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Cilenia Curtis Designs

Quilt Artist while living a Simple Sustainable Lifestyle

Tips for Sewing-Quilting

Hanging Sleeves on my Art Quilts

October 20, 2017 by Cilenia Leave a Comment

I get asked occasionally how I hang my art quilts on my walls so I thought I’d make a little post about it.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Next one I make I will take some extra photos showing more details.

There are lots of options when it comes to deciding how to hang an art quilt.  For many years I just used Command Strips.  But living in a very very dry climate, they only last about a year or so and loose their stickiness.  Which suited me fine as I’m always changing up what I have on my walls.   But, I really should have a more permanent way to hang.

I had made hanging sleeves the traditional way for previous quilts, but seemed over board for these smaller art quilts and I don’t like the bulk of a rod at the top or how the round rod curls the top of the quilt if too large of a rod.  Then it hit me one day as I was using a wooden yardstick to measure out an area on my design wall… “Why not use this instead of a wooden or metal rod to hang?!”  It’s flat, cut to size easily and readily available in any home improvement store… CHEAP! like 79 cents cheap!  And I just so happen to have a bunch of them I got for a little project I had not done yet.

Now…. how to make a sleeve better.  Really only need the corners.  Thought about just two loops on the back, but had seen someone put triangles into the corners before also.  Faster and more secure IMO plus you would never see the wood from the front or side.  It’s so simple and is attacked during the binding portion of the quilt.  And if the quilt was over 24″ long, I could always add a center loop to make sure it didn’t sag. Perfect answer for any wall hanging quilt not longer than the 36″ length of the yardstick.  If over 36″ I have an idea too.  Use a piece of cheap wall molding that is flat.  They even sell it pre-finished white! Also flat and comes in very long lengths if needed. I have some of that laying around too from home improvement projects.

Here’s a couple photos of the back of the quilt to help explain what I did. Think I need to dust a little? That could be daily here with desert winds. LOL Hanging Sleeve for Art Quilts

Showing a larger art quilt one with a center loop.

My Process: Cut two squares of fabric to match the backing of the quilt at 4″ square and fold in half on the diagonal wrong sides together and press. If I need a loop in the center for a little larger art quilt, I use a 5″ Sq that I hemmed on two sides, then fold and press in half.  Place the squares on opposite corners on the backside at the top of the quilt with raw edges in the corners. Pin or use basting glue to hold in place. Place a center loop in center if used.  Sew on the binding as usual to the front side of the quilt and this will sew the squares in the corners at the same time. Flip the binding to the back and hand sew using a blind stitch as usual to finish off.Cut a wooden yardstick about 1/4″-1/2″ shorter than the quilt width INSIDE the binding.  In other words, don’t measure the binding width, only from where it is sewn on at the squares.  I use my handy miter box to make a clean and straight cut but you don’t have to use one if you don’t have one. Hit the cut ends with a little sandpaper to make sure no splinters are there. Insert into the squares and hang!

To hang on the wall, I use a level and pencil to mark two small horizontal lines about 2-4″ smaller than the yardstick I cut, depending on the overall size of the quilt, and at about 1-1/2″ lower than I want the top to be at.  Then I hammer in two small finish nails on those lines. Hang my art quilt.  Always level and I can slide it a little side to side if I’m trying to line up with some other items.

Here’s a photo of several on my wall. Love how all lay flat without any hanging rods showing.  Looks more like artwork I think. 🙂

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Filed Under: Sewing and Quilting, Tips for Sewing-Quilting Tagged With: Quilt Hanging Sleeve

Going Modern with Improv

December 9, 2015 by Cilenia 1 Comment

I’m in LOVE with this process and the results!

Modern Improv Quilt I wanted to try, force, my hand at improvisational quilting and do lots of negative space so I could get creative with some free motion quilting from the latest class I took at Craftsy.com from Ann Peterson.  I quilt on a small machine, so this was always beyond my ability to quilt such detail on a full sized quilt.  Not anymore! Ann has so many tricks and tips that in no time I was zooming away with so much ease. I also switched threads and stopped using discount thread that was always breaking and giving me issues.  I now only use Auriful Thread and the difference is like night and day! I buy it by the cones for the best deal and it even is less expensive than buying cheaper big box threads.  I now use exclusively for piecing and quilting.

So how this all began!  I have these highly coveted fabrics I collected and have been hoarding for several years.  I had not decided what I wanted to do with them.  I also wanted to make a modern improv quilt that I could really play with shapes and color.  So one day I just decided to do it! LOL  I put the fabric pieces up on the design wall and played and played with placement for color.  The background started out as an off white cream but changed half way through the playing to black.  Main reason? This would be a quilt for our couch and I have this big black dog that thinks he’s a person and sheds more than you can imagine. LOL  But, in the end, I am really glad I changed this to black.

This is what it looked like at first on my wall. (Yes, still waiting for BF to bring me some insulation board to make a real design wall!) lol  I wanted sweeping color/design from one end to the other. From here I just grabbed pieces of the fabric and began to create very improvisational blocks and areas. This was NOT easy for me, I always follow a pattern either someone else’s or my own. Design Wall Improv

Then it began to take shape and kept adding to it. The plan was to do a small area each day.  Well… I loved the process so much I couldn’t help myself and in a few days it was completely pieced! LOL

Improv design progress

Improv design progress

Then the real fun began! marking all the quilting.  I don’t use traditional marking tools any longer. I now use a welder’s marking chalk pencil.  It works awesome! Marks beautifully and comes off easily.  My BF suggested it when I complained about the normal white marking pencils and how difficult it was to come off.  He brought me some from work and works great and VERY cheap! Box of 50 for like $5. I also use the Fixitron pens for light fabrics.  Iron’s right out!  I don’t use those quilter’s markers any longer that I might accidentally iron over and make permanent.  Yea, ask me how I know. 😉

I knew I wanted a very geometric design to compliment the geometric piecing design.  Can you tell the engineering draftsman is trying to come out?! LOL  WISH I still had all my old drafting tools! But I figured it out using what I had. I also wanted to soften it up a bit using some circles and swirls in the quilting. I have a ton of inspirations on my Pinterest board, and even tho most are done on a long arm machine, after Ann’s class I felt ready to try my hand at doing on my domestic sewing machine. Marking the Quilting

It was quite the learning process.  And yes there are several mistakes or oops in this but only myself (or my daughter Kallie) will see and point out. LOL But I’m chalking that up to lesson’s learned.  It was VERY difficult for me to let go like this.  I’m such a planner and over think my designs.  I forced myself to let it go and have fun! I really worked out of my comfort zone.  I had designed the entire thing on the computer, but soon realized my intuition of working with the color and improv was proving out to be a much funner process! No measuring! LOL So I let it go. I couldn’t be happier!

And half way through this I got a new free motion foot also for my sewing machine.  WOW! What a difference that made also! It’s a ruler foot that I got as a set with some rulers.  I wanted to be able to quilt straighter lines like the big girls in free motion and not have to turn a large quilt so much on my machine trying to use my duel feed walking foot with a straight stitch setting.  There is no looking back now! I am hooked! Still learning how to use fluidly, but it’s coming along!  I also want to add some better lighting at my machine.  I found that the machine’s light reflected on the ruler and made it difficult to see where I was going. (Hence some of the boo boos that happened). Want to take that out and have more indirect lighting.  But all in all, I am improving by leaps and bounds now doing this on my small machine.  Thank you Ann!

Some of the details. quilting detailsQuilting detailsQuilting Details

Filed Under: Sewing and Quilting, Tips for Sewing-Quilting Tagged With: Improv-Modern Quilting, Quilting

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