December 1, 2022
Well, it’s official. We have purchased a building in the historic district of Chestertown MD at 329 Cannon Street.
The building has quite a history, previously being used by a wood worker and when we purchased it, the back space was being used as a workout gym.
We are turning it into The Skipjack Art Studios. And it will be home to a group of fine artists known as The Blueberry Pie and Art Society, and a Studio area for myself and my husband Tom.
Our new space will be on the upper floor of the building. We have a lot of work to do to get it ready. Paint on all the walls, new flooring, moving and hanging all of my quilts and Tom’s photos. And also relocating the Long Arm from the Afton Studio.
My new company will be called Dream Castle Quilt Studio. The studio area will house my long arm machine and all of my fabric, thread and regular sewing machine. I have been gathering my quilts, getting ready for the move.
Tom will open a studio for his photography called Thomas Dietz Photography. As you can see, there is plenty of wall space to hang my quilts and Tom’s photos.
The building also has a second floor, one bedroom apartment, first floor front room office space, and a commercial kitchen located in the older portion of the house. All of these are rented except for the kitchen area.
It’s taking some time, but by January we are hoping to have our studios finished and be up and running.
I will be closing down the Quilt Studio in Afton. It was a fun space and a great sewing area. But it was out of the way and too remote to attract visitors. I will set up a new website and Facebook page. When it’s all ready to go, I’ll post that new information and links on this site, so you can follow me.
We have just fallen completely in love with Chestertown MD. It has a vibrant art scene, anchored by the Chestertown River Arts group and supported by the Town of Chestertown. Parts of the downtown area are a designated Arts and Entertainment Area and so it offers some tax benefits to local artists. Our building is located in the A&E district.
As if we were not busy enough, at the beginning of last month, Tom and I traveled with Linblad/National Geographic to Panama and Columbia. We went from South to North (Pacific to Atlantic) through to Panama Canal and then made stops in Panama and Columbia arriving in Cartagena.
The ship was small, just 100 passengers and for this trip only 55 passengers. We had lots of time with the Naturalists and Photographers and learned a lot about the area.
I won’t bore you with all of my photos (and I took quite a few).
Of interest to my quilting friends was an island where the locals made Molas, by hand.
Their work was amazing. I had to purchase some, of course.
And I am always fascinated by tile floors. Here are some that struck me as beautiful and would make unique quilt blocks.
Needless to say, I did not get much of my own sewing done this month. I am still horribly behind on my Temperature Quilt. Only just now working on August!
I promise to keep everyone updated on our new adventure.