So one of my projects didn’t really come from a project box, more that I used some special fabric that I had around to make a border for a panel.
I finished this last year (the top) but I haven’t gotten around to the quilting – but it has stayed on the ironing board because I want to get it done and hung up.
So I had the hubby bring home some of these sticks that we have laying around in the woods. It’s called “Iron Wood”. These tress only grow to a certain size – 2-3″ in diameter, but up to 20 feet high. They are pretty straight – for a tree. So I thought why not make a special quilt hanger to go with this panel quilt.
He actually brought them home last fall and I sort of forgot about them. Then we had a beautiful weekend of weather Easter weekend and I grabbed them and said what can we do with these?
- We stripped them of any and all bark that was left on them (not an easy thing to do)
- scrapped down some of the nubs/branches to make them smoother
- clear coated them
- sat back in awe and just how beautiful they look
So I have 4 of these now and I am already planning a harvesting trip to get more of them.
Clear coated poles – 2-3″ diameter
look at the colors in these sticks.
Look at the beautiful colors in these ‘twigs’ !!!!
bracket for hanging the sticks
So the plan was to use some brackets and hang one of these twigs up as a rod and hand the quilt from it. So I thought I would have this put up in my hall way (the only place I have a big wide space available) and use it to hang up projects for pictures (although there is a bit of a problem in the hallway is not very side so I won’t be able to take a picture of very big projects, but I’ll work that out later.)
I had also ordered some rings with alligator clips on them so I had everything I could want.
The only draw back is that the sticks are thicker on one end and thinner as it goes up. The one that I have hanging right now (shown) is almost 1/2 the diameter at the end. But the strength is amazing. So you will have to come to terms with nature when using this to hang a quilt but boy it sure is sharp looking.
These 4 are 2-3″ in diameter at the bottom and all of them are 8′ long – they could have been longer but I figured this is good for a first start.
This was the first project box done so I gave it the honors of being the first one to hang on this hanger. The other added thing is that my hallway will get some cool things hung on it.
