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April's
Musings
July 8, 2006
"Sisters Oregon"
Sisters, Oregon is a small town in Oregon. It is a town with
road approaches shaded by Ponderosa Pines and shop fronts that
have clapboard facades straight out of a cowboy movie. The back
drop is the Sisters' Mountain Peaks and the name of the town
couldn't better express the activity that takes place there
one weekend every July. Annually, quilting mavens of the continent
gather in this otherwise sleepy town to celebrate their craft
of quilting, to attend workshops, and to share and compare the
latest in one of the oldest hobbies. It is a true sisterly activity
and the women, like sisters themselves, are creatively competitive.
In July, in this western stagecoach town, "hitching posts"
mean "Stitchin' Post" in Sisters, Oregon. And once
a year the sprawling Stitchin' Post Shop (owned by movement
starter and quilting maven, Jean Wells) and the town, host a
quilter's extravaganza and decorate the entire city (pop 1700
souls) with quilts. Like banners and flags quilts are flying
from every balcony, hanging in all the storefronts, blanketing
the walls of post office and bank, and spread on giant easels—tent
like in the park.
This July, Eileen Paulin of Red Lips for Courage and I "did"
Sisters—and what a "do" it was! We rolled into
town early Saturday morning to see the town set itself up for
their living craft display. Fireman and pharmacists, children
and grannies were on ladders, boxes, chairs and verandahs as
early as 5am hanging out the quilts. One could only imagine
the conversations, the directives, the bossiness, the laughter
and the collaboration as the town pulled together to transform
itself into the Quilters Mecca it is.
Parking our car on the edge of town, Eileen and I strolled in
and watched the magic unfold. We picked up coffee, had a scone—that's
a Marion Berry scone of course, only available in Oregon, sweet
delicious and full of July—and strolled through the textiles,
touching, looking, commenting, assessing, learning, "opinioning"
and yes, even a little shopping—but best of all—mixing
with all of our sisters, in Sisters, Oregon.
Strangely enough, there is another nearby mountain peak called
"Mountain Bachelor"—alas, snow still on! Not
like the sunny sisters!
Inspiring People.
More on those quilters…
Usually I find my female inspiration close to home. I don't
have to go famous to be inspired, between my two sisters and
my mom, my director of Indian operations, some dear colleagues,
and a couple of awesome women that I work with in one way or
another, inspiration has been very close at hand. However, when
in Sisters I had the fun of meeting a couple of duly famous
quilting women—the renegade authors of Collaborative Quilting:
Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston. Bespectacled does not describe
Freddy though spectacles she wears—her eyeglasses are large
and flamboyantly red, a cool Californian 75, her soft white
hair is tied in a sophisticated pony tail, ballet dancer style.
She and Gwen Marston—age unknown but she's put her time
in too—brown pageboy hair cut with bangs and a smile that
lets you know she's so happy living in Beaver Pond, Michigan!—have
taken the somewhat traditional quilting world by a storm of
color. They "liberated" quilting (a Gwen-ism) and
'Freddy-ized' color—all to say they made some
outrageously fun quilts that are inspiring other quilters to
jump out of the proverbial box and run around the quilter's
block!
Well I met these two ladies in Oregon, slipped into Freddy's
class where she talked scale and balance, listened to their
open air show-and-tell in the park—like stand-up comedians
of the textile persuasion, they had the audience in stitches—and
did a little creating of my own as I quickly sketched them signing,
collaboratively, their books as a snake of quilters made a line
behind them.
"Wow!" I thought, "Two very special women, having
fun, doing, and presenting an example of the creative life at
75!" I was inspired. Freddy, herself, only took up quilting
15 years ago and plans to do the circuit for another 15 years—that
will move her into her 90's. l will follow her career with pleasure.
Remember women: stay inspired, be inspiring. You never know
who's watching.
April
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