2010 quilt show winners announced

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
CONGRATULATIONS — Joyce Fitzpatrick, left, hands first-place ribbon to Sandra P. Henderson of Littleton for her red and white quilt. It was entered in the Friends and Needles Quilt Guild show’s small-size category. Addie Boyett, right, of Amity counted the votes.
By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Hundreds of votes were tabulated to determine winners at the annual Friends and Needles Quilt Guild show where visitors saw brilliant displays of color, intricate patterns and impeccable stitching. “It’s the people’s choice,” said Joyce Fitzpatrick, the outgoing quilt guild president, when winners were announced last week. “It’s just amazing. I’m not even in the category myself with some of these quilters. Their quilts really are art forms.”
    Houlton’s Gayle Cyr ended up in a horse race with herself. “First and the second place in the large quilt category were neck-and-neck the entire time,” said Addie Boyett who counted several hundred votes and observed definite early trends.
    Cyr designed the first-place winning quilt in a log cabin style for her future daughter-in-law. “It has a curve in it. When you look at the logs, one side is larger than the other. In a normal log cabin quilt, the sides are all equally the same,” explained Cyr about the illusion she created over an entire summer using light and dark fabrics. When she got the call about her winning queen-size quilt in the large category, she said she was surprised.
    However, Cyr said she didn’t create the second-place quilt in the large category; she only entered it. “I can really only take credit for the first-place quilt. Credit for the second-place quilt goes to the Cyr sisters, my husband’s aunts, because they made it.”
    Last year’s first-place quilter, Marilyn Prince, took home the third-place ribbon this year and said she is always glad when her quilts do well. “It gives me a good feeling. It doesn’t ever cease to be exciting and I am very thankful.” Her large medallions required a “fussy” cut to cover her mostly turquoise and black queen-size quilt with a walk-about pattern.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
AMERICANA — Diana Rauch, left, of Woodland holds up her twin-size quilt with apples in a potato basket that earned second-place honors at the Friends and Needles Quilt Guild show. Winners were announced Sept. 1. Addie Boyett is at right.
    The complex design she said jokingly, “took forever.” Then, when talking about her use of superior fabrics, Prince said the entire process, from start to finish, took about one month.
    In the small-size category, Sandra P. Henderson, a Littleton resident, said she worked over a period of 18 months creating her twin-size quilt that took first-place honors in the small category with it’s red and white design and embroidery. “To me it’s an honor. There are so many beautiful quilts in the show and so many great quilters. I was just stunned that I had won.”
    Diana Rauch drove into the group’s Houlton meeting from Woodland last Wednesday to claim her second-place handmade ribbon. Although, there were no cash prizes, Rauch said she didn’t know there would be any type of recognition at all. “I was surprised. At the show it was hanging low. And, I didn’t enter it to win a prize.”
    Rauch said the idea came first and she had to start, then stop and think about what would come next. “All together it took about a week. I designed a potato basket. Everyone puts potatoes in potato baskets. I thought I would put apples in a potato basket” explained Rauch about her Americana motif.”
    Several of the quilters who entered their work for the show at the Elks Club said the creative process is addictive. “You start for fun. And, the next thing you know is that you can’t stop,” is how Boyett described it. Fitzpatrick said some 400 people visited the show from Aug 20-22 and each received a ballot to cast votes for their favorites. The five dollar entry pass covered admission for all three days.
Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Elna Seabrooks
NUMBER ONE — Gayle Cyr shows the log cabin style she used to create an intricate quilt that earned a first-place ribbon in the large-size category at the Friends and Needles Quilt Guild show in Houlton during Potato Feast Days. She also entered a quilt done by her husband’s aunts that received the second-place ribbon. Joyce Fitzpatrick, right, was the guild’s outgoing president when winners were announced Sept. 1.