Hanging Your Quilt - Part 2

Now that you've made your hanging sleeve, how and with what do you hang your quilt? I've used lots of different methods for hanging. I would love to use round dowels, but dowels are usually only readily available in shorter lengths and I like to hang larger quilts. So it's off to the molding department in Home Depot!

These are the two moldings that I purchase depending on the size of the quilt.  For smaller quilts I use screen molding, which is the piece of wood on the top in the picture.  Screen molding is thin and has two rounded edges.  You can cut it with a mat knife.  I use it to hang quilts that are around baby size and smaller.

The second piece is 1/2" x 3/4" molding.  I don't know its specific name or use, but it is readily available and you can buy it up to 12' long.  You need to have a saw to cut this one!

Cut your wood piece to the exact width of your quilt.  Notice in the picture how the wood will extend beyond the sleeve.  If the quilt is to be hung permanently, place nails or screws in the wall so that you can place the wood on top of them at this point for hanging.

You can also screw eye hooks into the ends of the wood and hook those onto nails in the wall.  If you use eye hooks you'll want to cut your wood piece shorter so that the hooks don't show when your quilt is hanging.

I like to change out quilts often, so I do things a bit differently.  I use pushpins (just regular plastic ones for bulletin boards) and I place them about three to four feet apart level on the wall.  I then place the quilt on them so the wood rod rests on the pushpins.  I've found that even large quilts hang beautifully and I can change quilts often without putting additional holes in the wall.

I hope this gives you some ideas for how to showcase your quilts on the wall.

Working Away and a Winner!

I'm continuing to work on my 'abundance/scarcity' red and white quilt. I had to stop for a few days because I ran out of red fabric, but Tammy at Marmalade came through as usual. She is one fast shipper! I have one panel done. I like how it's coming along.

I had fun counting quilts. It got me thinking about how many quilts I've made in four years. I don't have any idea. I just know it's a LOT!

And now for the winner! I counted quilts, actually counted them a bunch of times to make sure I was correct. Believe it or not from all those comments only one person hit it on the nose. A bunch of you were close, but here's the official count:
Bedroom - 2
Studio - 4
Studio closet - 10
Hallway - 2
Bedroom closet - 12
Living room - 3
Dining room - 1
Kitchen 1
for a grand total of 35 quilts. Elizabeth, you are the winner. Drop me an email and I'll send you the code so you can do some fabric shopping at Sew Mama Sew.

A note about storing your quilts. I used to fold mine, but when I took my Broken Cogs quilt out to hang it in the hallway gallery, it still has lines in it from where it was folded. I now roll my quilts with the front inside and store them this way.  When I pull out a quilt there are no folds or wrinkles and they are ready to use or hang.

Art Makes a House a Home

I'm slowly, but surely getting the apartment decorated. It takes me awhile to put things on walls and find just the right place and choose what I want to put there. Having an apartment makes it more of a challenge. The walls aren't mine to make as many holes as I please so again creativity comes into play.

As some of you know in my old house I had an old ladder that served as the railing to the basement.  That ladder was so long that to make it into a railing I had to cut off a section of the ladder.  I couldn't bring the railing with me, but the extra section went on to the truck and it's found a special place in the new home.

I finally finished sewing the binding on this quilt and I love how it looks hanging on the ladder.  I only have one bed now, so quilts on beds aren't an option.  I do have wall space though, so more quilts will find their way onto walls.  They're art whether they are on beds, walls, chairs, or hung on a ladder!

In order to hang quilts I need to make some sleeves.  I need to hand sew this and then on to the wall it goes.  I'm trying to create a hallway gallery.  We'll see how that goes.

One little tip today:  I've discovered the joy of Command hooks.  Easy peasy and no holes in the walls! Genius!  In my small space having things right where I need them helps me work.  I hung my scissors right above the ironing board.  Seems like a small thing, but they're right at hand, no searching and I use them at the ironing board all the time.  Command hooks are amazing for hanging everything!  Quilts too!!

Can't believe it's Friday.  Enjoy your weekend and don't forget to take a few minutes to take the Modern Quilt Guild survey.  Big things are in the works and we want you to be a part of it!

PS:  The winner of the Quilt Retro book is Carla G.  Send me your contact info and Jenifer will send you your book.  Congratulations!

Good Monday Morning To You

It's always a good day when fabric arrives in the mail. I got this this other day from Kathy of Pink Chalk Fabrics. You know, some online stores are better than others and Kathy's is one of the best. Do you know she irons your fabric before she packs it up for you? Fabric from her store is perfectly folded, cut beautifully, and best of all she has great taste. There's never a time I click on her store that I don't find something I like. I think I must have been channeling her last week...this post summed up exactly how I was feeling. I was suffering from 'Pissy' (read her post to find out the symptoms). I was glad to be diagnosed...knowing what's wrong with you is the first step to a cure.

New fabric might be one of the required medications.

Love these soft pinks and grays.
Wild thyme is one of my current favs.
I think these dots are fabulous and mingle will always be in my stash. I was running low on these squares.
Spent part of the weekend perfecting my oval template....I think I've got it now...it's going to show up in lots of designs. I get tired of squares and rectangles sometimes...and I think an oval shape is really fun and modern. I usually pin the heck out of my curves, but thanks to my friend Fulvia I tried something new. I sewed the above with NO, yes I said NO pinning. I watched this and gave it a go...and it worked first time, every time. Who knew?

And now for the giveaway. Holly is the winner. The Fat Quarterly team should be in contact with you soon. Congratulations!

Have a great week, avoid 'Pissy' if you can and let's see if we can get some finishes happening. At least that's my plan.