Quilting, singing go hand-in-hand for this duo

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Gloria Austin
SINGALONG — Cathy Miller and her husband John Bunge were in Houlton April 4 for some singing and quilting.
By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — As she strummed her guitar and sang, her husband accompanied her, and the two brought each quilt alive to the sound of music.
    Cathy Miller and her husband, John Bunge, were visiting guests of the Friends and Needles Quilt Guild April 4 at the First Baptist Church on Court Street. The group had visitors from Whitefield to Weston, along with Canadian friends.
    “We love having these programs as part of the workshop schedule because it gives every quilt member a chance to participate and be together,” said Jennifer Metzger co-chairman of the Friends and Needles Quilt Guild.
    “In 1991, I was hired to write songs for a play about quilting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,” explained Miller. “I also took my first quilting class and slowly got ‘hooked’ over the next several years.”
    As the two held up the inspired Australian Shadow quilt from the book “Casting Shadows,” Miller explained when she travels she likes to try to get a bit of fabric.
    “Especially if I go somewhere that has different fabric than I have at home,” she said.
    While on a quilting retreat in Victoria, British Columbia, Miller decided she would make a quilt with fabric she had with her.
    “The fabric makes this,” she said pointing at the quilt. “There are very large chunks of fabric left in it. In this case, I wanted to see the fabric.”
    Miller suggested to quilters to use fabrics in their collection which are bold looking.
    “This is a perfect way to feature your Australian, New Zealand, African or Japanese fabric collections, using a shadow behind each block,” she added.
    After the “Shop Hop” song, Miller explained that she was on an ever “perpetual shop hop,” which is hitting quilting stores and having a passport stamped for a chance at a prize.
    “There are organized shop hops going around these days,” she said. “The world record holder for shop hops is Minnesota. They had their inaugural shop hop several years ago and started with 93 shops. It was worth the time to do it all since you had 17 days to do it in.”
    With all of the fabric she had collected from — UFO, unfinished objects to WIP, works in progress to PHDs, projects half done to PIGS, projects in grocery sacks to name a few acronyms — Miller took little bits of scrap from her bag and made a postage stamp quilt … one-inch squares in 8-ich by 8-inch blocks.
    “It’s really slow,” she admitted which drew laughter from the crowd. “I don’t think I will be doing another one really soon. It’s not a scrap bag buster. It didn’t even make a dent in mine.”
    Miller took a break from writing lyrics and music to quilts until 1999 when she and her husband lived in Darwin, Australia.
    “At the end of our time there, I had enough songs written to record a CD entirely about quilting,” she explained. “We hit the road and have been traveling to quilting guilds and events ever since, singing, telling and researching stories around the quilting world.”
    Since Miller sings about history and how quilting intersects, her next song lyrics explained the “Duck Neck Quilt.”
    “I tend to buy a lot of state quilt books,” she said. “They really have good stories. I was taken in by the cover quilt for Alaska and its story.”
    A few years ago, Miller was asked if she wanted to go on a Mexican Riviera trip with her way paid.
    “I thought they wanted us to sing,” she said.
    That wasn’t the case. Her friends wanted her to teach a quilting class.
    “I have been a singing teacher for over 30 years and found I missed that interaction with people,” she said. “It fit for me to return to teaching, but this time quilting techniques, rather than private singing lessons. I’m really enjoying it.”
    A technique Miller teaches is “Mock Mola” appliqué.
    “It is a machine reverse application,” she explained. “You layer backing, batting and fabric together. You sew your design and then cut away the black to reveal the color underneath.”
    Miller recognizes not everyone knows how much work has gone into a quilt, except the quilter.
    “I hear from lots of people who regularly listen to my music that they really appreciate the stories and my understanding of quilters,” she said. “It seems to me that the songs serve as an affirmation of these women’s pastimes/passions, which I certainly share. As far as I know, there isn’t anyone else in the world who specializes in writing songs about quilting.