Meet Marie Coady | Vintage Textile Artist /Longarm Quilter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marie Coady and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marie, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I’m a big “lets see if this’ll work!” person. And I’ve been able to entertain myself endlessly in my day jobs because of it.

As a Children’s Librarian for 15 happy small-budgeted years, I transformed the cardboard of library life into giant ping-pong ball runs, bear caves, robots, and castles.  I spent 6 months hoarding boxes to make a life-sized AngryBirds-esque structure for popsicle stick catapults. 

I established a teen puppet troupe for the Library that performed with handmade puppets, a beanstalk that grew, Rapunzel’s tower and breakaway braid, a giant barn with windows that opened for puppets to pop through.  

It never occurred to me to pursue solely an artistic or creative career.  I was always too risk averse in my real life.  But materials find me.  They pass my way and I can’t help but see what else they could be.  How I might manipulate them with the tools that I have on hand.  

So now at 52, I’m jumping in with both feet, centering my creative work as my Work.  It’s a difficult shift and not without its challenges, but I’m so excited for personal and creative growth in the next few years.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I love working with vintage textiles. Vibrant 1950’s printed tablecloths, chenille bedspreads, seed sacks, hankies….you name it, I’ll throw it on my handguided longarm and quilt it.

I seek to enhance the original art and graphic design of these everyday overlooked items with my own artistic view. It’s a process that I enjoy from curation to completion.

Vintage tablecloths are rarely pristine. Signs of wear, a small tea stain or slight fray, are part of their charm and should not doom these household workhorse beauties to attic trunks. (or worse!)

The fabrics that held households together deserve a second act.

I’ve expanded my work to include vintage wallpaper. And bank bags. It’s early. It’s a learning curve filled with big sad OOPS sometimes. But I can’t stop. Stay tuned.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Make ME your best friend!

My husband is a Master Chief in the USCG and we just relocated to Dania this June.
I can tell you where to get a great lobster roll in Maine.

However!
Discovering The Bake Shack in Dania Beach at 238 S Federal Hwy in the first few days of moving in made us so happy. www.bakeshackfl.com You can order online and pick up if you want. Just be sure to leave a dozen donuts for me.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

Art is messy.  I am messy. 

So the two of us together need ROOM.  

Shoutout to my kids that generously handed me their rooms as they went off to college, and to my dear partner of 27 years who moved all my stuff every single time.  It has been the greatest gift to have a space of my own over these years.  I would have never grown as an artist without it. Thank you all.

Speaking of space, Shoutout to Lisa and Michael Fulginiti, proprietors of Cornish Trading Company of Cornish Village, Maine for giving me the opportunity to grow further with a real boothspace.  Their generosity of advice and kindness as I learn the ropes has made all the difference.

Website: https://www.coadyquilts.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coadyquilts/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoadyQuilts/