Quiltingboard Forums - Odd shaped wall hanging question

I have volunteered at a national quilt show. First the quilts are sorted in the judging room. They are judged flat on a table, not hanging and they go through them fast, I mean really fast (for first elimination). Volunteers must rapidly move quilts from the table to carts. They are folded up if they are too big for the cart. Many quilts are piled into the carts so the ones on the bottom are indeed weighted down with all the quilts on top of them. Think of the kinds of carts used in industrial laundry facilities. These are the kind of carts that are used.

Then the carts go out into the show hall where volunteers slide the hang rod through the hanging sleeve and then hang the quilt. Hundreds of quilts must be hung in a few hours, often with a skeleton crew because so few people volunteer. With all the identifying cards attached. It is a hard, thankless job. Later the winners will have ribbons hung on them after the judges and scribes tally the points. Top winners will be rehung in special areas. Volunteers take care and wear white gloves but any odd size quilts can't be done the way you describe. No one will have time to insert dowels then figure out how to hang them on the normal size hanging rod. If the quilt shows up with dowels already in it that presents problems of layering in the cart and quite honestly the large shows don't want to deal with it. The few odd shaped quilts I have seen were at least normal across the top to put the hang sleeve on and slide it onto the rod. Even quilts with lots of embellishments are pretty much handled the same way maybe held to the side to drape over the top of the pile. Quilts with scalloped edges or prairie points or unusual edges still have a regular hang sleeve on the back and are hung the same way as square quilts. Round quilts the hang sleeve is attached as close to the arc as possible so it is still a straight hang sleeve on the quilt and yes, I have seed some round quilts flop over on the top if they weren't quilted enough to give them some stability.

Smaller shows may not be so hectic and may be more forgiving of odd shapes. Others may put your quilt into one of the specialty categories if they have one.

You would definitely have to contact the show to see if a quilt like yours could be accommodated or figure out a way for it to hang without dowels or reinforcements. If quilted densely enough with the right batting and perhaps a stabilizer of some sort, the two corners at the top may stay upright for your normal hanging sleeve to be sewn to the back of the 3 black on point blocks. If you put a stablizer of some sort in the outer blocks, the piece may hang flat but shipping and handling at the show may cause creases and fold marks to be visible.

I know many show quilters who have taken great care to ship their quilts, even rolling them on pool noodles only to see them at the show with fold marks due to the way the quilts must be handled in the put up and take down process.