ORONO – The birth of a grandson was the event that added a new thread in the fabric of Gerry Williams’ life – and a new career making appliqued wall hangings of houses.

Seventeen of those wall hangings, made from 1987 to 2000, are featured in “Houses-Houses-Houses: Quilted Wall Hangings” by Gerry Williams, on display through May 3 at the Hudson Museum on the University of Maine campus.

Williams, who grew up in Bangor, learned embroidery and quilting from her mother, Adelaide Wallace; and grandmother, Jennie Pettipas, who lived in Nova Scotia, but came to Bangor for family visits. Williams graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in home economics, lived for many years in New York state, and moved back to Maine in 1989.

The wall hanging Williams made for her infant grandson wasn’t of a house – it was of Frenchman Bay, the view from her house in Lamoine. The piece features little sailboats bobbing about on a blue calico sea. Viewers will have a sense of standing at the window, looking out to sea, hearing the call of gulls, breathing the salt air and feeling the breeze.

Two other wall hangings in the exhibit, “Spring Rising” and “Flood on West Branch,” also do not depict houses.

“Spring Rising,” an abstract paean to the advent of spring, delights the eye with appliques of a big red poppy and a sweet blue anemone placed where the viewer’s eye can dance back and forth between the two. The surface of the piece is embellished with swirls of beads, making it a playful and exuberant piece.

“Flood on the West Branch” is a fabric interpretation of great volumes of water cascading through the rocks. It features a whimsical three-dimensional detail meant to look as if a spume of water had splashed willy-nilly into the air.

Some of the exhibit’s wall hangings depict the residences of Williams’ family and friends. Each one is built up like a painting – from background to foreground.

Each is embellished with lovely and endearing touches that are testament not only to Williams’ skill, but also to her eye for detail.

For example, “The Cottage” includes a lobster buoy hanging on the side of the house, and “Meadowpond Farm” has chickens in the yard. It’s obvious Williams finds joy and fun creating the pieces, and enjoys the challenge of solving the stitching problems each piece presents.

Embroidery stitches add interest and architectural detail – shutters, foundation bricks, garage door hinges. Williams uses chain stitch to indicate a white rail fence, French knots for lupines and other garden flowers, and blanket stitch around the individual pieces of fabric that compose her work.

It’s interesting to note that the same fabric appears in many of the wall hangings. A brown calico with tiny black flowers is used for windowpanes in several pieces; a green fabric with a tiny white dot is used for lawns in others – elements that serve as a kind of understated element that gives unity to the exhibit.

Williams’ clever choice of fabrics includes gray corduroy for a roof and, my favorite, a white fabric with clusters of tiny black dots to depict the trunk of a birch tree.

The Hudson Museum is the perfect venue for viewing Williams’ wall hangings because the space allows one to stand close to the pieces to see the finely wrought details in the art Williams has created.

The exhibit also includes a photo and text essay about the process Williams uses to create the wall hangings, and photographs of her mother and grandmother. Thus the exhibit is also about the tradition of mother handing down sewing skills to daughter, which implies continuity of life and reverence for the wisdom of what our elders have to teach us.

The Hudson Museum is open 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. For information, call 581-1901.