People to Applaud

Undercover Quilters

People come from all over the world to Sisters, Oregon during Quilt week in July. It's an outdoor show and on Saturday more than a thousand quilts are hung from clotheslines, against wooden walls of the drug store, throughout the park and spilling over into fabric and western stores who proudly show off the fabric art. After the classes offered on new quilting techniques or quilt histories and special exhibitions, the local bookstore invites authors in for presentations. Though not a quilter, I've been privileged to be invited to Paulina Springs Bookstore for many years now. Quilters are great readers. I hope to be back again next summer.

One year, with around 75 people filling the chairs I asked how many attending were quilters? Only half the people raised their hands. I expressed my surprise. "Well, there have to be people to applaud," one woman explained. I loved that!

Yesterday my hairdresser raved about the accomplishments of a customer of hers - a woman who built her own addition onto her house, who takes her sister fishing in Alaska, who is a terrific mom and wife and excels at everything. She said it with both admiration and lament. It was the lament I responded to. "Well" I said. "There have to be people to applaud." We decided that was a great way to celebrate those we admire without having to feel inadequate. We may not be as skilled or productive as those admirable souls but we can celebrate them.

Opening up a community board on my Pinterest page is one way I can applaud my readers who quilt. It's also a way for those of you who might have quilted a version of my books to add pictures to the site to share with others. You may not be able to hear the oohs and aahs but know that they are being expressed.

The Undercover Quilters, a group in Bend, Oregon, quilted their version of Love to Water My Soul. That's a book based on my husband's great-great grandmother who was lost from a wagon train and raised by them. A local quilt store displayed their artwork and later they were also included in a special showing at the Sister's show.

A writer hopes her work will move people, emotionally for sure. It's also a delight to discover the stories have moved people to create in their own fashion, for my stories to be the inspiration for other stories around quilts. I hope you'll enjoy posting your own photographs. If you would like to pin any of your quilt projects, notify me of your interest in the comments below or email my assistant (impactauthor {at} comcast {dot} net, please include your Pinterest URL or profile name) and you will be added to the board (once you are added you will receive a confirmation email from Pinterest). And for the rest of us who don't quilt, we can just applaud by visiting those who do by visiting the quilting with Jane board and commenting or simply "liking" their pin.  Be sure to keep returning back. There are only a few loaded, but many more will be added this week.  We wanted to wait till everyone had much more information.