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Sisters, Oregon
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Featured artist tells a story with her quilt
By Jim Cornelius

Phyllis and Frank Dickenson display Phyllis' spectacular "Smokechaser" quilt.

Phyllis Dickenson's most recent quilt is a good example of why she was chosen to be the featured quilter at this year's Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

"Smokechaser" is a stunning piece of work -- vivid in color and intricate in design, using embroidery and transferred photographs to great effect.

And the quilt tells a story, honoring the youthful experiences of her husband Frank, who served as a lookout and smoke chaser right here in the Sisters country back in the late 1950s.

"I came out from Virginia (in 1957) to work in the summer," Frank recalled. "I was stationed out at Allingham Camp out in Camp Sherman."

Over the next four years, Frank served on lookout towers and in the vital role of smoke chaser. A smoke chaser would literally chase down the origins of smoke spotted by lookouts.

Once he pinned down the origins of the smoke, he would call in the appropriate resources to put out a fire.

Those years in the woods eventually led full-circle.

After a career in California in the motion picture business, Frank brought Phyllis back to the little town he never forgot on vacation in the early '90s -- just in time for the quilt show.

Phyllis, long an avid quilter, was inspired, and the couple retired here in 1998.

Phyllis took up quilting in 1976. The tactile nature of the work was calming when she felt the stress of a corporate career.

The use of personal mementos in "Smokechaser" is typical of Dickenson's signature.

Each quilt she makes has a personal touch, a family memento given new life in her art. Sometimes it's her mother's buttons which her son used to play with, sewn into a quilt for her granddaughter. Sometimes it's an heirloom piece of lace, incorporated into a pattern.

Sometimes it's a narrative label that tells a story relating to the quilt.

Dickenson currently teaches at The Stitchin' Post and enjoys what she calls "the fellowship and friendship of women" derived from their common passion for quilting.

The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show will be held Saturday, June 13.

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