Quilter is Shelby Township Senior Center’s new featured artist

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Marge Iscaro has been selected as the Shelby Township Senior Center’s featured artist for the months of July and August.

Her display has been set up at the Shelby Township Activities Center, 14975 21 Mile Road, and will be there until the end of August. Several pieces have already been sold. The senior center is part of the activities center.

Iscaro was raised in Detroit. In 2001, she retired to a house in the woods of Atlanta, Michigan. She had started quilting with intensity in 1998.

In 2018, Iscaro moved to Shelby Township to be closer to her family. Since then, she has continued taking classes and doing research to develop her quilting techniques. She is the recipient of numerous awards for quilts from county fairs, guild shows, the Michigan Quilt Network, and the American Quilters Society in Paducah, Kentucky. She has five years of judging experience in various venues. Iscaro also has shared her love of quilting by teaching classes in beginning and advanced quilting methods.

Her projects have been shared through exhibiting and vending at art shows, displaying at quilt shows, and as gifts to family and friends.

The joy of quilting is ever increasing in her life.

Karen Gibson, Iscaro’s friend, said she met Iscaro through her membership in the Thunderbay Quilt Guild of Atlanta, Michigan.

“I knew very little about quilting when I joined, but it was apparent to me that Marge was a very talented quilter. She always had beautiful work to show at our monthly business meetings. Marge excelled at appliqué, whether by hand or by machine. She would often say, ‘l am not a piecer.’ However, she developed the skill to perfection. She also did beautiful embroidery and embellishment on her crazy quilts. Marge is very creative and participated in guild challenges and mystery projects. She has a keen eye for color and contrast and does not rest until she has just the right fabric for the piece she is working on,” Gibson said.

She said she got to know Iscaro even better through participation in quilt camps and a small stitching group.

“She is a great mentor and teacher, generous and helping to solve problems or give direction for matters that one might not fully understand, and providing opinions when requested. I know that Marge received many ribbons at our local county fair for her quilting. She also received second place honors in the Paducah show. That quilt is now a part of the collection at the Bessel Museum in Alpena,” she said.

Gibson said Iscaro is a wonderful person, opinionated — in a good way — and holds herself to a higher level of excellence in whatever she does.

“She is in a select group of quilters I know that consistently produces exquisitely beautiful quilts,” she said.

Pat Fazekas, Iscaro’s friend, said Iscaro is a quilter extraordinaire. Iscaro’s love of textiles began as a child when she was taken by her mother to dry goods stores.

“Though not yet familiar with color coordination and patterns, as a young child she loved to just feel the material. She learned to sew and using an industrial sewing machine became adept at making costumes for local theatrical productions. I’m not sure when the quilting bug bit her, but she readily traded the 5/8 inch seam for the quilter’s 1/4 inch. She delights in creating complicated quilts using techniques such as thread painting, appliqué, beading, embroidery, among others,” Fazekas said.

Iscaro’s quilts leave an impression.

“You will enjoy her artistry and won’t forget it,” Fazekas said.