Monday, October 09, 2006

Field trips

Today's theme is field trips. I took one this weekend, attending a quilting show in northeastern Pennsylvania, close to where I grew up, to sell knitting wares on behalf of Rosie's. I'll wait until I have photos to give you the full flavor of my weekend, but the quilting ladies were incredibly sweet to me. I had the unexpected pleasure of winning a silent auction bid for a quilted piece which I'll use as a wall hanging of some sort (question for the quilters out there: how should I hang this on my wall?). I was told that the pattern is modeled after an Amish crib quilt that the maker saw in a magazine. It was a gorgeous weekend for leaf-peeping in the Poconos, too.

This morning was my second field trip. The twins' preschool went to visit the firehouse in honor of Fire Prevention Week. It was a hoot to see all these four- and five-year-olds completely discombobulating the firemen simply by asking them questions like "What do you do if this firehouse catches on fire?" and "What if my house is on fire and I scream out the window but you don't hear me?"

Tomorrow's field trip is to my Lyme doctor in Jersey, about an hour's drive but well worth it to know that I've got a doc who knows what he's doing. I've had some recurrence of symptoms which has greatly concerned me.

And the next big field trip, in a week and a half: Rhinebeck! I can hardly believe it's so soon. It'll do my heart good to hang with my knitting pals, fondle fiber, visit some sheep and hopefully score some undyed yarn and rovings for Black Bunny Fibers. And for those of you who'll be playing Rhinebeck Blogger Bingo, I am a square on Saturday and Sunday. I'll have a Black Bunny Fibers tote bag with me, or you can comb through the archives for photos of my big round moon face.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Carol. Were you anywhere near Potter County, Pennsylvania? That's my old vacation area a few years back. It's beautiful country.
As for hanging the quilt, I always make a fabric sleeve on the top back to run a rod through. Did the quilter do that? (Most do that these days, so people can hang them without damage.) It's easy enough to do a running stitch by hand to put one on. Or, as Maureen suggested, there are various clips, clamps, and devices for hanging them. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Check a quilt shop or catalog (the same company that owns patternworks has a large quilting catalog), they sell attractive 'clips' to hang quilts from...

mindy said...

I've always seen them hanging from a rod like Dave suggested, and I believe the bottoms are weighted with the same type of rod.

Poor firefighters- noone's questions are harder to answer than preschoolers'!

The doc will come up with answers & will cure you. I have spoken. (today I've decided its finally time to bend the universe to do my bidding)

Anonymous said...

If it has a pocket running along the back, you can use a rod-type hanger to put through the pocket and then hang from the wall. If it doesn't have the pocket (or even if it does and you prefer this look), you can use the wooden block hangers, like these-http://tinyurl.com/n6vfk
This isn't to endorse this site or this brand but to give you an idea of what they look like.

Big Alice said...

Everyone's already said good stuff: a hanging sleeve works well if you don't mind attaching one (you just have to stitch through the back and not the front, so you have to do it by hand). Then you can slip a dowel or curtain rod through the sleeve and hang that on supports.

You can just push pins through the top into the wall, but 1) that'll make holes in the fabric, and 2) depending on how big or heavy it is, the quilt will sag between the holes (making the holes wider).

The most non-invasive way is the quilt-hanger objects, like others have mentioned. They're usually ok for crib and baby size quilts but full-size quilts are sometimes too heavy for them unless the holder goes along the entire top of the quilt (picture 2 pieces of long wood, pressing together, with the quilt between).

Good luck with your doctor's appointment, I hope the symptoms clear up.

Carol said...

Thanks -- I knew my readers would come through with good tips. This is really not large or heavy enough to be tough to hang; more of a throw pillow size, or one typical quilting square with borders. I'll post a photo soon.

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to finding you in the Rhinebeck crowd--big moon face to big moon face.

Jude in obscureknitty

Anonymous said...

I keep all of the hanging dowels from calendar towels (we get one every year) for potential quilt hanging use. If you have some around, they are really handy (if there is a hanging sleeve on your quilt).