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Stitching together in GE

 Many folks are unaware of the silent yet strong circle of quilters in our town. Two pivotal folks in this loosely knit group are Margie Foster and Lisa Hardy, women with very different roles, but each doing their part to make quilting an important part of the Glen Ellen culture.

For the past few years, Lisa aided by her sweetie, Mike Hardy, have been handling all of the logistics surrounding the marketing of our Village Fair quilt. Lisa made sure everyone submitted completed squares on time. She recruited a seamstress to patch it all together and since then she and Mike have been schlepping the quilt from venue to venue, selling raffle tickets to fund our October fair. We appreciate their dedication.

Another hero of the local quilt scene is Margie. This quiet, thoughtful woman has been part of the quilting team since the very beginning, about 22 years ago. Margie has created at least one square, and often several each year. In the early years, she organized the whole shebang, too.

In addition to doing squares for our local quilt, she also belongs to a smaller group of quilting friends who fashion quilts for the Valley of the Moon Children's Home. Her goal has always been to provide a hand-quilted blanket to every child who ends up at that center. One to keep forever. Margie also organized quilters last year to contribute to the "1,000 Quilts for Japan" project, through Mission of Love organization.

In order to accomplish those lofty goals, Margie recruits lots of friends. Clever, talented and hard-working folks like herself. Among them are Mary Miller, Beth Beaulieu, Jan Davis, Mary Ann Carr, Bonnie Fredricks, Cathy Leonard, Marsha Moran, Deb Pool, Lucille Sanders, Jane Witkowski and others. Ed Davis contributed his part by paying for mailing the Japan quilts.

I know, even without asking, that Margie would give all the credit to her mentor and the one who was the first catalyst for these quilted gifts. That would be the amazingly talented quilt artist, Mary Ann Carr.  

In an earlier paragraph, I mentioned that Margie was quiet. Well, in one respect: she doesn't toot her own horn. She simply goes about doing good and working hard at it, never asking for recognition or accolades.

But quiet? Not entirely. Margie Foster is one of the talented trio of women who sing in the Carrtunes, a local group led by Cynthia Carr, joined by a few talented guys, too. But that's news for another column.

For now, look for Lisa Hardy peddling quilt raffle tickets to fund our October Glen Ellen Village Fair. Lisa will be at the GE Village Market on Aug. 26, Sept. 17 and Oct. 1. Every raffle ticket you buy brings you closer to owning that beautiful blanket and helps fund our fair. Lisa was recently at our Sunday farmers market also and hopes to be there again, Aug. 21.

Meanwhile the exciting news on O'Donnell Lane is the sighting of our lane's resident mountain lion. Beautiful and majestic with an awesome leaping skill this cat woke Chris Everidge recently. Actually, what really woke her was her dog, Harry, setting up a fierce barking. Flicking on the outside lights, Chrissy stared out her sliding window to witness this amazing animal exiting her yard in one smooth leap over a fence so tall I can't see over it. She said the cat did this as easily as one of us could step up one stair.

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Share your good news with friends and neighbors in Glen Ellen. Call or write me at the numbers up there by my smile. Or email me at creekbottom@earthlink.net.Glen Ellen chatter rarely requires timeliness; however, if your news does, please be sure to contact me at least two weeks before the run date.