Library Quilt Frame Project

A few months ago a local quilter contacted me to see if I could make a frame to cover a quilt she made and donated to the Johnson Library in Darlington, WI. This quilt is special in that it is made of blocks that are individually signed by 45 local and area authors. How fitting for it to be in a library.

I said, sure and here are the pictures and construction story...


Cherry would be the wood of choice to match the existing wood work in the library. It came from Menards. One nice bundle.


Each piece individually wrapped. That should tell you something about the price.


The design took on a life of it's own in the project. It would be 90" wide and 60" high and 5.5" deep. The frame evolved to a simple frame with a 1/4" plexiglass grooved in. Making sure the quilt would fit inside and not touch the glass would be important. A model was in order and constructed out of 1 by 6 pine.


My design called for a cleat that the frame would sit on. It could be screwed to the wall and then the Frame placed on it and supported. Then just a few pocket screws in the top and it would be on the wall covering the quilt. The cleat, the small piece in front, was shaped so as to lock the frame bottom into it.


The driveway served as a good place for layout and pre-drilling of the screw holes.


All assembled. You can see a small section of glass I put in to get the feel for how it would look. Now  is was time to dis-assemble it, label all the corners and take it to be finished.


Three helpers and a couple of tall ladders and the end of another good project.

More Yard Art projects

The weather was great and the participants were ready, willing and able to put welder to iron and come up with some very unique and creative Yard Art this past weekend at Shake Rage Alley in Mineral Point, WI.

Electric over hydraulic brake

This was the culprit that needed to be changed out on my Enertech 1800 wind turbine this past week. The good news was that it was the brake and not one of the keys in a Lovejoy coupler.


When I first built the mounting system for the turbine in 2001 I gave some thought to the future and made a nice platform to stand on when doing annual maintenance. I did not put enough thought into it so that the platform was at a level that I could reach any of the parts that might need attention. In years past I would haul up a 6 foot step ladder and lash it to the tower to work off from. This was always a hassle.


So I decided to weld up a ladder out of 1" square tubing.


The ladder is hooked over an angle iron at the top and the legs are pinned into the platform at the bottom. The step is at a level that when I am on it I can now reach everything in the nacelle that might need looking after. I will most likely just leave it on the tower. The turbine is on a five foot mast that will be cranked up when I am sure the replacement unit is not leaking. Securing the blades and controlling the yaw of the turbine is still a problem. My low tech solution is marginal at best.

This coming week will be a Kid Wind Challenge at the Mineral Point Library. One of the father and son teams that did it at the MREA Fair in Custer last month wanted to get some interest going and maybe start a Kid Wind Team in Mineral Point.

I will be conducting another Yard Art workshop at Shake Rag in Mineral Point this coming Saturday and Sunday. Here are some pictures of what they created last month.