C Street Arts Festival Submission Deadline for Artists Extended!

The submission deadline for artists has been extended to March 16 for the C Street Arts Festival! If you're interested in submitting (and we know you are!) please sign up here!

The Arts Festival will be an outdoor market for artists to display and sell their wares along C Street on Saturday, June 9 from 10a-5p. There is detailed information regarding fees and provisions on the sign up page. We signed up this week for a booth and we are so excited to help with this cause!!!

For those of you who don't know, Marilyn is a founding member of the Laurel Arts District Exploratory Committee, or LADEC. A large portion of Main Street in historic Laurel has been designated as an arts district, and LADEC was formed as a means for the business owners and artists already here to help guide the formation and atmosphere of said arts district. We have had a few meetings and are really excited for all the potential Main Street, using C Street as ground zero, have to offer. We're thinking performance spaces, galleries, coffee shops, indoor and outdoor venues, everything an arts district can and should be. We can't wait to get this off the ground and there will be many more posts in the future regarding this project, so stay tuned!

A few weeks ago, Venus Theatre hosted an event called "See, Get, Give," (see a write up of us in the Baltimore Sun!) in which people gathered to literally cover the walls with ideas and inspiration for the future of Main Street.

Marilyn and Caroline discussing plans in front of one of the signs

Did you know?

Adding to the fray

Flashback Friday: Quilting Bee

Here at the studio, we're gearing up for the March 15 Laurel Board of Trade Business After Hours event that we will be hosting (it's from 5p-7p and is open to the public, so feel free to stop on by!)

We're excited to show off the studio and hang out with some great business owners in the area. We don't often host parties, but Marilyn teaches group sewing classes on the weekends and the studio provides a great space for communing and creativity, as you can see in this week's Flashback Friday! Here, Marilyn reminisces about a good, old-fashioned quilting bee she hosted here for some clients.

"I was contacted by a woman whose family was scattered around the country, but several generations were gathering 'home' for 'mom's' birthday. The idea was to have a quilting party at my studio, where all the women would gather to make memory quilt blocks that would be sewn into a quilt for 'mom' to keep.

I helped her design the size and block style for the quilt and gather the materials. On the day of the party I had work stations set up around the studio. They brought in refreshments and we had a PAR-TAY!

Tons of fun, each block had a special meaning between the creator and mom."

The pioneers had it right: there is something wonderful about getting together and sewing or crafting in a group. Somehow having one's hands busy, especially if they are busy working on a labor of love, can make the room more welcoming and the flow of conversation never feels strained or awkward. The result in the end is something with even more sentimental value, because you worked on it together.

Have you ever participated in a sewing or quilting bee? What other kinds of "labors of love" have you worked on with a group? How did you feel afterward?

Etsy Love

Hello all! This is just a quick note to let you know that from now until midnight on March 17, all green merchandise in our Etsy shop is 10% off! Just enter LUCKOTHEIRISH at checkout. We'll be doing more of these themed sales, and we'll announce them through Facebook, Twitter, and our
monthly newsletter.

Stay tuned for our latest Flashback Friday later today :)