Combined show to mark 30th year for quilt groups

It’s anniversary time. The Bangor Bear Paws quilt group and the Orono Quilters are celebrating 30 years of crafting fabric into bedcovers and other useful and decorative items. The two groups will hold a joint quilt show 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, April 25, and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 26, at the Church of Universal Fellowship, 82 Main St., Orono. Both groups are charter chapters of the statewide Pine Tree Quilters Guild, which also marks its 30th birthday this year.

Featured quilter at the show will be longtime Orono Quilters member Nancy Jordan of Otis. Jordan said she has lost track of the number of quilts she has made in the 25 years she has been a member of the group. “I gave so many away,” she said, including to each of her children and grandchildren.

Jordan also has been a member of the Pine Tree Quilters Guild for more than 25 years and a member of its board of directors for the last six years.

At the Orono quilt show, Jordan will exhibit both hand- and machine-applique quilts, and pieced quilts.

“I love fabric,” she said. “I have way too much fabric. I like to sit at the machine and sew. I like to hand-sew and make something useful.” Jordan creates her quilts in a sewing room that looks out over a lake.

At the show, Jordan’s work will be displayed in the church’s Fellowship Hall.

New and antique quilts will be displayed in the sanctuary during the show.

A highlight of the show will be the Quilts of Valor display, coordinated by Carole Haltemann. It is a national program through which quilts are made and donated anonymously to wounded veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Orono Quilters held a weekend retreat and an all-day workshop in the past year in which three quilts were made for the Quilts of Valor cause.

Haltemann said she has made 14 quilts for the organization. “This program has become very near and dear to me,” she said. Approximately 15,000 quilts, nationwide, have been bestowed upon wounded American soldiers in bedside ceremonies at U.S. military hospitals.

Information will be available at the show about the Quilts of Valor program. Haltemann said she is available to speak to area groups and organizations about the program. Those interested should call her at 866-3075.

Other highlights of the quilt show will be an exhibit of antique and contemporary aprons, a Project Linus display coordinated by Merlene Sanborn of Brownville, and a Teapot Social raffle of several quilting-related items, such as fat quarters, a collectible pincushion with scissors and fabric, and a Thimbleberries calendar and fabric.

The vintage aprons will be displayed on a clothesline, said Susan Bulay, a four-year member of the Orono Quilters.

Bulay will display a friendship block exchange quilt in the churn dash pattern. “There will be 10 or so of those quilts in the show,” she said. “Each one is in the churn dash pattern, but each quilt is done in different colors. Some are very striking.”

The Bear Paws quilt group will raffle a 20-block sampler queen-size quilt crafted in shades of pink and brown. Proceeds will benefit the group’s charity projects.

The Orono Quilters will raffle a Mark Lipinski design Simple Simon quilt. Lipinski is the publisher of Quilter’s Home magazine. Proceeds from the raffle will benefit a local food pantry.

Vendors of the show will be Pine Tree Country Quilts, Stillwater; The Cotton Cupboard, Bangor; The Fabric Garden, Skowhegan; and the Viking sewing machine dealership located within JoAnn Fabrics.

Crafts, and quilt-related used books and magazines will be available for sale. The lunch bar will feature muffins, chili, sandwiches and sweets.

Admission to the show is a $3 donation.

Snippets

Calling all beaders and jewelry designers. Interweave magazine is holding a Bead Star challenge – sort of like “American Idol” for beaders. Grand prize is a trip to Santa Fe Bead Expo 2009, $1,500 in beading supplies and the cover of the new magazine Bead Star. Deadline to enter an original beaded jewelry design is May 1. For more information, visit www.beadingdaily.com/beadstar.

Kathy Goldner will give a talk at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at Southwest Harbor Public Library. Her topic will be “Stories of Knitting.” Call the library at 244-7065 for more information.

The Winterport Clippers quilting chapter will be host to the Area 6 meeting of area quilters at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 30, at St. Matthews Church, 70 Western Ave., in Hampden.

Guest speakers for the event will be Sue Harvey, senior editor of Quilters World magazine, and Sandy Boobar, quilt designer for Quilter’s World. The two women are partners in Pine Tree Country Quilts in Stillwater. Harvey and Boobar will demonstrate a new tool designed by Patricia Pepe that creates the X-block.

Area quilters are invited to attend. For more information, call Sandy Horn at 525-4433 or Fay Cunningham at 548 2407.

To download a free copy of the e-book “The Best of Interweave Knits: The Readers’ Choice Awards Collection,” visit www.knittingdaily.com. The e-book download is available until 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 14.

ahamlin@bangordailynews.net

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