Marys River Quilt Guild, which has done a lot of great work on many levels over the years, is featured in an exhibit that opened last week at Philomath Museum.
“This exhibition offers a glimpse into how the guild supports one another and gives back beyond its membership, using quilting as a way to connect, learn and serve, while learning new techniques and expanding their creativity together,” reads an explanatory panel entitled, “Stitching Together.”
The quilt that hangs near this paragraph about the group’s background is a large piece of artwork that was made by the organization’s charter members in September 1989.
The exhibit, which is located in the Moreland Gallery on the museum’s second floor, highlights various types of quilts and projects that have been completed.
The guild’s service committee, for example, uses donated fabrics to create quilts that are given to charitable causes. Last year, the committee donated 150 quilts to 14 service organizations.
There is also a section dedicated to “round robin” quilts, which I viewed as a sort of showcase for both individual quilting skills and the spirit of community collaboration that’s central to quilting traditions. The appeal of round robin quilts is the collaborative creativity and surprise element — the original quilter doesn’t control how others interpret and expand their initial design. Each participant brings their own style, fabric choices and techniques, resulting in a finished quilt that represents the combined artistic vision of the entire group.
Then there are the “block of the month” quilts, which involve the members completing a quilt block each month and entering their name into a drawing for all the contributed blocks. This quilting activity focuses on a sustained individual commitment and incremental craftsmanship over time.
I believe my favorite section of the exhibit would be the challenge quilts. These pieces illustrate how different quilters approach the same constraints with vastly different creative solutions. In the exhibit, one of the challenges for participants was to create something with a “Things with Wings” theme. What makes these interesting is that despite starting with identical requirements, each finished quilt reflects the individual maker’s artistic vision, personal style and, to an extent, skill level. Theresa Valentine’s “When Pigs Fly” and Marcia Gilson’s “Flying Geese” caught my attention, but they were all very good.
Another section of the exhibit is dedicated to the organization’s Quilts in the Garden event and the Quilt Guild Library.
The exhibit includes three pieces donated to the “We Honor Veterans” program at Lumina Hospice and Palliative Care. The quilt guild partners with Lumina to provide veterans with a lap quilt as part of a special ceremony that is available to those who fought for our country.
The Memory Tree Quilt moved me the most, however. Created in 2021 as part of the “Their Quilts Live On” show, the piece remembers guild members who passed away. According to information that appears at the exhibit, “It is a living project to remember those who have touched our lives through their love of quilting.”
If you want to check out the quilts, the exhibit is scheduled to remain in place through March 7. And if you read this and have an interest in the organization, here’s information on membership.
2. ‘We are the champions’
You may have read a story published Friday morning about the decision by Dave Ellis to resign as head coach of the Philomath High boys soccer team. One of the highlights of the sports writing part of my job occurred in 2021 when the Warriors won the state title with a penalty kick shootout victory over Hidden Valley.
During my conversation Wednesday with Ellis, he shared a memory that he said “will always stick with me” about the bus ride home following that memorable victory.
To set this up, the championship game was played on the same day as the high school’s homecoming dance. Ellis told the kids that if they lost, they could ride home with their parents, if preferred, because some of them wanted to make sure they had time to shower and get ready for the dance.
But if they won, the players were required to journey back to Philomath together as a championship team. Of course, the Warriors won, 2-1, on the PKs.
I’ll let the coach tell you the story.
“We’re on the bus out and Ian Alba brought this speaker and he started playing Queen’s ‘We Are the Champions.’ We literally listened to that on repeat for at least an hour and they were singing along. That bus ride home was probably the best moment from that game … just the pure joy that the boys had and being on that bus with them was fantastic.”
Awesome stuff.
3. When technology fails
Taking advantage of what seemed to be unseasonably warm weather on the Oregon Coast last weekend, I took my 8-year-old son, Jude, on an overnight camping trip to Beverly Beach just north of Newport. He had been itching to get outdoors but such excursions can be tough in the middle of winter.
I texted my wife from the beach that I had never seen it so peaceful with blue skies and no wind. Jude played in the sand and water until sundown when I decided we should get back to camp and get everything set up before it gets too dark. We had a great camping spot with easy access to restrooms, water and the trail that leads under the highway to the ocean.
That night, we ate by the campfire, enjoyed s’mores and got in some quality dad-and-son time that to be honest doesn’t happen enough when we’re home. When it got late, we pulled out a DVD player and watched a “Harry Potter” movie.
But then things became a challenge. Before leaving Philomath, I had finished all of my writing but wasn’t able to design the Saturday morning newsletter. I planned on doing the work on my laptop — it takes me roughly 30 minutes to put it together. To my surprise, however, I could not get a cellphone signal at the campground (in such situations, I use my cellphone as a hotspot so I can access the internet on my computer).
I remembered sending my wife the photo from the beach so I knew I could get a signal out there. So, I had to move my morning work operation to a picnic table above the beach and facing the ocean (awesome view, by the way). The signal was going in and out and when I did have the internet, everything loaded very slowly. It took twice as long as usual to get the newsletter done and subscribers received it roughly 90 minutes late.
The lesson for me was to never assume you’ll get a cellphone signal, even if it’s just a couple of miles outside of Newport. We’ll do more camping this summer and if possible, I’ll leave the laptop (and even the DVD player) behind so we can really get away from screens, enjoy nature and get in some bonding time.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
