Hang it up!

We have a split level home and the wall in the entry of the "split" stair area is a large blank canvas that is the perfect place to hang something large such as a quilt.  Rotating different quilts makes the space interesting but that means having lots of interesting quilts to hang there.  Not all quilts pass muster due to size and the location.  For instance, I made this particular quilt to hang in this location but failed to measure how long the wall was.  Oops!  The quilt was too long.....so it didn't make it up on "the wall". The last quilt hung there for over two years.  So, the wall has been bare for a few months because frankly I got tired of looking at the quilt that was there.

This weekend my husband recommended I get something back up on "the wall" and so I did a bit of rotating in the house and decided to put up a quilt that I made in 2008 at a mystery class.  The pattern is
Bear Tracks by Glad Creations and is 61" x 79". (Part of what you see at the top of the quilt is a ceiling fan blade and two cords hanging down.)

I thought I would show you how we have this hung up on the wall.  We used these hooks from IKEA...they are the  2 3/4" Blecka hooks.  Then we used 1/2" x 10ft galvanized conduit pipe from a home remodeling/hardware store.  (Yes, we have a popcorn ceiling.  We will probably hang onto it until it becomes in vogue again!)

We used three of the hooks. My husband shortened the middle hook that the bar rests on so that it doesn't push into the back of the quilt and cause a "bump" to show in the front when a quilt is hanging.  When I attach my sleeves on the back of the quilt I put on two instead of one leaving space in the middle; that way the hook in the middle doesn't interfere with the sleeve.

Initially we discussed painting the pipe and hooks the color of the wall; however, this is the narrowest quilt I have ever hung up there.  Usually very little of the pipe shows and it is rarely noticeable.  What does show doesn't bother us.

If I remember correctly the pattern for this quilt called for  24 different fabrics and I used 48 because I wanted it to be scrappier looking.  Also, I wanted the background fabric to be very low contrast.  I wanted the quilt to look somewhat vintage. 

Thanks for reading!

Peepers

We did a little leaf peeping yesterday in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

This was taken in Frontenac State Park in Minnesota along the Mississippi River.  The colorful leaves were still hanging on enough to enjoy them.  A beautiful day for a drive.