PHILLIPS — Dark Star Fabric, a unique family-owned retail and fabric store located on Main Street in Phillips, is one of 26 Maine fabric shops participating in this year’s 25th Annual Maine Quilt Shop Hop. Deb Black and Rachelle Knight, owners of the shop, have designed, pieced, and quilted a diamond-shaped art quilt using the limited-edition featured fabrics designed exclusively for the 2025 Maine Quilt Shop Hop by Maine Designer Ericka O’Rourke.
Now on display at the shop, the Dark Star Fabric quilt, titled “From Our Window,” is Deb’s and Rachelle’s “most personal quilt ever.” The moose in the center replicates the actual moose that watched Deb leave for work one day. The mountains, with an eagle soaring past the peaks, represent Mt. Blue and Tumbledown as the two see them from their dining room windows. And, of course, the river in the foreground is the Sandy River, flowing through Phillips less than 100 yards from the quilt shop.
Dark Star Fabric is a retail store open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Long-arm quilting services are also available. “If you are a Shop-Hopper who visits five or more shops, you can vote for your favorite Shop Challenge Quilt when you send in your passport,” the two shop owners explain, “Can’t wait to see all of you, help you find some great new fabric, and give away a bunch of gifts through the month of April! We invite your vote!”
From April 1 through April 30, the annual Maine Quilt Shop Hop will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. This year’s event features 26 independently owned shops across the state.
Though each shop offers a variety of fabrics, patterns, and accessories, all will feature the exclusive fabric line created by Maine artist Erika O’Rourke of Salt and Sky Art + Studio. Based in New Harbor, O’Rourke has produced an original new line of fabrics, which includes ten custom prints and two panels, along with “select Stonehenge blenders.” This unique fabric will be available only at the 26 participating shops. Organizers stress that “once they are sold out, they are gone forever.”
O’Rourke is a member of the New England Watercolor Society, Saltwater Artists’ Gallery, and the Maine Art Gallery.
Visit her website at www.saltandsky.com to explore her work.