about - personal stuff

quiltmaking | crafting & needlework | bibliography | resumé | personal stuff

I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.

I’m a big fan of Chesapeake Bay crabs when they’re in season, Barry Levinson movies, Western High School---a public high school that is still all-girls. For undergraduate school, I attended Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA (all girls...notice a pattern here?). You go, girls! I finally came out of my shell and attended a coeducational school, Brown University, where I got a Masters of Arts in Teaching (1973) and met the guy who still makes my heart sing.

All the women in my family have been artsy craftsy. My grandmother taught me to paint, my mother and older sister taught me sewing and knitting. Thrift and persnickety style meant we made a lot of our clothes. Not wanting to compete with the grandmother who painted, the mother who pots, and the sister who sews, knits, beads, and more, I took up less common pursuits like furniture refinishing, macrame, and weaving. After several years, the loom that took up most of my living room sported an empty warp more often than not. Rather than succumb to the guilt, I sold the loom and now I quilt: art quilts, table runners, pillows, and gifts of all kinds. But I still weave, without a loom, with fabric strips and ribbons.

I was a Sunday School teacher for 15 years, and love how concepts take root when learning is hands-on and creative.

I am a volunteer advocate, working for social justice. Creativity goes a long way in getting your voice heard, and speaking up for social change. Oh, and handwork comes in handy helping me focus in those long meetings, in real life or on Zoom.

My hubby is also highly inventive. Carl (Harrington) is a creative thinker, a marketing guru and president emeritus of a non-profit. Son Sam Levie Harrington is an environmental engineer, designer, and bio-materials expert. He is married to Bev Bendix, an environmentalist, a data analyst, a dancer, and great cook. So the creativity just blossoms, and the procreation, too. I am Bubbe (Yiddish for grandma) to Miles Bendix Harrington.

So, now that you know more about me than you ever wanted to know, let me get acquainted with you! Even better, invite me to meet you and your guild sisters! Just click on the “contact me” link at the far left.