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Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #6

Friday, April 27th, 2007

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.

Widgeon….cute pug pics alert!

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

How can it be Wednesday already!??!!!! Sorry I haven’t uploaded the next Coastal Quilters entry yet…. if you scroll through this message, it is just underneath with new pics of more blocks.

In the meantime, Widgeon has taught Yeti how to play! And Yeti, it appears, has taught Widgeon how to take naps (not that Pigwidgeon needed a lot of help there). You might wonder what furry thing Widgeon is sleeping on here:

The answer would be….. YETI!

Here are some more obnoxiously cute photos of pug and behemoth sleeping and playing…. you can tell when they’ve been at it when Pigwidgeon comes for attention, you reach down and pet him, and he’s soggy….eeeewwwww! Cute, but ick!

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #5

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

And now for more of our chapter banner blocks……

Our other co-president extraordinaire is Jan P., an emerging art quilter, mom of 3 very bright boys (Zach’s Destination Imagination team is headed to the NATIONAL competition! for which she is the coach…along with soccer team coach, baseball, etc……she’s busier than I am!). Jan lives in Lincolnville, so she volunteered to do two landmarks for her township: the Lobster Pound on Lincolnville Beach and the Islesboro Ferry.

The ferry isn’t fused to the center of the quilt yet…I just popped it here, near the dock at the south end of L-ville Beach, for the photo. Jan did ALL the work on the restaurant…great job!

As an aside, Jan’s husband is a fantastic photographer, and in October, she, he and I are going to have a joint art show at Zoot, the cool new coffee house in Camden (on Elm Street, across from the village green a few doors up from the Town Offices). Zoot has the best foam and espresso on the mid-coast, a wide selection of teas, and icnreasingly wonderful menu of foods, and has poetry readings and music on weekend evenings and all sorts of cool stuff. Stop and enjoy a latte, especially in October 2007 when we have our show!

Back to quilting…..Susan Coe’s second block is this totally awesome lobster trap. I gave her a simple line drawing pattern and she gave me this gem! I’m sorry I got the edges of the block turned under… it is so cool. It is 3-D with a real “frame” to the trap (plastic piping inside camo flannel) complete with seaweed and the usual gunk that comes up with the traps when they are hauled up. Note the lobster batik in the background for the water! Susan is a beginning quilter, but clearly a creative artist.

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #4

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

Maine is home to many outdoor enthusiasts, as the phrase goes. OK. People here like to have fun, and for many of them that involves getting outside and enjoying our beautiful state. Kayaking on both lakes and coast is common, and everywhere you see kayaks for sale or rent along the coast and on the inland lakes.

Leigh Smith is a devoted member of Coastal Quilters and works hard when she isn’t commuting to work in the Boston area (she’s a nurse). But she is a beginning quilter…I’d say she did a phenomenal job! I gave her a basic pattern for a kayak, but she did research at our local sporting goods store, Maine Sports (on Hwy.l 1 in Rockport–also good for raiding the fly fishing department for goodies to stick on art quilts!) to get the details right. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the handles at the ends (jewelry findings from Wal-Mart!) and the hatch cap (or whatever they call that round screw-cap thing-y…we have kayaks but I haven’t a clue) which is really a button detailed with a sharpie with a paddle logo!

And Janet Knapp made this quirky lobster using one of my patterns. I had omitted the legs, and her first comment was “where are the legs?!” So she chain stitched them in–perfect! I love his tentacles/feelers, too. And as you can tell from the bright red, he’s already been boiled … where’s the butter?

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #3

Saturday, April 21st, 2007

Children’s Chapel, also known as Vesper Chapel, is in Rockport on the small peninsula that separates Camden Harbor from Rockport Harbor. I drafted a pattern of this chapel which is a favorite for summer weddings. I could probably hold maybe 40-50 people if you really crammed folks in, and is on a steep hill that overlooks Penobscot Bay, the islands in the bay, and the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Roxanne Wells, our co-president extraordinaire this past year-plus, is a wonderful quilter who loves color as much as I do, and she volunteered to take on this tricky block:

Gail Galloway-Nicholson, who made the Belties Block, also generously offered to help with the center panel of the quilt. I prepared the background (easy peasy and fast), and Gail created her own patterns for the archetypal New England steepled Church (we have at least four in the village–the Baptist, the First Congregational, the Catholic and the former Methodist churches, and then the Episcopal Church in stone next to the Baptist church, plus a few more…lotsa churches for a town of 6000!) and the two Belties, who are placed on the coastline right where Aldemere Farms is. Aldemere is part of the coastal trust…there is this amazing network of land conservancies that has preserved and protected open spaces and coastline here in Maine. We are lucky!