In last week’s post I introduced you to a fabric collage retreat that way back when, I used to hold every year, down the road from Tom and I at the Harpswell Inn, here along the coast of Maine. After a seven year hiatus, I wondered how it would be to start it up again. With just a few inquiries with past retreat students I’ve seen off and on over the years, I had the eight I needed to fill the Inn’s rooms, and it would (essentially) be ours to work in and inhabit for the week.
It was a delightful idea, and as it turned out, a delightful reality as well.
In today’s Part 1 post, I’ll be introducing you to the first half of this revival class—filled with lovely people and amazing artists that I’ve come to know in various ways throughout my teaching career. Three out of the four featured students in this post, traveled here with their husbands, Irv, Rick, and Michael. The guys were great—fun to talk with at meals or otherwise but had their own agendas for how to spend the week. Anyway, I wanted to include them in our class photo below.
The Harpswell Inn, “…built in 1761 and was originally known as the Summer House…” sits above Lookout Point, one of the most photographed and painted vistas in Maine. The Inn, with a more recently added event room, is certainly an amazing spot for a retreat—very conducive to get away and relax into a week of creativity. The men definitely had time to relax into the porch rockers—which was not an uncommon place to find one or all three.
Those of us creating collages had to remind ourselves to take a mid-day break for a short stroll to the top-of-the-hill scenic outlook, or bottom-of-the-hill scenic outlook.
Just before entering our classroom, is a cute little sitting room with a small table (which had a classic scrabble board all ready to go until I moved it to make room for my fabric collage flip-books to peruse instead). This room made for a nice space to display a couple quilts and class samples.
Down a few steps was our classroom—we filled it with lots of color, energy, and camaraderie—and we littered it liberally with fabric scraps.
At the base of the steps we set up two round tables for my morning talks and demos. Below left, Cherie, among others, found exactly what they needed for current or future projects, in a student donated larger scrap pile. Below right, Rocky the Squirrel (a show-and-share quilt by LeahGrace Kayler) keeps watch while Irv Grant reads as Barb works on her collage.
By the time class began in Monday morning, students had their spaces set up and ready to go. The photos below, are where each project was at the beginning of the week—a couple just starting, and a couple begun in previous classes. You’ll see all four come to life before your eyes in each artist’s gallery of sequence photos. Enjoy the show.
Barbara Grant
Barb and her husband Irv, traveled all the way from Pacific Grove on the Pacific coast to be with us again, here in Maine—it’s become a habit of theirs—and I feel quite honored by that. I think it was August of 2012, that they first attended a Harpswell Inn Retreat, but I knew Barb from classes in California even before that. I didn’t have a blog back in 2012, but you can see Barb and her work at a 2016 retreat in Portland, Maine, here.
This year, she was very excited to be returning to give her orange octopus, Waverly, the best start possible start back on the waters of Casco Bay.
Leigh McMorrow
Leigh and her husband Michael, made Harpswell a week’s stop-over on a road tour from Okeechobee, Florida, and back in their (smaller) but decked-out RV camper. Leigh fell in love with a photo of an old and rusty, beat up and overly painted boat, contacted the photographer for permission to translate the image into fabric. It was a yes, and now she’s working some collage magic to make it so.
Leigh has a special touch with painted and rusty metal—I have special memories of her abandoned car collage begun at the Inn in 2019.
Ann Carr
Ann lives close enough to drive to Maine from Taunton, Massachusetts. I fist met her at my Harpswell, ME, Retreat—October 2019—the last retreat at the Inn before this year’s revival—though I’ve had the pleasure of Ann being in other Maine classes since then. Her fanciful steam-punk inspired portrait was begun as a second project in last year’s Bar Harbor class, and progressed beautifully this week. Bits of lace and sparkle are being added, supporting this subject’s mystique.
Joanne Hannon Shaw
Joanne, with her husband Rick, drove down from Toronto in Canada to take this class. Joanne is a multi-year attendee to my Maine retreats, creating several fanciful collage quilts—so many that we gave her her own Finish Line post in 2019. The very end of that post shows her then current large and challenging project begun the year before, the very same turtles she brought back to Maine for this class. As Joanne told me, it’s time to get the turtles done.
This week, turtle progress was made, but then Joanne switched to a bigger issue, how to create the illusion of water surrounding the stone fountain the turtles are basking on. After a couple days of trial and error and discussing ideas, breakthroughs were made. When you look at Joanne’s final photo below, there is indeed water surrounding those turtles.
Join me for next week’s Harpswell, Maine Retreat Revival—June 2026—Part 2 post, as I continue around the Harpswell Inn classroom, introducing my other four awesome students and their fantastic fabric collages—a summer treat for sure.
