Helpful hack for facing a quilt with corner rod pockets

By Gretchen Keller

I decided to finish one of my wall quilts, Sally’s Seeing Stars, with facing instead of using traditional binding. Facing helps finish the edge of a quilt without adding a visual frame like a traditional double fold binding often does. The facing fabric is sewn to the front of your quilt and then folded over and wrapped to the back. When done correctly, none of the facing fabric is visible from the front.

I was really excited to use this new-to-me technique because it included corner rod pockets. No need to sew on a separate hanging sleeve!

Once the facing was complete, I added a wood dowel and hung my quilt on the wall. When I stepped back to admire my work, I was not pleased with what I saw!

Part of the dowel was visible above the center of my quilt. I tried a larger dowel thinking perhaps the first one was not strong enough to hold the 19” x 19” quilt. Nope. That rod was also visible.

I considered getting out my seam ripper and redoing the facing. Then I figured out an easier solution! I made a guide line about 1/2 inch from the top using a ruler and hera marker, then added a row of hand-stitches on the two rod pockets. Even though I used a thread color darker than the fabric, it’s not easy to see from a distance – especially since it’s on the back of the quilt!

Hand stitching added to facing and corner rod pockets

This fix effectively shifted the dowel down just enough for the quilt to still hang nicely without the rod being visible any more.

Have you had a similar experience when using corner rod pockets? Drop a note and let me know!