“We noticed that our senior women can’t do as much as they once could, and they don’t get noticed as much as they once did. So we determined to reach out to them,” Cronkite said. The group reaches out through crafting.

After a few years of meeting in one another’s homes, the ministry now meets in the fellowship hall of Calvary Baptist Church in Newport. The group is composed of Cronkite and deacons’ wives Rosa, Joyce and Laura, and six helpers, Joan, Diane, Hazel, Evelyn, Sharon and Shirley, who preferred not to have their last names used because they want their actions to stand for them.

“We want to be testimony for others to do this work,” said Cronkite, serving as spokeswoman for the group.

The highlight of the group’s outreach work culminates at Christmas time. During the year, the 10 women make as many as 37 Christmas stockings that in past years have been filled with many handmade gifts, including slippers, dishcloths, coasters, tea wallets filled with tea bags, candy in boxes fashioned from recycled greeting cards, cloth sachets filled with recycled pieces of scented candles, tea cups, pins, notepads and religious tracts.

At the party when the Christmas stockings are presented, Cronkite said the tables are spread with pretty tablecloths, the centerpieces are china teapots and the table is set with bone china tea cups.

“The ladies love digging into those stockings,” Cronkite said. “[The women] know they are loved.”

When the senior women arrive at the party, their cars are parked courtesy of Calvary Baptist  Church Pastor George Perkins, who then escorts each lady into the fellowship hall. Then a Queen for the Day is chosen. Last year it was Edna Chambers, 97, of Newport.

“We have such a special church,” Cronkite said.

The group also reaches out to young mothers and children.

Just this past Easter, the group made nearly two dozen scarves to give to women in the church, and made and sent Valentine’s cards to the elderly men and women in the church.

One year, the group made what they call Mummy Bags for young mothers, each bag containing slippers, a scarf, pen and paper, soap, sachet, hand cream nail polish, a Christian fiction book and other items.

Another year, the group knit slippers for every child — at least 50 — in the church. Cronkite, who learned to knit a few years ago, estimated that she has knit over the years more than 1,000 pairs of slippers.

And four years ago the group made more than 200 patchwork tote bags to hand out, one of the many indications of the group’s devotion to the concept of faith in action.

“They have giving hearts,” Cronkite said of the women in the Deacons Wives Ministry. “I think it’s very rare to find a group that works together like this. We do it joyfully.”

Since a great deal of yarn is needed to fashion the handmade items, several women in the church have taken it on themselves to frequent yard sales and thrift shops in search of yarn at bargain prices. “We recycle everything we can,” Cronkite said.

Cronkite said she spends at least four hours each day working on the various craft projects the group undertakes.

“Crafting is a way to lift the spirit,” Cronkite said. “ We never get bored. We’re always thinking of things to do. We’re serving the Lord. This is the greatest joy.”

Snippets

Orono Quilters will hold its annual quilt show 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Old Town United Methodist Church, 744 Stillwater Ave. The theme is “Maine Wildflowers.” The event will feature a quilt raffle, a penny raffle, white elephants, vendors and Project Linus. Admission is by suggested donation of $3.

Phyllis Goss of Glenburn has a crochet project left unfinished by her mother. She is seeking someone to either finish the project for her or help her refresh her crochet skills so she can finish it herself. To learn more, email rpvistaway@aol.com.

The Great Cranberry Island Historical Society Museum features an exhibit on Rachel Field, who summered in the Cranberry isle in the 1920s and 1930s, and who was the author of “Hitty: Her First 100 Years,” a story about the adventures of a little wooden doll. The exhibit displays dolls made in Hitty’s image and other items of interest to dollmakers, collectors and the general public. Of special interest to all is the delightful “Hitty” DVD produced on the island and sold as a fundraiser for the museum. The museum also has on display several beautiful dresses of late 1800s vintage. Admission to the museum is free. Getting to the island and the museum requires an approximately 20-minute boat ride from Northeast Harbor. For information, call 244-7800.

The newly-organized Cranky Pants Machine and Sewing Club for those who use or want to learn how to use treadle sewing machines will meet at 6 p.m. Friday, May 17, at The Cotton Cupboard in Bangor.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com. Don’t forget to visit her blog at byhand.bangordailynews.com.

– “500 Fun Little Toys” by Nguyen Le is packed with projects and project variations to knit, crochet, sew and felt. This is a book of a handy size — approximately 6 inches square, which makes it portable enough to take along on a vacation.

The book includes a section that features suggestions for materials to use for the projects and instructions for the various techniques used. It also includes tips and tricks to ensure the projects will turn out correctly.

The book sections are: First Toys, Animals and Creatures, Play Food, Dolls, Costumes, Everyday Objects and Games and Fitness.

Look for a sewn fabric birds mobile, a needle felted ball, a fabric rabbit and dinosaur, a needle felt bear, a grasshopper sewn of felt, a sewn banana and bacon and eggs, a knit mermaid, a superhero cape, a knit and felt tic-tac-toe game, and a fabric pin the tail on the donkey game.

– “500 Crochet: Fun Designs for Blocks, Triangles, Circles and Hearts” by Hannah Elgie and Kath Webber is also a small 6-inch-square book packed much to offer crocheters of all levels of skill. This is not is project book, per se. It gives information on crochet techniques, equipment, yarn, stitches and pattern reading. It also includes tips and hints. Instructions for each motif is given in print and as a chart.

Learn to crochet five-pointed stars, leaves or tiny hearts and string them together to form a garland. Craft small round doilies to serve as coasters, or crochet small flowers to stitch to a favorite winter scarf or hat.

Learn to crochet in the round or back and forth. Make variations of the good old granny square in cotton yarn and stitch them together to make a placemat, or craft them in wool or other animal fiber and sew them together to make a baby afghan.

Both of the “500” books are products of Sellers Publishing Inc. located in South Portland, and part of the company’s 500 Series of books that also cover cooking.

– “Crochet Cool: Fun Designs for Kids Ages 1 to 6” by Tanya Bernard is another offering from Sellers Publishing. The designs in this book call for Cascade yarn — cotton, wool, alpaca or cotton-silk blend — and are crocheted using a size G, H or I hook.

The Spring Tunic Dress in cotton-silk features a granny square bodice and a ripple stitch skirt. The Daisy Brimmed Hat in pale blue cotton is embellished with a big white flower. The Ruffle Cardigan in off-white alpaca yarn features trumpet sleeves. And the Skater’s Sweater designed for a lively boy is done in alpaca yarn sports sleeves of wide stripes in two shades of brown.

Each pattern specifies whether it is for beginner, intermediate or advanced level crocheters.

Each project has up-close, color photographs illustrating a particular technique, and how-to.

For information about these books, inquire at your local bookstore or public library, or go to sellerspublishing.com.

Snippets

The inaugural meeting of the new Cranky Pants Machine and Sewing Club will take place at 6 p.m. Friday, May 17, at The Cotton Cupboard Quilt Shop on Broadway. The club will meet the third Friday of each month.

The club is for those who want to learn or share techniques of using vintage foot- and hand-powered sewing machines.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com. Don’t forget to visit her blog at byhand.bangordailynews.com.

Winifred Worth was the reigning needlework expert on these pages, offering readers embroidery designs suitable for corset covers, shirtwaists, pincushions and other items. I haven’t found much about Winifred Worth and her background except that she also compiled and published instruction booklets for crochet and tatting.

With each of her embroidery designs published in the BDN, Worth offered a bit of history and suggestions for colors and stitches to use. In an early July 1913 edition, she had this to say about a floral design for a rectangular-shaped pincushion:

“In my study of embroidery I have learned that one reason why Madeira [a Portuguese island off the coast of Morocco] embroidery is bowerlike and fragile is because in the land of its creation, about the only beautiful objects to delight the eyes of the women are flowers which grow in lovely profusion. These the women imitate in embroidery, often working by a single light or by the side of a humble open grate fire.”

On July 25, 1913 Worth said about the design for a corset cover she offered, “ I have always thought this one of the neatest of all patterns to embroider upon underwear. In the first place, each design is so small that there need be no complex needlework. Each leaf can be covered with satin stitch which even a child can learn to make.”

This design was composed of floral sprays to be worked on both sides of the front of the garment.

For the Saturday, Aug. 9, 1913 edition, it was a Novel Collar Design in Bulgarian Embroidery.

Worth wrote: “I am furnishing you a pretty design today, the very name of which will call to your mind the peasantry of the Balkan Mountains, who are noted for their remarkable skill in completing some of the handsomest embroidery of historical beauty. It is their aim and delight to use a great many colors, intermingling them in a manner so clever that one color blends like a shadow into its adjoining part.” She suggested using shades of blue for the floral motifs, shades of green for the leaves and vines and shades of blue and green for the butterfly motif — all in satin stitch.

On Tuesday, Aug. 12, 1913 Worth said, “If you are acquainted with Roman cutwork you can appreciate the beauty of this design. It is not intricate at all, but you must exercise considerable patience to obtain best results.” The design, for a shirtwaist [a blouse], featured stylized flowers and curving leaves, and eyelet and bar cutwork. She suggested using silk floss on silk fabrics in order to obtain “rare beauty” in the finished piece.

With each embroidery design, these instructions for transferring the design to fabric were included: “To Transfer This Design: Put some soap in a pint of hot water, stir and remove soap. Saturate design with mixture [one assumes the design was cut from the newspaper], then remove excess moisture by partially drying design. Place material on a hard, flat surface and lay the design face down upon the material. Cover with two folds of newspaper and rub with a tablespoon, pressing hard, until design is entirely transferred.” There was a patent pending for this process developed, apparently, by World Color Printing Co. in St. Louis.

The NEWS also featured in nearly every edition a pattern. Readers would clip a coupon, write in their name and address, put a dime in an envelope and mail it to the Bangor Daily News. A design in July, dubbed “A Charming Gown,” featured embroidery in oriental tints, had a front in the surplice style and a vest-like bodice. Recommended fabrics for making the dress were crepe, charmeuse, linen, corduroy, gingham, chambray, voile or tub silk. The pattern was cut in 34, 36, 38, 40 and 42 bust sizes. It required 5 ¾  yards of fabric to make the dress to fit a 36-inch bust size.

The fashion page also offered household hints, such as: “A pinch of soda added to a berry pie before the upper crust is put on will keep it from running over” and “A bit of camphor in a small cup placed over an alcohol lamp which has its flame turned very low will always put mosquitoes to flight.”

I assume these items were compiled by a woman who worked at the NEWS and not by Winifred Worth. However, an article on making a wildflower garden bears Edna Egan’s byline and one on beautiful hands has Annette Angert’s byline. Mrs. Kingsley and Mrs. McClure sometimes contributed, commenting on fashion and giving tips on how to raise courteous children.

Snippets

The website for Stitch for Cancer was incorrect in last week’s column. The correct address is stitchforcancer.webs.com.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com. Don’t forget to visit her blog at byhand.bangordailynews.com.

“I thought to myself, if I can make her a hat, why can’t I make more and donate them to local cancer centers,” St. Germain said in an email interview. “The strength my grandmother had to fight her battle made me want to start something to send strength to others. So, I started Stitch for Cancer in January 2011.”

Word of St. Germain’s cap-making effort spread quickly. Her mother-in-law, Cheryl, who lives in Rhode Island made caps and sent them to Bar Harbor.

“My family and friends started helping,” St. Germain said. Soon, Cheryl’s co-workers wanted to make caps to donate to the cause. “And by word of mouth, strangers began helping.”

Because of the response from Cheryl and her co-workers, and family and friends in Rhode Island, St. Germain decided in January to start donating caps to the Norman and Rosalie Fain Health Centers at Miriam Hospital, the Rhode Island Hospital and Hasbro Children’s Hospital, all in Rhode Island. Caps also are donated to CancerCare of Maine and the Raish Peavey Haskell Children’s Cancer and Treatment Center, both in Brewer.

“I have been crocheting since I was in fifth grade, when my mom taught me,” St. Germain said. “Almost 20 years now. I still have the blanket I started back then — though never finished. I love to create things with my hands. All types of crafting are fun, but crochet has always been my go-to.”

She also learned to sew recently and makes arm pillows for donation.

The Stitch for Cancer logo has unique meaning, St. Germain said.

“The lavender ribbon represents general cancer awareness, the pink letters represent breast cancer awareness and the blue yarn represents pancreatic cancer awareness,” she said. St. Germain said her husband lost an uncle to pancreatic cancer.

St. Germain suggested that those who want to knit or crochet caps to donate to Stitch for Cancer choose yarn or fabric in any fiber except wool, such as acrylic and polyester blends, cottons, or non-itchy animal fibers.

“We always encourage the use of the softer yarns, but we will accept anything,” St. Germain said. “We have Stitch for Cancer labels to attach to the items with information on how to care for the item, what it’s made of and the donor’s name and email address — both are optional — in case the recipient wants to send a thank you. It also makes it more personal knowing the name of the person who created the item. If someone wants to participate, all they need to do is crochet, knit, sew or purchase items of comfort to donate.”

In addition to caps, Stitch for Cancer also accepts and donates, scarves, shawls, lap blankets, arm pillows, mittens, headbands, socks and other items that might offer comfort to those undergoing cancer treatment.

Each month has a theme. St. Germain said, “May’s theme will be Flowers, so throughout April donors can create items and incorporate flowers in them. This is just for fun, it’s not a requirement for donated items.”

Donated items are collected each month and donated to cancer centers the last Friday of each month. Every item is tagged and photographed. St. Germain coordinates a Swap and Sell event each month at the Acadia Christian School in Trenton where donations of items may be made. She posts that date at the Stitch for Cancer Facebook page.

For information, go to stitchforcancer.webs.org.

Snippets
Pine Tree Quilters Guild has announced the teachers and classes available for the Maine Quilts 2013 show Friday through Sunday, July 26-28. For information about the classes, entering quilts, exhibits or the show in general, visit MaineQuilts.org.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com.

Many years ago, when my sons were small, I stacked them, much to their delight, in one room — in bunk beds.

But it quickly became very clear that changing the bedding on bunk beds was a chore. The bottom bunk was so low that it put a crimp in my back to reach it, and if I wasn’t careful, I whacked my head on the rail of the top bunk. In order to grapple with bedding on the top bunk, I had to stand on the rail of the lower one, only to discover that my arms weren’t quite long enough to smooth the covers into place.

I also discovered that finding bedspreads to fit bunk beds, in appealing colors and fabrics, was something of a challenge. I wanted bedcovers that were durable enough to stand up to the roughhousing of small boys. I wanted it to be all right for them to jump on their beds with muddy shoes. I wanted bedspreads that would accommodate the shedding of cat and dog hair.

So, I got it into my head to make bedspreads for the bunk beds out of my family’s old jeans. Friends contributed theirs too, and the next thing I knew, I was crawling around on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor figuring out how to sew the pieces I had cut out onto a sheet I used as base fabric. I used all parts of the jeans — pockets, zippers, rivets — not just the leg parts which were easy to cut into desired shapes, though I didn’t desire any particular shapes. I just wanted a collage-like hodge-podge of denim pieces stitched by machine to the base fabric.

That’s when the fun really began. I pinned on a piece, stitched it, overlapped it with another piece, leaving the edges raw and stitched that one down until I had covered the base fabric. I considered adding batting and backing as in a traditional quilt, but the weight of the denim made the additional layers unnecessary. I bound off the four edges with pieces of print fabric and called it good.

My sons were delighted with the bed covers. They especially liked the pockets in which they parked Matchbox cars, stashed a box of crayons or hid away some treasure — a bird’s feather, a pretty rock — that they had found.

Eventually, as with all things, the boys grew — out of wanting handmade bedspreads where they parked toy trucks, out of bunk beds and into young men with rooms of their own. Thus, the denim bedspreads saw new uses, primarily as beach blankets at Maine lakes, ponds and seasides.

Somehow in the slipstream and backwash of growth and change, one of the denim bedspreads disappeared. But I have the other one, and it still serves as a beach blanket. The indigo tones of the denim have faded over the years, but memories of my sons asleep under the bedspreads or belly down as they dried off in the sun after a swim have not.

The remaining bedspread links me to the carefree spirit of those days.

Snippets

Go to http://worstedforwear.com/ to find a comic strip about knitting.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com. Don’t forget to visit her blog at byhand.bangordailynews.com.

Tanguay is an avid knitter and dyer with a deep appreciation of nature and passion for furthering traditional arts. She has more than 40 gardens at Searsport Shores Ocean Campground in Searsport, which she and her husband own and run.

This is the final talk in the museum’s Keeping Warm Lecture and Workshop Series. Admission is free

For information visit, http://www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org or call 207-548-2529.

“Winters’ Work: Hooked Rugs, 2010-2013″ by Anne Cox is on view at Maine Fiberarts, 13 Main St. in Topsham. The public is invited to view the colorful, nature-themed wool rugs through April 27. A reception will be held 2-5 p.m. Sunday, April 7, and the artist will speak about her work for a half-hour starting at 2:30 p.m.

Maine Fiberarts also will host a Hook-In 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, April 12. Members of Midcoast Rug Hookers, members of Maine Fiberarts and others will be hand to demonstrate the traditional handcraft. Members of the public are invited to attend.

Anne Cox lives and works in Tenants Harbor where, along with co-owner Julie Wortman, she maintains Hedgerow Designs, a perennial and landscape design garden business.

In 2006, Julie Wortman traveled to Nova Scotia and met rug hooking notable Deanne Fitzpatrick. She purchased a hooking kit with supplies to get started, but it was Anne who found interest in the kit. Ever since, during the cold winters in Maine and when the gardens sleep, Anne has been hooking. Her themes involve polypods, hay bales, sunrises and sunsets, and the beauty of the Maine landscape. Her large piece, “Look,” a work that measures almost 8 feet across, won the 2012 Viewers’ Choice Award at the Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild Show at Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

Cox creates her own designs and dyes most of the wool herself. The 12 works on view at Maine Fiberarts represent work she completed in just three winters. Her talk will offer insights into her design process and is will be of special interest to rug hookers, enthusiasts and collectors.

Maine Fiberarts’ Hook-In on April 12 continues a tradition started last year where the nonprofit’s members and friends are encouraged to create programming around a theme. Last spring, seven weavers demonstrated different aspects of hand weaving and shared techniques and ideas. Last October, a Sew-In took place where artists used sewing machines and hand stitching to create quilts, narrative embroidery, patchwork pillows and garments. At this year’s Hook-In, rug hookers will bring works in progress, completed samples, wool and yarn scraps, tools, hooking stands, and baskets of show-and-tell. Members of the public are invited to join in and spend the day hooking, or simply watch and learn more about the historic craft.

Since 2000, Maine Fiberarts has been showing the work of talented Maine fiber artists in solo shows that change every two or three months. This year, the group is adding more hands-on workshops to its programming. “Sewing Spring Garments” will take place on Tuesdays in April. For information and for a visual preview of the current exhibition, visit www.mainefiberarts.org or call 721-0678.

I have no idea where she might have obtained the fabric for the doll quilt, but knowing her resourcefulness, she might have asked her eight sisters-in-law for scraps, or she might have taken the scissors to outgrown sunsuits and dresses my sister and I once had worn. Thrifty woman that she was, she wouldn’t have bought fabric for such a small project.

Though I don’t recall her making the quilt, I know she sewed it on the New Home treadle sewing machine she inherited from her grandmother. She tied the quilt with yarn. Perhaps the quilt was a Christmas or birthday gift — that I don’t recall.

But I do remember wrapping my Sparkle Plenty doll (a doll made in the likeness of a child character from Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy cartoon). The doll had bright yellow hair done up in twin ponytails and wore a dark blue jumpsuit with a white collar and a red belt. I knew from reading Dick Tracy cartoons in the newspaper that Sparkle was the daughter of Gravel Gertie and BO Plenty.

Although we both preferred to play with my brother’s trucks in the dirt pile — or read his comic books, including Dick Tracy — my sister and I spent many afternoons dragging our dolls around the house wrapped in old receiving blankets or the doll quilt my mother had made. This was in the early ’50s when little girls were expected to play with dolls and little boys were expected to play with trucks. Even then, my sister and I thought that idea was just plain silly. Trucks and building roads in the dirt were way more fun than having our sandbox style cramped by lugging around pretend babies that had to take naps, be fed, dressed, bathed and rolled around in a carriage. Dolls were reserved for when we couldn’t be outdoors playing hopscotch, jumping rope, pretending to be cowgirls, explorers, movie stars or characters from books we read.

Eventually, we outgrew dolls and the quilt, too, went by the wayside, though never abandoned because I kept the quilt until well into my adult years.

I don’t know if the doll quilt was the first my mother ever sewed, but I do know that she didn’t care much for sewing, even though she had learned how from her grandmother, an expert seamstress, and how to draw her own patterns, from scratch, on newspaper. She also sewed clothing for my sister and me, and our dolls.

The only other quilt, that I know of, my mother had a part in making was in the ’80s — a quilt billed as a “quilt-in-a-day,” featuring a large, eight-point star in the center. My mother, sister and I cooperated to cut out the pieces, which I sewed together. My sister, who disliked sewing, allowed my mother and I to wrangle her into helping us tie the quilt’s three layers together. I applied the band of fabric to finish the edges using the same sewing machine on which my mother had sewn my doll’s quilt. That quilt I still have.

The magic of quilts, even if they are no longer present in one’s life, is the nostalgia they evoke. Quilts call forth memories of what is best in family life and relationships — cooperation, sharing, having fun together while creating something lasting, teaching and learning, and pride of accomplishment.

To share stories or photos of homemade doll quilts, mail or email them to me, or post them at bangordailynews.com.

Snippets
Go to seammaine.blogspot.com to learn more about Sewing Enthusiasts and Artists of Maine. The gatherings of those who love to work with fabric and create art are hosted by fabric stores Alewives in Nobleboro, Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast and Z Fabrics in Portland. Meetings are held bimonthly at one of the shops.

The SAD 22 Adult Education Program in Hampden offers these craft classes:
• Crocheting rag rugs and baskets with instructor Beverly Richards, 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays, beginning April 24, for three weeks. The cost is $25 plus $20 for supplies.
• Ukranian egg dyeing with instructor Linda Kehr, 5:30-8 p.m. Thursdays, beginning April 11, for six weeks. The cost is $40 plus $20 for supplies, or $10 for supplies to returning students.
Both classes will be held at Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden. For information, call the adult education office at 862-6422. To register online, go to http://orono-hampden.maineadulted.org.

Call Ardeana Hamlin at 990-8153 or email ahamlin@bangordailynews.com. Don’t forget to visit her blog at byhand.bangordailynews.com.