Quilts

Kathryn W. Sieverts, a former grocery store owner who was active in Lutheran ministries, died in her sleep Tuesday at College Manor nursing home in Lutherville. The former longtime Hampstead resident was 92. The former Kathryn Wentz was born and raised in Lineboro. She was a Manchester High School graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in 1936 from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. She taught home economics, biology and physical education at Sykesville High School from 1936 to 1942.

The Atlanta art dealers accused in a lawsuit of taking and not returning three heirloom quilts from a woman in Gee's Bend, Ala., have handed the quilts over to her attorney. After calling a news conference late Wednesday to dispute the charges, attorneys for art dealer William Arnett and his son Matt delivered the quilts to the Birmingham law office of Peter Burke. He represents Lucinda Pettway Franklin, one of the three plaintiffs in the dispute; she says the Arnetts took and held her quilts for two years.

The Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis expanded with a four-story addition almost a year ago after outgrowing its space in the restored Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church. The current exhibit, Trails, Tracks, Tarmac, highlights African-American communities in northern Anne Arundel County through artifacts, oral-history recordings and documentary quilts. Museum director Wendi Perry says she is planning more programs to share African-American culture with a wider audience.

The red pills come in a pink box and look big enough to banish cellulite from a horse. The formulation -- including extracts of seaweed, sweet clover, grape seed and gingko biloba -- promises hope to any woman who's ever stared despairingly at her back view in a mirror, in all its wobbly, dimpled glory.The pill is Cellasene, and its manufacturer claims it can melt away the cellulite that so many women dread. It does so, they say, by improving blood flow to women's thighs and buttocks, allowing trapped blobs of fat to be more easily metabolized by our bodies.

Maybe they'll finally get off that dang spaceship and see a good movie for a change.It's the least that should happen to Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo and their human partners (first Joel Hodgson, then Mike Nelson), those caustically quipping authorities on bad films who have spent the past 10 seasons trapped aboard the Satellite of Love, forced to watch some of the worst movies ever made.In what appears to be a mercy killing for them, but a minor tragedy for the rest of us, their decade-long run as the centerpieces of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" ends Sunday on cable's Sci-Fi channel.

Barbara Pietila paints with fabric and thread. Instead of a brush, she wields a needle. Instead of using canvas, she depicts scenes on cotton.The Baltimore artist has been making story quilts for more than two decades. In cloth, she has found a medium through which she illustrates family stories, lessons from history and scenes from everyday life.She is having a busy summer: For the sixth year, Pietila will be among the 100 arts and crafts people displaying and selling their creations today and Sunday at Baltimore's Artscape.

A frog table, an angel table and a desk whose drawer pulls are a frog and three bugs are among the whimsical creations of Berlin artist Patti Baltrotsky, who embellishes odd pieces of furniture with lively motifs from the natural world.Baltrotsky's work is on view this month at the Art League of Ocean City. It includes furniture, decorative items and mosaic wall paintings. Half of the proceeds from each sale will ben-efit the Worcester County Humane Society and the Art League of Ocean City.

Put on your walking shoes, comfy jeans and T-shirt and get ready to celebrate autumn this weekend at events in every corner of Carroll County.Carroll County Farm Museum will have its annual Fall Harvest Days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at 500 S. Center St. in Westminster. Scarecrow-making, a milk mustache contest, music, food, crafts, old-time artisans demonstrations, wagon rides and a checker tournament are just a few of the activities available.The Mount Airy Festival on the Ridge closes downtown Main Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday for this annual celebration.

Put on your walking shoes, comfy jeans and T-shirt and get ready to celebrate autumn this weekend at events in every corner of Carroll County.Carroll County Farm Museum will have its Fall Harvest Days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at 500 S. Center St. in Westminster. Scarecrow-making, a milk mustache contest, music, food, crafts, old-time artisan demonstrations, wagon rides and a checker tournament are just a few of the activities available.The Mount Airy Festival on the Ridge closes downtown Main Street from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday for this celebration.

In Baltimore CityMayoral candidate, activist Kaufman cleared of chargesCivic activist A. Robert Kaufman was cleared yesterday of criminal charges that stemmed from a protest he conducted last month at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.The Baltimore state's attorney's office dropped charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace and failure to obey police against the 67-year-old Democratic mayoral candidate. Kaufman was honored at the symphony hall the night of his arrest for supporting civil rights. Afterward, he went outside and handed out leaflets opposing Crown Central Petroleum Corp.

She'd been making acclaimed art for years, and many of her works depicted little-known events from history. So when Joan Gaither encountered a professor a few years back, his words came as a shock. "Those stories on your quilt, the ones about the Underground Railroad, aren't documented," he said. "So they aren't historically true. They're just hearsay." Even now, Gaither, a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art and a widely known maker of documentary quilts, bristles at that exclusionary notion of history.

Kutztown Folk Festival Where:: Kutztown Fairgrounds, 225 N. White Oak St., Kutztown, Pa. When: : Saturday through July 5, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. What: : The 60-year-old festival celebrates the rich Dutch heritage of Pennsylvania with events including a roof-thatching demonstration, barn-raising for kids, folk entertainment and the largest collection of antique electric cars in America. The festival also features more than 2,500 traditional quilts, handmade by local quilters, along with a quilt auction.

This is the first installment of a monthly feature exploring the stores, restaurants and sights of Maryland neighborhoods. Here's an open invitation to city dwellers and suburbanites alike to get in on one of Baltimore's latest makeovers. Sprung from neglected waterfront property, Baltimore's glossy new Harbor East neighborhood boasts luxury hotels, office towers, fine restaurants and a melange of boutiques and stores. The burgeoning district is not yet complete and begs for more pedestrians to fill its streets and stores.

Mary Matton was so touched by the traveling exhibit of 52 art quilts interpreting Alzheimer's disease that she decided she wanted to help. Besides, the project involved two of her favorite things, charity and quilting, she said. "I am always looking for a good cause to which I can donate quilts," said Matton, 61, of Davidsonville. "And I find Alzheimer's to be a very scary disease. It's scarier than cancer. You're here, but not mentally." Matton and about 20 other members of the Annapolis Quilting Guild are participating in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, a grass-roots effort begun in January 2006 to increase awareness and fund research to help find a cure for Alzheimer's.

Kathryn W. Sieverts, a former grocery store owner who was active in Lutheran ministries, died in her sleep Tuesday at College Manor nursing home in Lutherville. The former longtime Hampstead resident was 92. The former Kathryn Wentz was born and raised in Lineboro. She was a Manchester High School graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in 1936 from Western Maryland College, now McDaniel College. She taught home economics, biology and physical education at Sykesville High School from 1936 to 1942.

The Atlanta art dealers accused in a lawsuit of taking and not returning three heirloom quilts from a woman in Gee's Bend, Ala., have handed the quilts over to her attorney. After calling a news conference late Wednesday to dispute the charges, attorneys for art dealer William Arnett and his son Matt delivered the quilts to the Birmingham law office of Peter Burke. He represents Lucinda Pettway Franklin, one of the three plaintiffs in the dispute; she says the Arnetts took and held her quilts for two years.

The quilts of Gee's Bend, Ala., now on view at the Walters Art Museum, have brought national prominence and hope to an isolated rural community once thought of as an artistic backwater. The bold, improvisational quilts have been exhibited around the world, cataloged in books, celebrated in magazines and newspapers, reproduced in licensed merchandise and documented in films, turning the quilters into icons of American art. If You Go Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt runs through Aug. 26 at the Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St. Call 410-547-9000 or go to thewalters.

6th-graders donate quilts to neonatal unit Inspired by a teacher whose personal experience led to the project, eight classes of sixth-graders at Central Middle School donated 100 quilts Wednesday to Anne Arundel Medical Center's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Erin Szachnowicz created the project after her nephew spent time in the unit three years ago. She saw the quilts that brightened the unit and thought that with the use of the school's sewing lab, students could help ailing babies.

You don't have to be an connoisseur to be bowled over by the quilts from Gee's Bend, Ala., which go on display tomorrow at the Walters Art Museum. With their bold patterns and vivid colors, it's the kind of contemporary art anyone can enjoy. In a remote, geographically isolated corner of the rural South, dozens of African-American women created the beautiful bed-coverings out of a practical necessity to warm body and soul. Yet the quilts of Gee's Bend have been hailed as some of the most significant works of 20th-century American art - and it's easy to see why. If You Go Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt opens tomorrow and runs through Aug. 26 at the Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St. Call 410-547-9000 or go to thewalters.

The Banneker-Douglass Museum in Annapolis expanded with a four-story addition almost a year ago after outgrowing its space in the restored Mount Moriah African Methodist Episcopal Church. The current exhibit, Trails, Tracks, Tarmac, highlights African-American communities in northern Anne Arundel County through artifacts, oral-history recordings and documentary quilts. Museum director Wendi Perry says she is planning more programs to share African-American culture with a wider audience.