Another bloomin' quilt show is here today

ALBANY, OREGON... Members of the Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild (from Linn County Oregon) are planting quilts in a garden. Actually as this is posted, the quilts are all surrounded by dirt.

'Course quilts do not normally grow well in dirt. But these quilters sometimes they do different things.

It's Mother's Day and Tom's Garden Center in North Albany is hosting this event. Peggy and other Scrappers spent this evening hanging quilts in the Garden Center. It's Tom's new location, just across the Willamette River from downtown Albany.

tom has told the ladies that there may be a thousand shoppers coming to the Garden Center on Mother's Day. If that is the case and these shoppers are interested in "Bloomin' Quilts" possibly the Scrappers will make some money from their small quilt silent auctions.

Small quilt silent auctions are a prime money raiser for the Santiam Scrappers Guild. Cash raised is used for quilt education for children and adults. Such projects include activities for 4-H and at the Linn County Fair.

Another big use of the cash is to support the guild's "community support" program. Each Wednesday a group of six to over a dozen guild members work to make quilts to donate to folks in need. In addition to these Wednesday Gals working in Peggy's ACQC-basement space, other Wednesday Gals work at home to make community-support quilts.

In 2005 the guild made and shared 143 quilts. These quilts brought smiles and warmth to people in need throughout the area.

Wednesday Gals is an unrecognized subgroup

LEBANON, OREGON... Although the Santiam Scrappers are a guild of friendly ladies, sometimes there are some rather small-minded folks involved.

At a recent guild board meeting, (Tuesday evening, May 9), Peggy and others were told the guild did not have subgroups such as Wednesday Women or Gals.

Who are Wednesday's Gals? Are they defacto a subgroup of the Santiam Quilters Quilt Guild?

Small quilt silent auctions are a prime money raiser for the Santiam Scrappers Guild. Cash raised is used for quilt education for children and adults. Such projects include activities for 4-H and at the Linn County Fair. Another big use of the cash is to support the guild's "community support" program.

Each Wednesday a group of six to over a dozen guild members work to make quilts to donate to folks in need (community service). In addition to these Wednesday Gals working in Peggy's ACQC-basement space, other Wednesday Gals work at home to make community support quilts.

In 2005 the guild made and shared 143 quilts. These quilts brought smiles and warmth to people in need throughout the area. See the "Press Release" post on May 9, 2006, for a list of groups supported with guild quilts.

Not being a quilter, who am I to say? However, many quilt guilds do seem to have subgroups. Those "Baltimore album quilt" quilters or "cat block" quilters, or "satellites" found in local Oregon guilds, they're subgroups of quilters. Sometime they're "Bees".

Across the river, in Benton County, Mary's River Quilt Guild Web site states, "Various subgroups also meet during the month according to their particular interests in quilting." From the newsletter, it appears an active subgroups is the "Secret Sisters".

To the south, Emerald Valley Quilters (Eugene) have "satellite groups". On the EVQ Web site they write… "Numerous small "satellite groups" have spun off from EVQ. Close camaraderie develops in these small groups and mentoring is a great benefit for members."

They continue, "A Satellite Group often begins with two or more quilters who live fairly near to each other or who can meet at a mutually convenient time. Sometimes a group forms of quilters of similar ages and experience, sometimes a common style of quilting interests folks enough to form a group to learn or practice it. Some groups meet weekly in one member's home, or in a larger location central to most of the members, and some groups meet irregularly."

Among other features of an EVQ satellite group, they could… "regularly or occasionally make quilts for fundraising, community service, or other causes meet to quilt on own projects or on other people's projects," and "gather for one hour at a time - or for two or three hours."

The write-up closes with, "The most important feature members of successful satellites share is their love of quilting."

Kind of describes what I've seen here locally with the Wednesday Women/Gals. They love to share their love of quilting with each other. This love extends through community service quilts to people in need. This Bee loves to share whether they meet every week or work at home on the quilts. The guild and it's extended subgroup gives handmade quilts to make someone's life a bit brighter.

Whether Santiam Scrappers members meet in ACQC's basement or Wednesdays at JoAnn Dutton's, JoAnn Pope's, Arline's, or Claudina's, they are a guild subgroup. If other guild members work on community service quilts at home, it seems they are part of the same community service subgroup.

Wednesday's Women or Wednesday's Gals, they are a neat subgroup.

What are the subgroups, Bees, or satellites in your guild?

(Final Note: When these Wednesday Women meet in our basement... Or even worse... When they have potluck lunch in the B&B dining room... They make it really noisy here where I sit. Got to turn the TV up real loud to hear NBA playoff games!)

Will Al-Can railroad help Calico Cow?

DELTA JUNCTION, ALASKA... Recently an article in the Anchorage Daily News stated Alaska had 72 dairies in 1958. Alaskan dairies may number only 5 in the near future.

Of course cows are a big part of dairies… Delta Junction, Alaska has 3 dairies and there are a total of about 800 milking cows in the state. But more importantly, to this blog, is one Delta cow… The Calico Cow.

The Calico Cow was born after I left Delta back in '01. So it's not unusual that I don't know much about this cow. Is it a Holstein? A red Santa Gertrudis? Or a Milking Shorthorn?

Maybe, given the type of livestock in Delta's ag projects… Could it be a yak cow? Or a buffalo cow? Or one of those elk cows? Or is one of the wild cows? Moose? Caribou? Musk ox?

Calico Cow is actually a quilt shop. (This blog is, after all, Alaskan Quilt in Oregon!)

Calico Cow is one of the two fabric and sewing shops in the small town at "The End of the Alaska Highway" on "The Friendly frontier". The other shop is "Lovin' Stitches."

So, since it is not a milking cow, how might the railroad help these shops? Also, what railroad?

Many towns have major connections with rail lines. As I was sitting out back this afternoon, enjoying the late afternoon sun, the Albany & Eastern engine pulled a long string of lumber flat-cars down the tracks beside 3rd Street.

Our B&B, Peggy's Alaskan Cabbage Patch B&B, sits on 2nd Street here in Lebanon, Oregon. So almost twice daily the A&E runs slowly through town behind our house. It goes to mills here in Lebanon and on up to near Foster Lake in Sweet Home. Railroads used to be a big part of Oregon's forestry and lumber industry.

So I was thinking about railroads. But last week, I was reading Buffalo Gal's blog, about the Calico Cow, Forget-Me-Knot Guild quilters, and the Alaska Railroad possibly coming to Fort Greely and Delta.

Thus it popped in my loopy brain… If the railroad comes to Delta (and maybe on to Canada and the lower "48"), more tourists might ride the rails and so Calico Cow and Lovin' Stitches should stock up on Alaskan quilt patterns to sell (at exorbitant prices) to those crazy female tourists who are quilters.

Whatcha think? Should Calico and Lovin' rewrite their business plans? And start planning long trips to Hawaii?

Will the railroad really change Delta Junction?

Quilters in Delta Junction may be a bit different

DELTA AG PROJECTS, ALASKA... During the past week or so, much of my time has been working a blog. Not this “Alaskan Quilt in Oregon” blog, rather it’s a blog about living in Delta Junction, Alaska.

There is a rather nice lady who quilts and does a bunch of other things in rural Alaska. BuffaloGal is her email handle and buffaloing is among her day-to-day activities.

She has been keeping a Web journal on her ranch web site since last June. Recently she was convinced to add blogging to her journaling. My job was to help BuffaloGal move her Web entries to her blog.

In this process, I was doing a bit of copy editor work – creating headlines and making journal entries more readable online. So after moving over 50 entries to the blog plus a bunch of neat photos, I had learned much about raising bison and elk on an Alaskan Game Ranch.

Ruby, that’s BuffaloGal’s original “handle”, helps her husband, Scott, her sons, Russell and Buckley, her brother-in-law, Eric, and more than a few friends and relatives to run their 2,000-acre farm/ranch in the Tanana Valley of interior Alaska. They used to raise Black Angus cattle on the home place and buffalo on the “Frog Farm”. Now the entire operation involves buffalo (bison) and elk.

The Game Ranching in Alaska blog is a very interesting read. Ruby and Scott are lifelong Alaskans. While watching the Gulf Coast hurricane disasters, Ruby blogged on her experiences in the Good Friday, 1964 earthquake disaster in Alaska.

To get a feel for living in rural Alaska where it falls to 65 below zero in winter and gets up over 90 in summer, read a few (or all) of BuffaloGal’s blog entries.

But wait a minute… this blog is about quilters and this entry started with “Quilters in Delta…” so one might ask, “How does all this about Ruby have to do with quilters?” Good question.

The following is Ruby’s blog posted Sunday, December 11, 2005… and titled “Quilter's guild “alluring” spa fantasies”.

“Scott, Buck and kids went out to butcher a bison. It's still +15F so we need to get as many done while the weather holds. We were a little worried that the snow would crust and the young herd at the home place might have trouble getting to the hay ground. So far so good. Scott had a hunt yesterday and also took an animal for meat.

Buck and the kids cut 2 spruce down for their Christmas trees. Buck had a bison in the back of his truck plus 2 trees which he lost along the way. His dad went back with the truck to "save the trees."

I attended the Forget-Me-Knot Quilter's Guild Christmas Party at the neighbor's yesterday. What wonderful food. It was my first Christmas Party with the group.

We talked about the humor of starting an "alluring" spa out here. Decided that we could use fresh bison cow chips for the mud bath, also utilize the dry buffalo chips to heat the sauna and have that benefit too, have the elk horn tablets available for? , the Northern Lights for the mood and moose nuggets (droppings) as a skin treatment. Okay, we really all do need to get to a spa.

The guild is 42 strong and is filled with tremendously industrious women. They do quilts for fire victims along with their own that they usually give for gifts. The ladies are originally from South Carolina, Massachusets, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Montana, Michigan, etc. plus Alaska. Quite a mixture of fun people.”

That is just a taste of the fun reading on BuffaloGal’s blog… read on!

Press Release - Mother’s Day Quilt Show-Auction at Tom’s Garden Center supports local organizations

ALBANY, OREGON... On Mother's Day Weekend, Tom’s Garden Center at 350 Hickory NW (off of Highway 20) in NW Albany, Oregon, will be decked out with quilts.

The Quilt Show-Auction, titled "Another Bloomin’ Quilt Show", is presented by the Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild. The Show will be all day Saturday and Sunday, May 13 and 14.

With all the beautiful quilts nestled among Tom's flowers and plants, it will be a great place to take your moms and grandmothers on Mother's Day.

It's free and bids for the Small Quilt Silent Auction will be accepted until 3 PM Sunday. Proceeds from the auction help with the purchase of supplies for making the guild's community service quilts.

Community service quilts are a big part of the guild’s activities. In 2005, members made and donated 143 quilts to local social service groups. These include: Albany’s ABC House and Healthy Start; Foster’s Camp Attitude; Pregnancy Alternatives, Willamette Manor, Meals on Wheels and the Soup Kitchen in Lebanon; hospitals in Lebanon, Albany, and Corvallis; and the Oregon Department of Human Services in Lebanon and Katrina Survivors and other families in need.

Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild began in 2002 with 20 charter members in Lebanon. It now is almost tripled in size to nearly 60 quilters from Linn and Benton counties.

For more information about the show and auction call Peggy Christopherson at (541) 451-4910.

Learning to blog in spite of my resistance!

LEBANON & SISTERS, OREGON... Chris is still trying to convince me that I can do this. He just spent 15 minutes explalning how the comments work and the difference between the blog (by the three people authorized to blog on my site) and the comments. Now I know what to watch for and I will make sure the comments don't automatically go to junk mail.

I have always found writing stuff, papers for school, articles for news letters and even letters, a time consuming chore. Making them interesting takes me a long time and lots of editing. In one more attempt to make him happy, I will try to do a little blogging. I would rather be quilting or most any other thing.

Had a haircut this morning and I feel so much better. It was just long enough to drive me crazy. I have been wearing it pretty short for a couple of years now. I know Chris doesn't like it but all my friend think it makes me look a lot younger. I like it because it is cool. During the summers here I really feel the heat and the short hair keeps me cooler.

I have been trying to be and get more organized in my quilt shop (ACQG) downstairs. With so many of my friends using the sewing room I tend to ignore it when stuff doesn't get put away. So these are my goals for the next week or two. 1) sort out one box daily and put way or throw away everything. 2) put things away when I switch projects. 3) Keep acqc cleaned up!

Quilting Retreat to Sisters Area

10 women, lots of good food, laughter and sewing! What more could we ask for? How about a Quilter's Shop Hop! We found out a few days before leaving for our retreat that there was a Shop Hop in the area. Six of us visited 10 quilt shops in 7 towns. We didn't receive any phone calls about winning any of the many prizes but it was great fun. Each of the shops gave us a Fat Quarter and free pattern and several had notion demonstrations. They also had refreshment for us and beautiful quilts to look at and of course, lots of fabric. All that beautiful fabric made us leave some of our dollars there to make the Hop successful for the shops.

We only got lost a few times and being women we stoped and asked for directions!