Story and Photos by Marcie Giovannoni
For one day a year, the small town of Sisters in Central Oregon explodes with hundreds—if not thousands—of colors and patterns, and tens of thousands of people from all over the world come to witness the inspirational creations of the art of quilting. This one day a year is known as the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.
It all began in 1975 when Jean Wells Keenan hung twelve of her family’s quilts from the storefront of her quilting and fabric store, the Stitchin’ Post, one random Saturday in July. The following year, Keenan and a few of her students from her sewing class proudly hung their finished works of art: their quilts. And the year after that, other members of the community put their quilts on display for all to see as well. From then on, the second Saturday in July became the annual day for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Within the past 36 years, the show has grown from its initial twelve quilts to hundreds, potentially more than a thousand, quilts on display.
Cascade Street, the main drag of Sisters, becomes one giant exhibition of quilts from local, national, and international quilters. The men and women of the Sisters Fire Department and volunteers begin hanging the quilts early that morning from various sides of buildings, storefronts, wooden racks, trees, overhangs, and balconies. “Early morning, when all the quilts start going up, the town just explodes with all this color and with patterns and volunteers out making sure it happens…I just get the shivers, always; and I’ve been doing this for almost thirty-seven years but it still feels like that first year. It’s still really exciting,” says Jean Wells Keenan.
After all the quilts are hung with care, Sisters comes to life. It’s been estimated that 15-20,000 people from all over the world come to view this phenomenal one-day event. Whether they come solo, as a group of close girlfriends, or as a quilter’s guild, people come from all over to show their own and witness others quilts. I had the pleasure of meeting a group of four women that calls themselves the “Quilting Divas.” They’ve been friends for more than thirty years and love to come together this one time a year, get their “bud time,” and do what they do best: “sew-cializing.” A group from Portland called the Cover to Cover Book Club Quilters displays their quilts that were inspired from a book they read within that year between the quilt shows. This year’s book and theme was Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In previous years, the club has done The Red Tent, Harry Potter, People of The Book, and many others.
Jean Wells Keenan, the founder of the show, still finds the whole experience exceptionally gratifying, “Being able to see this much work in one place, especially as a teacher, is almost overwhelming, but it’s very, very exciting…it’s pretty special.”
Ann Richardson, the Executive Director of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show organization, works for more than a year for each and every year’s show. It takes approximately 550 volunteers, a small paid staff, a small board of directors, and a little more than $150,000 to make this show happen. After becoming a nonprofit organization in 2005, a majority of the money comes from sponsors, and the rest is raised through quilt sales, individual donations, some grant money, and various fundraisers. “A lot of little things make up the difference,” says Richardson.
Many of the volunteers aren’t quilters or are avid quilters themselves; regardless, they’re all passionate individuals. When asked why she volunteers, Pacific Grove resident Kathy Miller said she does it “because it’s a wonderful, wonderful event and I’m at the point in my life where I’m realizing that if you believe in something, support it financially and support it any way you can- like giving up your time.”
Valeri Wells, Jean Wells Keenan’s daughter and co-owner of the Stitchin’ Post’s, favorite part about the show is that “it’s free, that anyone can come and that anybody can hang a quilt. There’s no judging, everybody gets a ribbon. It’s a show and tell…and just being apart of that is huge.”
Throughout the crowds, many of the town’s young entrepreneurs sell bottles of water for $1 and other refreshments from their wagons, while others set up lemonade stands with cookies on the side. Some do it for fundraisers, others for their own piggy banks. To add to this year’s fun, a women’s a cappella group called Silverado serenaded the crowds in efforts to raise money for their tuition into Harmony College Northwest in Tacoma, Washington.
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show has become a huge tradition for the small town. The show is exceptionally beneficial for the community with the amount of tourism and attention it brings, but more importantly, it gives the quilting community and the town of Sisters something exciting to look forward to year after year.
 

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Small Town, Big Tradition