PHILLIPS – Dark Star Fabric, a unique family-owned retail and fabric store located on Main Street in Phillips, is one of 26 Maine fabric shops participating in this year’s 25th Annual Maine Quilt Shop Hop. Deb Black and Rachelle Knight, owners of the shop, have designed, pieced, and quilted a diamond-shaped art quilt using the limited-edition featured fabrics designed exclusively for the 2025 Maine Quilt Shop Hop by Maine Designer Ericka O’Rourke.
Now on display at the shop, the Dark Star Fabric quilt, titled “From Our Window”, is Deb’s and Rachelle’s “most personal quilt ever”. The moose in the center replicates the actual moose that watched Deb leave for work one day. The mountains, with an eagle soaring past the peaks, represent Mt. Blue and Tumbledown as the two see them from their dining room windows. And, of course, the river in the foreground is the Sandy River, flowing through Phillips less than 100 yards from the quilt shop.
Dark Star Fabric is a retail store open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Long-arm quilting services are also available.
“If you are a Shop Hopper who visits 5 or more shops, you can vote for your favorite Shop Challenge Quilt when you send in your passport,” the two shop owners explain, “Can’t wait to see all of you, help you find some great new fabric, and give away a bunch of gifts through the month of April! We invite your vote!”
From April 1 through April 30 the annual Maine Quilt Shop Hop will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. This year’s event features 26 independently owned shops across the state.
Though each shop offers a variety of fabrics, patterns, and accessories, all will feature the exclusive fabric line created by Maine artist Erika O’Rourke of Salt and Sky Art + Studio. Based in New Harbor, O’Rourke has produced an original new line of fabrics, which include ten custom prints and two panels, along with “select Stonehenge blenders”. This unique fabric will be available only at the 26 participating shops. Organizers stress that “once they are sold out, they are gone forever”.
According to her website, www.saltandsky.com, O’Rourke created the “ten exclusive, limited-edition custom prints, along with two coordinating panels” specifically for the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Maine Quilt Shop Hop. Produced by Northcott Fabrics, these include “eight unique custom blender patterns”. These “one-of-a-kind fabrics, especially favored for their lifelike stone textures”, will be available only at the twenty-six shops participating in the Shop Hop during the month of April. A favorite for their “lifelike stone textures ranging from earthy natural tones, to stars and stripes, to rainbow hues, the Stonehenge Fabric collection has something for every kind of project”.
O’Rourke is a Maine artist whose work features watercolor and other media and is “inspired by nature”.
Using watercolor and other media, she explores “the intricate connections between the elements of nature, the inherent design patterns found in rocks, flora, seaweeds, and the shifting landscapes of midcoast Maine”.
O’Rourke’s website states that she is inspired by her natural surroundings, especially enjoying her hikes along the coast.
Her paintings “reflect the beauty of the environment and the unspoken relationships within it”. Erika draws from “the colors and textures of the earth and water shape her creative process”. A graduate of Mason Gross School of the Arts, she worked as a graphic designer and digital illustrator in New York City before moving to Maine, where she now creates art “that celebrates the profound, natural connections” that surround her.
Ericka is a member of the New England Watercolor Society, Saltwater Artist’s Gallery, and the Maine Art Gallery.
Visit her website at www.saltandsky.com to explore her work.
