Jacqueline Field, center, signs her book, “Textiles & Designs: Bates Mill 1930-1990,” a comprehensive study of Bates’ woven and printed textiles, for Nancy Higgins at the LA Museum in Lewiston on Thursday afternoon. Higgins, who worked for the Bates Mill for 31 years, started out as a pieceworker in stitching, became the first female supervisor in the finishing room, worked in the electric blanket factory and finally ran the mill store. Higgins says that the only bedspreads she uses in her own home are Bates Mills bedspreads and she would not have it any other way. On the left is Rachel Desgrosseilliers, longtime executive director of the museum.