Three weeks ago, I said my goodbyes to a new group of women who attended what I’ve called a “revival” of a retreat that I used to hold at a historic inn just down the road from where Tom and I now live in Harpswell, Maine. After a seven year hiatus, I wondered how it would be to start it up again—and it worked out quite well—well enough to contemplate a return next year in 2027 (stay tuned for updates).
The class of eight students occupied the eight bedrooms of the main building, and our classroom filled the event room (seen from the inside in above photo, and from the outside on the far right of the Harpswell Inn photo below). Essentially, we had the classic New England inn all to ourselves for the five days.
Since that week in mid-June, I’ve been posting glimpses into that class: first, an introductory photo-filled dispatch; second, a Part 1 post celebrating the collage projects of the first half of this revival class; and third, a look back to 12 past Maine retreats. This week I continue the Harpswell theme with Part 2 of this year’s Harpswell, Maine Retreat Revival.
This class was mostly filled with students who had attended past Harpswell Inn classes, from 2011 through 2019. All these women are talented artists who were such a pleasure to teach and spend time with either again, or for the first time.
For a mid-week show and share of collage quilts, we all gathered in the Inn’s front sitting room. It was a chance to get to know each other better as a few of these women presented previous collage quilts and told us their stories. Darlene, in photos above, made good use of a comfortable chair to replenish her fabric palette with fresh-cut pieces for her flamingo collage project.
In next week’s post, I’ll share the artwork presented for this show-and-share in a special Harpswell Inn Finish Line. The zebra portrait below, by LeahGrace Kayler, is just one example of the amazing work that you’ll see.
As I pointed out in Part 1 of the class posts, a small sitting room was just outside our classroom doors. In that post. I began our class “tour” by bearing left at the base of the stairs and viewing the work by Barb Grant, Leigh McMorrow, Ann Carr, and Joanne Hannon Shaw.
Today in Part 2, I’ll continue the tour around the far right corner of the room with the work of Darlene Determan, LeahGrace Kayler, Sylvie Aguilar, and Cherie Toman.
Photos above, show where each of the Part 2 projects were at the beginning of the week. You’ll see all four come to life as they seemingly magically emerge from the foundation fabric they’re constructed on. Enjoy the metamorphosis.
Click on any smaller photos to view them larger and to scroll through the photo galleries.
Darlene Determan
Darlene spends the warmer part of the year in Ocean Park, Maine—the rest of the year she migrates south to Florida. She has been a student of mine pretty much forever—at least 26 years. Her collage skills have of course grown over the years and in 2019 we gave her her own Finish Line blog post. Last September 2025, Darlene began to collage an octopus in my Bar Harbor, Maine, class, and she brought the in-progress piece to this Harpswell class as a back-up project.
However, what Darlene really wanted from this class was an opportunity to push herself into a more impressionistic and loose cutting style to create a “flamboyance” of flamingoes. She did a great job searching out large and sinuous prints in fabrics and then letting the curved cuts of fabric—her palette—dictate the curved forms of the flamingos, creating a more impressionistic result.
LeahGrace Kayler
LeahGrace has been in numerous (online) classes with me and has created gob-smacking artwork—definitely another person we need to dedicate a full Finish Line post to. But this class in Harpswell was the first time we had ever met and worked with each other in-person and what a treat it was. She drove up from Gloucester, Massachusetts, with an “easy” project in mind, one that she could relax into and enjoy her time in Harpswell and in class with her friend, Sylvie, who she met in this 2021 online class.
Seeing subtle changes in value and color is a strength of LeahGrace’s—and she has the experience to gauge what patterns in fabric will work well for her subjects. Her adorable pair of budgerigars (a.k.a. parakeets) certainly came to life over the class week.
For a just-in-case project, LeahGrace arrived with a second set of subjects, her sister’s cat trio. She was able to switch from birds to cats by the end of the week and before class ended, we were able to discuss cat colors and fabrics and to see how they might develop.
Sylvie Aguilar
Sylvie is also from Massachusetts, in Acton, and was also able to drive to this Harpswell class, as she has to Bar Harbor classes in other years. The special quality of driving to a class (as I’m sure many of you know) is that you can bring soooo much more fabric than you can pack into checked luggage, which can be a blessing or a curse. Sylvie did a very good job curating her flamingo fabric selection ahead of time—already planning to add highlights of aqua to her wide selection of pinks and peaches—so she wasn’t overwhelmed by the possibilities.
As I circulated through the classroom, Sylvie was the third person in a row working on birds. She, LeahGrace, and Darlene, playfully called themselves the “Bird Brains.” Lots of help and collaboration and fabrics seemed to be flying back and forth between the tables. It’s always interesting for me to see how same subjects (such as flamingos) take on such unique personalities in the freedom of this fabric collage process.
Cherie Toman
In this class of students who I had worked with multiple times before, Cherie was the one unknown. She follows me online and had taken a 4-week Thursday Follow Along, but no 5-day classes until this one. She drove up from Killingworth, Connecticut and her excitement was palpable and contagious and within the first day of class, you would not have guessed that she, and everyone else in class, hadn’t known each other for years.
Cherie’s subject was her brown and white dog, Bailey, and from the very beginning, Bailey’s portrait was going to be purple and pink. Perfect in my opinion. Cherie also did her homework and arrived with a nice variety of color values and prints in her fabrics that would lend themselves well for Bailey’s short-haired muzzle and curly, floppy ears. Cherie made great progress in capturing Bailey’s energy, and credits the help and camaraderie of her neighbors Sylvie and LeahGrace, as they worked well into the nights together.
A Visit to My Studio
When I set up this class a few months ago, I offered a visit to my studio as part of the schedule. That may or may not have been a good idea time-wise to get it presentable—I’ve realized that it’s been since the 2019 Harpswell Inn class that I’ve let anyone into the (more and more untidy) space except my sister and maybe a couple good friends. But I do work more diligently with a deadline—so when the evening came, I was happy to share my creative space with others again.
Until We Meet Again
All good things must end, and by early afternoon on Friday there was a changing of the guard between our departure and the arrival of a wedding party—such is the life of cute little inn in summertime Maine. The whole class pitched in to help all of us exit and pack up cars. Leigh and Michael volunteered their RV to easily transport the larger pinning boards back up the road to my studio. All-in-all, there were three vehicles involved getting me and my class materials home (my family helpers had time issues that day). I felt like it was an “it takes a village” moment—thanks again to my class for the help you gave.
I look forward to the next time we work together.
