Members of the Bagaduce Quilters Guild are preparing for their Show, Sale and Auction on Saturday, Aug. 17, in Castine.

Peggy Rogers reports that “we have openings for vendors at Emerson Hall, and are looking for more quilts to be auctioned.”

Vendors include quilters, bag makers, fabric dyers, knitters and jewelry makers.

Each vendor is charged $25 for a table at Emerson Hall; the fee to enter quilts in the live auction is $5; and admission to the quilt show is $3.

Twenty percent of the sales of the auctioned quilts will benefit Castine Town Hall, Trinitarian Parish Church and Trinity Episcopal Church.

On the day of the event, both floors of Emerson Hall on Court Street will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., featuring “a large collection of craft boutiques,” Rogers wrote.

The quilts can be seen from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17, at the Trinitarian Parish Church on Main Street where the quilts will be auctioned at 3:30 p.m.

For more information about this event, call Rogers, 326-8020, or Charleen Wiseman, 326-4105.

Harrison Roper of Houlton is a board member of the Southern Aroostook Cultural Arts Project, and he wants readers to know about a special event this weekend in The County.

“Paint Houlton’s Heritage Day” is Friday, July 5, through Sunday, July 7.

Roper describes it as “an opportunity for artists to paint local scenes, publicly, for two days, and sell their work, immediately, in a temporary downtown gallery.”

Artists will work at the Watson Covered Bridge in Littleton, the Houlton State Fair, Market Square in downtown Houlton, the dam in Hodgdon and at several private gardens.

Best of all, you can watch at any location.

“There is no lack of interesting downtown brick architecture in Houlton,” Roper wrote, “and natural scenery abounds.

“I wonder how the artists will feel about someone looking over their shoulders while they paint but, that’s what this is all about!”

The temporary gallery will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, July 6, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, July 7, at 76 Main St. in Houlton. Twenty percent of the sale of the artists’ work will benefit SACAP.

The public can meet the artists during a 7 p.m. reception Friday, July 5, at the gallery.

Chris Urick invites you to “Arts in the Park” Saturday, July 6, and Sunday, July 7, on the waterfront in Belfast.

While most of the 64 artisans are Mainers, Urick reports other New Englanders are joined by those from “farther afield.”

Crafts, jewelry, garden sculptures and paintings are available for viewing or purchase. There will be food and music, including the Blue Hill Brass Quintet, which performs from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

Activities especially for children are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, July 7, and bagpiper Tom Seymour will lead a costume parade at 1:30 p.m. through the park.

OutofHand Puppets perform at 2 p.m. on the green, and everyone will enjoy kite flying on Belfast Common.

The nonprofit National Arbor Day Foundation has a pocket guide that will help you identify 135 species of trees found in the eastern and central United States.

The $3 guide will help you learn about trees from oaks to spruces, and drawings illustrate leaves or needles as well as acorns, berries, seedpods and cones.

The guide can be obtained by sending your name, address and $3 to “What Tree is That?” National Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, NE 68410.

On behalf of the Castine Arts Association, Lyn Mayewski invites you to attend the opening reception of the CAA Exhibit from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 7, on the second floor of Emerson Hall on Court St. in Castine.

The piano music of Kaveh Haghkerdar will entertain you during the reception.

More than 100 works by 30 artists will be represented at the exhibit, which continues from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, through Sunday, July 28, at Emerson Hall.

CAA is a nonprofit, community volunteer group organized to promote awareness and appreciation of visual, literary and performing arts.

Normally while I am on vacation, my column does not appear in this space. However, since your 113-year-old Bangor Daily News is coming to you today in a slightly different form, I wanted to be part of that transition and left a column for today and one for tomorrow. After Tuesday, July 2, my next column will appear on Page B4 on Wednesday, July 10. I hope everyone has a happy and safe Fourth of July, and I look forward to hearing from you when I return.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.