Dan's Story

Hi, I am Dan, the other half of the story. I started my career as a plumber working for my father, who had worked as a plumber for his father. I can not say it was my passion, but I was good at it. My passion throughout my life has been gardening and working in a greenhouse. 

 There were always big flower gardens in the yards around the Quilt Shop and Retreat Center we owned when we lived in Rangeley. I also kept a plastic hoop greenhouse operational year round for over 20 years ~ in Rangeley, where the temps in the winter can go way below 0 for days, and average snow fall is over 120”. 

Entrance to former quilt shop

Greenhouse in winter

Once we opened the Quilt Shop I found another passion ~ quilting. I was brought up that whatever you were doing, one should do it the best you are able. Hence, my approach to quilting was much the same. I felt that if I was going to work in the shop I needed to be able to at least “hold my own”  as I waited on customers. So Carol showed me how to use the sewing machine and off I went. I quickly bored with following patterns and started dreaming on graph paper and seeing what I could come up with. Many blocks I used in the early years were dreamt up this way. I would draft out a block I liked, then I would use the floor as I laid out the blocks to get secondary patterns. I was hooked. 

Here are blocks ready to lay out

Now they are laid out on floor

Pieced with borders added

As computer programs came out for my Mac, I found the ease in being able to design faster and change colors easier. It made that part of the process much more interesting. 

CERTIFIABLE 

designed using EQ8

The actual quilt, pieced by me and quilted by Carol

These early quilts used squares and rectangles making up blocks that created secondary patterns when used to create the quilt. Basically, isn’t a quilt nothing more than a series of blocks, either with, or without, sashing? Repeated over and over until it was decided that the quilt was large enough (or you were sick of making the block), add borders, quilt, bind and enjoy. Move on ~ too many quilt ideas and not enough time.