After teaching EMS class in the morning, Roadie (aka Nancie Van Alstyne) and I headed out to participate in the area’s 2017 Shop Hop.  Our first stop was in South Glens Falls at Adirondack Quilts, where I was thrilled to see my very first “display” of my patterns!

Puppy Girl Designs display @ Adirondack Quilts

Holiday House & Country Christmas quilts on display @ Adirondack Quilts

The quilt to the left is my Christmas on Cardinal Mountain, made in beautiful winter and cardinal fabrics, there are quilt kits available.  If you’re looking for quick, easy and portable Christmas ideas for the Summer, this is the project! When hand stitching the embroidered blocks, hoop and notions can easily fit in a quart size plastic zip bag.  You could even make multiples of this quilt, each in a different colorway, for those on your holiday gift list.

While at Adirondack, there was yummy cake to sample and HQ Long Arm Machine demos.

From Adirondack Quilts, we headed over to Wynter Haven Quilt Studio at 4 South Western Ave., in Queensbury.  While enjoying the wonderful selection of fabrics, notions and patterns, I had an unexpected but delightful surprise.  One of the other customers kept looking over at me and she looked familiar to me too.  Soon she came over to say hi and I learned she was one of the Wings Falls Quilt Guild members, who had attended a recent program I had given.

WFQ Quilter Jeanette & me.

Wings Falls Quilter Jeanette, a gracious and fun lady, made my day! How wonderful to think I might have a “fan”. My recent lecture and class at the April meeting of the Wings Falls Quilt Guild was a great day – filled with warm and friendly ladies (and a man), who made me feel right at home.

It was my first visit to Wynter Haven but certainly not my last.  Owner Jill White, and her staff, were all fun and super helpful and they have some of the most beautiful fabrics, especially the new line of dragonflies fabrics!

Roadie and I finished the day with visits to The Joyful Quilter and The Quiltbug.  Sue at The Joyful Quilter was quite busy carrying boxes of new fabric cutters out to customer’s cars and treating us all to bottles of cold water and bags of snacks! Kris and her ladies at The Quiltbug had the shop hopping, with so much fabric cutting going on and raising money with a beautiful charity quilt.

We will be out next Saturday to finish our the Shop Hop adventure.  PLEASE REMEMBER TO SHOP THE SHOPS!!!  Without our local quilt shops, we truly would be nowhere.  Yes, many items can be found on the Internet but you can’t find the inspiration, you can’t fondle the fabric, you won’t have the personal attention and caring from a fellow quilter, like you can at your favorite shop.  It’s our job to support them, so that they can be there to support us.  After all, quilters are the best!!

Keep stitching,

Lynn

Well, it has been obvious the Spring continues to be difficult to find. Terrible storms late last week left trees blocking the driveway, power poles and lines down with many extended periods of no power. And I finally caught the wicked cold going around, in bed for few days and still feel yucky! BUT, I have been treated to some wonderful visitors to the bird feeders outside my bedroom window. On Saturday, I was treated to this Pileated Woodpecker – have never seen one at a feeder. Eventually he went back to a close tree and spent several minutes scooting up and down the tree looking for a snack!

Yesterday I suddenly saw the 2 male Rose Breasted Grosbeaks. I was so excited since I haven’t seen one in person for many years. One of them gave me a great solo shot.

Pair of male Rose Breasted Grosbeaks

Rose Breasted Grosbeak giving a solo shot

And then again this morning, just waking up, opening the curtains to find my friend was back! How wonderful!

My friend is back!!

Among the rain, clouds and storms, there is a little sunshine!

Keep Stitching,

Lynn

Who’s ready for Spring? Not this raining stuff but green in the trees, the pretty flowers, the American Goldfinches back to their yellow feathers. I am and here’s my latest project :The Finch House”. Oh, please Sister Sun, come out!

Late this past January, I read a small blurb in The Advertiser (our local small communities newspaper) about the Sand Lake Historical Society calling for artists to decorate mailboxes for an upcoming fundraiser.  This sounded intriguing.  I called the phone number the very next morning and spoke to a lovely woman named Barbara. She explained that the response to her article had been very positive and she thought she was all set.  She asked what I had in mind.  When I said a quilted one, well, let’s just say that suddenly there was an opening!  She would provide the mailbox in couple of weeks, I’d have a couple of weeks to create and deliver the box back to her.

I considered several different blocks, should I include my signature embroidery and whether the end result would be ornamental only or work as an actual mailbox! Deciding that a working box was the way to go, the design and colors should be recognizable by folks driving past it.  I also needed to use material that would stand up to the elements.  A trip to the local Curtis Lumber helped me find very thin sheet metal (the top and backing) and 1/4″ sheathing insulation (the batting).  I cut the metal sheet down (first time with tin snips!) being sure to leave a few inches on each side – just in case – like not cutting off the extra backing and batting until you’re completely done quilting. Then to the drafted layout and started painting.

Tin sanded & primed, initial drafting of quilt layout

                                       Pattern with colors selected

First white paint, let dry. Then red paint.

It was about this time I realized that I would need to draw the line for each log cabin strip in order for the pattern to be seen properly.  I started with an ultra fine Sharpie, then to a fine Sharpie and settled on a regular Sharpie.  Also, I should have been more careful when noting what color went where.  Even though I used a #2 mechanical pencil, and did my best to erase some of the notes, the only way I could get rid of my writing was to paint over – especially on the white areas.

Blue centers

I painted in the blue centers, touched up several oops and started drawing in the lines of each strip so as to make the pattern be more noticeable.  More touch -ups (need to be more precise next time – I know better from my decorative painting days!) and now onto the layering of the “quilt”.  I cut out a piece of the insulation to the exact size of the mailbox, shaving off just a little around the edges to help facilitate wrapping the front part to the back.  No binding on this quilt. Then on to the “quilting”

Quilting done with template, small straight head screwdriver and hammer

It was a bit tricky to “quilt” – hit too hard and you go through the thin metal, the surface of the quilt was slippery so almost lost a body part here and there. I cut down the front so that it would wrap around the insulation and used pliers to bend each inch of the quilt top down and under the “batting” (the insulation).  Finally would fit nicely on mailbox. But then needed to gently but firmly wrap the quilt into it’s new shape – and keep it there!

Used a few C-clamps and let sit for a day.Had planned on using nuts and bolts to attach quilt to mailbox but wasn’t strong enough.  And I felt the edges of the quilt along the bottom of the box should be smooth and safe.

Quilt shaped to mailbox

Called an engineer friend, who came over with rivets (would have been another first for me but wasn’t strong enough to use), which he used to secure the quilt to the mailbox.  There was also the issue to reattach the flag (and be usable). I needn’t worry, friend figured it out! I completed the project by using spray expandable insulation in areas between top and bottom of quilt (to protect batting), painted that insulation and the edges of the quilt glossy black and applying 3 coats of special exterior spar urethane.

Mailbox completed

Mailbox flag reattached

All of the mailboxes for the fundraiser are on display at the West Sand Lake Key Bank for the silent auction.  You can also see them on the Society’s website at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nyslhs/mailboxes/index.htm.  Auction is complete and boxes off to new home on Tuesday, May 9th at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts. This is just another way for quilting to beautify the world and I’m already planning next year’s mailbox!  Until next time…

Keep Stitching!

Lynn