Covered in Quilts!

[Marilynne]

Wow! Saturday was spent in Quilt Heaven! My friend Maxine (the most fabulous quilter I know) and I and another quilting friend made the 3 hour trip to Sisters, Oregon for the annual Outdoor Quilt Show. The drive is beautiful into the Cascade Mountains, the Three Sisters and Three Fingered Jack mountains shining in the sun, still covered in snow. The town of Sisters is a small town near Bend, Oregon and has been kept in the rustic tradition of an old time settlement. All new building must look "western" in style, even the McDonald's and gas stations have to adhere to the town's style. One weekend in July every year (34 years) the main street is closed to traffic and the entire town is covered over in 1,200 quilts. Quilts are hanging from every balcony and rain gutter, under eves, draped over wagons, in every store, in tents and tables. Some of the best quilters in the world display their handicrafts, some of them are for sale, some not. There were some amazing quilts as far as stitching and color combination and some I didn't care for of course. I am not partial to modern art or quilts although I could appreciate the hand work even though I might not care for the pattern or style or color combo. One outstanding quilter was Barbara Copeland of Culver, Oregon whose surface design stitching was unbelievable. She uses a Bernina machine instead of a long-arm for her free-motion background designs. Millions of the tiny squares included rows of stitching no more than 2mm apart! Amazing. One of the highlights of the show were two full sized cars with quilted covers. All kinds of quilted, pieced blocks form-fitted into a cover made for that particular car with screening at the windows and grill and cut- outs for the headlights and tail lights. The cars could be driven with the cover on. One was a van, one a small car. So cute. I am sure we missed some of the quilts as we walked for 6 hours and the temp. climbed to 93 degrees before we headed for home about 3 PM but it was well worth the trip. If there are any serious quilters out there, be sure to make your vacation plans next year to coincide with this show. It is fabulous! This is my second time in the last 30 years and I think it gets better every year. I am an occasional quilter, I do more clothing than quilts, but I am fired up now to do some more quilting, maybe a tote bag....or a cover for my Tahoe......

[Marilynne]

Personally, I prefer to make "art quilts". I am more of an artist than a quilter, and I like to make smaller, wall hanging sized quilts and experiment with fusing and texture (yarns, beads, elements) and finish before I get bored with a project and move on to something else. I like nature scenes or florals, etc.. The only problem is that I don't want to bother with trying to sell (or I don't think they are good enough to sell) and I only have so much wall space to keep them all. I just want to have the fun of DOING it! I do geometrics because I like the old fashioned look and for color. If I wasn't so lazy, I would throw together some to actually sell and make some MONEY! Something I could sure use right now.

[Kris]

I am sooooo jealous! Sounds like a wonderful event. You and I are so alike, it's ridiculous! I, too, do not care for the "modern" quilts...give me a traditional pattern any day. I do like some of the watercolor quilts, etc., but nothing extreme. We have some fabulous quilters in our guild who are frequently seen in quilt magazines. I just muddle through, but love every minute!