What's on the line? is back!!!!

It was a beautiful afternoon yesterday and so I headed out to my new clothesline to hang a rather interesting quilt...................

It is not the most beautiful quilt in the world and, in fact, it's not really a quilt because it's "tied", not actually "quilted". Don't tell my husband that. This was his TV quilt and it is soft and comfy. It saw a lot of Sunday nap times. :-)  The colors in the quilt may be a real giveaway.............all this fabric is from the early 1970's and most of it is from shirts that I made for husband, Steve. He loved bright colors. He had an "interesting" eye for color back then. The 70's was the era of the "Leisure Suit" and I made him one in beige so these shirts didn't look too bad with the pants and jacket. Almost all the fabrics were purchased at a small fabric shop in Dumont, New Jersey. We lived there for just two years, and that shop and the local library were my two favorite places. I only wish I could remember the name of the fabric shop. The lady who owned it was always so nice. The border on the quilt is vintage fabric from the 1940's that my mother-in-law gave me. I thought it was nice to put it on a quilt for her son.There is significant wear on the edges and I am going to do some repairs to stablize the quilt. The extra long NASCAR quilt has replaced this one for Sunday afternoon naps. :-) You can see it here.

The new clothesline that my husband installed is a pulley system. In the photo on the right, you can see that if I unwind the cord then I can lower the heighth of the line. I can hang the quilt at the lower height, then with the pulley system, I can raise it so it doesn't touch the ground when I'm taking pictures. I will need to use an old sheet on the ground when initially hanging the quilt but the system works really well! 

When the quilt hangs high and straight, I can take good close-ups of the block designs. My favorite block is nine-patch. Well, unless I'm making Churn-dash or Hole-in-the-Barn Door blocks as I like to call them. It's hard to have just one favorite!!  Anyway, nine-patch blocks worked great for the left-over shirt fabrics. That green, white and orange plaid was one of my favorite shirts that I made.

I enjoyed my new clothesline so much that I just let the quilt blow in the wind for a bit.  Then I took a photo from a distance. As you can see, the dead tree is still there but sometime this fall, it will come down. Soon, my husband will have plenty of time for this kind of thing because he'll be retiring at the end of September. He's worked for Lockheed Martin since September of 1974 (actually it was Univac when we first moved here). We came here from New Jersey where he wore those wild and crazy shirts to work.  His job at Univac required a suit and tie, and so he went shopping and I quit sewing for him. I did not miss making those button-down collars. As the years went by, casual shirts have become his work-wear but I had no interest in sewing for him. I get plenty of scraps from the quilting projects I make and all the curtains I seem to be sewing. LOL! 

 

That's the "soon to be retired" husband mowing the lawn next to my quilt line. What is significant about this photo is that this whole area will become a perennial garden next spring. I am looking forward to flowers that I can pick like these lovelies from my neighbor Sue..........and then the next summer.............a backyard quilt show!  It could happen!!!  I'm from Iowa so I believe in that saying........."If you build it, they will come"!

Happy Monday, everyone! Can you believe it's the last Monday in August? Going to be heating up this week but a cool-down coming on the weekend. Just in time to get out the Fall and Halloween stuff and make my front porch look festive.
Back soon and, yep, I will get to those retreat photos soon!
Sandi