Today we have what were the final three contributions: Gail Galloway Nicholson’s schooner, based on my drawing of the Mary Grace, the oldest schooner in the Camden Harbor, and two pieces by Jeanne-Marie Robinson of Northport. Since I first wrote this blogpost, though, I’ve added varioius bits to the quilt..one block on the outside, bits on the center (that were empty and needed “something”, and to the top border. So you’ll have to hang on a bit longer for the final “pre-quilting” reveal, and then longer yet for the quilted version. I’ve also got a blog on the most recent Frayed Edges meeting this past Monday, and have been busier than a mad hatter quilting the banner……

The Mary Grace is the oldest of the schooners working out of Camden Harbor, where it has been taking tourists to sea since 1932! The mid-coast here is known as the Schooner Coast, and even the middle school sports teams are the Schooners. Thanks to the owner of the Mary Grace for permission to use his publicity photo of his beautiful ship for our quilt. Gail did another fantabulous job on this addition to the center panel.

Jeanne-Marie Robinson is an amazing and prolific art quilter. How she produces so much work…and so much of it by hand… in the 24 hours we get each day is beyond me, and it’s all fabulous. She designed these blocks and sent them to Maine from her winter home in Florida. She LOVES animals and all sorts of critters, so of course these are hers. The seagull is familiar to anyone who has ever visited a seacoast:

And the seal is Andre The Seal. There is a sculpture of him in Rockport Harbor at the park there (a great picnic spot by the way!), and here is a link to some information on the book written about him at DownEast Books. The book was made into a movie, and there is even a Wikipedia entry!

Rockport is a very small town immediately south of Camden. If you were visiting here and didn’t see the “welcome to” signs, you’d probably not realize you had gone from Camden into Rockport (or vice versa). With a population of about 3500, Rockport sits on the next small harbor south of Camden; overlooking the harbor is Center for Contemporary Art (we’re trying to educate them about art quilts, but it is along road), the Rockport Opera House, and a shipbuilder that build the replica of the Godspeed, one of the Jamestown ships. Matthea Dietz is a busy mom of a two-year old son with a couple of jobs, plus coaching ice skating and a bunch of other things (including speaking Chinese and other fascinating tidbits…would love to see her more but our lives are too crazy busy). She is relatively new to art quilting, but gamely took on the challenge of the Opera House, based on my pattern:

She did a phenomenal job…remember what I said about everyone doing better than their best?! Yep!

And Isabelle Davis made this sailboat greatly improving my simple sailboat sketch. There are SO many boaters here, especially in summer, I think you could just about walk across Rockport harbor just by hopping from deck to deck!

Today you get three of the blocks that are already made (I still need to make one for Elm Street School—no takers for that particular challenge!): the Oak Leaf, the Maple Leaf and Merryspring’s gazebo. Maine’s tourist season extends from mid-to-late June (peak Black Fly season!) through autumn leaves or “Leaf Peeper” season, which actually brings more hordes of turistas than summer!

Beth Guisely and Polly Schuessler made the Maple and Oak leaves, respectively, from my drawings….these blocks are emblematic of our glorious autumns. They did a wonderful job.

And Barb Melchisky is a pro at applique. She took on the challenging Gazebo at Merryspring, a local land trust and garden / plant / native habitat center. Tucked onto 66 acres that cross from Camden into Rockport, it is described on their website as “privately owned park.” It has several beautiful walks through woods and meadows where you can see native flora (and sometimes fauna).

For this morning’s Chapter Banner installment, scroll down. For those who have read it and are curious about the beast….

Several readers have asked what kind of dog Yeti is. He is a Tibetan Mastiff. They believe these “big dogs” (Do Kyi in Nepal) came out of the Himalayas with Alexander the Great and became the foundation stock that led to the Saint Bernard, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Great Pyrenees and Newfoundlands… The TMs are considered an “ancient” breed, and only go into heat once a year, having a litter in early spring (so weaned when summer approaches). For a giant breed, they live fairly long: 11-14 years!

TMs have a double coat (downy plus guard hairs), of hair, not fur, so for folks with allergies they are supposedly better. Also means he doesn’t shed much at all, though when he “blows coat” at the onset of summer, they entire neighborhood ends up fluffy with tufts of dog fur. When I groom him, just one side, I end up with a pile of fluff as big as he is (after two or three hours of combing). Last year one of our neighbors was out for a walk and saw tufts of fur and thought someone had nailed a small mammal…until she came past us as we waited for the school bus with Eli and saw us engaged in the annual “pluck the dog” ritual!

He is a great big couch potato… at our old house our uphill neighbor said she once saw and eagle dive-bomb him to see if he was roadkill because it had been so long since he moved! These dogs were bred to guard the villages of Nepal at night, so they sleep all day, wake up, bark (Yes, Yeti, it’s a car with its lights on, thank you…STOP now!), sleep more, bark some, sleep more. Consequently, they eat less than a German Shepherd or Lab. Yeti is sweet as can be, but gosh is he stooooopid! Dumb as a dirtclod is the common phrase around here LOL!

Tibetans come in a variety of colors…but all are large! Yeti is what is known as a cream-sable, but they come all black (like a Newf), black and tan, red (like an Irish setter’s color), or cream-sable. As they mature that lion-like ruff around their necks becomes heavier, as does the “shawl” which goes over their shoulder and (varying from animal to animal) can run all the way down to their feathery plume of a tail. And his feet are HUGE.

Here are some links to:

The Tibetan Mastiff Club of America
The American Tibetan Mastiff Club
and here’s a link to a picture there when Yeti was a wee pup….only the size of an end table then!
The American Kennel Association page on TMs
Drakyi TMs (a top breeder—Yeti is the grandson of Drakyi’s Simba)

Yeti is now 152 pounds, drops his chin to rest it on the dining room table, takes up half a sofa to sleep, and (at our old house) when he stands on his hind legs with front paws on the top railing, looks me pretty much in the eye. I’m 5’6″!

Our next two blocks for the quilt (these are, by the way, about 6 1/2 inch blocks) are the Loon and Lupine.

Polly Schuessler made the loon from one of my patterns (I adapted the Loon-y About Maine pattern’s 4 inch loon block), using fussy cuts from a loon print fabric…perfect! I just love the baby on the back!

Another amazing artist is Betty Johnson. Betty’s daughter Karen is my age, and I just LOVE to see what she has brought to share at our monthly meetings. She has an unerring eye for design, color and composition. I have told her in complete honesty that she definitely has the best eye among all of us in Coastal Quilters, including me, Roxanne, Jan and everyone. She did the beautiful embroidery for the lupine block– I gave her a sketch and said “do whatever!” I’m so glad she did. I’m going to take another photo in hopes of getting better color than this first one….it’s just a beautiful block filled with french knots that are just the right thing:

The lupines grow wild across the state, mostly the blues, but every once in a while you’ll come across a swath with the pinks.