A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS YEAR'S QUILTER

Sandy Lachowski quilted this year's quilt and here is a little history about Sandy that I got from an article written about her by the Central Oregon Association of Realtors titled "Stitching a Story." I paraphrased some of the article.

Sandy has been machine quilting for 16 years and she considers it not work, but an art form that she pours her whole heart into and can't imagine living without.

It started with the gift of a baby quilt for her first daughter.  She was intrigued by the idea of making a quilt and began to take classes and at first concentrated on making homemade children's clothes that she sold at a weekend market.  However, a chance visit to a local quilt shop introduced her to a long arm quilting machine and the rest was history.  The shop owner allowed Sandy to practice on the machine and for a little over a year, she quilted random pieces of fabric on the machine until the owner told her she had practiced enough. Soon Sandy's business "Best in Show Quilts" was born and she mostly finishes quilts for others.  She sometimes will piece and quilt her own creations but not for herself.  She donates them to be raffled where the proceeds benefit a local Humane Society.  Besides quilting animals, she is passionate about her dogs and there are hundreds of dog show prize ribbons that decorate her studio.

To Sandy, the magic of a quilt lies in its story - who was it made for, and why certain fabrics were chosen.  Since Sandy considers quilting an art, she doesn't use any patterns or stencils and refuses to upgrade her original long arm machine because she doesn't want a computerized one.

Here is a sample of Sandy's work.  Wow! 

















































Here's a photo of the Rescue Quilt Booth at the Oregon Quilt Show in July.  They accept a couple of fundraising quilts and Leap Y'Aire was invited to have a booth so Sharon DeBoer set up shop and received many many nice comments on the quilt.





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