Compromise Quilting - how to hide that tacky television

When I was a little girl I went to many, many, musicals in the park. I remember summer nights, and fire flies rising in the woods; the sound of crickets humming along to the music; sitting on hard "benches" that were really rail road ties forced into the side of a dirt slope to make an outdoor amphitheater. AND I remember music under the stars.

I've told you all of that so that I could sing a little and not seem like such a dolt. "Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream...". So sang Little Buttercup in Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore". She was singing, "I know something that you don't know," without the ne-ner, ne-ner, ne-ner part. That is such a lovely feeling. The only better one that I can think of is to say, "Let me share my secret with you!"

Not long ago we faced the dilemma of what to do with ridiculously large screened television. My husband and boys thought there was nothing wrong with hanging it in the middle of the living room wall. I got the feeling that it was somehow a statement of their manhood, like a hunting trophy or power tools. I thought the thing was hideous and not what I wanted as the focal point of the most public room in the house.

To my mind something beautiful should hang in that spot of honor....or nothing at all. For years I had been very happy to have a special quilt hanging in that spot.

That is much prettier than a stupid television! Unfortunately the guys would not see it my way, so a compromise had to be reached.
The solution was to hang a quilt as a curtain in front of the television. We bought the hardware at the local big box hardware store and used rings with clips to secure the quilt. It works like a charm. Since then I have had many visitors come through the house, and unless there is a boy in the living room watching cartoon network or ESPN, no one is the wiser.