Artists’ Open House showcases local talent

 By Lauren Royce, Editor

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY — Susquehanna County’s art scene came alive as artists opened their studio doors and set up camp at various spots around the area over the weekend of Oct. 11-13. The 29th annual Artists’ Open House Weekend saw 19 different artists spread across 16 locations, inviting visitors to admire and even purchase some works.

Penny Kleiner was at Lydia’s bakeshop in Montrose sewing a colorful fabric portrait of a donkey. While the smell of fresh cookies wafted around, she meticulously cut and mended the pieces together to form the animal.

“For years I went on this tour and loved it,” Kleiner said, “and always thought, ‘it’d be really fun to be on the tour.’ Now that I’m on the tour, it’s like, now I can’t go to the tour. But it’s fine.”

Kleiner said she had been part of the tour for three years and been attending since around 2014. Kleiner said she began doing her portraits in 2018, but quilting has been lifelong, a trade she learned through her mother and grandmother.

and this was a way to combine the two,” she said. “I tried one day just to see if I could put all of my pretty fabric colors in the same place that I would put paint if I was painting a picture— and then I was hooked.” Kleiner has a permanent display at Slanted Art.

A pair of cousins, Jackie Hart and Nicole Hart, came by to appreciate Kleiner’s work. Jackie Hart said she owned a piece already, called the “Tree of Chaos.” It was Nicole Hart’s first time coming.

“I told her, you have to go to some of the artists’ studios with me, and she said OK,” Jackie Hart said. Nicole Hart has eye surgery coming up, so this was something nice to take her mind off of it. They said they had already checked out the displays at Salt Spring State Park before coming to Montrose, and planned to hit up more spots.

At Salt Springs State Park, Barbara Merritt and Jayne Morris Stoll had fiber arts and textiles in their respective displays. They said about 140 people had come to their location on Saturday.

Both challenged conventional quilting methods, with Stoll incorporating modern designs into hers and Merritt adding eco-prints and embroidery to hers.

“It’s a lot of fun, it’s very creative,” Merritt said. She had about 40 pieces in her display, depicting flowers in nearly all works.

“I first do the flower print on the paper, and then I go back and I hand watercolor paint any of the vases and things to add to it,” Merritt said. “My big thing initially was mixing the different techniques, the eco printing, the painting, and the fabric. It’s a lot of fun.” The hand embroidering added more embellishment to the pieces, combining traditional techniques and getting stunning results. Such as with a kimono piece she had saved from being tossed, mending the tears into something that looked intentional and beautiful. Merritt said she has over 40 years of quilting experience, and after working for Lockheed Martin for many years, she wanted to do something fun for herself. She and Stoll have been part of the open house since about 2018, she said.

Stoll said she was in New Jersey teaching home economics for 25 years before coming to Pennsylvania. Her pieces modernized traditional quilt patterns, “breaking the rules.”

“And I don’t mind breaking the rules,” Stoll said. “I enjoy doing that.” Using different shapes and mending them in different ways. A star quilt had an art-nouveau twist to it, while others were made of yo-yo circles. Each was a vibrant example of textile art.

Stool found ways to incorporate the salvages at the end of fabric rolls, and also made portraits of her family. Her husband and his shadow in a park, their daughter Laura, their granddaughter in New York City. Each was a personal collage fitted to its subject. She also stitched color onto some childhood pictures, adding pops of color to her parents and younger self. While she doesn’t sell her work, she has a piece that has been featured in Quiltfolk Cats magazine.