The Friends and Needles Quilt Guild of Houlton hosed a Quilt Show for three days over the Potato Feast celebration on Aug. 16-18.
More than 500 guests visited the show held at the University of College at Houlton.
The top three winners in the Large Quilt Category were: First, Ellen Nadeau, “Melinda’s Heart” Emily Nicholson; second, Dorothy Fitzpatrick, “Celtic Knots” and third, Becky Day “Christmas Log Cabin.”
In the Small Quilt Category: First, Kim Hazlett, “School Houses in Japan,”; second, Anne Baker, “McPherson Farm Memories” and third, Loann Ritchie, “Curved Log Cabin.”
Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
EVERYWHERE — At the University of Maine College in Houlton, a variety of patterns and colors of quilts adorned the Houlton Potato Feast Quilt Show, sponsored by the Friends and Needles Quilting Guild.
One of the featured quilts during the show was the Northern Maine Quilt Trail, which has been hung on the side of the Rather-B- Quilting shop on the B-Road in Houlton.
The idea of a Northern Maine Quilt Trail was presented to an ambitious guild of quilters at Friends and Needles Quilt Guild in Houlton. It was the guild’s wish to celebrate the art of quilting by a trail passing through the communities in northern Maine with barn quilt blocks.
The discussion of this project was in 2011 and the first barn block completion was August 2013, with the dream of more and more blocks to follow. The guild decided that the first block, and the beginning of the trail, would begin at the community quilt shop, Rather-B- Quilting, located at 224 B Road, Houlton.
Friends and Needles Quilt Guild member and shop owner, Peggy Crane, was honored to begin the project. Crane designed her own block of “Flying Geese” around a center “Churn Dash” and hence the name of her block is, “Churning Geese.” She designed and created the quilt in batik fabrics from her shop. The coloration of her quilt was duplicated in the actual wood block.
The original idea of Quilt Barn squares began with Donna Sue Groves with a wish to honor her mother, Maxine and her Appalachian heritage by having a painted quilt block hung on her Adams County, Ohio barn. Groves, working with the Ohio Arts Council and other community organization was inspired to change her plan from a single block to a “sampler” of 20 quilt squares that could be created along a driving trail that would invite visitors to travel through the Ohio countryside.
The volunteers that help develop the concept put up their first square in Adams County in Oct. 2001. “Mother didn’t get her quilt square ‘til three years later,” Groves said with a laugh. The first quilt trail had hardly begun when groups of quilters from neighboring Ohio counties started their own projects. Groves worked with organizations in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, and so it went, growing the concept of more and more quilt blocks across America.
Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
BARN TRAIL — The Friends and Needles Quilting Guild was part of crafting the Quilt Barn Trail, which was on display at the Houlton Potato Feast Quilt Show. Standing with the original quilt and replica are, from left, Karen Gallop, co-president of the Friends and Needles Quilting Guild; Peggy Crane, treasurer of the guild and Jennifer Metzer, co-president of the guild.
Now this simple idea has spread to more than 40 states and to Canada, and the trail continues to grow. These blocks are an art movement to promote tourism and to honor those women and men in their contributions to American agriculture. Over 3,000 quilts are part of organized trails, with dozens more scattered through the countryside.
Groves said that the quilt barn trails honor what she calls “the backbone of America.”
“We who live in rural America are just blessed with wonderful attributes and opportunities,” she said. It is because of Groves’ idea that others have been inspired to join what has become the largest grassroots public arts movement in our nation’s history. (Source 2012 Book Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement bv Suz; Parronl. Friends and Needles Quilt Guild is proud to be a part of this Quilt Barn Trail in Aroostook County, Maine.
Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
UP CLOSE — A resident takes an up close look at one of the many quilts on display at the Houlton Potato Feast Quilt Show sponsored by the Friends and Needles Quilting Guild.
Pioneer Times photograph/Gloria Austin
BEAUTIFUL — Dorothy Fitzpatrick shows one of the many quilts at the Houlton Potato Feast Quilt Show sponsored by the Friends and Needles Quilting Guild.
