On the Road: Harpswell, Maine Collage Quilt Retreat, October 2019

Recipe for my Harpswell, Maine Quilt Retreat

Combine:

• 11 students
• 1 iconic, historic Maine inn
• 1 fabric collage teacher
• 1 husband/assistant/caterer

Mix well and consume over five days of class.

A week ago I had the pleasure of teaching fabric collage students here in my hometown of Harpswell, Maine. Our venue, the Harpswell Inn is less than a half-mile down our dead-end road of Lookout Point, making it very convenient for me. It’s also, I hope, a unique experience for my students. Aside from the class time there’s an easy walk to the shore, a night out, opportunities for sight-seeing and exploring local restaurants, plus a visit to my studio.

We kicked off the week with the traditional dinner out at a local restaurant, Morse’s Cribstone Grill, which was very accommodating, reserving a small side-room overlooking the water for us to congregate.

One of the things I aim for is fostering a sense of camaraderie among my attendees. One way to do this is by making time for students to share completed work they’ve brought with them. The dog, below, was made by Dawn Erikson. Dawn began her pup at last year’s Portland, Maine Quilt Retreat, interpreting the black and white fur with the comparable values of blues and yellows for her artwork.

The following mandala quilts below, were made by Lizzie Stebbins on the left and Vickie Ostrow on the right. Both were made as projects from my book “Serendipity Quilts,” which includes the pattern. I love seeing how people interpret the same design so differently.

Click on the detail photos below to see them larger.

Both Lizzie (with her spiral from my book and a sea turtle based on one of my patterns) and Pat Beaudoin (that’s her dog below), really did their homework before coming to class, giving them as much collage experience as possible. Pat used my book, making her own spiral and pattern based project, plus she follows my blog. She purchased and used the Fabric Collage Master Class Manual, as a guide to create her dog below on her own. The background is a hand-painted fabric by Ricky Timms. Pat used part of her time in class to get a critique for areas to address on her pup-portrait before she finishes him up.

Kelly Godbout took my animal-only Fabric Collage Menagerie class at Empty Spools Seminars in California this past spring, where she started her dog collage below. What a great story this little rescue pup from Thailand has, and she brought his portrait along to Maine for some feed-back. This week, Kelly’s plan was to get a start on her next collage—one of her husband and daughter.

Carla Beaton brought her in-progress quilt (below) from home. Working from my book, she had the body of the darker fish collaged, but then got stuck. She thought it was looking kind of dull. Personally, I thought she had a fine start working with the patterned batiks, it’s just that they were a variety of gray tones.

Sometimes my students are almost apologetic for not using the colors I like to use—which tend to be bright and colorful. Carla came to class thinking she would work in bright colors as well, but was struggling with that color palette. After talking with her, she revealed her attraction to what she called “muddy” colors. She pulled out some fabric examples and they were beautiful—a variation of subtle earthy toned batiks, but with good print designs to cut around and work with. Once Carla had the “permission” to work with the color palette she preferred, she made some good progress.

Pat Beaudoin had the little collection of cut-out animal prints (below) pinned onto her work board as inspiration. In her lioness collage—a memory quilt of a trip to Africa, she plans to work other animals into the piece, such as the giraffe and giraffe-patterned fabric in the muzzle. Can you see them? Click on the photo for a larger view.

At one point, Pat was at a loss for how to create the lioness’ fuzzy chin hairs. When I came back around later, she proudly showed me her solution, below.

She saw the color and texture of the bristly chin hair in the scrub brush of a Western landscape fabric. You can see the holes she cut in the fabric above and below. Now that’s looking closely at your fabric and seeing all its potential.

The story behind the western-themed fabric (if I remember it correctly): A friend of Pat’s has a granddaughter who loves horses, so the friend made a quilt with this fabric. But the granddaughter hated it. So in honor of the hated quilt and hated fabric, Pat and a few other friends, have challenged each other to use bits of the fabric in their own quilts. I can’t imagine any will have the success that Pat has.

The use of novelty fabrics such as this prove that there really is no fabric that you can’t use for fabric collage. So now we really can’t throw any fabric away.

Time to meet the ladies of my Fabric Collage Retreat below—pictured left to right: back row—Kelly Godbout, Lizzie Stebbins, Barb Boland, and Dawn Erikson; stuck in the middle—Vickie Ostrow and Carla Beaton; second row from bottom—Ann Carr, Pat Beaudoin, and Kathy Bridgers; bottom row; Jane Kennedy, me, and Betsy Habich.

The class space at the Harpswell Inn is, uh, cozy. I wish it were bigger, but as the poet says, if wishes were horses beggars would ride (at least that’s what Tom tells me). But with its other positive attributes, even if there were another option in our town (there isn’t), the Inn would still be a lovely choice. Primarily it’s just so nice for the students to be able to work, have lunch served, and sleep in the same building.

I didn’t have much time to take photos—other than work in progress—so thank you to the students who graciously shared their photos of the classroom to include in this post. Dawn Erikson also included the photos below—the two islands at the end of the road, and two local characters—with a nice view “behind” them.

The weather for the week was mostly overcast, with a shower or two, so I asked Tom to add some of his own summer photos to give you a flavor of what Harpswell is otherwise like—from his perspective at least, which is often in a kayak. The sunset below is just down the hill and visible from the Inn’s front lawn. As with all the photos, you can click on any to view it larger.

One of the highlights of the week, according to my Harpswell retreat participants, is the visit to my studio. Besides the chance to see where I work and to see the quilts that live there, another popular attraction is the blueberry pie homemade by Tom. Visitors are also greeted by our canine companions, Kali (seen below ensconced in Vic, Dawn’s husband’s lap) and my tripawed-dog Felix—who was too busy bumming pie crusts to slow down for a photo. Other attendees besides my students, were Barb’s husband Russ, and Carla’s mom Ruth.

My mom, who has worked with fabric all her life as a seamstress, quilter, and general creative person, introduced me to and inspired my love of fabrics. As she grows older, she has less energy for some projects, but one thing she continues to do is make her “Oma’s pumpkins,” below. These ornamental, stuffed gourds are made with reclaimed clothing for the exterior—usually an old sweater—and for the stuffing, leftovers from said sweaters, old t-shirts, and other scraps destined to be discarded. Both my mom and I enjoy the challenge of using up things that others might throw away. I brought a peck or two of Oma’s pumpkins to class and the ladies swooped in to snap them up and give them new homes—but for a couple days, the pumpkins added some fall decoration to the classroom worktables.

I’ve saved the best for last. The week is all about the making of fabric collage quilts after all. The food, fun, and scenery are all just extras. In fact, one of my students suggested that I not refer to this class as a retreat, but rather a workshop, with an emphasis on the work. It is a full five days, especially for the first-timers, who have a lot to absorb. But they did it magnificently.

Student Work Slide Show

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So there you have it, the recipe for a 5-day quilting retreat in Harpswell, Maine. The ingredients were well mixed, allowed to sit and simmer, and stirred once-in-awhile. There’s still some baking to do, but I’m confident the results will be delicious.