By Jan Jackson
Volunteers assembling a display of warmth and color sure to melt a cold January heart are getting ready for the second annual Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show, on Friday, Jan. 30 and Saturday, Jan. 31, at The Oregon Garden.
Admission to the two-day show, featuring workshops by guest artist Nancy Lee Chong, is $5, ($4 seniors) and includes admission to The Oregon Garden. Children age 7 and under, and Oregon Garden members are free.
“A group of volunteers started this last year because they thought a quilt show would be a good fit for the Garden and they were right,” said Trina Riemersma, event coordinator for The Oregon Garden. “We set a goal to attract 200 people and we hosted 800. We are looking forward to an even bigger show this year.”
The event will showcase quilts from private collections as well as individual entries from around the Northwest. There will also be a People’s Choice Award, quilt lectures, door prizes and food. Vendors will have all kinds of quilting supplies, fabrics, notions, patterns tools and kits for sale.
Chong, whose specialty is Hawaiian quilting and appliqué quilts, will conduct a two-day pre-quilt show workshop on Jan. 28 and 29. Chong, who calls herself a quilt maker, teacher, lecture, designer, author and “Queen of Needle Turn,” will teach participants how to turn landscape photographs into a pattern, interpreting the photograph in fabric and then demonstrate how to use her stress-free needle turn technique for hand appliqué.
Bonnie McKee, The Oregon Garden’s volunteer coordinator, gift shop buyer and one of the original people who thought the quilt show idea was a good one, is looking forward to this year’s event.
“We get a lot of support from the local quilting community for this show and we have lots of quilters,” McKee said. “Volunteers have been working since last March and April to make this a great show. The photos are coming in now and as they come in, they are evaluated and decisions start as to how and where they will be displayed. It takes a lot of time but it was worth it. Last year’s show got a lot of great reviews.”
For information on the Stitches in Bloom Quilt Show, pre-quilt show workshops, how to be a vendor or how to enter a quilt, contact Riemersma at 503-874-8100 or visit www.oregongarden.org. Deadline for entering quilts in the show is Jan. 10.
