Blue Tape and Blue Ribbons
I recently entered one of my quilts in an art show. You know, the kind with paintings, sculpture, etc. This was my first venture into an exhibit that wasn’t geared exclusively toward quilts.
In order to comply with hanging requirements, I had to figure out how to have each of my two entries hang on a single nail. WITHOUT the hanging wire showing. That took a bit of engineering, but I finally managed it.
I inserted the wooden slat (previously cut for this quilt) into the hanging sleeve, and used safety pins to secure it along the bottom edge. Next, I put “knots” in either end of a length of hanging wire. I stapled this to the slat, right through the sleeve fabric. That kept the wire from showing.
Click any image for a larger view
It was NOT an elegant solution, but it worked and the quilts looked good when displayed.
For the second quilt, I had a dowel with screw eyes the proper length, so I used it. I covered the ends of the wire with blue painters tape, so there wouldn’t be anything sharp to catch anywhere. Again, I stapled the wire directly through the fabric to the dowel.
My efforts paid off and “High Ti” won first place in its category! Woohoo! As a matter of fact, fiber art nearly swept the Fiber/Mixed Media/Collage category, winning three of the four prizes awarded. Very exciting!
I’ll definitely be entering more art shows like this! (But, maybe I need a more elegant hanging set up?)
How do you hang your quilts?
Ellen Lindner
For small quilts I do one of two things, I either make two small sleeves leaving a gap, so that when I insert my wooden slat the picture hanger is in the middle and goes on a nail. The other way is to just put triangle pockets in the corners so the wooden slat with hanger slides in easily and is easy to hang.