Farms & Fiber Arts: Brunswick, Bath and Waldoboro
Morning
Stop by Frosty’s Donuts on Maine Street in Brunswick. Be sure to get there before they sell out!
Maine Fiberarts Visitor Center
Topsham
Year-round exhibits featuring some of Maine’s finest fiber artists. Check the calendar for workshops and grab a studio tour map.
Halcyon Yarn
Bath
Year-round classes and an extensive selection of supplies for all fiber arts.
Noon
Travel to Waldoboro
Take time for a memorable lunch at Morse’s Sauerkraut and browse the European market.
Afternoon
Waldoboro Historical Society Museum
Learn about the history of the hooked rugs.
Day’s End
Check out the event calendar at the Historic Waldo Theater.
Unique Stays
Le Vatout
Waldoboro
Packages here include weaving workshops and mushroom foraging.
Tops’l Farm
Waldoboro
Eat, sleep and play where forest, farm and coast converge.
Did You Know?
Maine and Hooked Rugs
Maine is most likely the origin of hooked rugs — crafting non-woven rugs began in North America in the early 1800s, according to rug historian Mildred Cole Peladeau of Readfield, Maine. Early incidences point to Maine as the hooked rug’s birthplace: The first published account of creating non-woven rugs appeared in a Portland, Maine, newspaper in 1838. Mass producing preprinted rug patterns first became fashionable in Maine in the 1860s, when Edward Sands Frost of Biddeford commercialized rug hooking. The development of Waldoboro hooked rugs, with their distinctive sculpted floral designs and velvety surfaces of deep pile, established Maine as a center of the finest rug-hooking techniques and craftsmanship early in the 20th century. These rugs have since played a significant role in American decorative arts, and craftspeople throughout Maine are still making beautiful, unique hand-hooked rugs to this day.
Pictured: Marguerite Thomas Zorach, Eden, 1917, Wool hooked on burlap backed with linen, Collection of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Gift of Pamela and Elmer Grossman, 2020
Local Tips
Beauchemin Preservation Farm
Waldoboro
Preserving endangered breeds and heritage fruits. Visit the wool room.
Sara Hotchkiss - Hand Woven Textiles
Waldoboro Make an appointment to visit this exquisite studio.
Schooner J&E Riggin
Rockland
Get hooked at sea! Set sail on this historic windjammer for one of several knitting or rug-hooking multiday cruises.
Nebo Lodge and Turner Farm
North Haven
Farm-to-table weekends and summer barn dinners on a Maine island!
Medomak Fiber Arts Retreat
Medomak
A week of fiber bliss in Midcoast Maine, annually in July.
Fiber College of Maine on Penobscot Bay
Searsport
The Unraveled Camp Out, a gathering of fiber artists on the coast of Maine each September.
Bartlettyarns
Harmony
Spinning wool yarns for knitting, felting, crochet, weaving and other fiber arts at its historic mill in Harmony since 1821.
Swans Island Blankets
Northport
Gorgeous handwoven woolen blankets from the coast of Maine and artisanal hand-dyed yarns.
