OCQG Weekly Posts through Friday 2/29/2025 (2 posts)
Veterans Quilt Project
Veterans quilts were presented to 12 Lincoln County veterans at our last meeting on February 19. Friends and family attended to support their vets and expressed gratitude for acknowledging the service of their loved ones. You can view more pictures here. Enjoy!
Welcome to Patchwork Oasis!
Our new quilt shop is open and you’ll be surprised at the new look inside the store. On first glance, you’ll notice the space seems more roomy, a design that was intentional by the new owner and operator, Bonnie Robinder. “One thing I knew that I wanted to do immediately was to make the walkways in the store more open and accessible to quilters using wheelchairs or walkers! Making the store safe and available to all quilters is dear to my heart.”
Bonnie spent her younger years in Portland, but moved to Florida after her first husband passed away, traveling with her daughter and two friends, all of whom needed a change. She later married one of those friends, her husband Kevin, and relocated to Texas, where his parents lived, and they ended up staying there for over 25 years. They returned to Oregon this past July, and after a disappointment over their pre-arranged long-term rental (it was a scam), they decided to give Newport a second chance and stayed. She soon found Quilters Cove and before she knew it, she was purchasing the business and hasn’t looked back.
She’s really liking it so far. “I like helping people, helping you find fabric is one of those things that I seem to do really well.” A self-taught quilter, Bonnie has been quilting for 30 years. “I really wanted to learn to quilt when I was a kid, and my Aunt Lorraine used to have this summer camp for all the cousins. She had a big frame that she trundled up to the ceiling. She could get 15 people around that frame and kids as young as 5 or 6 were underneath, threading needles and pushing them up from the bottom.” She got to do it once and has always remembered it.
Her mom sewed clothes and she used to “steal” her scraps and sew them together, but nothing ever major until her kids were older, and that’s when she picked it up. “I checked a book out of the library in the little town where we lived, the Leander Public Library. It was Quilting for Dummies. I checked it out
72 times, and the 73rd time I checked it out, the lovely librarian, looked at me and said, ‘You’ve checked this book out more times than anybody else has checked a book out in this whole library. This is yours. Keep it.’ And I still have that book.”
Bonnie considers herself a traditional quilter. “I make bed-sized quilts. I like the big ones, the queens, the kings.” She does everything, piecing and quilting. She doesn’t do applique, but has plans to learn that from Judy, a friend who helps out in the store and is responsible for the applique pieces you’ll see hanging in the store. Judy is excited about their plans to provide lessons at the store in the future, starting with an applique class.
But, first things first. They’re slowly getting things put together. The whole venture happened pretty fast: Sign a promissory note on this day and sign the bill of sale next day. “That two weeks was a whirlwind for us.” For now, she’s waiting for their official store sign to be installed and looking forward to being part of the quilting guild and the Lincoln County community.
Newport Quilt Store Open for Business