Moose Kitchen Shade
Copyright 2001 - Margo Wilbur, Ontonagon, Michigan

Margo's first shade was for her dining room window. She explains: "Our dining room window has 3 sections and our house overlooks our farm. My husband likes to see what is going on, so I made the shade to cover just the main window section and the smaller window section that I sit in front of. I left one small window unobstructed. I also went up the wall above the window (an outside mount) so I could still have moose to look at when the shade was up without giving up our view out the window."

The pattern Margo used is from Chickadee Charms Design Co. and the moose pattern is by Janet N. Ludwig.

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Sampler Shade
Copyright 2002 - Margo Wilbur, Ontonagon, Michigan

Margo sent these photographs in February, 2002 with the message: "Terrell, enclosed is my latest project. My son lives in a house in St. Louis that was built in 1914 and wanted something besides blinds in his enclosed back porch. He uses it as a dining area. He has a 5 year old son who visits every other weekend so I wanted something entertaining. I made this sampler quilt into a maze. You start in the top left corner with the blue bird and end up in the lower right corner with the bird house. You leave and enter the blocks through the light colored squares. You use the sashing as paths. The sampler quilt was from a class I took quite a while ago and my instructions do not give a source so I have no idea who is the creator. The maze comes from a class I took through Quilt University online with Lily Kerns."

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Needle-Turn Appliqué Kitchen Shade
Copyright 2005 - Margo Wilbur, Ontonagon, Michigan

Margo sent these photographs of a shade she made for her kitchen. It is a needle-turn appliqué design and is installed above the window. When she pulls up the shade she has one set of barns showing without loosing any of her window area.

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RV Shade
Copyright 2005 - Margo Wilbur, Ontonagon, Michigan

Margo's story about the shade she made for her RV is hilarious:
"The fusible shade was either a learning experience or a disaster, which ever way you want to look at it.  I don't know if you have ever worked with "Steam-a-Seam2Lite", but it gets quite stiff when you start layering, which is probably why you just see it used in wall hangings and not quilts. McKenna Ryan, whose patterns I used, tells you to stitch around all the pieces. When I started to do this and held it up to the sun, all you could see were needle holes as the fusing between the backing and the pieces kept the holes from closing around the stitching. I was too far along in this project to toss it so I ripped out the little bit of stitching I had done and let it sit for a while. 

I finally decided to put the thing up and see what happened. Since it is for our RV, space is at a premium. In order to not lose any window, I had to make small folds. This combined with the fact that the fusible was stiff and would not fold where the battens are put my measurements off just enough so you can see the levels of folds when it is up. It also prevents the shade from folding flat. The next thing that will probably happen is I am going to go into the 5th-wheel and find all my pieces on the couch! The Pine Needles people (Margo's local quilt store) told me that without stitching, the pieces will probably start to lift off, especially when the RV is stored and subject to freezing and heat. I will probably have to add "glue" to my supply list for the RV :-). Margo

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