35th Anniversary Documentary

Just back from a VERY refreshing, calm-before-the-storm, rafting trip on the Rogue River here in Oregon.  Its my annual tradition to clear my mind before the build up to the show.  Right before I left I saw the final edit of our 35th anniversary documentary – Stitching Together – 35 Years of Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  Sounds like a cliche, but its TRUE – I laughed and I cried and I had to suffer through watching myself on screen.  But its wonderful – it truly captures the spirit of the event and the people involved.  We won’t actually have the DVD’s in hand until July 7th but you can pre-order from the Stitchin’ Post.  Call 541-549-6061 or keep an eye on their website for ordering information.  The film is 45 minutes long and costs $15.00. 

If you’d rather see it on the BIG screen – Sisters Movie House will be showing it on Friday, July 9th at noon, 1:15, 2:30 and 3:45.  You can buy tickets in advance by calling 541-549-8833.  Tickets are only $6.50 ($6.00 for seniors) and the theater isn’t huge, so I’d recommend getting your tickets early.

Maybe the BEST part of all about the DVD is the corgis are in it.  They’re relaxed and refreshed from their river trip too.  Here they are in all their cute-ness on the ‘bow’ of my cat boat. 

Now its All Quilt Show All the Time.  Looking forward to re-connecting with everyone – see you soon!

Birthday Gala Fundraiser & More!

Thanks to Joyce & Tammy (Board Member and Events Director extraordinaire), the Birthday Gala Fundraiser is coming together.  We’ve changed the venue to Village Green Park, corner of Elm & Washington.  We want to be able to serve Three Creeks Brewing’s special “Golden Stitches” Ale and wine as well.  We could not offer alcohol at the original location, so to the park we go.  And – the park will have way more room, nice grass, great setting.  Promises to be a great evening.

Sisters Folk Festival is arranging music for us.  If you’ve never heard their musicians – students and alumni of the Americana Project – you’re in for a treat.  The Folk Festival in September is outstanding and we’re very lucky to be able to work so closely with a great sister event.

Best of all might be the artwork we have for auction.  We’ve had great response from our former “poster artists” with donations from Kathy Deggendorfer, Jean Wells, John Simpkins, Paul Alan Bennett and Dan Rickards.  Here’s a few pics of some of the pieces for auction.

OK – here’s a fun thing!  We have a new bike shop in Sisters - Blazin Saddles –  and they’ve helped us out with the purchase price on this cool “Patchwork Cruiser” so we can raffle it off!  Its so much fun to ride.  Comfy seat and the tires are BROWN to match the patchwork paint job.  Can’t you just see yourself cruisin’ on down to your local fabric store on this baby?  Raffle tix are for sale here .  We’ll draw the winner on Quilt Show day at 4 pm and you don’t even have to be here.  We’ll ship the bike if the winner is from out of town.  Proceeds from this raffle will help us with the expenses of our FREE show!

Today is our last day to accept entries for the show, and we’re within about 30 quilts of filling the show to the brim.  We’ll keep on taking not-for-sale entries through this week.  We’ll do the final confirmations after that.  Photos of the “for sale” entries are now on the website.  If you’d like your sale entry photo posted, you’ll find the instructions for sending it to us on the Quilt Entry page.

I previewed our 35th Anniversary documentary this afternoon with Jean and it may sound corny, but we laughed and we cried!  Its great and we can’t wait to share it with you.   The corgis are getting restless – need to get them out for a romp.  They’re going to be in the Rodeo Parade – ye haw!  All cowboy’d up and pullin’ their wagon.

Raffle Quilt Community Partner

Thanks to a suggestion from a Sisters community member, we have just established a partnership with Kiwanis of Sisters to share the proceeds of our raffle quilt with them.  They do great work in our community and we’re proud to support them.  They will get 25% of the proceeds from raffle ticket sales this year and they’ll help us out with volunteers to sell tickets.  Great for both of us!  The other 75% goes to help pay the expenses of the show.  We’re really excited about being able to help out in the community in this way.  We haven’t yet decided if we’ll always work with Kiwanis or partner with a different group every year, but we’ll definitely be doing this from now on.

The quilt was designed by June Jaeger of Log Cabin Quiltworks and its called “Timeless”.  its 90″ x 96″ – great for a queen bed.  You can buy raffle tickets on our website, in person at the Stitchin’ Post or on Quilt Show day right up until the drawing at 4:00.  There will be a pattern and kit for the center panel too!

Tammy (our Events Director) and I have been busy with sponsorships – Tammy pounding the pavement and me pounding the phone and computer keys.  Businesses are responding really well and we will have some great new partnerships to announce very soon.  We really appreciate it when our visitors and followers acknowledge our sponsors – let them know you appreciate what they do for us!  There will be a whole list of them on our website as we get closer to the show.  Couldn’t do it without ‘em!

So maybe the highlight of my week was a couple hours of on-camera interview for the documentary.  Probably 60 seconds (gosh I HOPE only 60 seconds, no more!) ends up in the finished product but it was fun to think about my Quilt Show memories of the past 10 years.  She even got me to cry – I’ll bet that makes the final cut.

Clyde (husband, volunteer extraordinaire and IT guy) and I are off to the Oregon Festivals and Events conference today.  Going to learn even more about how to use our social media to stay in touch with y’all.  Sadly, the corgis aren’t going on this trip to the beach.

Posters and T-shirts are here!

Just last week we got in the posters (they’re fabulous!) and t-shirts with this year’s poster image.  I’ve already got mine and its been worn and washed!  I know I’ll be wearing this one out.  The poster image, in case you haven’t seen it, is made up of Jean Well’s quilts from the early days through her new, contemporary designs.  Jean is our Featured Quilter this year for the 35th Anniversary Show, her work will be featured in High Desert Gallery and then, like two days after the show, she’s being inducted into the Quilting Hall of Fame.  Big year for us and our founder.  Oh – there WILL be a long sleeve t coming later (my personal favorite).  you can check out the Stitchin’ Post site for a description or to buy any of our official show merchandise. A portion (a BIG portion) of the proceeds from sale of show merchandise goes to support the show, so buy early, buy often!

What else this past week?  Registration forms are flying back in here.  Good to re-connect each year with our regular exhibitors and it’s always fun to see some new ‘faces’ pop up.   Those limited sale entries aren’t even close to full yet, so keep ‘em coming and don’t hesitate to request forms if you’d like to enter.

Tomorrow the documentary film crew is coming to my (home) office to do my on-camera interview.  They’ve been busy filming all around town.  Jean and I got a preview of the script and I have to tell you in reading the closing section, I got chills (from the script!).  I’ll have to tidy up my office a bit, but not too much.  If any of it appears on camera, I wouldn’t want to leave a false impression about how neat (or not!) my office really is.

One last thing – our Quilt Block Contest packets are extremely popular this year.  They’re only $8.00 and anyone who enters has a chance to win enough blocks for a whole top.  Here’s a link to the place on our site with pics of this year’s fabric choices and complete instructions.

Its going to be sunny and in the 50′s this week in Sisters.  I’m getting the tire fixed on my mountain bike today and will see if the corgi’s can keep up!

Help us Celebrate 35 Years!

35th Anniversary Documentary Film Project Launch  

As promised, we’re launching our “Tell Us Your Stories” campaign for our 35th Anniversary documentary film.  We’d like to invite you to participate.  If you have any photos, film, video or memorabilia from a show that you attended that truly expresses the spirit of the show – we’d like to know about it.  If you have a story that you’d like to suggest for inclusion in the documentary – we’d LOVE to know about it.  This could be an experience that happened here that made an impact on you, could be why you came to the show, people you met, your personal connection with the show.  We’re looking for a few really moving stories that highlight the connections and community associated with Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  You can email your stories to Stories@SistersOutdoorQuiltShow.org.  Kara Jensen or an associate of hers will contact anyone with a story, film, photos or memorabilia that we’d like to use.  And we thank EVERYONE for participating – we hope to find ways to use everyone’s stories, even if they don’t make it into the film.

Don’t forget about Wish Upon a Card – this show, sale and silent auction of fabric postcards is in its fourth year and we’ve already raised over $30,000 for local cancer support services.  We’re shooting for 1,000 postcards!  We’ll jury the best 50 – 75 cards and High Desert Gallery will custom frame them for silent auction.  You can find all the entry info here.  How ’bout getting your quilting group together to make some cards – they’re really fun!

Oh boy have I been getting email and voice mail messages about those registration forms.  Fear not!  They should be in the mail no later than Monday.  We have sent out about 700 entry forms – over half of them for sale entries which fill very fast.  You can find entry information here.

Sisters made the National Geographic Geo Tourism map – and the Quilt Show and Sisters Folk Festival are featured!  check it out.  That’s about it for now.  Weather update for all you sunbirds – The sun is shining and we’re heading for 50 degree weather next week.  Hoping to hit the (muddy) trails with the corgis!  Later ~ Ann