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Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper “Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show”
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show must go on
Quilters are resilient.
After all, they carried
their works of functional art
across the Great Plains on
the Oregon Trail, through
all kinds of hardship on
their quest for a new life in
Oregon.
Quilters are creative.
Even a global pandemic
and the attendant restric-
tions on public gatherings
won’t stop Sisters Outdoor
Quilt Show (SOQS) —
even if the gathering of the
tribe has to be done virtually.
“Not having a show
really wasn’t an option,” said
SOQS Executive Director
Dawn Boyd. “We just had
to think how to reinvent —
or, as our board chair Jeff
(Omodt) says reimagine —
what the show is and what it
could be.”
In changing circum-
stances, there were just too
many unknowable variables
to plan for a scaled-down
physical event, and the
SOQS board had seen other
arts organizations succeed
with virtual events. So that’s
the course they chose. They
just needed to brainstorm
what could practically be
implemented.
“ It was just a lot
o f d i a g r a m m i n g, a n d
different-colored post-
it notes,” Boyd recalled.
“Technology has helped us
so much to be able to do this.”
Quilters are a community.
There was no doubt that
the show must go on, that
the community of quilters
remain connected and that
the astonishing legacy of the
largest outdoor quilt show in
the world be carried on. So
the community stepped up.
“There were so many peo-
ple stepping up to ask how
they could help,” Boyd said.
“It was really neat to see peo-
ple who are so eager to help.”
That’s because quilters
— and the Sisters commu-
nity at large — know that
SOQS is much more than
a show, much more than a
major economic driver for
Sisters — it’s a real commu-
nity icon.
“There’s just so much
depth in the Sisters Outdoor
Quilt Show,” Boyd said.
“There’s so much connec-
tion with the quilters, with
the community, with our
sponsors.”
That connection is as pre-
cious as an heirloom Oregon
Trail quilt, and the board,
staff and volunteers who
make SOQS are determined
not only to preserve it, but to
“There’s just so much
depth in the Sisters
Outdoor Quilt Show.
There’s so much
connection
with the quilters,
with the community,
with our sponsors.”
— Dawn Boyd
burnish it for years to come.
“We’re not letting this
stop us,” Boyd said. “And
we’re going to keep building
from here.”
PHOTO COURTESY SISTERS OUTDOOR QUILT SHOW
WHAT A GREAT RIDE...
45th Anniversary
Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show!
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