Almost two years ago, my mother and step-father moved into a retirement community. They had both been very active in their local library, so I was anxious to see the library in the main building of their new residence. It’s a nice little space, but I wanted to give it the Debby touch. So I offered to make a wall hanging for it.

I’ve been quilting for over 20 years, so I have quite a stash of weird pieces. I only had a space of 18 x 36 inches to fit this into, so I knew I couldn’t make it wider than about a foot. I wanted it to be taller than wider, so I just guessed on where it would look good. No pattern and very little measuring.

My Starting Sketch

I decided to use several different widths for the books and cut strips of the background to match. I made each row about 18 inches wide, so I could shift them back and forth for the best arrangement. After I set them where they looked good, I stitched them together, ironed the heck of of it, and trimmed it down to 12 inches wide.

I ended up adding a few more rows than I drew, because once I started sewing them all together, more just looked better.

I wanted to have the viewer focus on the books, so I did an allover squiggly quilting by machine with the goal of hiding as much of the seam lines as possible. I added a 1/4 binding – smaller than I usually make – and put a 1 1/2 inch hanging tube on the back. Although I didn’t do this in just one weekend, I certainly could have.

As soon as I have a picture of it in its home, I’ll post it here. I’m told it was warmly received.

And here it is hanging in its rightful place.

the lovely Carol Merrill – sort of