{"id":32435,"date":"2020-11-21T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2020-11-21T08:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=32435"},"modified":"2020-11-21T00:01:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T08:01:05","slug":"how-to-hang-a-quilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hang a Quilt &#8212; We Did It Our Way. Sheltering at Home Week 36"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_32441\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32441\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32441 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5851-2.jpg\" alt=\"how-to-hang-a-quilt man-hanging-a-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32441\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How to hang a quilt? Jon and I found a way. Because Jon has long arms and strong hands, he got the job of climbing the ladder and wielding the hammer. <em>Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>November 20, 2020 Sheltering at Home Week 36<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was beautiful. It was valuable. But it was big.<\/p>\n<p>It was a hand-stitched quilt. Vintage. Antique, possibly. Rust red and periwinkle\u00a0 blue.<\/p>\n<p>It was given to Jon and and me as a wedding gift 43 years ago, and it&#8217;s spent all 43 of those years shut up in a linen closet.<\/p>\n<p>It deserved a place of honor somewhere in our house. But it was too valuable to be used as a bedspread. And too big to fit gracefully on any of our modest walls.\u00a0Until . . .<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32446\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32446\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32446 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5893-2.jpg\" alt=\"vintage-quilt antique-quilt hand-stitched-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32446\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The quilter was patient; you can barely see the hand stitching.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>. . . until this summer when the wall between our kitchen and dining room came down. And voila! A space emerged that was generous enough to show off our super-sized quilt. And the pandemic shutdown had given us time to take on the onerous task.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>But How to Hang a Quilt That Measures 6 1\/2 by 7 1\/2 feet?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>A trip to the New Pieces quilt shop in Berkeley &#8212; masked and cautious &#8212; was the place to start. Our quilt was too heavy for clamps or a rod and rings, so I was passed along to a quilter who agreed to hand sew a series of sleeves across the top of the quilt.<\/li>\n<li>Next, a trip to the hardware store &#8212; also masked &#8212; for a flat piece of wood to slip through the sleeves. My plan was to nail the strip of wood directly to the wall. (Had I purchased a dowel and some screw eyes, my life &#8212; err, Jon&#8217;s life &#8212; would have been simpler. Just screw the screw eyes into the ends of the dowel and slip them over a nail in the wall. I recommend that method to you. It&#8217;s easier on the quilt, and easier on the guy with the hammer.)<\/li>\n<li>Next, enlist husband to slide the strip of wood through the sleeves and hammer the wood to the wall.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It worked. Our doughty old quilt is now located opposite our spanking new sliding glass doors. The view out those doors is an eye-grabber, but our aging quilt is holding its own just fine across the way.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32452\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32452\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32452 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5844-resized.jpg\" alt=\"how-to-hang-a-quilt hanging-a-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32452\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jon slipped the board through the sleeves on the quilt. Then he sank a nail part way through the board. No rods and rings, no clamps needed for this method.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h5><strong>We&#8217;ve Got the Quilt, but What&#8217;s Become of the Quilter?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>Standing in the dining room and studying the thousands and thousands of stitches on this old quilt of ours, I can&#8217;t help wondering about the hands that made them. Each stitch had to pass through two layers of cotton and a thin layer of batting, and each stitch had to be tiny enough to blend into the surrounding fabric.<\/p>\n<p>Those quilting hands have long since gone to dust, no doubt. But their handiwork lives on. After\u00a0 forty-three years in a linen closet, all those thousands of stitches, in their orderly rows and circles, fairly leap from the quilt. The hands are gone, but the intention abides.<\/p>\n<p><em>To see the remarkable work of some contemporary quilt artists, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2016\/04\/21\/east-bay-quilters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Quilts, Dazzling Quilts.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0To read about a quilter who couldn&#8217;t get her quilting act together, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2015\/02\/05\/the-quilt-from-hell-forty-two-years-later-its-still-not-finished\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;The Quilt From Hell. Forty-Two Years Later, It&#8217;s Still Not Finished.&#8221;<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32453\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32453\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32453 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5860-resized..jpg\" alt=\"how-to-hang-a-quilt board-to-hang-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32453\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How to hang a quilt? Slide a board through the sleeves and nail the board to the wall at either end. The top of the quilt now fits snugly against the wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_32456\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-32456\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-32456 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5884-resized.jpg\" alt=\"large-red-and-blue-quilt-on-wall antique-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-32456\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">We did it. Our quilt now hangs gracefully in our dining room &#8212; no wrinkles, no sags. No distracting rods, clips or clamps. (Wondering why one of the pendant globes is broken? I hit it with the container for our new picture rails. We&#8217;ll use them to hang the pictures you see in the background. More about that another day.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/ noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-32441 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/IMG_5851-2.jpg\" alt=\"how-to-hang-a-quilt man-hanging-a-quilt\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>How to hang a quilt? We had a beautiful, handstitched quilt that felt like a voice from the past. Here&#8217;s what we did with it. <a href=\"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/2020\/11\/21\/how-to-hang-a-quilt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,41],"tags":[653,812,34,2384,1188,29,689,1611,2182,1386],"class_list":["post-32435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-sheltering-at-home-chronicles","tag-arts-and-crafts","tag-crafts","tag-dont-miss","tag-home-decor","tag-house","tag-jon","tag-marriage","tag-quilts","tag-remodel","tag-sewing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}