Framing Quilts

I finished framing these three 10x10" quilts and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Because these pieces were completed earlier, my best option for framing them was to simply adhere them to the surface of a framed canvas.

But I didn't want to put them on plain white canvas, so I painted the canvas first with metallic acrylic paint. Mostly I wanted the edges painted, but I covered inside the edge on both the front and rear, so no white canvas would show. After the paint dried, I glued on a piece of heavy butcher paper to seal the back of the frame. In the photo above, the butcher paper has been applied to the painted canvas.

When that was fully dry, I took an X-Acto knife right along the edge to trim off the excess paper. Added a screw eye and picture wire.

These little quilts had already been finished with fabric hanging corners, so I removed those before gluing them on the frames. With Elmer's glue, I adhered the quilt to the frame, covered it with white paper, and laid a dictionary on top for an hour or two. This gluing method I learned from Jeanne Williamson, who had the chutzpah to actually glue a quilt to a frame. Thanks, Jeanne. It worked beautifully! I have two small pieces hanging in my home that I want to frame now.

The fabric-corners-and-dowel method, which I learned from Beth Wheeler, has worked thus far with these small quilts, and is definitely a good option for hanging quilts around my studio. But as my thinking about Quilts as Art is evolving, I'm quite sure framing is a better option for small(er) work -- which to me means 16x20" or under. Incidentally, Dick Blick is having a terrific sale on frames til the end of the year. I just ordered a truck load!