“Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show” Wednesday, July 8, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
Nurturing the next generation of quilters
By Jodi Schneider
Correspondent
Quilting has been inte-
gral to Diane Tolzman’s daily
life for the past 20 years. In
2014 when her 9-year-old
grandson, Devin, showed an
interest in learning the art
of her craft, she was glad to
serve as a model of inspira-
tion for the future genera-
tion quilters.
“I was always quilting
when my son, his wife and
their kids moved up here
to Sisters six years ago,”
Tolzman explained. “Devin
was 9 at the time and spent
time watching me quilt and
then decided he wanted
to make his first quilt. He
searched through my fab-
ric “stash” and found what
he wanted to use. He laid
out the fabric in a design
and I cut it for him. He
learned how to use the sew-
ing machine and sewed it
together.”
His first quilt in 2014,
aptly named “All of my
Favorite things,” included
just that: baseball, strawber-
ries, glow-in-the-dark fish,
airplanes and more.
Devin told The Nugget, “I
needed a gift for my parents
for Christmas that year and
I thought a quilt would be
nice.”
In 2015, Devin designed
a quilt after the Minecraft
video game.
“Since the Minecraft
characters are made of pixels,
which are squares, I decided
to make that quilt,” he said.
“First, I made a pattern
using colored pencils and
graph paper, then cut out the
squares using fabric from my
grandma’s stash.”
Devin’s latest quilt, crafted
at age 14, was packed full of
Oregon wildlife which hung
in the special exhibit “Quilts
Made By Men” during the
2019 Sisters Outdoor Quilt
Show (SOQS).
“I wanted to make a quilt
that shows all the winter ani-
mals of Sisters that visit us in
our backyard,” said Devin.
He had also made a spe-
cial pink puff quilt for his
baby sister Brooklyn in 2017.
“That quilt was a big
challenge for me since I
never made a puff quilt, so
my grandmother helped,” he
said.
All of Devin’s quilts were
entered in the Deschutes
County Fair & Expo, except
for the first one. All three
quilts hung in the Next
Generation Quilt Exhibit at
SOQS.
Devin’s younger brother,
Jordan, made his first quilt
last year at age 5.
Jordan said, “I was watch-
ing my brother and thought
quilting looked fun.”
He named his quilt
“Gone Fishing,” since one
of his favorite things to do
is to go fishing with his dad.
The 6-year-old has already
reeled in three bass and two
trout. Jordan’s quilt hung in
Next Generation Quilters
at the 2019 SOQS and was
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER
Diane Tolzman has been mentoring her grandsons, Devin and Jordan, in the art of quiltmaking.
entered in the Deschutes
County Fair & Expo the
same year.
Jordan is now working on
a Christmas story quilt with
Tolzman for next year.
Tolzman was drawn into
the world of sewing when
attending a Catholic high
school in Beaverton.
“We had a sewing class
and I began making all my
school clothes,” she said.
“Years later, I took a quilting
class at a community college
and was hooked.”
For Tolzman, who is co-
chair for East of the Cascade
Quilters, quilting is an
enjoyable art form that can
SOQS
Sponso
r
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fill the need for creativity.
She joined East of the
Cascade Quilters about five
years ago and has shared the
chair with Gilda Hunt for
three years.
See YOUTH on page 23