Tuesday, February 28, 2017

How I Hang My Quilts – Part Two

After my previous blog post I have had several questions on preparing my quilts for hanging.  So, I decided to post a follow up to answer and elaborate on the process.

First: The sleeve – depending on size of your quilt and if you are going to show it in a quilt show or just hang it at home, the sleeve size can vary. If you are going to show your quilt in a quilt and/or art show, you need to follow the guidelines of the show. Normally for a large quilt (over 24” wide), your sleeve needs to be 4” deep. If it is a smaller quilt, you will want a 2” deep sleeve.  When preparing your sleeve, remember to allow for your seam allowance when cutting (yes, I have made this mistake).

Second: Attaching the sleeve to your quilt – I hand stitch my sleeve to the back of my quilt coming down about an inch from the top of the quilt. You don’t want it too far down or your quilt will not hang flat and you don’t want it right at the top, because you need to allow a little it of slack in the sleeve to allow for the board or quilt rod when hanging.

Now the fun stuff.

If you are going to show your quilt in an art show and you need to wire your quilt for museum hanging, here are your instructions.

Purchase hanging wire from the hardware store (not monofilament line! Monofilament line will stretch). I was lucky and found covered mirror wire at Home Depot a few weeks ago. This is great, because then you don’t have to cover the cut end of the wire with tape.






Wrap the wire around one of the “D” rings on the board, after you have inserted it into your quilt-hanging sleeve.

Measure out enough wire to go to the other “D” ring, leaving enough room for wrapping and a little bit of slack.

Wrap the wire around the second “D” ring. If you do not have covered mirror wire, tape the ends of your wire so they do not fray and hurt the back of your quilt.







Now, make sure you don’t have too much slack in the wire. I don’t like it to come above the top of the board.










Using your handy dandy staple gun and 1/4” staples, staple two staples on each side of the middle to stabilize the wire. You don’t want your quilt going wonky during the art show or on the wall at home.

Ta Da! You are done!


Happy Creating, Jules

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