Bag and Board Hanging for an odd shaped quilt

The finished product

the "buttonhole" in the bag

The quilt hangs a little way out from the wall

the top of the board with the wire

showing how to drill the wood for the wire to go through

where to put the screweyes- facing UP

The finished bag before the hardboard insert is put in place

The board with lower strip, upper strip and wire in place

Instructions for the Board and Bag Hanger

This is a good way to hang an unusually shaped quilt to insure that it hangs straight.

The Bag-

1. You will need a piece of fabric a bit wider than your quilt and at least one third of the length of it plus enough to hem . Turn, sew and press a narrow hem on the bottom edge of the bag piece.Set this aside.
2 Cut a piece of fabric about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide and a piece of fusible fabric the same size. Iron the fusible onto the wrong side of the fabric piece. Set this aside.
3. Place the hemmed fabric piece on your ironing board and fold in half VERTICALLY and lightly press the fold.
4 Do the same with the small piece . The fold should go perpendicular to the long side of each of the two fabric pieces.
5 With a sharp pencil on the wrong side of the small piece, draw a line along the fold, then, with a ruler, draw a line perpendicular to the first line and centred on the centre fold, extending three and a quarter  inches on either side of the centre line.
6 Now draw a line 1/2 an inch above and below the long entre line.
7 Measure three and a quarter inches from the centre line and close the little "box" you have marked. The box should straddle the centre line and be 1 inch deep and 6 1/2 long.
8 Now, with right sides together, place the little piece with the box drawn on it , on top of the big hemmed piece, about two and a half to three inches down from the unhemmed top of the big piece. Pin in place.
9 Shorten the stitch length on your sewing machine and sew carefully around the lines you drew to form the box, keeping the corners nice and square. Do not sew the centre lines.
10 Now, with sharp scissors, cut along the long centre line in the middle of the box but not right to the end. come up to about 1/2 inch away from the ends of the box. Then , cut into the corners of the box from the end of the cutting line . Cut carefully. DO NOT CUT THE STITCHING!!
11. Heat up your iron now and push the excess fabric of the box to the back side of the hemmed piece of fabric. square up the corners as well as you can and iron it nice and flat. If you want to, you can slip a little piece of double sided fusible material, eg, Steam a Seam, under the loose edges and fuse in place to keep them on the back of your bag .
12 Now, place the whole bag piece on the back of your quilt with right side of the bag fabric showing. pin in place and sew with a scant seam around three sides, leaving the bottom edge open.

This is basically, a large bound buttonhole!

The top edge and sides can be any shape that you need them to be but the bottom edge will always need to be nice and straight.

BIND YOUR QUILT NOW

The Board-
1 Measure the depth and the width of the bag INSIDE the stitching lines of the binding.
2 Cut a piece of 1/4 inch thick plywood or hardboard about an inch deeper than the bag and as long as the distance from side to side INSIDE the border stitching.
3 As well, cut a piece of 3/4 inch by 3/4 inch pine 6 inches long and another slightly shorter than the width of your board.
4 Glue the long piece to the bottom edge of your board. Tack it too if you want to. Then, slip the board into the bag with the strip extending past the bottom edge of the board and set the little piece into the hole in the bag,carefully marking that spot all round with a pencil. Let it rest a few minutes before removing it so the glue can dry then remove the board from the bag and using a small bit in a drill, drill two little holes on an angle into the ends of the little strip as shown in the photos. Glue the small strip onto the board where you marked its placement. Let the glue set before inserting it back into the bag.
5 Screw two screw eyes into the upper edge of the long wood strip as in the photos.
6 Now cut a piece of picture wire long enough to hang your piece and attach one end securely to the one screw eye. Thread the wire through the diagonal hole on the same side of the little piece of wood. Bring the wire around to the other diagonal hole and through it and finally, down to the other screw eye. This is done ON TOP OF THE BAG. Before securing the wire, be sure it will not show about the top of your quilt when it is hanging.
 NOTE-- IF YOUR QUILT IS VERY VERY ODD SHAPED, YOU WILL HAVE TO PLAY AROUND WITH THE PLACEMENT OF THE LITTLE STRIP OF WOOD WHERE THE WIRE RUNS THROUGH UNTIL YOU GET A BALANCE POINT. IN THAT CASE, MAKE YOUR BUTTONHOLE LONG ENOUGH THAT YOU CAN MOVE THE LITTLE STRIP LEFT OR RIGHT TO CENTRE THE HANGER.

Good Luck!