Closed September 2 for Labor Day
Shows, retreats and horses...
Shows, retreats and horses...
Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show - Sisters, Oregon. Have you ever been there?
I haven't been there... yet. Someday, right?
This is the 41st year for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and while it might seem to be as "big" as some shows-events-retreats, it really is. Tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world - all 50 states and 27 countries - go what is internationally recognized as the world's largest outdoor show. It's also very high on the "I'm going to get there some day" bucket-list for many quilters.
As the story goes... "The show began when the founder, Jean Wells Keenan - the internationally renowned quilter and author - hung a dozen quilts made by her students outside her Stitchin' Post quilt shop on a Saturday in July. A few more ladies brought their quilts to show, then a few more and a few more. The show became an annual event, hosted by the East of the Cascades Quilt Guild. As the show gained in size and popularity it outgrew the resources of the guild. In 2003, an Executive Director was hired to manage the show and new events were added..."
There are always "unique to Sisters" things created to help support the show - like the sale of their annual show posters created by local artists - shown above. This year, the poster was painted by Kathy Deggendorfer based on the theme "Infinite Stitches".
Two years ago, a calendar full of gorgeous quilts was added. In addition to the sale of the calendar, the quilts are always auctioned off. Moda is a sponsor for the 2017 calendar - and rumor has it that one of the quilts in the catalog is Moda-designed, Moda-made, Moda-certified and Moda-supplied.
This is the 2017 calendar.
Please forgive the blur... the only image of the 2017 calendar was itty-bitty and I had to make a wee bit bigger. So you could see the quilt, of course.
Yes, the calendar features gorgeous quilts. It also features handsome, community-minded men of Sisters Country who want to help support the quilt show. If you purchase a calendar at the show, you might even be able to get it autographed.
Have you ever been to a big show like this? Or a big quilting-sewing retreat-event?
There is a big event-retreat this weekend outside of Dallas - Stitchfest Texas - or StitchfestTX.
The teachers are Lee Monroe - better known as May Chappell - and Corey Yoder - aka Coriander Quilts-Moda Designer of the Sundrops and Prairie collections.
There are all sorts of big sewing event-retreats around the country. Some have nationally and internationally- known teachers and speakers, some are more about the sewing, visiting, connecting and learning-from-each-other. (I've been to both and highly recommend the benefits of each.)
A few of the retreats-events that come to mind are:
- Empty Spools in Asilomar, California
- Winter Quiltfest - Jen Kingwell and Amy Smart taught there earlier this year - Utah
- Sewtopia - Various locations
- Camp Stitchalot - Lake Pleasant, Michigan
- Missouri Star Quilt Co. - Missouri
- Ricky Tims - Colorado
- Under the Garden Moon - Utah
- Sew South - Charlotte, North Carolina
- Craft South - Nashville, Tennessee
If you've been to a big show or retreat, would you go again? And do you have any advice for first-timers?
Other than watching out for the horses, of course.
You wondered where the horse in the title was going to enter into this, didn't you?
Happy Friday!
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