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Friendship Sampler Quilt Show


This past weekend I was lucky enough to get to go to a quilt show with a friend. We left our sons (her 3 and my 2) with their respective dads and drove to Belfast, a town about 30 minutes north of me on the shores of Penobscot Bay, right where the river runs into the bay. We ate lunch out….imagine, no interruptions, good food someone else cooked, no “mommy can I have” or “mommy will you get me”…. heaven!

Then we went to the annual show of the Friendship Sampler Quilt Guild, which is a chapter of Maine’s statewide organization, the Pine Tree Quilt Guild. It was held in a building called “The Boathouse” right on the bay, and they packed in a ton of quilt…well over a hundred of all sizes, from large bed to small wallhangings. Here are a few of my favorites. The one at the top is Joan Herrick’s bed quilt…wouldn’t that be just the perfect summer quilt..crisp, bright, cheerful? Joan, if you ever tire of it, I’d be happy to take it off your hands!

Then I discovered the work of Karin Pierce, who is a guild member, doesn’t teach, doesn’t sell, just makes the most amazing quilts with the most wonderful, whimsical (without being sappy or sacharine) quilting. I think my favorite piece in the whole show is her crow pillow (which shares a photo with one of her crazy quilt pillows and Jeanne-Marie Robinson’s swan pillow).

Jeanne-Marie Robinson is an incredibly talented quilter who is also a member of the local chapter in Camden, the Coastal Quilters. A former ballerina from Switzerland, she and her husband are “snowbirds” and spend at least the worst of the winter in Florida, which is where she found the inspiration for her anhinga quilt (bird sunning its wings, below). You can always tell one of Jeanne-Marie’s quilts because they are wonderful, beautifully executed, and almost always have some sort of critter (or many) in them. The pelican, below, is hers too, with wonderful dyed cheesecloth, miniature lobster buoys, driftwood…… I’d take that one too!


More of Karin Pierce’s whimsy…Sourpuss the cat, quilted with red thread and just plain fun, along with the funky cat with the cool eyes on the white background-pillow. The last two pieces are the improvisational piece by Deb Small (sure hope I got her name right…if anyone from Friendship quilters has a correction, please let me know!), and a wonderful piece by Alice Hobbs Parson called Six Keys. Alice told me she loves metal, has all sorts of metal “stuff” on the walls at home, and is now incorporating it into her textile art. Deb B…sound familiar?

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