Needlework

The term "English needlework" may bring a certain type image to mind. Flowers and cute little animals, perhaps. Pretty samplers with alphabets and pictures of homey cottages. A shepherdess with her sheep and a big picture hat to frame her face.And, yes, one finds all of that in the Baltimore Museum of Art show "In Prayse of the Needle: English needlework From the 17th Through the 19th Century." There's delicacy and charm aplenty, and that's fine. But this commendable, 20-item show isn't confined to that sort of thing.

E ight years ago, Jim and Barbara Hutson moved from Chesapeake, Va., back home to Maryland to be closer to family. "We couldn't afford the house we sold in Arnold [Maryland] in 1999," Jim Hutson said. "So we marched east until we found Queenstown." And there, just over the Kent Narrows Bridge in Queen Anne's County, they found the development of Wye Knot Farm. A Colonial-style house struck their fancy in October 2001. With finishing touches still incomplete, the Hutsons were able to choose kitchen cabinets and to request a cubby over the fireplace for a flat-screen TV. The couple paid $271,900 for the four-bedroom, 2 1/2 -bath, two-story home and moved in December of that year.

Thelma G. Reagan, who christened a Baltimore-built tank landing ship during World War II, died of kidney failure Saturday at her daughter's Riderwood home. The longtime Rosedale resident was 96. Born Thelma Conner in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown, she completed the eighth grade at Hampstead Hill Elementary School. As a young woman, she worked at the Crosse & Blackwell fancy foods plant. She worked in the production of mayonnaise. She met her husband, John E. Reagan, a master machinist, at a dance in Patterson Park.

Activity Pals For single seniors. Get together with others to attend events, shop, go sightseeing, dine out and more. 301-596-6385. The Bain Center 5470 Ruth Keeton Way, Columbia. 410-313-7213. •Acting Up! Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. A theater club. Call center to confirm attendance. Free. •AcuDetox. Thursdays, 10 a.m. $20. •American Indian Experience. Second Mondays, 1 p.m. •Another Way to See It Laughter Club. Mondays, 9 a.m. $2 instructor fee at class each week.

"Gentility," observed the 19th-century author Margaret Bayard Smith, "is independent of birth, wealth or condition, but is derived from that cultivation of mind which imparts elevation to sentiment and refinement to manners in whatever situation of life they may be found."Both sentiment and refined manners are evident in the art of Anne Brooke Ellicott, daughter of Ellicott City founder George Ellicott, whose sensitive watercolors and precise needlework are on display at the Maryland Historical Society through Sept.

Growing up, Maureen Price of Eldersburg watched a bit disdainfully as her mother and grandmother transformed small scraps of fabric into beautiful quilts."

Wondering why the winter blues are hitting you especially hard this year? Well, first of all, rather than enjoying the relatively mild weather we've have so far, you're probably worrying about when the snow and ice will finally hit here. Plus, you're dealing with the usual post-holiday letdown. Oh, and then there was that puny little buildup (only lasted a year or so) to a certain Millennium Moment that was supposed to hit like gangbusters and change all our lives . . . but didn't. That, of course, wouldn't have anything to do with why you're down in the dumps, would it?

The Southern Maryland Quilt & Needlework Show is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 29-June 1 at the Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, St. Mary's County.The show features judged quilts and needlework, crafts and vendors. Admission is $5 per day or $10 for a four-day pass. Children under 12 will be admitted free. Information: 301-373-2280.Pub Date: 5/15/97

Margaret Mary McKay, 75, homemaker Margaret Mary McKay, who enjoyed needlework and sketching, died Tuesday of lung cancer at her home in Severn. She was 75. Born in Baltimore the youngest of 13 children, Margaret Mary Pendergast attended local schools. She married Robert R. McKay in 1946 and was a homemaker and mother of two sons. Mrs. McKay enjoyed several artistic endeavors, including oil painting, needlework, sketching and other crafts. Her husband, a retired city police officer, died in 1988.

Needlework expert Kathleen Franetovich will be at Hays House Museum in Bel Air from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 14 to talk about schoolgirl samplers, decorative needlework created by young girls in Early America. For more than 120 years in Maryland, from the mid-18th to the mid-19th centuries, needlework was considered an indispensable subject in a young girl's education. Girls as young as 6 labored over their samplers as a means of teaching them the rudiments of reading and writing.