Help on hanging quilts in pavilion.

Good morning everyone.

Looking for a little help in how best to hang quilts for display.

Currently our show society, in South West Queensland, has a few of those weld mesh type safety fence panels, you know from construction sites, bolted to the pavilion wall on which to hang quilts.
The society has asked that they be replaced with weld mesh to cover the entire walls.

I am thinking there has to be more quilt friendly options to hang the quilts for display.
I have heard of attaching cloth tubes to the back of the quilts and hanging on curtain rods.
I have also heard of a type of picture rail set up with nylon lines and clamps hanging off them.

Any thoughts on the best way to hang quilts for our show would be greatly appreciated.
The pavilion walls are besa brick.
Thank you and take care.

Brigalow.

I'm no expert just an observer of my wife's quilting experiences. I've been to a few quilt shows around the world and pretty much without exception quilts being presented for display are required to have an attached sleeve for sliding on to a hanging rod. The rods then get hung in various ways, often simply with hooks over fabric partitions or multiple quilts being hung off other suspended longer rods spanning some distance. Or even the picture rail and nylon line style system. The venue supplies the rods, but the quilter has to attach the sleeve beforehand.

Hanging off weld mesh attached to a block work would also be possible but I'm not sure it would be considered good conservation style. Art galleries seem to store paintings that way in their climate controlled storerooms on sliding storage walls but I think hanging a quilt against a steel mesh for any length of time is likely to be damaging to the fabric in one way or another, not to mention any potential moisture issue associated with being near unknown quality concrete block work.

American Quilter's Society - Hanging Sleeve Instructions

SWMNLBO usually used special spring clips available on line that clipp to the quilt edge on one side and had a ring on the other which could go thru a length of dowel or just be hung from hooks.
One time when she ran out of these I remember seeing her using large bulldog paper clips.

Thats another whole industry in itself - hardware for hanging quilts. Simply search "quilt hanging clips" - everything from spring clamps, trouser style coat hanger like mounts, to permanent wall mounted blocks with spring clamps or curtain rod like supports.

NoSeeUms™ invisible quilt hangers for walls (hangupscompany.com)

Quilt Hanging Solutions by The Hang-Ups Company from Ashland, Oregon - Quilt Hanging Solutions™ by The Hang-Ups Company (hangyourquilts.com)

Personally, I would go to a low visual impact strained wire system such as the readily available SS wire balustrading kits available from a number of suppliers. They have solutions for every conceivable situation for mounting to existing structures. Use something like 50 x 50 equal angle, or a timber batten, mounted vertically for the ends and intermediate stand offs as required. They can be temporary semi-permanent or permanent depending on how they are mounted to the Besser block wall. If they are concerned about wear on the quilts perhaps a hessian display back drop as a buffer between the quilts and block wall?

Even a far less elaborate but similar solution using "clothes line wire" would suffice.

Stainless Steel Balustrade DIY Kits and Bundles - Stainless Steel Balustrade - Stainless Products (thefastenerfactory.com.au)

Mechanical Anchoring Archives - Ramset

Everybody is worried about public liability so "free standing" displays are on the out!

SWMBO suggests:

Google "Youtube for hanging quilts for a quits show" which apparently will show various methods.

Cheers
Yvan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brigalow

Good morning everyone.

Looking for a little help in how best to hang quilts for display.

Brigalow.

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How did you go with this? any decisions made on the best way to go?

Thank you all very much for your input and suggestions.
Sorry for my tardy reply to you but I have been laid up with covid..... first and hopefully last time :)

The bloke who is covering my spot at work will run those ideas through the show society and see how they wish to proceed.

Take care and thanks again.

Grant.
'Brigalow'.