Autumn Quakers 8: how to mount cross stitch on a quilt hanger

I’m just about to complete this gorgeous cross stitch sampler called ‘Autumn Quakers’ by Rosewood Manor, which I stitched from a chart booklet. As I explained in my previous post, I had planned to frame it, but that didn’t work out, so instead I decided to hang it like a little quilt, from a cute metal hanger.

I first measured the width of the hanger’s dowel, allowing half an inch in from each end for where the hooks for the wooden dowel would be, and trimmed the spare fabric each side basing it on the fact that the finished width will be 15.5 inches and the total finished length will be 22.5 inches, so I cut the sampler fabric two inches bigger all round than these measurements (with more spare fabric at the top than the bottom, to allow for making a casing for the pole).

This is the untrimmed fabric, with the spare fabric temporarily folded under, so that I could see how wide to make it:

Then I cut a piece of heavy iron-on Vilene 15.5 x 22.5 inches, and ironed it onto the reverse of the cotton lining fabric that I’m using (it’s actually cut from an old sheet!). I decided not to iron the Vilene onto the reverse of the actual stitching, as I felt that it would be too bumpy a surface to stick properly. Then I trimmed the cotton fabric away from the edges, so that the Vilene and the cotton fabric were exactly the same size.

Then I placed the trimmed sampler and the cotton/Vilene piece, wrong sides together, and folded the extra linen border of the sampler over the edges of the cotton/Vilene piece, folding it under again to make a hem on three sides, leaving the top edge free for now. This took ages, as I kept pinning the sampler unevenly onto the backing fabric, but eventually I managed it!

This is the sampler with the three sides pinned and ready to hem with slip stitch.

The top edge was hemmed with a generous hem, as the wooden pole has quite a large wooden bead on each end of the pole, so I had to allow enough space to be able to feed the whole thing through the casing once I’d slip stitched the hem.

Once all four sides had been hemmed, I ironed it again, over a towel, from the reverse (quite cool, so that the glue of the Vilene didn’t melt and cause the cotton/Vilene piece to separate).

This is Autumn Quakers now that it is completely finished – I’m really pleased with it, now that I’ve solved the problem of how to finish it!

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