It depends on where its going to be used. I only have one with a hanging sleeve. My others I just make like little quilts.I hang most of them with matching push pins(tacky,pardon the pun) but it works for me.

It depends on the style of the wallhanging and where I intend to display it. I use tabs for the casual styles or any I display on my front porch.

I use a casing when I think the tabs would distract from the design. I also use a casing if the wallhanging could also be used on a bed or crib.

Dianne

I usually use a hanging sleeve. If I want the rod to show, I use a dowell with little knobs on the ends and either paint or stain it. If I want nothing showing I use a flat piece of wood in the sleeve. I make the sleeve short enough that the wood comes out about about 2" on each end and the ends sit on little nails. Sometime I'd like to try a hanging with loops to hang with. I've found that if you make the sleeve a little roomy then the dowell or wood strip doesn't bulge out on the front. HTH

Ah...forgot about the tabs idea.....

How would you attach a dowel casing to a quilt that's already finished?

Hanging sleeves are almost always put on after the quilt is bound and finished. Cut a strip of fabric twice the width of the sleeve you want plus a half inch for seam allowances. I cut mine an inch narrower than the back of the quilt (they finish out a bit narrower due to the hemming). Hem the narrow edges by folding twice to make a finished edge. Then sew the WRONG sides of the long edge together. Press the seam open and so it lies in the middle of the sleeve. Pin the sleeve to the top of the quilt with the long seam facing the back just below the binding. I, too, leave it a bit fuller on the front side so the rod does not bulge on the front. Slip stitch in place, top and bottom. Simple, neat, and nothing to snag the dowel, rod, or slat you hang it with. If you make two short sleeves, you can hang small works on a single nail from the center. I put sleeves on all my quilts, no matter what the size, so they can be hung if desired.

I also have a curtain rod(metal decorative type) that I use. I have the small rings on it with the little closepin type hanger things. You can put as many as you need on the rod and don't need a sleeve. The bad thing about it is you need to rig up a way to hang it on the wall because the curtain rod brackets stick out too far from the wall.

I use several ways:

~ small ones get put up with clear push pins directly in the wall

~ larger ones get a sleeve put on and go up with a thin dowel in the sleeve and two thin nails in the wall to support the dowel

~ bigger ones that I plan to rotate out get a sleeve also and go up on a decorative iron rod that lays on decorative holders in a permanent spot in my living room.

You can use a length of thin baseboard trim in place of the dowel if it is easier to obtain.

Teresa

I put sleeves on everything, sometimes on two sides for vertical or horizontal. If I ever make something nice enough for the guild's show, it must be a 4" sleeve but I'm not there yet. I sometimes split sleeve into a larger center part and two small parts on the ends so the hanger can be behind the quilt. I have several decorative rods in rooms that always stay there and the hangings just rotate. I have one set that has a background homespun piece with large buttons and I just make three button loops along the top of the small hanging and button them on with various seasons. I'm going to graduate to big bed quilts when I grow up someday.
Linda

Forgot one thing - I stitch the sleeve right into the binding when it's sewn down.

I use straight pins (the ones you use to sew with) They are small but very handy. My husband even uses these to hang pictures, put in on an angle and it is surprising the weight they hold.

Vicky

"I'm going to graduate to big bed quilts when I grow up someday." ....Linda

teee heeeee!

So many great ways to hang them but alas I usually end up using pins!
If it's a gift though I try to have it all ready to go on a wall making it as simple for the recipient as possible.
This hanger was really lite weight & inexpensive from Target I think.
Jill

It depends on the size of the wall hanging,but mostly i use the sleeve.However on some of my small ones that hang alongside my front door,i actually sewed the rings from pop top cans to the back.These little quilts don't really have any weight to them,so they work perfectly.Here's one of mine that i'm talking about.

Kathi

For my first, and so far only, wall hanging, I used fancy push pins with ceramic heads that someone gave me. They happen to be blue and white, which goes with the blue borders. Wish I could find more of them, but I don't even remember who gave them to me.

Wow Kathy M,

Sewing the pop top of soda cans is VERY clever. I'll have to try that on something small. Thanks for a great idea!!

I'm a fan of sleeves & curtain rods (always!). I make them of unbleached muslin, sew them into tubes & hand sew them along the back, slightly narrower than the quilt so it never shows.

Speaking personally, I don't wish to see the rod, even tho' some pictured here are lovely & decorative. For me, I find it visually distracting from the quilt so I don't wish to see it. (My Mom turned me on to curtain rod sleeves 30+ yrs. ago, she was a weaver & etcher among other things & used them to mount hand-woven wall hangings).

Recently, I've been doing QAYG which can result in reversible quilts (so I can't use a visible sleeve), so that quilt is all done except but for the tabs on top that will take considerable work to make abt 8 of them. By the time I figured them out (reversible w/ several farbics & directional stripes), I lost impetus & was on to other quilts. So it hangs in my home from a curtain rod w/ bare clothespins waiting for me to make the tabs.

A caution pls.: those using push pins directly in the quilts, those holes will get bigger over time as the weight of the quilt pulls & stretches the threads in the fabric.

Years ago (30 or so) I batiked & quilted a small sample of a wedding quilt I was going to make for a friend. I never made the actual quilt, but the sample is beautiful & I gave it to my sister. I never cautioned her to keep it oput of the sun, so the dark green in it faded some, otherwise it's held up beautifully, esp. for something hand-dyed. She used push pins & when I borrowed it back to show at a class in dying, I see the push pin holes grew larger over time & have really caused damage in the fabric. I was going to make a sleeve for it, but thought better of it as on a sleeve, the corner holes will really show. Pls. be forewarned abt this, once this damage is done, it' not really fixable.

I used to have a small business where I sold many wall hangings among other items. I always put a sleeve on the back even if it might be hung other wise. I usually used the same fabric as the backing so it didn't show too much.
I always incorporate the sleeve when I sew the binding so the 2 raw edges are hidden when the binding is sewn down, then I hand stitch the side and bottom. When I fold the hem for the open ends I fuse them down so they stay flat.
I have used other ways to display small hangings, such as coat hangers, interesting twigs run thru the sleeve, easals, ribbons and even mini cloths pins. I think it depends on the the item to be displayed as to the method one chooses to use.
I have seen another method where the sleeve is sewn between the back and the batting while the quilt is put togeather but I have not tried to do it that way. I would be great for the reversable quilt. I saw it being done on Simply Quilts but don't remember the details.
Jayne

I tend to stick to using a sleeve on the back of the quilt. I did tabs once on a DWR quilt. A sleeve would never have kept the tops of the upper rings up-right. It looks nice enough, but it was such a pain that I wouldn't do it again unless it was necessary.

To make the sleeve I just use the same fabric I used on the back of the quilt following the directions people have listed above.

Foxy.