30 Mile Point Lighthouse now a quilt subject

Because of its placement on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, the 30 Mile Point Lighthouse is one of nine lighthouses now in patterns for quilt makers, in a popular guidebooks and a well-visited and photographed destination for travelers. Thirty Mile Point Light is one of the Seaway Trail's 28 historic lighthouses featured in quilts, wall hangings, photographs and gift items at the March 19-20 Seaway Trail Quilt Show & Competition at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center, Sackets Harbor, near Watertown.

Designer and award-winning quilter Mary Knapp, whose work has been displayed at the Paducah Quilt Show in Kentucky, created original quilt patterns of 30 Mile Point and eight other lights for Seaway Trail, Inc., the non-profit organization promoting travel along the shoreline of Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Also noted for her hand-dyed fabrics, Knapp will demonstrate her unique talents at the show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Photographer C. Gary Beckstead of Adams, New York, has photographed more than 600 lighthouses across New York and Canada. At 1 p.m. each day of the Seaway Trail Quilt Show, Beckstead will show his images of the Seaway Trail's historic lights.

Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse at Golden Hill State Park in Barker, west of Rochester, is one of the few lighthouses in the world that offers overnight accommodations. The light was built in 1875 "to warn mariners of a treacherous sandbar and dangerous shoal where several vessels had shipwrecked in the prior two centuries," write James Tinney and Mary Burdette-Watkins in the 4th edition of Seaway Trail Lighthouses, an illustrated guide to the lights found along the 504 mile scenic byway that is also one of America's Byways and a National Recreation Route.

The lighthouses guidebook and other lighthouse-theme gift items, quilt fabrics and baskets will be for sale at the show. The book is also found online at www.seawaytrail.com. For more information on the quilt show, call 1-800-SEAWAY-T.