One of my current goals is better photos for my blog and for submitting to shows. I’ve tried numerous set-ups over the years. The very best was when I could hang them in front of the barn. I had a hanger that was easy to put up and take down, and the outdoor light was perfect. That was years ago, and the barn was sold with the house.
A blogging friend recommended a photo backdrop stand. I got the specific one she suggested, but it hasn’t been sturdy enough to suit me. It seems the quilts always wobble.
There are many chandelier quilt patterns out there, but this one was free on the Free Spirit website
Sometimes the finished quilt will cling to my flannel design wall. It’s not perfect, because the flannel is free floating, so the bottom of the quilt waves with the flannel, but it sure is easy. It does work well for small quilts.
And then there’s the time-honored tradition of having the husband hold the quilt. Mine eventually got tired of holding them out the window, so I had to quit. I did like having the outside light and the house backdrop while it lasted!
I’ve even hung quilts in various settings for “glamour shots”, but they’re only for fun, not for submitting to shows.
I’m still searching for a way (preferably an easy way) to take nice square, straight-on photos of quilts. All of which is to say I’m trying another way to hang and photograph quilts.
Somewhere I found out about the Hang It Dang It quilt hanger, so I got my local quilt shop to order it for me. My husband had some concern about needing a small nail to hang it on, but he got it figured out and the system works just fine! It is easier than previous methods and it does, indeed, hang the quilt level.
In the example above, you can see that I stood on a stool to hang it, but sure enough I could do it all by myself! I will need to de-clutter around the area to take pictures for submissions, but it’s looking like an improvement so far.
Now I need to get out the tripod and the fancy camera so I can align the shot correctly, and maybe I’ll be ready to go on better pictures.
Zippy Quilts 
The only downside is that if you’ve made a bed quilt, you have to sew a sleeve onto it to be able to take its picture on the Hang It Dang It. <sigh> That’s a lot of work for a picture. And then, do you leave the sleeve on, or take it off?
It is, indeed, a bother to put the sleeve on. I am experimenting with pinning it. Unclear whether this is better than the old days, when I had no way to hang anything so laid quilts out on the living room floor and took pictures from the loft!
If you do try pinning a sleeve, I’d be interested in knowing how well that works.
Photographing quilts is a tricky business. This is how I do it:
I always stitch a sleeve onto the quilt when I do the binding, from edge to edge, almost.
Then I insert a lathe that is the width of the quilt. The Woodworker has made them, about a quarter inch thick and about 3 inches in depth. This gives a stable and even support to the top of the quilt.
Then I hang it from a central nail on the stone wall of our house and photograph it in the early morning or late afternoon light.
I line the quilt up along the edges of my cellphone screen and take quite a few shots, then choose the best one.
Have just read the previous comments about sleeves. If you include the top edge of the sleeve into the seam for the binding, it is not too much extra work to add the binding. It’s then just the bottom edge that needs to be hand stitched to the quilt back
i make the sleeve double so both raw edges are hidden in the binding seam. Our guilds require a 10 cm (4 inch) sleeve for shows, so I use that measurement (doubled plus seam allowance)
Apologies is this reads like an instruction manual!
Thank you, Mariss! I’m going to try some of this!
I’m no expert in hanging/photographing quilts for show entries and these ideas are enlightening…but I did notice your first quilt…was it part of a postage stamp quilt series and/or exploration experiment? I seem to remember a lovely one with yellow as the base. In fact, I think I have a photo of you wrapped in it when we met at your new home/studio! 😉
Good luck with the entries!
Thank you! And yes, that first quilt is an all-time fave!
“Hang it Dang it” is an awesome name for the quilt hanger! I always thought you take great photos for your blog. I know from the past how tricky photos for show entries are – I never feel like I am doing it right. Always fun to look at images of your awesome quilts 🙂
Thanks. And best of all, the funny-name hanger works well!