Create unique holiday gift for quilters by visiting Great Lakes Seaway Trail

Sackets Harbor, NY -- Need a gift for the quilter on your Christmas 2008 list? Here is a shopping list from the Seaway Trail Foundation for assembling an affordable, one-of-a-kind gift basket, starting with a basket handcrafted by “The Basket Lady” Marcia Waligory and available from the Seaway Trail Discovery Center Gift Shop.

In your holiday gift basket include:

tickets for the quilter and friends to attend the March 21-22, 2009 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show, sponsored by the nonprofit Seaway Trail Foundation that hosts an annual mid-March quilt show at its Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY. The theme for the 2009 quilts and wallhangings show and competition is My Favorite Great Lakes Seaway Trail Place.

Books on techniques for creating storytelling quilts - Seaway Trail Foundation President & CEO Teresa Mitchell, herself a quilter, says, “Quilters might consider photo or artwork transfer and children’s picture and items such as collector pins as suggested by quilter-authors Krista Camacho Halligan, Rita Weiss, Linda Causee, and Kimberly Emmo. A photo of a favorite Seaway Trail place could be enlarged to poster size and sectioned into a pattern as noted by authors Joe Hesch and Frankie Seme, enhanced with computer digital technology to create a pattern for quilting as suggested by Beth Wheeler and Lori Marquette, or a photo sampler quilt a la Pat Durbin.”

Photos of favorite places and great vacations or visits along the Seaway Trail.

Seaway Trail Lighthouse Quilt Patterns designed by Mary Knapp of Watertown, NY, for traditional appliqué and paper piecing are available at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, at quilt shops Trailwide and by mail order from 1-800-SEAWAY-T.

gift certificates from these Great Lakes Seaway Trail member quilt shops: Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop, 1422 State Rte 37, Hogansburg, NY; Mission Rose Quiltery, 456 South Main Street, North Syracuse; and Basics and Beyond, 212 East Main Street, Montour Falls, NY.

a free map of the Country Barn Quilt Trail, a loop tour south of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail through Orleans County, featuring 40-plus barns adorned with painted quilt blocks. The map includes directions on how to access a free, guided audio tour of the trail using your cell phone. Call 585-659-9131 or stop by Partyka Farms Market in Kendall, NY, to pick up a map.

Top your gift basket off with a copy of the My Favorite Seaway Trail Place Quilt Show competition rules downloadable from http://www.seawaytrail.com or call 1-800-SEAWAY-T for a copy.