Tips for Hanging Quilts in a Gallery Setting...

 

Fort Lauderdale City Hall Lobby Gallery Show, March 4 - 27, 2014

     As I was preparing to hang my quilts last week at the Ft. Lauderdale City Hall Lobby Gallery, I realized that my techniques might be helpful to others.  Quilt shows have requirements for hanging quilts which include a casing in the top of the quilt.  When I hang my quilts in gallery settings there are slightly different requirements.  Galleries prefer your work to hang like a painting, from a wire.

     Here is a photo tutorial of the steps emphasizing techniques for hanging in gallery settings or on non-flat walls. 

 

Casings are 8-9 inches wide with finished edges.  I fold in half lengthwise and include in binding on the top edge most of the time.  This particular quilt has a facing, so I sewed the casing into a tube using French seams, to eliminate loose  threads inside the casing.  I hand sewed the two long edges down to the quilt using a tiny applique stitch.

Make 2 casings for the top of the quilt, with an opening in the center in case you want to hang it with a picture hanging device.  This works well with smaller quilts.

My hanging device is a piece of pine 1 ½” by 3/8” and the width of the quilt less 1 ½”.  This measurement is to guarantee that the hanging device doesn’t show when the quilt is hung on the wall.  The quilt in this photo is pretty wide and if I used a piece of pine lathe to hang it the lathe would bow out from the wall…not a pretty sight!  I also use wood baseboard trim to hang very large quilts.  Screw in eye screws ¼”-½” from the top of the wood piece on the ends.



For gallery hanging I add a picture hanging wire that goes through the eye screws and is wrapped around itself a couple of times.  Be sure to cover the ends of the wire with masking tape so that there is no chance that the wire will catch the fabric of your quilt or someone elses.

This keeps your hanging device with your quilt, and you won’t go home with someone else’s piece of wood!  I also label my wood pieces with my name and address, as well as the art quilt(s) that it fits.  This saves time when organizing quilts to hang in a show.

Now, for what I really wanted to share!  Sometimes you have hanging situations that present extra challenges.  The Ft. Lauderdale City Hall Gallery is one of these.  The wall has wood paneling broken up with painted cement dividers that happen every 26”. These dividers are 3 inches deep and 3” wide.

This is a problem for quilts, since the bottom of the quilt will try to curve into the space between the cement dividers and the bottom edge will turn into a ruffle…ugh!

I solved this problem by stabilizing the bottom edge of the quilt with a piece of wood that has Velcro stapled to it.  Because this has the possibility of being seen, I painted the wood black and used black Velcro.  The hook part of the Velcro is attached using a staple gun to the wood and the loop part is sewn to the quilt back without any stitches showing on the front.

The wood pieces are stored upright in a bin with the hanging devices and the quilts are stored with the Velcro attached…I might need it again!

Here is what it looks like hung!



Come and see the show!

Leigh