Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show 2009

Well, today was the quilt show and the weather was spectacular. We've had some really hot temps in the past, so this was a welcome relief. Earlier this week, there was a lightening strike on Black Butte which is just a few miles northwest of Sisters. Very scary.

This picture was taken from the area I live in and you can see the smoke. The town of Sisters is only about 15 miles from where the fire was. I think it's supposed to be 100% contained tomorrow.

We also had some “iffy” weather this week with thunder/lightening and rain.

In it’s 34 year history, it has never rained during the quilt show. We certainly didn’t want today to be the first. I think that Jean Wells must have a direct line to God because it couldn’t have been a more perfect day.

I ran into Jean and Valori in town.

Val is the one in the center, expecting baby #3!

Together, they own The Stitchin Post. The quilts on the left are part of the Gee’s Bend collection. The ladies of Gee’s Bend were there lecturing and leading workshops all week.

Here is the inside of the store. I took this picture around 8:30am. I hate to even think how crowded it got as the day went on.

This is the side of the Stichin Post where the employee challenge was displayed. This year the employees were challenged to use their own interpretation of the Gee’s Bend “style” in their own quilt. If you arrive early enough, you can see the volunteer firefighters hanging the quilts. Here’s a photo from 2004 when I was there early enough! oops, for some reason, it won’t import! Hmmm, I’ll work on that and show you later.

Inside the Clock Shop, was a display of quilts made from wedding gowns. The sale of these quilts will go to granting wishes for Stage 4 breast cancer patients.

It was hard to get decent pictures because they were hanging off the upstairs railing but there were so many tall clocks to block my view. (I’m vertically challenged, you know!)

Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston had a special exhibit. They were part of the instructors who were there all week teaching classes. Their quilts are so fun and colorful.

There is another area that has all the instructor quilts under a tent. I didn’t get pictures of all of them because it was so crowded in there, but here are a few.

Sue Spargo was there teaching. I’d love to take a class from her.

She has such a distinctive style.

Libby Lehman was also there teaching her gorgeous machine quilting with thread play.

A local instructor, Sarah Kaufman, has a beautiful style of folded log cabins. She always embellishes them with fun things. These were metal cones, kinda looking like something from the wild west.

On this one she used black and white labels that she’s collected over the years. Pretty cute, huh?

Tonye Phillips, who is another local quilter and author was also part of the teaching staff. Her quilts have lots of color and whimsy.

Janet Fogg’s quilts always amaze me. I showed this quilt on an earlier post when I went to the Portland Quilt Expo, but thought you might like to see it again.

And a few more instructor quilts.

I’ll post more tomorrow. Am having trouble getting the rest organized. See you then.