Corner Pocket Tutorial

Using corner pockets is my favourite method of hanging a mini quilt or wall-hanging besides having loops and a rod as part of the finished design. It is super easy, very functional and uses minimal hanging hardware on the wall. It has come to my attention lately that not everyone knows this little hanging trick so today I am happy to share it with all of you.

Materials needed:
fabric scraps
rotary cutter, ruler & mat
iron & ironing board
sewing machine
an unbound mini quilt or wall-hanging
binding
dowel cut to the correct length
push pin or small nails

Step 1: Cut two squares of fabric using your rotary cutter & ruler. I used 3-1/2" squares for this 9 x 12" wall-hanging and would suggest 4" or 5" squares on quilts up to 20" wide. Wider quilts will sag in the centre and need the extra support provided by a good old-fashioned hanging sleeve. Now most tutorials end once the sleeve is sewn on but this tutorial will explain how to actually hang the quilt on the wall.

Step 2: Press in half diagonally. It's important to only press and not slide the iron back & forth which will warp your squares because of the bias fold.

Step 3: Topstitch 1/8" from the folded edge. My machine loves to eat pointy bias corners. To prevent mangled points, start sewing on a small scrap that is butted up to the edge of your corner.

Step 4: Sew the pockets to the quilt. Make certain that you are sewing them to the back of the quilt at the top corners. However, if you feel like being more symmetrical you could add them to all four corners. There are others reasons you may want to add pockets to the bottom corners so please keep reading.

Step 5: Bind your quilt either by machine or by hand. I like to use single fold bias binding machine sewn to the front and attached by hand to the back using a blind stitch.

Step 6: Insert your dowel. As you can see here, a pencil was exactly the right size for my quilt but a chopstick or dowel cut to size will work too.

I wanted to incorporate the pockets into the quilt design so I added them to the bottom corners as well! This would also give you the option of hanging the quilt in any orientation. Adding another dowel or heavier rod at the bottom, will help to straighten a warped quilt.

I usually just use a push pin to hang the quilt. If it is larger two push pins or small nails will work well and stop the quilt from being knocked off-kilter. For now I think I will use this little quilt as a mug rug because it looks fabulous with my red mug. Pretty soon I will have a rug for each & every mug I own!

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)