Father And Daughter Exhibit At Booth Library

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown quilting artist Mary Eddy and her father, Ben Palagonia of Sherman, a graphic and fine artist, have put together an exhibit of their works at the C.H. Booth Library. The exhibit is on view through January 31 in the Olga Knoepke Memorial Room (the meeting room) and features eight works by Ms Eddy, and eight dry-brush paintings of buildings and sights in the Fairfield/Litchfield County areas by Mr Palagonia.

Ms Eddy, known as the Jelly Bean Quilter for her colorful and whimsical quilting patterns and creations, is the author of five freehand pattern books featuring her original designs for long-arm quilters and home quilters needing some ideas for freemotion quilting. She has also published a selection of pantograph patterns based on her book designs. A pantograph is a pattern that can be followed as an edge-to-edge design on “stand up” machines like Gammill, HandiQuilter, or APQS brands .

Ms Eddy came into quilting after a successful career as a floral designer, explaining her love for floral patterns and her signature on each quilt that is a pansy. She is quick to credit her husband, David Eddy, for his computer expertise that made possible turning all of her patterns into paper patterns for others to utilize and learn from. “David is practically my director in that respect,” said Ms Eddy.

“When it came to my craft, though, I feel that my father’s influence was always there,” added Ms Eddy. “My earliest and fondest memories are of when [my father] took my twin brother and me to Saturday morning art class as children. One of my favorite quotes from my dad is, ‘You can’t tell an artist what to do.’ It comes from the heart. I feel I have come a long way from Saturday art class and drawing on brown paper bags,” she said of her award-winning quilt designs.

Two of the works in the Booth show reflect Mr Palagonia’s influence on his daughter. “Down By The Pond” and “A Regular Day At the Wall” are examples, said Ms Eddy, of the crossover effect of her father’s watercolor art into her own art. The two quilted pieces exemplify the art of dye sublimation, in which her own original watercolors — the first, incidentally, that Ms Eddy ever attempted — were transferred onto fabric in a heat-set process, and enhanced with her freemotion quilting patterns. “Down By The Pond” also features a frame that Ms Eddy made with hand-dyed fabric.

In addition to her father’s encouragement, Ms Eddy taught herself about longarm machine quilting through observation and attending conferences. “The field of quilting is pretty amazing,” she said. “I always say, ‘Where is the next year going to lead?’”

“Piecers,” who are quilters who select a design, cut out the squares and shapes, and sew them together to form a top, hire Ms Eddy to finish the quilt, attaching the bottom piece and filling to the top with a freehand design customized for the client.

Her clients’ quilts have been the recipients of ribbons, including First Place in the Kirpare Patch 2000 show in Turkey, the President’s Choice Ribbon from the International Machine Quilters Association, the Northern Star Quilt Show 2004, the Eastern Long Island Quilters Guild, and the Lancaster Quilt Show.

Ms Eddy provides lessons for beginning quilters and experienced quilters in her Newtown studio on Currituck Road.

Mr Palagonia attended the school of Industrial Art and Pratt Institute in New York City. An architecture major, Mr Palagonia had the privilege of working with architects that included Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe and Eric Mendelsohn of the Bauhaus School.

In 1968, he became a freelance architectural renderer and his projects have included bird’s-eye views of downtown Los Angeles and Detroit; and the Raytheon Corporation’s “House of the 21st Century.” Each year, Mr Palagonia creates a composite rendering of the year’s construction for Turner Construction Company. He has also painted murals for HUD projects, and the Miltope and Pepsi Corporations. The originals and prints from the past 27 years’ work for Turner Construction Company have been accepted by the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and will be exhibited and become part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Mr Palagonia has won several fine arts watercolor awards, and the Boehringer Ingelheim First Prize for oil paintings.

All of the watercolors exhibited at the C.H. Booth Library are of the dry-brush technique, a watercolor technique using a small amount of paint on a dry brush. The result is a soft, textured effect. Visitors will recognize the subjects of several works in the Booth display: the Newtown General Store and the Village Store in Bridgewater, among them. Other works include an old water tower once standing in Sandy Hook, and finely detailed homes from historic districts and roadsides in surrounding towns.

Ms Eddy’s “thread paintings” can be viewed during regular library hours alongside the works of her father. The public is invited to attend a reception in honor of the two artists, Sunday, January 11, from 2 to 4 pm.