Here's a tough question. If you are making a quilt that will be hung and you want to display both the front and the back at different times, does anyone have any simple instructions for an internal sleeve? The binding would pose a big problem around the sleeve openings at both ends of the quilt adding bulk.

I have never heard of one... but, that doesn't mean anything. :D I have heard of people using curtain rings with the clips on them to display both sides of a quilt.

Large button holes would be my guess, with a quilt pattern that allows for this, and go easy on the weight of batting :-)

The latest issue of American Quilter Magazine had the instructions but it is very hard to visualize how it works.

You quilt the upper six inches of the front and back in two separate steps before quilting the rest of the quilt. You only quilt the top and its batting and then the back and its batting. You slip the six inch sleeve between the two separately quilted sections. The raw edges of the sleeve will be sewn with the upper edge of the quilt.

Here is the puzzler. "Prepare two extra pieces of binding approximately 7" long. Attach them to the sleeve edges on the back side of the quilt. When binding is added to the quilt, bind the ends of the internal sleeve, carefully working in the ends of the extra binding pieces, to make a neat opening on each end of the sleeve."

It seems that the point at which the ends of the extra binding pieces are worked in is where you would have an awkward bulge and the quilt would not lie flat against the wall. I am not sure how to "work in" the ends of the binding pieces either.

I have been pondering this for hours. I have a feeling your suggestions are better than this one for a two-sided display quilt, but still, a hidden, internal sleeve would be wonderful.

hhhmmmm.... Sounds like a new challenge to me....

If you add the binding as said leave about one inch on either end of the smaller piece so you can mitre in the rest of the binding......you would do this process for any time you needed to add on or join up binding pieces That way it will lie as smoothly as possible. this works for both sides of the quilt. YOur sleeve opening is the beginning and the end of your binding journey.
Check out the about.sew. com site and look at binding...It will give you some help.

I'll give it a try. Thanks for the tip!

How about putting 3 inch wide tabs spaced across the top. You would put them into the seam before you finished that end of the quilt???

June, I have a couple themes for quilts running through my mind where those tabs would work perfectly. On a more formal quilt, I'm going to struggle with the internal sleeve for a bit to see what kind of results I can get. Thanks for all your help, ladies.

Try quilt hanging blocks you can find at any quilting store and/or flea markets. That way, you can turn the quilt around whenever you want to display that particular side. :lol: