Ideas for Hanging Your Art Quilts on Off the Wall Friday

 So this month we officially became empty nesters!  If I'm being honest, I really haven't gotten used to the idea yet.  For 24 years, it's been the 3 of us, through thick and thin and to think it's just two now...well, feels sorta surreal!  I bring this up because it has inspire a good bit of cleaning, clearing and refreshing in my old Victorian.  With that I started looking at how many quilt pieces I have stored flat on my spare bed and how many I have up on the walls.  The bed won even though this 14 room house has a LOT of empty walls.  

MISSION:  Fill Empty Walls with Original Art (not just something you saw at Hobby Lobby)

hmmmmmm...okay....good to know the mission....but does someone have a plan?

Since I have pieces in all sorts of sizes and shapes, I started to investigate different ways to display my art.  Surprisingly, there were way more than I originally thought (I mean way more than just sewing on a hanging sleeve and using a dowel or rod in it)    One thing they all had in common was though...when displaying a piece, be thoughtful of how much natural light will shine on it.  Unless your textile is some how treated or protected, natural light will fade out fabrics and colors.  In my own experience, commercial fabrics fade way faster than my hand dyeds but they all still will fade on you.  

Ideas for Hanging Art Quilts

•  Rod/Hooks Curtain Method...This is where you pick out a nice type of "Rod".  Now it doesn't have to be a decorative curtain rod but it should be something that in line with the piece's general theme.  Then you use some type of hooks to attach it to the rod.  The key to add enough that the weight of the rod is evenly distributed across the quilt.  This piece by Eileen Willliams is a perfect example of what I mean...
  

• Free Hanging ...Now this isn't as easy as it seems!  To free hang, not only will it need to be securely fasten to a wall or overhead, but it will also need some kind of vertical stabilizer so it will hang straight.  I've seen fishing line and tulle used in installations but really anything that will effectively fade into the background is a good choice.  Here is a example of what I'm talking about which might  be used on a smaller scale in a home setting!  This is  The Paperscape", Albina Aleksiunaite and Devika Mirawitani.
  

• Mounting to Canvas...There are a lot of different ways this can be accomplished.  You can use a pre-made blank canvas that you bought and center it on while attaching with staples or other means.  You can sew a continuous edging around the quilt that can later be fit and stapled to stretcher bars.  I've even saw where the piece is stretched to the edge of a pre made blank cavas and the edges were painted black.  Here is an example from Linda Kemshall...
  
• Frame It....This can be done professionally with a traditional frame and glass or you can creatively come up with a "frame like" creation and hang your piece to that.  To tell you the truth, I'm not a big fan of the former.  Not only is it expensive but in my eye it tends to take this amazing tactile piece right into  flat 2-dimentional zone. This idea however I found interesting t (sorry attribution could not be found)
  

These are just a few ideas.  I'm quite sure there are more but this will get me started.  I do want to take some time to search out Youtube tutorials on some of these techniques because let's face it, if there isn't a tutorial on Youtube than it's probably not worth knowing!

I also want to thank you for your patience with this blog this past season.  It's been a very hectic time on the home front and as always family come first...but I'm hoping that the rest of the summer things will even out.  Thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?. 

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