How to display a wall hanging

[EditorAnne]

My bid was the top bid for John Flynn's "Heart of the Storm" in the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. This quilt (16 inch square) is simply gorgeous. It has those triangle corners for hanging but I want to know the best way to display it. I want to display it with a card that states who made it and the purpose. I'm going to ask John Flynn to sign the card and the quilt when he's at Road to California in a couple weeks. As far as I know, it shouldn't be under glass. DH has offered to make a beautiful frame for it. We are just stumped! I do know that it shouldn't be in direct sunlight. It seems to me that it deserves much more than what we do with the small quilts I have made. Help!

JoAnne in southern California

[Margo]

Let you DH make a shadow box type frame that is deep enough that the glass doesn't touch the quilt. You could also cover a stretched artist's canvas with fabric (or paint?) and use needle and thread to baste the small quilt to the canvas. Alex showed this on one of the episodes, but I can't remember which one. Does anyone know????

[eileenkny]

Margo,
It was 712-the one with Ami Simms.

[Margo]

Thanks, Eileen! I just drew a blank!

[RGold]

Congratulations, JoAnne!! You'll have to post a photo when you do get it hung.

[SuperJudy]

As a retirement gift I was given a framed quilt. It has been hand-sewn to archieval mat board and then framed. There are spacers
between the glass and the quilt so there's nothing touching the quilt. The back is sealed with brown paper to keep out dust. I would
think that any professional framer could do whatever you'd like.

[SuperJudy]

Thank you for the information and the ideas. I will not take it to a professional framer because of bad experiences with a few around here (my daughter is an artist). Because of those experiences with our daughter's art, DH has become quite excellent at framing art (along with his other hobbies of making Shaker and Arts & Crafts style furniture). We just did not know the best way to frame a quilt and I couldn't find anything anywhere to help us. I will take a look at that episode with Ami Simms. I should have thought of her, I spoke with her when I "won" this quilt!

After I get John Flynn to sign it and DH frames it, I will post a photo!

Thanks so much!
JoAnne

[SuperJudy]

Let you DH make a shadow box type frame that is deep enough that the glass doesn't touch the quilt. You could also cover a stretched artist's canvas with fabric (or paint?) and use needle and thread to baste the small quilt to the canvas. Alex showed this on one of the episodes, but I can't remember which one. Does anyone know????

I just watched Show 712 with Ami Simms but didn't see Alex showing how to do that. I did skip through bits of it, they were showing how to make Priority quilts, not how to display them.

I just told DH about sewing the quilt to a canvas. He said, "I'm not sewing anything to anything!" I did laugh! I don't think he's ever sewn anything to anything! The man can make gorgeous Shaker chairs and weave the chair seats but he can't sew!

I have watched very few of the shows online, I've bought the dvd's. I'm going to read through all of the descriptions to see if one of them mentions Alex showing that. Thanks, Margo.

Aha! I didn't find the show I was looking for but I went back to Google (again!) and found this:
http://www.hedgesstuff.com/images/he...aming_com.html It's simple and exactly what we will do.

JoAnne

[Margo]

JoAnne, you can see Alex's technique at about the 32 minute mark of show 712.

The tutorial you came up with is perfect for a shadow box! Can't wait to see it!

[SuperJudy]

Just another idea: Our guild president paints the front and sides of her canvas board then attaches velcro strips to the canvas with matching velcro strips on the back of her quilt. The piece is not glass-covered so the
quilt may be taken down and cleaned when necessary. Don't think I'd do this on anything important, but for "everyday" wall hangings, it works beautifully. :wink:

[SuperJudy]

JoAnne, you can see Alex's technique at about the 32 minute mark of show 712.

The tutorial you came up with is perfect for a shadow box! Can't wait to see it!

Thanks, Margo. I don't do applique so I skipped right past the part about making the little dogs when I was watching it last night. I had started back watching right at the point right after Alex showed her technique! I do want something nicer for this quilt since it's so special. I sure like that idea for the other AAQI quilts I've bought. It will make them stand out more.

I showed that shadow box tutorial to DH. He told me that I should not stick a needle into that quilt and sew it onto anything. I did not point out that a needle had already been "stuck into it" several thousands of times. I think I'll tell him after dinner. He wants me to ask John Flynn for his ideas on the subject.

JoAnne