Feature: Marylou McDonald

By Janet Esch

"He who has beautiful roses in the garden must have beautiful roses in the heart." A quotation that Marylou McDonald has used on one of her quilts both in words and in roses. Her fenced back yard is filled with overflowing flower beds; her gardens show the eye of an artist, as do her quilts.

The McDonald Roses

The center rose wreath that Marylou designed.

Detail of her "Rose" quilt.

This woman of many talents seems tireless: she gardens; reupholsters furniture; refurbishes her kitchen; teaches; travels; organizes many activities for BAS, and most important gets people to do things that they thought they couldn't or wouldn't do; is the best hostess in town; is grandmother and mother, actively involved with family, friends and church. She called me in less than 12 hours after she had returned from a trip to Italy all business, with a "to do" list that she was following for the Lovely Lane Museum Quilt Show. She will be president of BAS for the years 2006-2008. We can look forward to many activities.

Marylou grew up and lived for 21 years in Bangor, Maine, where she went to high school and college with her future husband, Jim McDonald. Her family was close, close enough for her to walk to her grandmother's house and to visit other family members regularly. Bangor had no locked doors; "it was a safe and established world" where antiques and old quilts were honored. She always did hand work and sewing - she knitted a doll sweater at 5 years old, made clothes and embroidered linens.

After college she married Jim and together in 1964 with a 6-month-old child and pregnant, they moved to Maryland, and then in 1970 to Laurel, Maryland, in the house where they have lived for 42 years.

At the Stitching Post she was told to take Mimi Dietrich's class and completed a four-block, appliquéd quilt and in 1993 enrolled in Mimi's year-long class. Since then it has been a rapid succession of activities: creating the Baltimore Album Appliqué quilts, designing appliqué patterns; teaching classes - Tips, Tricks and Techniques is the name of a favorite, and the original of the City Springs Pattern - at Seminole Sampler and other quilting shops as far away as Arizona. Her objectives in teaching are simple and clear: to show an easy way to make the complex available and to model the words, "Never say 'I can't.'"

Her "City Springs" quilt.

Marylou's Mary Mannakee Quilt

Marylou is an active member of BAS, which she helped to establish in 1993; she has worked on the raffle quilts and was chairperson of the show for Lovely Lane Museum. For this project she selected the blocks from 4 Baltimore Album quilts, drew the patterns, made kits - using much of her own great stash of fabrics, worked on publicity by calling her many friends nationwide to create the blocks for the silent auction - 48 of them, bagged and mailed kits, organized the auction itself.

Busy with selling some of her stash.

Marylou's "Mary Simon" or as she calls it the DAR quilt.

Marylou McDonald - I don't know how to tell you about her if you have not met her. She welcomes you with a beautiful smile; her home with Jim - MDH to Marylou who creates her labels and helps in every way that he can - has a revolving door; she is hostess to most of our program presenters; she is generous to a fault - if you mention some fabric you need, she will get it for you (in 2000 Marylou made a quilt show 2000 different fabrics from her stash). She is an inspiration. The quotation that Polly Mello put on the friendship quilt for Marylou suggests the loyalty and love we feel for her. "We will follow the threaded path together." I hope that all of you can have the privilege as I have had of learning to know Marylou McDonald.