This will be the last post in my series of posts about the 2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show (SOQS). Here are the links to the previous posts if you are just visiting my blog for the first time today (welcome!):
2016 Sisters Outdoor Show Part I
2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Part II
2016 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Part III
A Taste of the Stitchin’ Post
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show began in 1975 when it’s founder, Jean Well Keenan, owner of the Stitchin’ Post, hung her quilts around town. It has significantly grown until then and you can read its history on the About Us page of the SOQS website. If you are not familiar with Jean Wells Keenan, check out her website – jeanwellsquilts.com – she is an internationally renown art quilter, author, teacher and a very accessible and friendly individual. She has cultivated the Central Oregon Art Quilting community (please see my post Creative Inspiration: Quilting Mentors)
We have many awesome quilt shops in Central Oregon, but no shop compares to (or attempts to compare to) the Stitchin’ Post. It has the finest selection of unique quilting fabrics in the area and specializes in fabrics that appeal to art quilters. It also has art quilting supplies and a wonderful collection of books. It offers classes (in the “Textile Education Center”) that are geared towards the individual wanting to expand their quilting skills or the experienced art quilter desiring to develop new techniques.
I wanted to share some photos of what the Stitchin’ Post is like during SOQS – packed and crazy – and awesome! It is filled with the excited energy of out of town (and international) quilters, hungry to add beautiful new fabrics to their collections or plan a new project. You can barely walk around the shop and there are long lines of happy quilters smiling with their new finds in hand, visiting and making new friends while waiting on line.
I assume people I do not know, do not want their photos on my blog, so below I attempt to focus the photos on fabric displays with limited human subjects. Believe me this was difficult as the place was very packed!
Photos from the Show
I took a ridiculous amount of photos from the 2016 SOQS and I have not yet mastered using Smilebox to create a slideshow to post to my blog, so instead I will provide links from the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Facebook page and the Stitchin’s Post’s Facebook page which are filled with images from the 2016 SOQS – enjoy!
Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show Facebook page
And finally, here are some photos I had to post – an empty restaurant building in Sisters got an recycled-denim-jeans quilt makeover in honor of the 2016 SOQS with a “cowboy” stuck upside down in his jeans and boots in the building chimney!
Central Oregon is infused with creative people!
tierneycreates 
You have provided an awesome account of your experience at the show. I’m so happy everything went so well. I can see what you mean about the fabulous quilt store. If I ever come out your way I will have to include it on my places to shop. Love, love, love the restaurant makeover!
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That would be lovely if you visited Central Oregon someday – I will show you around! 🙂
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Thank you for giving us a taste of the Central Oregon quilting community! I almost feel like I attended the event in person! The next time we travel to the west coast, an Oregon quilting tour is on our bucket list!
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Thanks and hope you come out this way sometime!
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In the 90’s a friend and I went to that quilt show. We live in Sacramento, CA–loaded up with about 50 other people on a charter bus at 9 pm, headed north, stopping at rest stops–rules about length of time driving, you know–had breakfast in Bend. Spent the day in Sisters while the driver slept, loaded back up and headed south around 5 pm, got back to town around 2-3 am. It was a blast, but don’t think I would do that again.
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That was quite a day! I got exhausted just reading about it – ha! Glad you got to experience it – I bet is even bigger now than it was when you went in the 90s, it is difficult to try and really see all the quilts in a day (I think they had over 1200 quilts this year).
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Winters, CA also has an outdoor quilt show, not nearly as big–very crafty small town, great restaurants
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