms in Nature presented by Island Batik Fabrics, located on the lawn of the SOQS Office at the corner of Hood Avenue and Ash Street. Two sisters, June Jaeger and Jean Wells, created the 2023 raffle quilt using the River Walk collection of fabric from Island Batiks designed by Jean. June did the designing and piecing of the top that used the free download pattern, Eclipse, from Art Gallery Fabric. Both women are responsible for the free-motion quilting. Rhythms in Nature celebrates the beauty around us from tiny stones, bird nest nestled in trees, pine needles, to the fast-moving water in the streams coming from the Three Sisters mountains. The color palette explores the beauty of a mountain stream, the pine trees, and curry tones in the wild grasses.

2023 Special Exhibits

17 Inspirational Instructor: Jennifer Sampou presented by C&T Publishing, and located at the SOQS Office, corner of Hood Avenue and Ash Street. Jennifer Sampou grew up near Boston and studied Surface Design at Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and Textiles at University of Vermont. She began her career at Laura Ashley Headquarters in Wales, UK then moved to California and became design director for P&B Textiles in San Francisco. Later, Sampou founded her own studio and licensed to Robert Kaufman Fabrics. She has created more than 5,000 prints and sold millions of yards worldwide. She is an author for C&T Publishing and loves to teach. Wanderlust leads her around the world seeking color and art. She lives in the San Francisco Area with her family.

HIGHWAY 20 / 126 WEST: Metolius Recreation Area, Camp Sherman, Black Butte Ranch, Suttle Lake, Hoodoo, Portland, Eugene, Salem, Albany

HWY 242 WEST: McKenzie Pass

To Outlaw Station and Three Wind shopping centers

18 “Vintage Flora” by Maywood Makers presented by Maywood Studio, located at the Volunteers VIP Tent, Ash Street and Hood Avenue. A beautiful collection of mini quilts created by the Maywood Makers (designers from all over the U.S.) using Vintage Floral collection fabrics by Kimberbell Designs.

19 Grange Girls presented by Spoons, located at the corner of Hood Avenue and Elm Street. The Grange Girls hail from Tualatin, McMinnville, and Corbett. Their 2020 BOM project was Laundry Basket Quilters “Winter Village” pattern. Each quilt was made in a variety of themes and colors.

20 QuiltCon Best of 2023 presented by Sisters Coffee, located at 110 W. Cascade Ave. Featuring the best of 2023 QuiltCon, each tells a story with modern styling.

21 Busy Bees Quilt Group: My Garden presented by GrandStay Hotel & Suites, located at the west wall of The Hen’s Tooth. This year’s Busy Bees Quilt Challenge was to create a quiet place that each person would want to go to pray and meditate. It’s a joy to see each person’s interpretation of a peaceful quiet place This project was a first of its type for many of the Bees and so we had to lean into our faith to create something out of our wheelhouse.

22 Duo at Play: Capture to Cloth: A Metamorphosis presented by Oliver Lemon’s, located at The Hen’s Tooth. A mother-daughter duo that works off Angelia’s photography and recreates the photo in fabrics. Angelia chooses the fabrics and composition style. Judy enhances the fiber art with dense free-motion stitching and embellishment.

23 Mt. Bachelor Quilters Guild: Music of the Beatles presented by Mid Oregon Credit Union, located at The Paper Place. Quilt makers were inspired by Beatles music, lyrics, song titles, etc. The result is an eclectic mix of fun, colorful, and meaningful quilts — and a trip down memory lane!

24 Journeys Art Quilt Artists: Exploration presented by and located at Bedouin. As a group of textile artists that have met for 11 years, they come together to support one another in their journey, sharing techniques, successes, and challenges. This year as they revisited learned processes, they built their art on these results, using the color magenta to tie the work together.

25 High Desert Quilt Guild of Redmond: The Color Tool Challenge presented by FIKA Sisters Coffeehouse, located at Raven Makes. Our mission was to

use the color tool to help quilters become more comfortable in using color in their quilts. Joan Wolfrom’s Color Tool is like a painter’s deck of cards. On the back of each color card is references for complementary, monochromatic, and analogous. Seeing these color schemes lifts us to another level in using colors. It makes us brave!

26 Kids Activity Center: Fabric Postcard Make-n-Takes presented by Will-n-Bee’z Quilts & Coffee Shoppe, located in the parking lot of Oliver Lemon’s. An introduction and hands-on activity for our guests 18 and under, creating their own make-and-take fabric postcards.

27 Next Generation presented by Will-n-Bee’z Quilt and Coffee Shoppe, located at Oliver Lemon’s. Celebrating all quilters under the age of 18. Varying in age and skill, we celebrate their creativity and artistry in their quilts.

Continues page 14...

PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK

28 Crook County Quilters: Log Cabin Fever presented by Common Threads, located at 352 E. Hood Ave. No rules for traditional and very untraditional layouts of log cabins, scrappy log cabins, “wonky” log cabins for many members – some who have never made a log cabin quilt!

29 East of the Cascades: Black + White + ? presented by Sisters Saloon and located on the west wall of Candy Corral. The East of the Cascades Quilt Guild is happy to share their challenge for the 2023 show. Each quilt must use only three colors: black, white, and one additional color of their choice.

30 The Undercover Quilters: “Miss Benson’s Beetle” presented by Alpaca Country Estates, located at The Gallery Restaurant. Miss Benson’s Beetle is the tale of two women who toss their everyday lives aside to travel to New Caledonia in search of a rare golden beetle only found on this island and on a particular orchid plant. Adventure, danger, laugh-outloud humor and a very visual novel as you see depicted in our quilts.

31 Blockin’ Robins: Stories that Begin in the Middle presented by Takoda’s Restaurant, located at Dixie’s. Medallion quilts were the style chosen, but each individual chose the inspiration for their quilt. To celebrate the

2023 Special Exhibits (cont. from pg. 13)

group’s 10th anniversary, each quilt top had to contain 10 items of “something.” Can you find them in each quilt?

32 Central Oregon Modern Quilt Guild: Tilted Tiles presented by Three Creeks Brewing, located at the Habitat Thrift Store. Inspired by the “Tilted Tiles” pattern by modern quilt designer Charles Cameron. Each quilt must contain one of the three main blocks: a tilted squarein-a-square, a slanted stripe, and a half-square trapezoid — of any size and color.

33 Mountain Meadow Quilters Guild: The Leaves, They are A’Changing presented by The Rickards Gallery, located at the corner of Main Avenue and Spruce Street. Central Oregon is a region of diverse and everchanging flora. Our exhibit will celebrate the many examples of this, a feast for our eyes throughout the year.

34 Two Rivers, Three Sisters presented by the City of Sisters, located inside Sisters City Hall. This permanent exhibit, created in 2012, was a joint project of many fiber artists and the National Forest Foundation to raise awareness and funds for the restoration efforts on the Metolius River and Whychus Creek. The 40-foot-long, 17-panel quilt depicts the forest and rivers surrounding Sisters.

35 Showcase Quilter: Marilyn Barnett presented by Prestige Senior Living, located inside FivePine Lodge. Marilyn’s quilting journey began in Anchorage, Alaska in 2002 while serving on the Pregnancy Support and Adoption Board of Catholic Social Services (CSS). CSS created a fundraiser to provide supplemental financial support to programs within the agency, including a quilt auction. Members of the Board enthusiastically agreed to “give it a try.” Marilyn’s first quilt was begun in a hotel room after leaving her daughter in her freshman dorm room at Willamette University in Salem. Since she was beginning her college career, it was time for Marilyn to start on a new adventure in retirement. Over the years, Marilyn has made quilts for auctions, friends, family, hospitals, nonprofits, and even the Anchorage Centennial in 2015. However, the best thing about quilting is that it brought her husband and her to live permanently in this quaint and welcoming community.

36 Quilts of Valor/Honor Flight Quilts Info Booth presented by Bluestone Retirement, located at Hood Avenue and Elm Street. Learn about two wonderful programs that support our Veterans with quilts to honor their service.

37 SOQS Quilt Walk presented by The Roundhouse Foundation. Be sure to stroll throughout the Quilt Show business sponsors of Sisters and Central Oregon throughout the month of July; each sponsor business will be showing off a sponsor quilt created by a Central Oregon quilter. Maps are available throughout businesses in Sisters.

38 SOQS Sunday! presented by FivePine Lodge, located at the FivePine campus. On Sunday, July 9, walk through the pine trees on the campus of FivePine Lodge and view quilts created by Australian quilter Sarah Fielke. With over 22 years of quilting experience, Sarah is published in multiple books and has over 200,000 copies sold worldwide. Come enjoy viewing Sarah’s quilts on Sunday and join her lecture at FivePine Conference Center. Quilts will be on view to the public 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

See numbered Exhibits Map on previous page (13).

Graffiti greets quilters in exhibition

By Bill Bartlett Correspondent

Graffiti, thankfully rare in Sisters, will be welcome for this year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS). Street art is as old as art itself and has been an expression of the oppressed and downtrodden for centuries. Alas, in its lesser manifestations, it can also be vulgar and lacking any artistic value.

Not so with the 2023 Cherrywood Challenge, which is on tour and will be on exhibit for this year’s SOQS. The traveling exhibit of nearly 100 quilts will be on display at Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Hall on July 8. The 20-by-20-inch quilts were chosen from 386 entries.

Cherrywood is a renowned maker of hand-dyed fabrics. The 30-year-old business located in Baxter, Minnesota has perfected rich, suede-look fabrics beloved by quilters. Each year for the past eight, Cherrywood has sponsored a challenge with a theme. In 2021 the theme was Princess Diana and that exhibit was showcased at the 2022 SOQS. The theme of graffiti might at first seem off-putting

but once you see the works, including the top five winners, you’re apt to gain a deeper appreciation for the art form. The only requirement is that entrants use an eight-step Cherrywood bundle. The rest is entirely imagination.

Graffiti, by nature, is often political. However, no politics were allowed for entries. That’s not to say that the quilts lack a message. Or humor. Graffiti is art that is written, painted, or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view.

Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

Jeff Omodt, who served previously as board president for SOQS, is the prime driver of the exhibition making it to Sisters.

“The first thing we had to come to terms with was the demand from Cherrywood that their quilts remain indoors, which at an outdoor show is a contradiction,” he said.

Omodt reports that the

primary fascination among quilters is the “degree of artistry on such a small space.” He added: “It is a whole new way to look at quilting.”

The Cherrywood collection made its debut at the SOQS in 2017 and is now a perennial favorite among attendees.

The Cherrywood Challenge is also known for its appeal to younger quilters and to non-quilters taking a peek into the quilting world. If you have teens or preteens when taking in the SOQS be sure to check out the Graffiti exhibit.

SOQS is one of 18 stops on the national tour, which travels 14 states. Cherrywood describes the Challenge: “Gritty urban areas can be the setting for colorful layers of graffiti. This form of expression dates back thousands of years. Why do people engage in graffiti? How can you capture this graphic art form in fabric? Can you do it with just eight colors? We encourage you to push yourself creatively and think outside the box.”

Sisters collaborate on raffle quilt

When Quilt Show founder Jean Wells gets together with her sister June Jaeger to craft the SOQS raffle quilt, you can

bet you’re going to get something special. The quilt raffle, a fundraiser for the Quilt Show,

is offered to the public each year. This year’s roughly 70-by-80-inch piece, “Rhythms in Nature,” was a collaboration between the sisters, who live next door to each other and share a studio.

“She designed it and I pieced the quilt, and then she and I both quilted it,” Jaeger explained. “She put a binding on it.”

The fabric is from sponsor Island Batik’s

Riverwalk Fabric Collection, designed by Wells.

“It’s fabric I designed,” Wells said. “All of the images on it are around Sisters-type imagery. I was thinking of Whychus Creek and the Metolius (River) the whole time I was designing the fabric.”

“Rhythms in Nature” celebrates the beauty around us from tiny stones, a bird nest nestled in trees, pine needles, to the fast-moving water in the streams coming from the Three Sisters mountains. The color palette explores the beauty of a mountain stream, the pine trees, and curry tones in the wild grasses.

The sisters frequently come together in their studio to dye fabric.

“Most of the time we do it

together, so that’s always fun,” Jaeger said. “Making our own fabrics is kind of what brings us together.”

Wells says that collaboration is smooth.

“We know each other’s design aesthetics, so it works out really good,” she said.

Proceeds from the 2023 SOQS Raffle Quilt will benefit the SOQS Scholarship Fund, and helps to produce the free-to-attend Quilt Show.

Tickets are $5 each. The winning ticket will be drawn at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 8, Quilt Show Day, on the lawn at the SOQS Office, corner of Hood Avenue and Ash Street, Sisters. Winner need not be present to win.

To purchase tickets, visit https://www.soqs.org/ contests.

Quilters love a challenge

Nothing seems to bring out the creative spirit of a quilter more than a little challenge.

Each year the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS) poses a Quilt Block Challenge for its patrons: Request a packet of fabric, take the six different samples provided (the only ones you can use and you have to use all of them) — and turn the imagination loose.

The challenge is a fundraiser for SOQS, and the final product is a 9-inchby-9-inch quilt block. The winner gets $50 and a prize of fabric — but it’s not about the prize, it’s about the glory.

Each year, Quilt Block Challenge Director Valerie Fercho-Tillery wonders what quilters will do with the Sew Kind of Wonderful line of fabric, donated by FreeSpirit Fabrics.

“I look at them (the fabric packets) and I go, ‘What can you make out of this?’”

The results always astonish and astound. This year, 54 quilt blocks came in, which is more than average.

“For quilters, it’s a challenge,” Fercho-Tillery says.

Can we assume from the response that quilters are competitive?

Fercho-Tillery chuckled at the question.

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “They are.”

The imaginative results of the Quilt Block Challenge will be on display on Quilt Show day, on the lawn behind Stitchin’ Post.

“I look at them (the fabric packets) and I go, ‘What can you make out of this?’”

– Quilt Block Challenge Director Valerie Fercho-Tillery

Jean Wells and June Jaeger used fabric Jean designed to craft this year’s SOQS raffle quilt.

Featured Gallery Artist inspired by nature

Kris Lang of Bend, a member of the Mt. Bachelor Quilters Guild, is the SOQS Featured Gallery Artist for the 2023 Show. Lang has been quilting for about 20 years and was inspired to try her hand at it by a group called Women of Cloth.

“For some people gardening is a source of relaxation after a busy day. Quilting is that for me,” said Lang. “Creating hand-dyed fabrics as a medium, using different design elements such as gel printing, hand stitching, and/ or embellishing with different textures, is fun as a fiber artist.”

You can tell at once that she finds quilting a joy, not a task, not an endeavor. Just sheer pleasure. She’s always eager to improve her skills and has taken numerous classes

while also participating in the Central Oregon chapter of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) and other small groups, such as Square Crows and Undercover Quilters. Her works tend to run 18

inches by 30 inches up to 30 inches by 40 inches and are nearly always for wall display. She sells some of her pieces and is growing a following. She hand-dyes her own fabric and considers her style mainly abstract, improvisational. That’s immediately obvious when viewing her handiwork. For the entire month of July her work will be on display at Clearwater Gallery at 303 W. Hood Ave. in Sisters.

For the Show she’s hoping to exhibit 13 pieces, space allowing.

Lang is best known for and loves thread painting, a free-motion sewing technique used to create lines, areas of color and texture, or embroidery designs and motifs by machine. Threads in various colors and weights are used to stitch on top of a base fabric. The maker stitches back and forth across the design area, layering the stitching

and filling in shapes and motifs to create the design or desired effect. Thread painting uses the built-in stitches of the machine.

A recent Lang work is an owl created entirely from thread. She often utilizes stencils, paper lamination, stamping, and beads to enhance her designs. She summed up her love for the art form: “My journey in the world of art quilting has been a joy-filled path.”

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Quilter serves

up bright color palette

Marilyn Barnett was not expecting the call that told her she was to be the 2023 Inside FivePine showcase artist.

“It was a great honor,” she said. “I would never have imagined that this honor would come to me.”

Barnett could have simply displayed the quilts she already had registered inside the conference hall at 1021 Desperado Trail — but that wasn’t really an option for an avid, 20-year quilter.

She produced six or seven additional quilts specifically for the showcase.

“I’ve been hunched over the sewing machine to beat the clock, so to speak,” she said with a laugh.

Barnett says she has a very bright color palette as a quilter. She got her start in the art form when she made a quilt for a fundraiser for a women’s services program in Anchorage, Alaska. Like most quilters who fall in love with the craft, she made a pilgrimage to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, coming from Seattle with her sister. She’s made 16 consecutive shows since — and now lives in Sisters.

“It’s a phenomenal community for quilts,” she said.

Quilters Wish Upon A Card

Give quilters a challenge, and they’re going to step up and surprise you with their creativity. When that challenge helps to support their beloved Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS), you’re going to see some remarkable work — and lots of it.

The WISH Upon A Card contest has been a part of SOQS for many years, and it is a major fundraiser for the free Show. The fabric postcard challenge participants are required to use two pieces of fabric donated by Andover Fabrics.

“They can use any other fabric they want, but they must use both of these,” program coordinator Robyn Gold explained.

Entries are juried, and select ones are framed by local galleries, which enhances their sales value.

This year, SOQS received 153 WISH entries, up from 76. Some folks just want to make a card without the confines of using challenge fabric. The show received 353 nonchallenge cards, up from 196 in 2022.

The increase in participation is an indication of just how fun and satisfying the work is.

“There’s just so much creativity,” said SOQS Executive Director Dawn Boyd. “It’s so neat. They want to be in it and they want to win it. They’re serious about it, that’s for sure.”

Jennifer Ball has been a winner, and she loves participating each year.

“I’ve won a couple of times, and I’ve had cards that

were chosen to be framed and matted and offered for sale,” she said.

Her motivations are uncomplicated.

“I really enjoy supporting the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, and it’s a small way for me to contribute to them,” she said. “The second reason I do it is because it’s fun! I like to challenge myself.”

Ball doesn’t conform to a theme.

“For me, it’s just imagination going crazy,” she said. “I’ll look at them (the fabrics) for a couple of weeks and just kind of think about it.

She’ll usually do a landscape and a couple of whimsical cards.

“I did five this year,” she said.

Gold attributes the doubling of entries this year to

a couple of things: She and Boyd visited local quilt guilds and encouraged participation. And last year’s display at Sisters High School during A Quilter’s Affair was enhanced by the use of wire racks, which better displayed the entries in what the show called A Tower of Cards.

This is Gold’s second year coordinating the program, which is a big undertaking.

“I have a phenomenal team of 14 women who help me,” she said. “And I couldn’t do it without every single one of them.”

Like Boyd, she’s continually bowled over by the level of creativity on display in the entries, frequently asking, “How did they do that?!”

“The use of creativity in these things — it’s

phenomenal,” she said.

A silent auction will run during Quilter’s Affair in the Sisters High School lobby. Buy-it-now price is $500 for 27 teacher cards, and three challenge card winners. Buyit-now price is $350 for five honorable mention cards. Buy-it-now price is $250 for additional cards selected by professional framers. The cards are so creative that they sell quickly. Those who are interested in buying one should get out to the Quilters Affair site and bid.

“If they want to bid on the silent auction, that would be a really good idea,” Gold said.

WISH cards will be for sale during Quilter’s Affair and on Quilt Show Saturday in the WISH Upon A Card tent at the Village Green.

Enhanced display of Wish Upon A Card fabric postcards helped to double the number of entries in the fundraising challenge this year.

2023 WISH Upon A Card Winners

• First Place: Donna Rice (Bend)

• 2nd Place: Karen Hewer (Bend)

• 3rd Place: Tricia Pomering (Sisters)

• Honorable Mentions:

Michelle Foutch (Eldora, IA)

Judy Lindros (Sisters)

Donna Paulson (Paso Robles, CA)

Daryl Perry (Rio Rancho, NW)

Christenna Stamm (Lebanon, PA)

These framers have donated their materials and time to beautifully frame 46 WISH cards to support Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show:

• Wildflower Studio (Sisters): 11 cards

• Sisters Gallery & Frame (Sisters): 11 cards

• Bend Picture Framing (Bend): 10 cards

• Eastlake Framing (Bend): 9 cards

• Sage Custom Framing (Bend): 5 cards

Quilting legend featured Sunday

One of the luminaries of the quilting world will lead a walking tour of her work in the peaceful setting of FivePine in Sisters on Sunday, July 9.

Sarah Fielke is an awardwinning quilt designer from Sydney, Australia. In her 22 years in the quilting industry, her 11 bestselling quilt books have sold over 200,000 copies worldwide, and have been translated into five languages. Her first book, “Material Obsession,” is widely described as having been at the forefront of the Modern Quilting movement and is a staple in many quilter’s libraries. Her fourth book, “Hand Quilted with Love,” was released in May of 2013, “Little Quilts” in 2014, “Old Quilts New Life” in 2015, and “Stitch Your Story” released in April 2019. Sarah has also worked with The Quilt Show Block of the Month, with the

SPONSORS:

newest release “Homeward Bound.”

“We are so excited to welcome Sarah to Sisters and to have her quilts on display at FivePine,” said SOQS Executive Director Dawn Boyd. “We have been trying to arrange Sarah’s presentation since 2020. Sarah is well-known in quilting circles around the world, and brings a modern take to traditional quilting. Her gorgeous use of colors and design are a delight for the eyes!”

Fielke’s quilts will be on display 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on SOQS Sunday for those who wish to walk along the creek at FivePine Lodge and Conference Center (free).

The walking tours led by Fielke will be held at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 each (limit of 25 per tour). Fielke will host a lecture at 10 a.m. Admission for that event is $35 per person. For tickets see www.soqs.org/2023events.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Quilting has a long and vibrant international history

By Katy Yoder Correspondent

The technique we call quilting crossed many borders and played a part in ancient history. From the beginning, quilts have told human stories, reflected religious and philosophical beliefs, and revealed what people wore, either out of necessity or as adornment.

Stitched into layered linen with cotton stuffing inserted to raise sections of the design, faces of those who lived thousands of years ago look beyond the edges of quilts into a future they’d find hard to believe.

Researchers have uncovered examples of quilting around the world. In North America, quilting began with immigrants bringing their sewing and handwork traditions from Europe.

For hundreds of years, African American slaves made quilts for their owners and for themselves. When time allowed, women pieced together beautiful quilts with the scraps they gathered and saved. The result was a beauty that defied circumstances of servitude and focused on love stitched together in terrible times. That tradition has evolved and thrived through the skilled hands of people like the women of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show was honored to have them as guests in years past to pass along their

wisdom — both with the needle and in beautiful a capella song.

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has one of the largest collections of Native American quilts from the 1940s. The Northern Plains tribes began quilting out of

necessity when buffalo herds were decimated by EuroAmerican settlers attempting to subdue the Plains tribes in the 19th century. The tribes had to find alternate sources for robes and ritual practices. Missionary wives taught quilting techniques to Indian women, who soon found

imaginative ways to personalize what they created.

The origins of quilting can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Quilting commemorated personal stories, historical events, and was a reflection of the beauty surrounding its maker. There are rare examples of old quilts. One preserved quilt is a Sicilian wall hanging made in the 14th century. It is estimated to have been made about 1395. It portrays the legend of Tristan. The piece of art was made using quilting with trapunto (stuffed quilting) on solid white fabric.

The piece is now displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.

Some researchers believe that quilting, in the form of quilted clothing, was brought to Europe through the Crusades. Muslim warriors wore tightly quilted garments as part of their armor, which was soon adopted by medieval

European soldiers.

Although fine quilting was a sign of affluence, the sewing together of layers for warmth was done by the poor as well. If makers couldn’t afford carded wool or cotton to sew between layers, then old blankets, clothing or even feathers, straw or leaves were used instead.

The oldest discovery, from 5,500 years ago is of an ivory carving featuring the king or Pharaoh of the Egyptian First Dynasty wearing a mantle or cloak that appears to be quilted. It was found in the Temple of Osiris at Abydos in 1903 and is currently in the British Museum collection.

The Textile Society of America at DigitalCommons at University of Nebraska –Lincoln, offers interesting and informative research into the relationship between historical Chinese patchwork garments, known as the baijia pao, or “One Hundred

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show has relied upon and been supported by a core of dedicated volunteers for decades, helping the Show to share the historic art of quilt making with droves of visitors every year.

PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW

Those

Families Robe,” and a recent practice of American adopters of Chinese children. By combining the Chinese tradition of baijia pao, with American commemorative quilt making, makers of the new “One Hundred Good Wishes Quilts” are creating a unique opportunity for a cross-cultural exchange.

People started making Chinese patchwork in the Liu Song of the Southern Dynasty. The first emperor of Liu Song Dynasty, named Liu Yu, was born in an underprivileged family. His mother gathered rags from the neighborhoods to make a patchwork. When he became the emperor, he perceived this kind of patchwork as the symbol for his impoverished childhood. All the infants in Liu’s family had to use the patchwork so that his offspring could know how fortunate they were. Afterwards, his citizens followed this royal custom to make “Bai jia yi” for their babies.

For centuries the Chinese

used quilted cloth to make padded winter clothing, wisely reasoning that two or three layers were warmer than one. Later, the Arabs were discovered wearing quilted garments beneath chain mail. Multiple layers of cloth sewn together provided additional protection and prevented chafing more effectively than cloth of a single layer. Some historians believe this quilted clothing, when brought back to Europe, provided the idea for the bed quilt used today.

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who visit the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show have been, and continue to be, inspired and awed by the