A quilt show, part of the citys Summer Celebration, is a popular attraction

Marie Torgerson is proud of her family’s participation in the oldest quilt club in the state.

Torgerson’s heritage goes back to 1921, when one of the founding members of Estacada’s Skip a Week Quilt Club was her great-great-aunt on her mother’s side.

The family’s connection with the popular club continued with Torgerson’s grandmother (Lulu Lynch) and her mother (Leona Campanella) as well as Torgerson and her three younger sisters and her granddaughter.

This kind of continuity and allegiance is not unusual in the club, which produces an annual quilt show that has become a popular part of the city’s Summer Celebration.

That celebration and quilt show are scheduled for this coming weekend. The quilt show is on display in the Estacada High School gymnasium and commons from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 27 and 28.

Not only will the high school be decked out in more than 100 artistic and creative quilt designs, there will be some unique items on display.

Club member Sharon Young, for example, will display some very old quilts as well as traditional designs and her unique modern-design quilts.

Another one of those generational scenarios will catch the eye of quilt show visitors as they see a display by one of a dozen club members who are in their 80s.

One of the octogenarians will show a quilt her great-grandmother made in the 19th century as well as one her mother made in the 20th century and another she made in the 21st century.

“There’s quite a difference in style over the years,” said Maureen O’Connor, quilt club treasurer.

Always popular at the quilt show each year are the demonstrations of hand quilting by club members. That’s when quilt-show visitors find out how hand quilting can be an interesting and rewarding process.

A handmade and hand-quilted “Opportunity Quilt” will be given to the holder of the lucky ticket drawn Saturday at the show.

The winner need not be present at the drawing to win, according to club member Susan Rickett.

Tickets may be obtained by making a specified donation to the club. Proceeds of the drawing are destined to assist the club with its expenses and some charitable donations during the year.

Charity work

But the quilt club is not all about sitting around the edges of a big heavy “blanket” with needle and thread in hand. No, club members have been and are still very active in preserving the quality of life in Estacada for all local residents.

Quilt construction takes place during meetings as well as at other times. Included among the groups who have received donated quilts from the Estacada club are the Mt. Hood Hospice (Sandy), Sandy-Estacada Teen Pregnancy Center, Estacada Fire Department, My Sister’s House (Gresham), Veterans Administration Hospital (Portland), Providence Cancer Center (Clackamas) and Relay For Life in Estacada, which uses the quilt in a fundraising drawing to benefit the American Cancer Society.

Monetary donations also have been given to groups such as the Estacada Community Center, Estacada Library and the city of Estacada Centennial.

Collected food donations have been distributed to the Estacada Food Bank and St. Aloysius Catholic Church.

At Christmas, the club adopts several families to be certain that all family members get quilts as well as gifts and food.

Other club activities include a potluck once a month, and in the spring and fall they have a soup luncheon, with many kinds of soup and desserts, and gift bags for local seniors and residents of several senior-care homes in Estacada.

“Our ladies just give so much,” Torgerson said. “They do quite a bit.”

Club history

The Skip a Week Quilt Club, with a roster of just over 100 members, is a nonprofit organization and is the oldest documented quilt club in Oregon — formed in 1921.

The name applied literally only in the club’s early years. Because there were only a few women as members, they would meet every other week at one of the members’ homes.

But later, interest in quilting and the membership roster both grew and they began to meet — as they do today — every Wednesday morning.

Now, however, they meet in what they consider their clubhouse, the Garfield Grange Hall.

While quilting might seem to some people as a demure or sedate activity, there’s an excitement shown by club members as they speak of their creative work, no matter what their age.

Several members are in their 90s, O’Connor said, “and they’re still quilting.”

Club members will be at the high school Friday and Saturday, just waiting to show visitors just how much they love their craft.