Quilters prepare to hang out - outside.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

COBURG - The quaint white shops and houses of this city's historic district will be aflutter with color Saturday in what organizers believe is the first outdoor quilt show in the Eugene-Springfield area.

The show, expected to feature at least 200 quilts, is patterned on a successful model east of the Cascades: The 30-year-old Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, which has grown to be the largest in the country.

The nine Coburg women behind the local event say they'd long wanted to organize a quilt show here.

"We'd all moved to Coburg in the 1970s and had children about the same time, so we knew each other as neighbors and parents," said one of them, former mayor Mary Guldager. "We'd see one another at school or community events and ask, 'What quilt are you working on? You know, we ought to have a Coburg quilt show.' "

The problem was, the small town has no buildings large enough to display a significant number of quilts indoors.

And Western Oregon's unpredictable weather makes staging an outdoor show a bit dicey. But this year, the women decided to go for it.

"We just felt that the quilts would blend in so well with what Coburg is, because our town itself looks so quaint," Guldager said. "We had a lengthy discussion on rain, and then did a records check for the past 50 years. On this particular date (July 30), there had only been rain six times."

Wind posed another weather-related challenge.

The women considered various ways to hang the quilts for display before organizer Kris Wilson's contractor husband found a deal on 250-piece units of closet dowel.

With Dan Wilson's help, the women settled on a series of dowel "teepees" holding up sections of dowel rod long enough to display six quilts in back-to-back trios.

"Saturday we went out and test ran the system," Guldager said. "We know it's going to work, and the quilts are absolutely beautiful as the breeze goes through. They have life and motion."

She raved about the variety of creations delivered by quilters to Coburg School this week in preparation for the show.

"One lady brought in 25, and they're all just amazing," Guldager said. "She had done both the front and the back of one quilt - the front looks like an aquarium and the back had fish on it, too."

A few vintage quilts will be displayed indoors at the Coburg IOOF Hall because they are too fragile to hang. Among the oldest: An antique, white "Dresden Ring" quilt handsewn by members of the town's West Point Grange more than 80 years ago. The red stitching featured the embroidered names of Coburg's eligible bachelors, circa 1922.

Brighter colors will dominate the more contemporary quilts fluttering outside, from organizer Midge Hoffmann's award-winning art quilts to small, stained-glass style quilted wall hangings.

Admission is free. No food will be sold in the display areas to protect the quilts, but the Coburg Inn will serve a $10 per person High Tea from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in conjunction with the event. Quilt-related items and t-shirts will be available from vendors in the IOOF Hall.

QUILT SHOW & TEA

What: More than 200 quilts on display, mostly outdoors

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

Where: Throughout downtown Coburg

Admission: Free; $10 for High Tea at the Coburg Inn

CAPTION(S):

Linda Foster folds up a handmade, hand-embroidered quilt made by Martha Ryan for Saturday's outdoor quilt show in Coburg. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard Bonnie Stone, (left) with help from Mary Guldager, one of the quilt show organizers, unfolds a quilt she entered in the show. Quilts will hang outdoors on dowel rod structures. A "Dresden Ring" quilt is among the oldest the show will display. Hand sewn by town members more than 80 years ago, it includes names of Coburg's eligible bachelors, circa 1922. Wayne Eastburn / The Register-Guard