I've never hung a quilt, but have several wall hangings on the wall. My hubby uses 3/8" dowel rods. He cuts them to just about the width of the wall hanging, then puts slits on each end. I tie knots in some white house hold string and put that in the slits, then hang on a nail. Works well for wall hangings because you don't see much of the dowel and in my house, the white string blends into the wall.