Sean C. Morgan
A group of Sweet Home quilters on Friday, Sept. 7, turned in the last of more than 70 tree skirts needed for the bases of Christmas trees that the Sweet Home Ranger District will send to Washington, D.C., along with the Capitol Christmas tree.
Marilyn Nicholson, a civil engineer with the Willamette National Forest, contacted local seamstress Peggy Schroder to see if she would like to contribute a tree skirt for the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree project. Schroder belongs to a small group of art quilters from Sweet Home who meet once a month to share the love of quilting and exchange ideas.
“Of course, we jumped at the chance and agreed to submit seven skirts, which somehow grew to nine,” Schroder said. “It is our hope that the tree skirt return to Sweet Home so they can be auctioned off at a later date.”
Each member made a special label and sewed it onto the back of her tree skirt.
One member, Sharon Toth, and her husband, Tom, plan to follow the Capitol tree to Washington, D.C.
A few guild members and members of the PEO Chapter FA and DD made small ornaments they dropped off last week. Quilt guild member Donna Richmond made gingerbread men and Christmas trees. Cork reindeer were made by members of the Chapter FA. Guild members Sunhee Hager and Schroder made additional ornaments.
The group’s tree skirt themes included “A River Runs Through Sweet Home,” by Hager and Cynde Burford; “Candy Stripes,” by Candy Snyder; “Glamouflage,” by Marda Blem; “Journey’s End,” by Gert Helvey; “Life Out West,” by Richmond; “Merry Christmas From Our Neck of The Woods,” by Schroder; “Midnight on Christmas,” by Schroder; “Quilt of the Oregon Trail,” by Donna Lynn and Sharon Toth; and “Winter’s First Snow,” by Richmond.
In “Life Out West,” Richmond captured different aspects of western life in each panel of the quilt. Toth’s “Oregon Trail” shows a map of the various wagon trails leading into Oregon.
Blem’s “Glamouflage” is a sequined camouflage pattern reminiscent of the camouflage, while “Our Neck of the Woods” depicts camping in Oregon.
“River Runs Through Sweet Home,” captures life in the local waters, with fish and a woman with hair flowing in the current.
Efforts continue to collect enough ornaments to decorate the Christmas trees.
The project still needs about 1,000 large ornaments, said Stefanie Gatchell of the Sweet Home Ranger District. The Ranger District has collected some 9,000 ornaments and enough skirts for all of the office trees headed for Washington, D.C.
Events for crafting ornaments are coming up, one in Albany at the carousel and two at the state Capitol. The next local event is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Harvest Festival, held in Sankey Park on Oct. 6.
The tree will be cut on Nov. 2. Which of the six tree candidates has been selected will be announced about a week earlier. A daylong Christmas festival will be held in Sweet Home on Nov. 9 to send off the Capitol Christmas tree.
For more information about the tree and the ornaments, call the Ranger District at (541) 367-5168.