Step into a dream, invites The Starry Night. It’s perhaps the best-known painting of Dutch master Vincent van Gogh, with its swirling night sky alive with stars and a shimmering moon. There’s so much movement and emotion, it’s a wonder the inhabitants of the town below can sleep. The lush land and skyscape is brought to life by Van Gogh’s bold, color-laden brushstrokes in tones of moody blue.

To choose an artist such as Van Gogh for a quilting challenge is challenging indeed. When the owner of the Cherrywood Hand Dyed Fabrics, Karla Overland, selected the painter, his story, and his work as the theme of this year’s Cherrywood Quilt Challenge, she intentionally set the bar high, hoping to inspire quilters to stretch beyond traditional design to new creative heights. To Overland’s delight and surprise, more than 400 quilters submitted their landscapes, portraits, and interior scenes inspired by one of the world’s most masterful painters.

Happily, attendees of this year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show can see 120 of the Challenge quilts, known as the French Gallery, up close and personal in an exhibit at the Community Hall at the Sisters Fire Department, on the corner of Elm Street and Washington Avenue, Saturday, July 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“You will be blown away,” said Cherrywood Challenge juror Lisa Ellis.

This is no small promise—but Ellis makes it without hesitation. Given her qualifications as a quilt artist, teacher, and lecturer on fiber arts, as well as the outgoing president of Studio Art Quilt Associates, Ellis speaks from experience. Ellis evaluated the 400-plus entries, along with jurors Cyndi Souder and Leslie Jenison Tucker.

“Working with paint is very, very different from working with fabric,” said Ellis, referring to the difficulty of translating the artist’s dramatic brushstrokes into fabric and stitching.

The challenge quilters worked with a color palette of four Cherrywood fabrics, three blue tones and one black, that were to make up 60 to 70 percent of the quilt’s composition. Accent colors of other Cherrywood fabrics were permitted and a wide range of techniques, stitching, and fabric manipulation were allowed, as long as the color and character of a textile quilt was maintained. Entries included machine-sewn and hand-stitched quilts, as well as pieces embellished with beads, paint, and other materials. The final measurement of each quilt was a required 20 by 20 inches.

When Overland began organizing challenges in 2014, she hoped to inspire creativity while expanding the reach of Cherrywood’s fabrics. She began with the theme Wicked, based on the Broadway play. To her surprise, more than 100 entrants responded, sending in digital photos of their work.

“I don’t think she had any idea it would be this popular,” said Cherrywood Special Exhibits coordinator Donna Anderson.

In Sisters, Jeff Omodt, a local quilter and member of the board of directors of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, followed the challenge online, taking note of the striking Wicked-themed quilts.

When the Lion King on Broadway Challenge was announced the following year, with a palette of yellow, brown, and black, Omodt made sure that the planned traveling exhibit would intersect with the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

“It took a year of planning for seven hours of glory—but it was the hit of the show,” Omodt said.

Thrilled by the response to the Lion King exhibit, Omodt booked the Van Gogh Challenge quilts for the 2018 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Again the number of entries grew, this time from 300 to more than 400.

“The response to the Van Gogh Challenge was so large, we split the exhibit into two,” said Anderson.

The quilt exhibits were divided into the French Gallery and the Dutch Gallery, and both exhibits have been touring worldwide to an appreciative audience. The French Gallery, which is reflective of Van Gogh’s years spent living in France, will be displayed in Sisters, giving art lovers the opportunity to admire and compare each of the 120 entries side by side.

To see the quilts of both complete galleries, a book of the entire collection will be available for sale at the Sisters exhibit. Color photographs of each quilt and personal statements from the artists make for a memorable keepsake. You can also get a video preview of the quilt challenge results at cherrywoodfabrics.com.

To really take in the attention to detail, quality, and variety of each piece, a trip to the special exhibit will be well worth the effort. It’s likely that Van Gogh himself would approve of the results.