OK…this is a belated “popping with pride” e-mail!…..

Sometimes being able to return a favor is even better than the first round. In our case, the first round was 2003…I had just joined the Quiltart list and Marie and I signed up to do the journal quilts. We figured it would probably be the only time either of us would ever have anything hanging in Houston. Then, I got a quilt into the juried show, and one into an exhibit. So, of course, we took our hard-saved pennies and attended Quilt Festival in Houston for the first time in 2003. And I got permission to stand behind the stanchions next to my quilts while Marie took pictures of me.

This year, I get to do the same for Marie!!! Yippeeee! Marie’s “Garden of A” quilt, an original setting of blocks from the Dear Jane and Dear Hannah books will be in the In Full Bloom exhibit in Houston!!!!! Houston, here we come!

Here is another picture of Marie’s magnum opus…and as you can see from the size of Marie (she’s a cute little redhead!) it is “magnum”! (I think it is something like 110 inches across!)

Marie is one of the most artistic quilters I know. She has said of herself that she may be an artistic quilter, but not an art quilter. Personally, I disagree…she’s BOTH! As far as I know, she has never before entered a national-level exhibit or competition. Well, there’s nothing like starting with the best: Houston.

Marie submitted this quilt to the In Full Bloom exhibit for this coming year in Houston. The Dear Jane and Dear Hannah quilts / books are by Brenda Papadakis (Dear Jane is trademarked, and I’m using the term just to link it to Brenda–based on an 1863 quilt by Jane Stickle). To learn more about Jane Stickle’s quilt, you can visit Brenda at Dear Jane.

So, I’m shouting and doing a major happy dance! Every time I look at Marie’s work, I then look at mine and think “hmm, who am I kidding….” and look again at Marie’s and learn from her.

Marie also had a totally cool idea this year (among other cool ideas…) Anyway, she still lives on San Juan Island, Washington, where I used to live, and works at the County Courthouse. This year is the 100th anniversary of both the County Fair (THE event of the summer, and the best of small town America… when a friend’s son went away to serve in the Coast Guard, he actually had a hard time deciding whether to take vacation for Christmas or the Fair…that’s how cool and fun the fair is!) and the County Courthouse. So Marie had an idea to make a quilt, to hang in the courthouse, to celebrate both anniversaries. Folks made 8 inch blocks, Marie put them together and made the incredible center panels based on old photos. As an “ex-pat” islander, I even got to make one of the blocks. Here’s the quilt.

My block is at the center bottom of the photo…I always entered my jams in the fair, so I used blackberry fabric and made pictures of two jars of jam and attached one of my ribbons!

I’m SO happy for Marie, but even more I’m happy I met Marie. You know how in your life you have just a handful of truly special friends along the way? Well, Marie is one of them! So I’m looking forward to growing old with her, needle in hand, nattering away about our latest quilts.

I’m happy to say that we have scheduled more classes at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro, Maine, and we will soon be scheduling more at Cote Brothers in Auburn, too. Check the end of the message for the class listings.

If you haven’t been to Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro and are anywhere in the vicinity, make it a point to stop. Marjorie Hallowell’s shop is on a rise in the road on Route 1, the old Atlantic Coast Highway. It’s not really near anything like a town center (well, the Well-Tempered Kitchen is a half mile down the road), but there’s lots of parking, and route 1 is the main north-south road along the Atlantic Coast. I taught a machine quilting class there this past weekend, and for once remembered to (a) take in my camera and (b) use it! Here’s Nancy hiding behind her sample piece…talk about a duck taking to water…she did a great job! Can you belive she’d never done free-motion before???? Wow!

And here is Mary Lou, sitting by the window overlooking Route 1 with Betty looking on:

By the end of the class, every student there (it’s cool cause the classroom is small, so there are never more than about 5 or at most 6 students and everyone gets lots of attention) was ready to go home and quilt their first quilt, including free-motion!

Marjorie and Maine-ly Sewing has the most amazing selection of fabrics packed (nicely…still easy to view) in this shop. Lots of batiks, Kaffe Fassetts, prints, Hoffmans, Japanese / Asian prints, dyes, Tsukinenko inks, embellishments, probably the best selection of threads in Maine (but I’m biased… I love this place), some yarns, notions, Janome sewing machines and quilts hanging on the available wall space, rafters, everywhere. She even has a skylight over the cutting table with quilt blocks in it! Marjorie and her daughter-in-law also have a long-arm upstairs to do quilting for folks, and do a great job, and Stacy (DIL) is a super sewing machine mechanic / repairperson.

This old house has been various businesses over the years, but still seems like a converted house inside: you enter either through the “enclosed porch” or the “front door”. Besides the porch area, there are three main rooms: the room to the right of the front door serves as the classroom, and houses the Janomes for sale when not in use. The main room has a pot-bellied wood stove which is wonderfully welcoming in Maine winters, and currently is home to all the threads, embellishments, fun stuff, notions, batiks and Asian fabrics. Look up and you can see the original hand-hewn beams! The third room houses more prints arranged by color, solids, batting, and (at least this week!) Marjorie’s growing collection of jackets (which are made on sweatshirts as their foundation but look like anything BUT a sweatshirt jacket—really cool and classy…Marje has a great color sense).

The house is said to be haunted…check out this link to Marjorie’s website to read the story! And the old place just got a great face lift…new siding and insulation, new roof, leaks repaired, and new windows coming. Marjorie will be snug this coming winter!

One other really cool thing just happened: if you like Asian fabrics you’ll like this! Kona Bay fabrics is selling a “limited edition line” of fabrics called the Emperor’s collection–only 400 bolts of any given fabric will be sold in the US. And Marjorie is on the distribution…she’ll get one of those 400! And there is a range of them… maybe three colorways of a print, plus coordinating prints. Best of all you can order on-line from Marjorie! Her first shipment should arrive in late July or early August, so check her site for news.

Now…here’s the class listings; call Maine-ly Sewing at 563-8445 or Cote Brothers at 782-5922 to register.

July 15, Saturday: Applique by Machine-at Maine-ly Sewing, Nobleboro–3 techniques: fused with satin stitch, mock-hand-applique, interfacing underneath (and “reverse” applique in all those techniques). Using the technqiues in my blue gingko pattern you’ll be able to make any other pattern out there!

July 24, Monday: Intro Machine Quilting-at Maine-ly Sewing, Nobleboro-it’s like painting a house: you need the combination of the right tools and materials, the right skills (aka practice) and the right preparation to get good results. I’ll make your learning curve shorter than mine by teaching you what I’ve learned over 18 years of quilting so you get better results right away! The second half of the class is hands-on practice with the walking foot and free-motion. By the time you leave, you’ll be ready to tackle your first quilt and then quilt your name onto it!

July 30, Saturday: Applique Demonstration–at the Cote Brothers booth at Maine Quilts 2006 in Augusta at the Civic Center. Come to the annual show of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild to enjoy the quilts and vendors, then pop by at mid-day to say hi and for a demonstration at the Cote Brothers booth.

August…Sarah’s away to play with the family!

September 16, Saturday: Fine Finishes–learn how to make perfect straight grain / butted bindings, perfect double-fold bias bindings with mitered corners, faced edges (for “invisible” finishes as well as Prairie point edges) and piping (to use as an edge finish or to add a special accent to your regular bindings). We’ll also look at another sixteen ways to finish quilt edges, and each student can pick which ones you’d like to learn with the time remaining.

September 21, Thursday: Machine Applique-Cote Brothers, Auburn–3 techniques: fused with satin stitch, mock-hand-applique, interfacing underneath (and “reverse” applique in all those techniques). Using the technqiues in my blue gingko pattern you’ll be able to make any other pattern out there!

September 23, Saturday: Intro Machine Quilting-at Maine-ly Sewing, Nobleboro-it’s like painting a house: you need the combination of the right tools and materials, the right skills (aka practice) and the right preparation to get good results. I’ll make your learning curve shorter than mine by teaching you what I’ve learned over 18 years of quilting so you get better results right away! The second half of the class is hands-on practice with the walking foot and free-motion. By the time you leave, you’ll be ready to tackle your first quilt and then quilt your name onto it!

Just for fun, I got permission to share this “Word A Day”. If you like this sort of thing, scroll to the end to the hotlink to sign up for the free word-a-day.

This week’s theme: professions that exist mainly as surnames.

mercer (MUR-suhr) noun

A dealer in textiles, especially silk and other fine materials.

[From Old French mercier (trader), from Latin merx (goods). Words such
as market, merchant, commerce, and mercantile share the same origin.]

Then there is mercerization. To mercerize is to treat cotton thread or
fabric with caustic soda to enhance its strength and luster, and to increase
its affinity for dyes. The word is an eponym, coined after the calico printer
John Mercer (1791-1866) who patented it in 1850.

And calico — a kind of cotton cloth printed with a pattern — is a toponym,
coined after the city of Calicut in India. The city is now known as Kozhikode.

Today’s word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=mercer

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

“The success of the mercers was symbolised by the ambience and animation
of their shops.”
Daniel Roche; The Culture of Clothing; Cambridge University Press; 1996.

……

………………………………………………………………….
The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for
jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most
brilliant. -Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989)

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Oh what fun it is to meet an internet friend in the real! That happened today when Jacquie Scuitto, aka the Quiltmuse, her hubby Lou and brother Don all came by Camden, Maine, to visit. Lou took a TON of photos at our house (more later when he gets home and sends a CD / jpegs!). We all enjoyed meeting each other and families (the boys and Paul were here, along with Yeti the wonderdog), then we did the requisite tour of the house ending in the best room—my studio!

I got to unearth a fair number of my quilts, including some that are still “under wraps” and share, and Leo took photos of Jacquie and me with most of them! I got Lou to stand in as my personal photographer and had him take this picture of Jacquie and me at “command central, aka my desk on the old Baker’s cupboard in the kitchen/dining area holding the postcard Jacquie sent me as a total surprise a while back.

Then we went into town and ate lunch at Marriner’s, the old diner on the harbor side of the main street that bills itself as the last luncheonette in Camden, “no ferns, no quiche”. Accordingly, we ate fried! Clams, scallops, shrimp, a Philly cheesesteak for me, and pie and custard for the Scuitto’s! Here we are, fed and happy (L to R: Jacquie, Don, Sarah and Lou):

They were all in Maine for a family memorial service near Bangor (about 80 minutes north of me) so I’m sad for the reason that brought them here, but was SO glad to be able to meet them all! Don told me it was the first time he and all his siblings had been together in the same place at the same time since 1946!!!! Too long! Next time, Jacquie, it’s my turn to come to NH!

I’ve mentioned before that I have a “site meter” on my blog which allows me to see generally where all of you come from…. I even added that cool little map on the right so you could see, too. Well, on Monday, June 26th, I got the last two states: Delaware and North Dakota! So now I’ve had visitors from all 50 states, DC, and a gazillion places around the world… way cool!As a former US diplomat, it makes me feel re-connected to folks all over the world. Thanks for surfing in and visiting!