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Quilt hanger woodworking project

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Quilt Hanger: a simple woodworking project

My wife created a very attractive quilt to adorn our stairway and asked me to make a wooden hanger for it.  The concept is simple:  sandwich the quilt between two pieces of wood and tighten with a few knobs.  Here is how to do it.

The quilt is 28 inches wide, so I took a piece of 1X3 oak and cut two pieces 28 inches long.  Using the table saw I cut a groove in what becomes the bottom of the hanger wide enough and deep enough to accommodate a length of window screen spline (this is the rubber roping material they use to hold screen in your screen windows and doors).  This rubber spline will help hold the quilt in place.  You can find it at any hardware store.

The knobs screw into T-nuts installed in the back of the hanger.  So I used a Forstner bit a little bigger that the T-nut (7/8 inch) and drilled three holes about 3/8 inches deep... one in the center and one about 3 inches from each end.

Then holding the top and bottom together, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole through both boards using the dimple made by the Forstner bit as the center.  This is where the bolt from the knob goes through.  Then using a 5/16 in drill, I enlarged the hole in the bottom only so that the T-nut would fit in.  Using a piece of wooden dowel and a hammer I installed the T-nuts.

Now to make the knobs I first made a template to cut out round pieces.  I used the lid from a jelly jar for my pattern, nailing it to a piece of 1/2 inch plywood and placing the whole thing over a piece of scrap fiberboard.  Then I routed around the lid using a 1/4 inch straight cutting bit with a collar installed on the router.  This produces a circular jig that you can rout inside of to produce circular pieces exactly the same size as the lid in the same way we used the inlay kit in the plaque project.

I cut out several circular pieces and rounded them over to make knobs.  Then drilled a pilot hole in the center of each to accommodate the "hanger bolts".  These are 1/4 inch bolts with a screw on the other end.  To screw them into the knobs, screw on two nuts and tighten them against each other.  Then using a socket, screw it into the knob.

Of course you can make the knobs in any shape you like or you can buy them ready made.  I made square knobs on my last quilt rack and it looked just fine.

To install the quilt hanger, I used a T-slot cutting router bit to cut two hanging slots spaced 16 inches apart.  Then using drywall anchors and #10 screws placed 16 inches apart, I installed the quilt in the stairway.

Here is another quilt hanger I made for a larger quilt that my daughter made for our living room.  Since we may want to use the quilt on a cold night, we hung it on the wall using a hanger I made that looks much like a towel rack.  I used the same slot cutter  to hang the brackets and used a long piece of oak that just lays in the brackets.