DIY Quilt Ladder

Happy Tuesday! I wanted to share a few notes on a quilt ladder that I made last year! This has made a few appearances on the blog already and I've gotten some questions about how I made it.

I followed a tutorial from Apartment Therapy: How to Make a Blanket Ladder


I made some small adjustments to better fit what I wanted. For the two tall supports I used 1 1/2" diameter wood closet rods, 72" long. For the five horizontal bars I used 1" diameter dowels, trimmed to 38" long.

Above you can see the spacing I used for my ladder. The first bar is 13.5" down from the top of the tall supports. There is approximately 9.75" between each bar. The bars hang over the sides by 4".


The process of lashing the bars to the tall supports was pretty straightforward, the video that is linked in the tutorial was really helpful. I used cotton macrame cord, since I already had some on hand. I have primarily used my ladder for photographs, so I don't know how strong the joints are if you have something draped on it all the time. It does feel quite strong!

If I was going to use this for display all the time with heavy quilts I would probably glue the supports in place and add small screws from the back before lashing.


Happy Quilting!

January Monthly Report

Happy February! It's time for January's monthly report. See past reports here.

First and foremost, a big thank you for your twill tape orders! I have a reorder on it's way and the low/sold out styles will be back on Friday, February 7th. You can find the listing in my shop here: Cotton Twill Tape


Sewing wise this was a light month. Michael took the first week of January off, so it did sort of feel like I was playing catch-up most of the month. Totally worth it though! He works long hours, so I really cherish any extra days we have together.

I did carve out some time to sew up a new drawstring bag. When I was cleaning my sewing room after the new year I realized I had enough cork fabric to make two more drawstring bags! I paired the cork with this lovely canvas print from Ruby Star Society*. This is the bottom accent variation from the expansion pattern in the Project size. The cork fabric from Sew Sweetness.
 
Lined Drawstring Bag Pattern + Lined Drawstring Bag Expansion Pattern


I finished a small quilt this month! This was an extra quilt top from writing my book, Patchwork Essentials: The Half-Square Triangle. I basted it in May 2018, yikes! I was tired of having it languishing under my sewing table, so I spent some time getting it finished up in January. What a relief to cross this one off, it was weighing on me!


I shared my scrap project that I made in the form of a tutorial last week, you can find it here: Long Scrappy Pincushion Tutorial. I actually made two, since I didn't take photos of the process while I made the first one. They were fun and quick!


To keep myself accountable for my stash goals, I track my yardage for fabric and yarn each month. Read more about how I track here. Here is how I did in January:

January Fabric
Used up: 9 yards
Brought in: 8 yards
Net: -1 yards
Year to date: -1 yards

January Yarn
Used up: 0 yards
Brought in: 0 yards
Net: 0 yards
Year to date: 0 yards

New Year, new stash tally! I actually didn't buy any fabric this month. All the yardage that came in was given to me by friends. I knew I had to finish that little quilt to help offset it! No yarn movement, but I did start a new cowl for Michael.


I didn't really do much of anything towards my crafty goals this month, but that's okay. I spent most of the month working on behind the scenes business stuff, so a lot of time on the computer. I am looking forward to being more intentional about my sewing in February. Which includes picking up my vintage sheet quilt blocks!


I'm missing my garden, so I treated myself to some flowers this month. First I had a bundle of teeny tiny purple and white carnations that lasted three weeks from Trader Joe's. This weekend I replaced those with these ones shown above. They are my absolute favorite color, such a perfect purple. I love to stretch a single bunch across 4 or 5 small bottles.


George the bunny! He is doing well, and he put on some weight this month. He is very happy about that and so are we. Such a good boy, we love him so.

Have a great month!

*Note: Any links marked with an asterisk in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click through and buy something, I make a small commission, at no extra cost to you.