You’ve made a beautiful quilt and want to display it as wall art. Now what? We’ve asked several textile and fiber artists how they hang a quilt. From mini quilts to larger quilts, we’ve got some great ideas for you! There are so many different ways, I’m sure you’ll find the best way for your piece.
Use a slat or dowel with holes or eye hooks in a quilt sleeve
Probably the most common method to hang a quilt using a quilt sleeve and a wood slat or dowel rod with either holes drilled into them or eye hooks attached as a hanging rod.
Kristan Collins uses wooden slats for Venetian blinds to hang her quilts. These are found at specialty woodworking stores or through window blind suppliers. She chooses this method when hanging heavy quilts that want to sag in the middle. The advantages of this option are that 1) it’s very sturdy, 2) relatively light for its strength, 3) lies flat against the wall, and 4) easy to hang. She uses this method for all but small quilts.
The wooden slats come in a variety of widths and lengths and can be adjusted to accommodate the width and weight of the quilt. She drills a hole on each end of the slat larger than her screw (3/8 in). The screws are placed in the wall after leveling and marking the drilled openings of the slat. She slides the slat through the quilt sleeve and hangs the slat on the screws. Tada!
But there are so many other ways to hang a quilt – some utilitarian and others quite creative!
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Get creative hanging your quilt
Sandy Dwight put a quilt sleeve on the back of this quilt but instead of using a traditional slat or dowel, she found a vintage obi hanger that compliments her quilt “Dreaming of Japan”.
Sandy used to be a mountain climber and made this piece. This time she found a vintage ice axe to use to hang the quilt.
Kelly Acton used a tree limb to hang her quilt. It continues the feel of being on a river walk.
Kelly used jute to tie the quilt to the branch. Her binding fabric was loose-woven enough that she could pass it through; otherwise, she would have considered using small grommets in the binding. Regular sewing thread would not be strong enough to hang the quilt from the branch. Ribbon or other fiber could be used as well.
Use a quilt ladder
If you are handy (or if you have handy people in your life) make a quilt ladder that will display several quilts folded to show the pretty parts! Below are some quilts by Meags and Me displayed on a ladder.
Use a quilt hanger
Compliment your quilt design with a custom wire hanger. Patch Abilities has a broad variety of hangers that coordinate with the quilt patterns designed by Julie Wurzer.
Cardinals in Winter Trees is hung on a 6” wide hanger such as this 6-inch Evergreen Trees with a wooden dowel.
The wooden dowel has a tiny hole in each end, where the wire inserts. Gently tug on either side of the wire hanger (where it inserts into the wooden dowel) and the wire will slip out. Run the wood dowel through your hanging sleeve on the back of the project. Then reinsert the wire hanger ends back into the dowel ends.
Each hanger is made so it has a central hang point so that when it’s hung upon a nail/screw, it will balance and hang straight. It’s not an obvious “hole” so you may need to reposition the hanger until you locate the “hang point”.
Patch Abilities has a second type of specialty quilt hanger.
The hanger on Where the Hummingbirds Gather has a split bottom. This is handy because you easily slip one side into one side of the hanging sleeve, and scrunch it to the side to slip the other side of the split wire, into the other side of the hanging sleeve. This is the easiest way to attach a hanger.
If you want to hang the Classic Curl quilt hanger on a door, simply attach a magnet or a screw to the door, then hang the hanger. This allows you to swap out your door décor any time. This larger wall hanging size is loved by folks with loved ones in assisted living or apartments.
See all of the fun quilt hangers at Patch Abilities.
Ready-made quilt hanging solutions
Sandy Dwight has used wooden textile clamps to hang quilts. These are sometimes also called quilt clamps.
Kathy Macdonald installed picture railings throughout her home to display her quilts. Here is a lovely display of her work in her living room.
She uses brass S hooks she purchased at Restoration Hardware and heavy jewelry-making filament she found at Michael’s as it is easier to tie than fishing line. (Note: you can probably find the railings and hooks at your favorite home improvement store or hardware store).
For quilts with sticks, she drills holes in the ends and inserts two small twist ties in the holes so they form a small loop.
One brass hook attaches to the picture rail and the top of the filament and another brass hook attaches to the twist tie and the bottom of the loop.
My favorite tip from Kathy Mac? She installed double picture rails in her hall and that is where she stores her quilts currently not on display! No rolled quilts that you can’t find! No sunlight, no fold lines, no extra storage space! Brilliant!
Ruth Vincent also uses picture railing to hang her fiber art. She does it a little differently.
Years ago, she added wooden molding where the wall and the ceiling meet in their hallway and painted it to match the wall. Like Kathy’s system above, she uses flat S hooks and monofilament loops.
A very long bamboo pole hangs from these hooks. The pieces have pockets sewn to the top back as usually done for exhibition purposes. Sometimes the rods going through the pockets are flat with holes or screw eyes, but for her own purposes, she loops the monofilament over the ends of a rod that sticks out the sides.
The photo in the hallway has 3 bas relief pieces—one has a piece of bamboo, one has a branch and one has a metal rod salvaged from old vertical blinds. She always leaves up the monofilament loops hanging from the bamboo pole and changes her pieces without using a ladder. (Photo of hallway pieces: “Matariki”, “Rising Mountain”, “Story in the Stars: Greek Pleiades”).
Over the fireplace, Ruth has 4 cup hooks screwed into the wooden wall and a long bamboo pole that sits on the hooks. The photo shows a 5-panel piece that is affixed to a long flat stick with Velcro (one side stitched to the quilt and the other glued to the stick). Usually, when she makes a piece that she think will hang there, she makes the pocket on the back of the quilt in 3 pieces leaving slits that can slide over the hooks. In this situation, the bamboo pole acts as the hanging stick.
For small quilts, Ruth hangs them by making a pocket in two (2) sections with a flat stick inserted to hang from a picture hook in the wall.
Chardel Blaine of Flying Goat Studios has a variety of ways to hang quilts.
Mississippi Wheel of Fortune is a Karen K. Stone pattern that she made about 20 years ago. She wanted to hang a quilt over her fireplace for years but didn’t want to drill holes in the masonry. And she wanted to be able to change her mind about what hangs there. She settled on a traditional sleeve and a drapery rod long enough to span the brick. The wood trim at each end provides good support for the rod brackets and is stained to match her cabinets.
Shifting Strata is one of several small improv curve piecing quilts. This one is 10 X 10 inches. Chardel added coordinating strips to the quilt’s four sides and stapled it on the back over a stretched canvas. Wrapping a single layer of fabric is much easier than working with three quilted layers, and the sides still look finished. She attached D-rings and picture wire to the back for hanging.
Yukata Flowers is a 14-inch square of Yukata cotton embellished with embroidery stitches. It has a traditional hanging sleeve with a ¼-inch thick strip of wood inserted. She screwed small eye rings into each end of the wood, then stretched picture wire between the rings and on the outside of the sleeve. The quilt hangs on a regular picture hook.
Musings are little 4 X 4-inch improvised compositions of wool, silk and threads of various fiber content. The edges of the little quilts are finished with yarn zigzagged over the edges. She paints the sides of 4 X 4 stretched canvas and glues the little quilt to the canvas. Then she attaches sawtooth hangers on the back for hanging or uses teeny-tiny wooden easels for tabletop display.
When Chardel pulls her antique quilts out of storage, they drape over a wooden quilt rack that her daughter made for her as a stagecraft project when she was in college.
Carol Cain also uses a drapery rod to hang a large quilt on her wall with tall ceilings. This is Carol’s version of Alison Glass’ pattern Trinket Quilt. She says it was a great way to learn paper piecing. She used Alison’s Kaleidoscope woven solids.
Karen Hewer uses Hang It Dang It system to hang her quilts. This was new to me and Karen showed me how it works.
Your quilt needs to be prepared with a quilt sleeve. You slip the rod into the sleeve. What’s so great about these rods is they come in a variety of sizes and are adjustable. See the left side of the rod? Both ends can extend to the exact width of your quilt.
To hang your quilt, remove the center clip – it’s like a binder clip. Slip the rod into the quilt sleeve. Put the clip back on the rod on the OUTSIDE of the sleeve. There is even a handy center dip in the rod so it is easy to put the clip on the right spot.
Then, just hang your quilt on a picture hook!
More great ideas for hanging your quilt
- For small quilts, sew 90-degree triangles on the top corners of the quilt matching the straight sides of the triangles to the top edge of your quilt and the side of the quilt. Leave the diagonal side of the triangle loose. Cut a dowel about 1/2-inch shorter than the width of the quilt. Slip the dowel into the triangle corner pockets and hang the dowel on a picture hanger.
- If you have a small piece, you can slip a push pin or t-pin inside the edge of the sleeve fabric tube on the back of the quilt and push it into your wall. I don’t recommend this for long-term hanging. For a small holiday piece, it’s an easy way to hang your piece.
- I’ve read articles about using command strips or other adhesive strips. These are best for small quilts. I haven’t been successful with this method. When chatting with some friends, the tip for best results is to make sure you prepare the wall before adhering to the wall by cleaning it with alcohol.
- Depending on your design, you can add hanging tabs to the top of your quilt and use either a drapery rod or other hanging rod to hang. The tabs would be instead of a quilt sleeve.
- There are wall-mount wooden quilt hanging systems that come in a variety of sizes suitable for quilts or tapestries.
Things to consider when deciding on a method of display
- Depending on the weight of your quilt, you’ll want to consider different methods. For heavy quilts, you’ll want a system that will support the weight like using a drapery rod.
- For lightweight and large quilts, consider adding some drapery weights on the back of your quilt along the bottom edge to weigh down the bottom. You’ll want to sew several weights along the edge and close to the bottom corners. So that they aren’t viewable, make small fabric squares to hold the weights out of your backing fabric so they aren’t prominent.
- If you plan on entering the piece in quilt shows, you’ll need to select a method that uses a quilt sleeve, as most shows require the standard sleeve. See our step-by-step tutorial on how to make a hanging sleeve.
- For the methods that use a rod or slat, they should be long enough to support the entire width of the quilt to distribute the weight of the quilt evenly.
What’s your preferred method? Email us at hello@createwhimsycom and share pictures and a few words of your favorite hanging method and we might include it in our article!
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