My husband and I are still in Georgia, enjoying a few more days with my sister Diane and her husband Ed. With memories of a fabulous Thanksgiving feast behind us, our thoughts are now turning toward the next big holiday.

Diane has been decorating their home for Christmas, with a few items chosen to delight their seven-year-old grandson.In the dining room, for example, Santa reigns:

The garland on the built-in buffetisadorned with sparkly fruit and berries:

Suspended from the light fixture in the hallway is a pair of kissing balls the size of bowling balls:

In the living room, the mantel is decorated with an elegant lighted garland:

Also in the living room are a couple of simple but elegant additions. . .

. . . and a tiny tree next to the piano:

In the kitchen you’ll find this charming vignette above the range:

The front and back doors have large wreaths:

Even the powder room gets the holiday treatment:

Every day I notice something new: kitchen towels decorated with snowmen, jingle bells and tiny needlepoint pillows hanging from doorknobs, Christmas-themed bowls and spreaders for hors d’oeuvres displayed on the counter, a nutcracker standing guard on the fireplace surround.

I really do think Diane has a knack for decorating. Her home is graciously appointed all year around but right now, decked out for the holidays, it is especially beautiful.

The quilts displayedon thiswall in ourTV room replace a piano that I donated a fewmonths ago. I had bought a secondhand piano 20-some years ago. Having taken lessons as a kid, I thought I wouldrelearn how to play.That never happened, not because I didn’t want to but because I preferred to spend my free time sewing, especially when I was still working. Retiringin 2008, I plunged headlong into quiltmaking. The piano, alas,remained unplayed.

With the piano gone, myinclination was to increase the seating in the TV room by adding a sectional sofa. Gradually, withthat expanse of wall staring at me, the notion of a quilt walltook over. I remembered a photo I had seen inMarie Deatherage and Joyce Brekke’sfabulous book Pieces of Portland (Quiltlandia, 2015). Marie’s husband, Ric Seaberg, made her a wall-size quilt rack:

Floor to ceiling–what an efficient use of space! Since the wallin ourTV room is one of the fewthat doesn’t get direct sunlight, I knew it would be the perfect spot to display quilts.

I called upon master craftsman Phillip Galyon of Wooden Images. Phillip made me a custom sewing table andcabinet in 2012, and the next year he crafted a console table and stool forourremodeled master bathroom.

My idea for this project was a series of quilt ladders that could stand alone or be joined by pegs to form one piece. After consulting with Phillip, we decided on separate ladders that, when placed next to each other, would look like one unit. Thewood of choice was African mahogany, well suited to the original darkstained wood trimin our 1913 Craftsmanhome.

Here are three ladders butted up next to each other . . .

. . . and here they are with a couple of inches between them:

As you see from the photo at the top of this post,I chose to put the ladders together — at least for now. They can easily be moved apart for a change of pace. And adding or rearranging quilts will be abreeze because of theease with which the ladders can be moved.

I can’t say enough good things about the quality of Phillip’s work.He angled the rungs of the ladders sothe quilts would hang properly.He leveledthe topsof the ladders sothey would be flat across the top (levelwiththe floor). And headded a wedge to the top of the backs sothey would lie flat against the wall. Not only that, he put felt on the backssothey wouldn’t scratch:

And hesigned each piece on the back of the bottom rung:

All told, Phillip made four ladders for me. There is room for anotherladderon my quilt wall in the TV room but for now the fourth ladderis inan upstairs bedroom (hung with quilts,of course).

Having this wall of laddersmeansthatthe precious quilts that have come down through my family will be on display as well as the quilts I have made myself. Some of the latter will begiven awayeventually, to be replaced by new ones,but forthe time being I will have the pleasure ofseeing them frequently.

I envision my wall of quilts as a changeable feast.

A couple weeks ago I wrote about areversibletable runner I made for my sister Diane’s living room.The runner was made to cover a seam (for lack of a better word) created when two chests were placed back to back to create a larger table surfacebetween two chairs. Here’s a look at the single chest Diane started with:

Even with the lamp placed at the very back of the chest, people sitting in the chairs had to crane their necks around the lamp to see each otherwhen talking.Thelimitedsurface space made it difficult to have multiple items on the chest at the same, items such as aTV remote,a glass of wine, a cell phone, a book. In addition,the drawers inthe chest were difficult to open from a sitting position because the chest was positioned so far back. You can understand why Diane considered this a design dilemma.

Hersolution was to take a matching chest from another room and place it back to back with the first one, doubling the surface area, making it possible to move the lamp farther back toward the windows,and making the drawers in front more accessible. Soundedlike a win-win-win to me. The only issue was the seam where the two chests met.

That’s where the table runner (and I) came in. Consulting by phone between Portland and Atlanta, Diane and Iselected fabric from my stash and I proceeded to make thisreversible runner that measures about 9½” x 41″:

It was very easyto make: twocotton prints, a layer of batting, simple cross-hatching for the quilting, and traditional double-fold binding.Soon it was on its wayacross the country. Hereit is in place:

See how much farther back the lamp is? Much easier now for folks to converse. The toile fabric is in the up positionin the picture above. Here’s another shotwith the floral vine in the up position:

Whileauditioning fabrics, Diane and I kept thesofa pillows inmind:

Look how well thesefabrics gotogether.I especially like the connection between the floral vine fabricon the runner and the pillow on the left:

This home dec mini makeover came with abonus:because the chests are positioned back to back, there’s a set of drawers on both sides.Diane and Ed’s 5½-year-old grandson Edward gets the exclusive use of thedrawers at the backfor his ownlittle stash oftreasures and playthings: