I Have A Finish

Otter Village is finished--

Its a free pattern at Paint Brush Studio.  Gray fabric is a new background fabric for me, I paired it with juvenile fabrics and a black.  The backing is a white flannel with tiny blue/yellow polka dots.  Its quilted allover with the pantograph Clematis by Jody Beamish.  This panto is 13.5" but I enlarged it to 16", at 13.5" it was a bit too dense for me. 

The Gray quilt is hard to photograph.  If there were grass for contrast it would photograph better.  But its March in South Dakota, there wasn't much wind so I'll take what I can get!  But I will show you a few photo tips--

There is a pergola above our deck.  At the top I nailed up a vinyl covered clothesline.  A string holds it up in the middle to a stringer, otherwise it would sag when a quilt is hung from it.  Our deck is about 4 four above the ground, I can hang a 100" quilt from the line without touching the ground.  Metal clothespins are much stronger than wooden ones,  these were ordered off the internet--

They do not come apart like the wooden ones.  How many of you struggle with the wind flapping your quilts?  A completely still day seldom happens here.  But you can defeat a breeze with these--

Its hard to see, but its just a brick, a piece of lightweight nylon rope, and a metal clothespin.  Depending on the size of the quilt, just wrap the rope around the brick to shorten the rope.  This location relies on late afternoon sun.  Here is what it looked like earlier today--

There is a shadow across the top of the quilt.  I waited about 2 hours before almost all of the shadow was gone. (If I had waited longer the sun drops below the large trees to the west and its all shadowed).  The angle was not perfect, the final picture is better and I used the "perspective" tool to help.  The top clips hold so well the quilt hung there even though the breeze from the south would pull the bottom loose from bricks/clips.  This is on the west side of our house.  I have another line on the east side of the garden shed/garage which can be used for morning pictures or if the wind is from the west.  But the line is lower which means I have to take pictures with quilts hung sideways. 

I used 10.50yds to make the gray quilt.  It was also my OMG for March. I'm linking with Elm Street Quilts.

~Lori1R in South Dakota~